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Chapter 10FORDISM AND AFTER(Fran Tonkiss)Within the wider debates over globalisation, issues of ‘production’ play a pivotal role. Key features of production include the dispersal of industrial processes across international space, growth and economic clout of multinational corporations and the incre...

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Chapter 10 FORDISM AND AFTER (Fran Tonkiss) Within the wider debates over globalisation, issues of ‘production’ play a pivotal role. Key features of production include the dispersal of industrial processes across international space, growth and economic clout of multinational corporations and the increasingly immaterial character of production based on knowledge. Within this context, Fordism emerged as a system of production and had larger implications on social and economic life.

A.

Fordism – Concept and Features According to David Harvey, Fordism started a mode of industrial organization in 1914 when Henry Ford introduced the eight-hour, five-dollar day for workers on his new car assembly line in Michigan and produced Model-T car. This instituted in one move the mechanized production of standard goods, a routinised labour process and a set working day. The following are the main features of Fordism as a concept:  Mechanised Production: The assembly line signaled the replacement of craft production in workshops with automated and mechanized production on the factory floor. Piore and Sabel called it the ‘first industrial divide’, as large scale production displaced small-scale, more specialized and decentralized enterprises.  Changes in Labour Processes: The shift to assembly line led to changes in labour processes – the technical division of labour simplified and routinised work, as the production process was broken down into its parts and distributed among a number of workers. This allowed for greater specialization and scientific 119 Economy, State and Society

EurekaWow management and made workers more productive. Michael Aglietta analyses this effect as a shift from the production of ‘absolute surplus value’ extracted via lower wages and longer working hours to ‘relative surplus value’ achieved by increasing labour productivity.  Standardised Products on a mass scale: Mechanisation also allowed for production of standardised goods on an expanding scale, especially consumer goods. This was the basis for achieving economies of scale; high volume production at low unit costs. More than this, Ford integrated transport and distribution functions under the direct management of the plant, economising on overall production costs. Fordism thus refers not simply to what happens inside the factory, but to the larger setting of work, consumption and the socialisation of both workers and consumers. Ford used the combination of force and persuasion and employed mainly non-unionised immigrant labour.  Spread of Fordism in the post-war period: In the post war period, this model of mass production became more widely generalised. The Fordist emphasis on efficiency, rationalisation and productivity turned out to be well suited to growth industries of the reconstruction - ship-building etc. Secondly, the stable context of post war growth allowed for a brokered settlement between capital and labour. In general, Fordist systems of production proved compatible with a range of state and social forms. Fordist wage settlement was crucial to the larger stability of the socio economic system. Fordism was after all, a mode of mass production which depended on patterns of mass consumption. The Fordist wage settlement rested on decent earnings for semi-skilled industrial workers. This led to the emergence of a Fordist commodity aesthetic, where mass production both fuels and in turn is fuelled by mass consumption. 120 Economy, State and Society

EurekaWow  Views of French Regulation School: The French Regulation School provides an important reference for wider approaches to capitalist restructuring within an inter-disciplinary framework. The basic question asked is ‘How is it that capitalist economies, in spite of their in-built contradictions and crisis tendencies are able to reproduce themselves in a fairly stable way over extended periods?’ The answer is that this durability and resilience stems from the following major aspects.  Regime of Accumulation The relative durability comes from the way that a complex of production, distribution, exchange and consumption process hold together as a regime of accumulation. Fordism is an example of such a system which analyses things not only in terms of how they are produced or how money gets made, but in the wider context of economic life – in ordering practices and relations of work, distribution and consumption.  Mode of Regulation The term describes the institutional setting of the government, law and politics which underpins a given regime of accumulation. It provides the formal regulatory framework within which capitalist processes operate, as well as the political settlement between different classes.  Societal Paradigm Certain theorists use the concept – ‘the social paradigm’ to refer to the underlying social contract or mode of organization of social life. This shapes social arrangement and identities beyond the economic field. Thus, ‘regime of accumulation, mode of regulation and societal paradigm’ point to the way that the economy, politics and society are integrated around a particular mode of capitalist development.

