Doctoral Dissertation Research: Globalization and Job Movement in the Automobile Industry, 1970-2006

博士论文研究：全球化与汽车行业的就业流动，1970-2006

• 批准号: 0726836
• 负责人: Beverly Silver
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-15 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0726836&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Globalization; Job

Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Globalization and Job Movement in the Automobile Industry, 1970-2006Institution: Johns Hopkins UniversityPrincipal Investigator: Beverly SilverCo-Principal Investigator: Nicole AschoffA recurrent theme expressed in academia, policy circles and the popular media is that globalization has a 'devastating and inescapable' impact on high-wage manufacturing jobs. Scholars argue that manufacturing jobs are moving to low-wage sites at breakneck speed, leaving behind a wasteland of joblessness and insecurity in countries like the U.S. Yet, the case of the global auto industry belies this stark picture. Automobile manufacturers are both moving into and out of high wage countries. In particular, foreign auto firms are investing heavily in the U.S. where wages are among the highest in the world. What explains this anomalous pattern of job movement in the auto industry? Why are companies continuing to build and expand plants in the U.S. despite the close proximity of low wage sites like Mexico? This dissertation will address these questions through a detailed study of capital mobility in the U.S. auto industry. Drawing on research in historical sociology, labor, geography and political economy of the world system, this dissertation will produce a detailed picture of the overall pattern of automobile job movement into and out of the U.S. over the past three decades, and provide the most plausible explanation for the pattern uncovered. The project will utilize a mixed-methods approach that includes the construction of a time-series database that tracks plant movement into and out of the U.S. since 1970, and the completion of two extended case studies of automotive component manufacturers. The findings of this research will be of interest to sociologists, and to workers and policy makers in both developed and developing countries for three main reasons: First, the project will provide much needed empirical evidence for evaluating current debates amongst social scientists studying job movement, globalization and labor movements. Second, it will provide a conceptually grounded framework for analyzing job movement; this framework challenges the primacy of wages and labor costs in determining where jobs move by considering the complex interaction of local, national and global factors in shaping the geographical trajectories of auto firms. As a result, the dissertation will help automobile workers to assess the possibilities and constraints in organizing for better working conditions in today's political-economic climate. Finally, the project has important policy implications, given that job movement and outsourcing are of crucial interest in both developed and developing countries. By studying broad patterns of job movement and the inner mechanisms of agency that determine these patterns, the dissertation will provide a better understanding of where jobs are moving and the reasons why they are moving there. This is an essential step in developing policies that attract and sustain quality jobs in an increasingly competitive global economy.

标题：博士论文研究：1970-2006 年汽车行业的全球化和就业流动机构：约翰·霍普金斯大学首席研究员：Beverly Silver 联合首席研究员：Nicole Aschoff 在学术界、政策界和大众媒体中反复出现的一个主题是，全球化具有“对高薪制造业工作产生毁灭性且不可避免的影响。学者们认为，制造业工作正在以惊人的速度转移到低工资地点，在美国等国家留下了一片失业和不安全的荒地。然而，全球汽车行业的情况掩盖了这一严峻的情况。汽车制造商正在进出高工资国家。特别是，外国汽车公司正在美国大力投资，因为美国的工资水平位居世界前列。如何解释汽车行业这种异常的就业流动模式？尽管靠近墨西哥等低工资地点，为什么公司仍继续在美国建造和扩建工厂？本论文将通过对美国汽车行业资本流动性的详细研究来解决这些问题。凭借对世界体系的历史社会学、劳工学、地理学和政治经济学的研究，本论文将详细描绘过去三十年来汽车工作进出美国的总体模式，并提供最可信的数据。对所发现的模式的解释。该项目将采用混合方法，包括构建一个时间序列数据库，跟踪自 1970 年以来工厂进出美国的情况，并完成两个汽车零部件制造商的扩展案例研究。这项研究的结果将引起社会学家、发达国家和发展中国家的工人和政策制定者的兴趣，主要有以下三个原因：首先，该项目将为评估当前研究就业流动的社会科学家之间的争论提供急需的经验证据，全球化和劳工运动。其次，它将提供一个基于概念的框架来分析工作流动；该框架通过考虑地方、国家和全球因素在塑造汽车公司地理轨迹时的复杂相互作用，对工资和劳动力成本在决定工作岗位转移方面的首要地位提出了挑战。因此，本文将帮助汽车工人评估在当今政治经济环境下组织起来改善工作条件的可能性和限制。最后，鉴于工作流动和外包对发达国家和发展中国家都至关重要，该项目具有重要的政策影响。通过研究工作流动的广泛模式以及决定这些模式的代理内部机制，本文将更好地理解工作转移到哪里以及它们转移到那里的原因。这是在竞争日益激烈的全球经济中制定吸引和维持优质就业机会的政策的重要一步。