This dissertation examines the role of organized labour in governing relations in post-
Fordist networked industrial districts within the context of three such sector-districts
concentrated in the south-west corner of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It
discusses the impact of this role on relational structures and behavioural patterns within these
industries and on sector-district performance in the marketplace. It thereby builds upon the
scholarly research which followed Piore and Sabel's (1984) popularization of the so-called neo-
Marshallian Industrial Districts (MIDs) of the ‘Third Italy'.
The study begins with a historical review of labour's influence on the evolution of
production organization and institutional governance from the initial emergence of production
for the market up to the current era. This review both demonstrates the significant influence of
labour on the evolution of market oriented production regimes and provides a broader historical
perspective for the analysis of the three cases. These case- studies use primary documentation
and interview transcripts to expose the historical source and contemporary practice of labour's
normative place in production organization and institutional governance in contemporary
'network systems of industrial governance' (Hollingsworth, Schmitter and Streeck 1994).
Labour's roles in these three sector-districts are compared with each other and with an idealized
network construct, both to further illuminate and explain the variable outcome and to illustrate
possible avenues for institutional reform. The insight acquired into labour's role in the network
model will contribute not just to a better understanding of the future of industrial relations in this
emergent system. It will also contribute to the broader, related study of the nature of sociopolitical
organization and institutional governance in the encompassing community.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9561 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Murphy, David G. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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