»Vernetzte Produktion« und »post-fordistische« Reproduktion

Theoretische Überlegungen am Beispiel »Silicon Valley«

Abstract

The article reviews recent debates on production networks in political economy and labor sociology. The argument draws upon the findings of an extended empirical study of production strategies, supplier networks, and labor relations in the computer industry of California's »Silicon Valley«. The paper emphasizes the centrality of manufacturing work in today's information technology industry and discusses the implications of the recent restructuring of industry organization and work in this sector for critical approaches as developed in U.S. industrial geography, theories of the »new international division of labor«, European and German industrial sociology, and race and gender studies. A theoretical framework for an integrated analysis of the political economy of »post-fordist« production networks is developed from the context of French regulation theory.