Luis Enrique Alonso and Miguel Martinez Lucio (eds.): Employment Relations in a Changing Society: Assessing the Post-Fordist Paradigm.

Luis Enrique Alonso and Miguel Martinez Lucio (eds.) Employment Relations in a Changing Society: Assessing the Post-Fordist Paradigm Palgrave MacMillan, 2006, 304 pp. ISBN 0-333-97037-3 (hbk) 50 [pounds]

There can be little doubt that Western societies have undergone major economic, political and social changes over the last thirty years. It has been argued that this is reflected in the transition from a Fordist to a post-Fordist employment model. Fordism was associated with mass production and mass consumption, hierarchical control, centralised collective bargaining, and state intervention in employment regulation. Economic globalisation, deregulation, privatisation, the reorganisation of production and the use of flexible employment are all features of post-Fordism. This edited collection brings together academics from the UK and Spain--two countries that have experienced major changes in employment practices, which have brought about heightened job insecurity and work intensification. The book questions whether the movement to post-Fordism is a stable development, and highlights the contradictory nature of these transitions.

Employment Relations in a Changing Society consists of fourteen chapters divided into four distinct sections. Part I is the introductory section, containing a chapter by each of the editors. In chapter 1, Martinez Lucio contextualises the debates over post-Fordism and the changing economic and social nature of work. He emphasises the fact that change is multilayered, with unstable systems of production and consumption, as new forms of conflict emerge. In the following chapter, Alonso discusses the totalitarian paternalism of Fordist production, which was marked by standardisation and uniformisation. He argues that post-Fordism continues to utilise Fordist-style methods of production and control, as Fordist consumption patterns remain, albeit in a more fragmented way.

Part II examines the extent to which labour markets and organisational forms have changed. In chapter 3, Lasierra articulately states that there has been a decentralisation of production due to economic pressures, combined with a centralisation of power and decision-making. The rise in non-standard employment contracts and capital's urge for greater flexibility mean that labour is increasingly regarded as a mere cost of production, and Lasierra points out the weaknesses in this short-termist view of employees. In the chapter that follows, Prieto continues the debate about business's need for more flexible employment. He argues that this has resulted in the degradation of employment in Spain; yet that such changes have not been passively accepted by the working population, since there has been a series of general strikes in opposition to them. In chapter 5, MacKenzie and Forde examine the rise in subcontracting and the use of temporary employment agencies. While this is a major redefinition of the employment relationship, they argue that it is laced with contradictions. They eloquently demonstrate the way in which, rather than generating decentralisation, bureaucracy reconfigures itself as firms attempt to regain control over the supply of labour.

Part III focuses on the role of the state in influencing changes in employ-ment. Albarracin, in chapter 6, examines the role of the Spanish government and the European Union in influencing moves towards full employment. He argues that many of the jobs on offer are of poor quality and that, while unemployment has fallen, fear of it places many workers in a particularly vulnerable position. Leading on from this in an excellent chapter, Greenwood and Stuart critically investigate the neoliberal influence on the politics of 'lifelong learning' in the EU. They argue that learning is becoming a form of social control, in which business needs have placed the responsibility for training on the individual. The authors call for training to be more inclusive and for it to be reframed as 'learning for life', in order to meet the broader needs of the community. In chapter 8, Kirkpatrick assesses the commercialisation of the public sector. The transition from public administration to 'new public management' shares some of the features of post-Fordism, since it also involves decentralisation and flexibility. Paradoxically, this has created a neo-bureaucratisation, with heightened centralised control and proceduralism.

Part IV covers changing working relations, family structures, consumption patterns and forms of collectivism. Gardiner and Martinez Lucio, in chapter 9, critically examine postFordist claims that individualisation and flexibility are positive developments for employees. In a well written and well researched chapter, they show how the labour force continues to be gendered, with new forms of exclusion and segregation emerging. In the next chapter, Alonso analyses both social developments in consumption and growing inequalities, calling for democratic consumption and coexistence. In chapter 11, Landwerlin discusses changes in family structures together with the gendered nature of the labour market, in keeping with Gardiner and Martinez Lucio, and also looks at the challenges facing the welfare state. The two chapters that follow offer a more positive account of social change, with possibilities for a re-collectivisation of labour under a new politics of production. In chapter 12, Paul Stewart convincingly argues that labour-process analyses must refocus on the collective worker, rather than on the individual. He advances critical social-relations theory in order to help understand changing forms of collectivism, along with formal and informal workplace struggles. Martinez Lucio, in chapter 13, attempts to unravel the complexities of the changes facing trade unions. He emphasises that the demise of unions is not inevitable, and that there are increasingly more rights at work; and therefore, he argues in this refreshing analysis, there are opportunities and possibilities for trade unions within new arenas. In the final chapter, Hyman calls for a new moral economy in the construction of a progressive Europe.

Employment Relations in a Changing Society is an impressive book that critically challenges the assumption that there has been a paradigm shift from Fordism to post-Fordism; but this is not to assert that Fordism was all-encompassing. The contributors successfully demonstrate the unevenness in the outcome of recent developments, which consist of some worrying trends involving work intensification and insecurity. They also highlight the instabilities and internal conflicts within capitalism, together with new potential opportunities for organised labour.