{"title":"泰勒主义来到田野:劳工控制、劳工供给、劳工过程,以及加州农业企业福特主义的黄昏","authors":"D. Mitchell","doi":"10.1080/00130095.2023.2188188","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract When the Bracero (guest worker) Program ended in 1964, California agribusiness seemed to be facing a labor crisis. Growers had lost access to a large pool of essentially unfree labor, and (consequently) unionization in the fields was on the rise. As a result, researchers in the various agricultural divisions of the University of California embarked on a broad effort to reengineer the farm labor process through the development of labor aids; mechanization of pruning, thinning, and harvesting tasks; redesigning fruits and vegetables; and extensive time-motion studies. This article traces these efforts and uses their history to argue that labor and economic geographers should focus attention on how struggles over the labor process are frequently struggles over the ability to shape and deploy the labor supply and not only matters of how work is organized on the shop floor (or in this case, in the fields). More broadly, the article argues that focus on the fine-grained details of innovation in the labor process is vital for a full understanding of fundamental transformations in the agribusiness landscape. As a consequence, the article explains why a set of innovations, which contemporary analysts figured would lead to agriculture adopting labor relations much more like those in more traditionally Fordist industries, actually paved the way for a set of even more highly casualized, exploitative relations than had existed heretofore.","PeriodicalId":48225,"journal":{"name":"Economic Geography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Taylorism Comes to the Fields: Labor Control, Labor Supply, Labor Process, and the Twilight of Fordism in California Agribusiness\",\"authors\":\"D. Mitchell\",\"doi\":\"10.1080/00130095.2023.2188188\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Abstract When the Bracero (guest worker) Program ended in 1964, California agribusiness seemed to be facing a labor crisis. Growers had lost access to a large pool of essentially unfree labor, and (consequently) unionization in the fields was on the rise. As a result, researchers in the various agricultural divisions of the University of California embarked on a broad effort to reengineer the farm labor process through the development of labor aids; mechanization of pruning, thinning, and harvesting tasks; redesigning fruits and vegetables; and extensive time-motion studies. This article traces these efforts and uses their history to argue that labor and economic geographers should focus attention on how struggles over the labor process are frequently struggles over the ability to shape and deploy the labor supply and not only matters of how work is organized on the shop floor (or in this case, in the fields). More broadly, the article argues that focus on the fine-grained details of innovation in the labor process is vital for a full understanding of fundamental transformations in the agribusiness landscape. As a consequence, the article explains why a set of innovations, which contemporary analysts figured would lead to agriculture adopting labor relations much more like those in more traditionally Fordist industries, actually paved the way for a set of even more highly casualized, exploitative relations than had existed heretofore.\",\"PeriodicalId\":48225,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Economic Geography\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":7.2000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-03-28\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Economic Geography\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"96\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2023.2188188\",\"RegionNum\":1,\"RegionCategory\":\"经济学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"ECONOMICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Economic Geography","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2023.2188188","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
Taylorism Comes to the Fields: Labor Control, Labor Supply, Labor Process, and the Twilight of Fordism in California Agribusiness
Abstract When the Bracero (guest worker) Program ended in 1964, California agribusiness seemed to be facing a labor crisis. Growers had lost access to a large pool of essentially unfree labor, and (consequently) unionization in the fields was on the rise. As a result, researchers in the various agricultural divisions of the University of California embarked on a broad effort to reengineer the farm labor process through the development of labor aids; mechanization of pruning, thinning, and harvesting tasks; redesigning fruits and vegetables; and extensive time-motion studies. This article traces these efforts and uses their history to argue that labor and economic geographers should focus attention on how struggles over the labor process are frequently struggles over the ability to shape and deploy the labor supply and not only matters of how work is organized on the shop floor (or in this case, in the fields). More broadly, the article argues that focus on the fine-grained details of innovation in the labor process is vital for a full understanding of fundamental transformations in the agribusiness landscape. As a consequence, the article explains why a set of innovations, which contemporary analysts figured would lead to agriculture adopting labor relations much more like those in more traditionally Fordist industries, actually paved the way for a set of even more highly casualized, exploitative relations than had existed heretofore.
期刊介绍:
Economic Geography is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing original research that advances the field of economic geography. Their goal is to publish high-quality studies that are both theoretically robust and grounded in empirical evidence, contributing to our understanding of the geographic factors and consequences of economic processes. It welcome submissions on a wide range of topics that provide primary evidence for significant theoretical interventions, offering key insights into important economic, social, development, and environmental issues. To ensure the highest quality publications, all submissions undergo a rigorous peer-review process with at least three external referees and an editor. Economic Geography has been owned by Clark University since 1925 and plays a central role in supporting the global activities of the field, providing publications and other forms of scholarly support. The journal is published five times a year in January, March, June, August, and November.