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The crisis of Fordism External and internal pressures around mid-1970s led to the appearance of cracks in the Fordist machine. A number of factors were responsible. » Economic relations became increasingly internationalized from the early 1970s. While Fordism was based on the system of production for domestic markets, the appearance of transnational production arrangements with the advent of multinational corporations upset the apple cart. It marked a break between domestic production and domestic consumption as imported goods became more available and more attractive to consumer markets. » There was also rise of new economic competitors – initially West Germany and Japan followed by newly industrializing economies of Southeast Asia. The entry of these players transformed the export system to which Fordist economies were accustomed. » As incomes grew, demand became more heterogeneous and standardization of goods became a bane rather than a boon. People started preferring something different while only black coloured cars were being produced by Henry Ford. » Economic problems compounded when increasing computerization and use of robotics along assembly lines reduced the demand for workers to a great extent and led to unemployment. This led to falling consumer demand and a breaking up of the virtuous circuit of mass production and consumption.

C.

After Fordism Piore and Sabel in their analysis of times after Fordism called it the ‘second industrial divide’, marking the move away from large scale manufacture towards more flexible techniques of production. This occurred in the 1960s and is termed as the shift to ‘neo-Fordism’ of ‘flexible specialization’. Production and labour became more 122 Economy, State and Society

EurekaWow responsive to changing condition of both supply and demand geared to greater product diversity and ongoing innovation. Costefficiency through economies of scale now gave way to more flexible economies of scope. The following table neatly summarizes the shifts. FORDISM Changes in production and labour processes - mass production - standardized products - assembly line production Fordism was largely characterized by low diversity and high volume production and rigidly structured firms.

Shifts in the spatial organization of economic activity -heavy (smokestack) industry -corporate hierarchies -semi skilled worker - focus on production of goods

POST-FORDISM

- flexible or batch production - diversified products computer-controlled production A more dispersed assembly line had the potential to redistribute economic power. Flexible specialization had the capacity to increase workers’ skill levels and offer them greater autonomy over the labour process.

- clean technology - horizontal networks - polarization of skills - Services like finance, research, property became important. Crisis in Fordism led to decline of The post-Fordist economic industrial clusters like the geographies appear quite Midwest rustbelt of US, the Ruhr diverse including advanced in Germany etc. technopoles like Silicon Valley. These models have horizontal integration of firms, emphasis on 123 Economy, State and Society

EurekaWow skill and innovation and competitive advantages arising from co-location and economic and social networks. New patterns of consumption -national economy -industrial centres -mass consumption Fordist production was geared towards undifferentiated consumer markets and based on uniform consumer preferences. If at all some product differentiation was attempted it was on the basis of standard demographic variables like age, income, occupation, gender and region. D.

- international economy - new industrial districts -differentiated markets Post-fordist production focused on customization of products and differentiation of the market on the basis of a complex of consumer practices, elective identities and cultural associations – distinct life styles, identities or market niches.

Post-Fordist problems The post-fordist problems are mainly analytical in nature that raises critical questions concerning the application of Fordism to contemporary economic conditions. 1. Production The first issue is the primacy given to production in accounting for socioeconomic change. Harvey believes that it highly underplays the role of ever more flexible finance capital in driving economic changes and overlooks the extent to which the dispersal and reintegration of production and exchange processes have been premised on the idea of mobile money. It is not only ‘products and production’ but workers that have become flexible. 124 Economy, State and Society

EurekaWow 2. Labour Flexibility The notion is open to contrary interpretations. Piore and Sabel viewed the second industrial divide as potentially reversing the centralisation and concentration of economic power that marked the high modern period of industrial production. In contrast, Fordism tried to forge a psychophysical nexus of developing automatic and mechanical attitudes. However flexibility can be interpreted in another way also. When applied to labour, it implies casualisation and weakened job security, heightened surveillance, lack of control over or expertise within the labour process, erratic hours and constant deadlines. 3. The issue of exploitation At the same time, Fordisation in service sectors are replicated in the growing outsourcing of routine service work to developing economies where labour and other costs were lower. However, this has led to exploitation of labour in these countries where labour laws are not stringent and Fordist mass production systems are able to exploit extremely vulnerable women’s labour power under conditions of extremely low pay and negligible job security. Trigila calls this phenomenon as that of the ‘high’ and the ‘low’ road to flexibility where the high-tech worker in Silicon Valley and the sweated worker in an off-shore factory exist side by side. Questions 1. What are the factors on the basis of which fordism and post fordism modes differ on aspects of production, consumption and organization of economic activity? 2. What is Fordism? In what sense does Fordism appear less as a mere system of mass production and more as a total way of life? 125 Economy, State and Society...