Work Place

Drawing on a critical reading of segmentation and regulation theory, which calls for a simultaneous analysis of economic processes and social institutions, the first part of the book establishes a theoretical case for spatializing labor market theory. The author shows how labor market processes are transformed by the way they operate through space and in place, drawing attention to systemic spatial variability in their structures, dynamics, and modes of social regulation. Presenting illuminating empirical case studies, the second part of the book illustrates some of the ways in which the author's approach to labor market theory can be put to work. Chapters take an in-depth look at skill formation in the context of labor market flexibility, industrial homework and labor market restructuring, workfarist tendencies in labor regulation, and neoliberalism and the geographic reconstitution of labor relations.

This book challenges the prevailing idea that labor markets are governed by universal economic processes. The author argues instead that labor markets develop in tandem with social and political institutions, and thus function in locally specific ways. Drawing on a critical reading of segmentation and regulation theory, the book examines ways that the spatially uneven development of labor markets affects work structure, job security, and labor relations in different regions. Peck integrates labor market theory with empirical case studies, laying the theoretical groundwork for an alternative regulatory agenda which might deprioritize short-term cost-effectiveness in favor of social protection, improved working conditions, and negotiated worker involvement

Booknews

From one of the annual symposia sponsored by the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, 19 studies explore the dimensions of the economic and political linkages between trade and the environment as they impact competition in the developed countries and economic growth in developing countries. Among the specific topics are competitiveness and harmonization in the global economy, property rights in north-south trade, the effect of European environmental regulations on the balance of trade, and research needs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jamie Peck is reader in economic geography and member of the International Centre for Labour Studies at the University of Manchester. He has published extensively on labor market theory, regional economic restructuring, employment policy evaluation, and the geopolitics of economic governance and social regulation. A research associate of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, his research has been supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the European Science Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund (New York), and the Australian government, while he has consulted to the European Commission, the UK Department of Employment, and numerous local authorities, labor unions, and economic development agencies. He is currently researching the political economy of "welfare reform" on a Harkness Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.