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The research presented here sought to answer a simple question: why do motor car factories appear to suffer from particularly poor industrial relations?
We seek to identify three sub-units of analysis, namely artisan craftwork, mass production/consumption or "Fordism", and an emerging, transnationalised and highly fragmented form of production which combines elements of the two earlier categories, described here as flexible specialisation.
As a macrohypothesis, we suggest that the organisational forms of the state, the firm and the trade union change with the category of accumulation and that patterns of intensifying industrial conflict are more likely to occur during periods of transition. The resulting disorientation of established organisational norms and structures undermines the capacity of the state to maintain hegemonic equilibrium among social categories and classes, indicating the probability of arbitrary and extra-legal, if often irrational acts by the state, the firm or the trade union. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)