The New International Division of Labour
Structural Unemployment in Industrialised Countries and Industrialisation in Developing Countries

The main thesis of this study is that the world economy is undergoing a profound structural change that is forcing companies to reorganise their production on a global scale.

Folker Fröbel (Author), Jürgen Heinrichs (Author), Otto Kreye (Author)

9780521287203, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 December 1981

444 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.65 kg

The main thesis of this study is that the world economy is undergoing a profound structural change that is forcing companies to reorganize their production on a global scale. This is being brought about both through the relocation of production to new industrial sites, increasingly in the developing countries, and through the accelerated rationalisation measures at the traditional sites of industrial manufacture. The authors have designated this structural movement as 'the new international division of labour', and argue that it has led to the crisis that can be observed in industrial countries, as well as to the first steps towards export-oriented manufacturing in the developing countries. They see these trends as being largely independent of the policies pursued by individual governments and the strategies for expansion adopted by individual firms, and argue that the conditions currently prevailing in the capitalist world economy mean that the efforts of individual countries to devise economic policies to reduce industrial unemployment in the industrialised countries or to accentuate a balanced process of industrialisation in the developing countries are doomed to failure.

Tables
Abbreviations
Foreword
Introduction
1. The new international division of labour in the world economy
2. The new international division of labour: a phase in the development of the world capitalist system
Part I. The Development of the Federal German Textile and Garment Industry as an Example of the New International Division of Labour: 3. World production and employment and garment industry, and world trade in textiles and clothing
4. Unemployment in the development of the world capitalist system
Part I. The Development of the Federal German textile and garment industry as determined by developments in the world economy
5. The export-orientated industrialisation of the developing and centrally planned economies in the field of textiles and clothing
6. The relocation of production of companies from the Federal German textile and garment industry to sites abroad
7. Determinants of the development of the world market for production sites
8. The new international division of labour: direction by and response of institutions from the traditional industrial countries
9. Conclusion
Part II. The Advance of the New International Division of Labour: Employment Abroad by Federal German Industrial Companies: 10. The new international division of labour and employment abroad by Federal German industrial companies
11. Production and employment by region
12. Structural features of production and employment abroad
13. The economic and political determinants and consequences of increased production abroad
Part III. The World Market Oriented Industrialisation of the Developing Countries: Free Production Zones and World Market Factories: 14. Free production zones in Asia, Africa and Latin America: a survey
15. The structure of production in free production zones and world market factories
16. The labour market and working conditions in free production zones and world market factories
17. The impact of world market oriented industrialisation on the socio-economic development of developing countries.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP]