Institutionalized insecurity

Post-War Employment Restructuring and the Symbolic Power of the Local Business Climate

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4237602
AutoresCaroline Hanley (0000-0002-1125-6269, William & Mary, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen20
Número2
Páginas711-732
Fecha de publicación2022-07-08
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocio-Economic Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1475-1461 • E-ISSN: 1475-147X
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ser/mwab017
OpenAlexW3172156764
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas22

This article investigates an early case of the institutionalization of insecurity by examining labor-management struggles over capital mobility at the General Electric Company (GE) in Schenectady, NY during the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, GE expanded production in the US South and Southwest, reducing employment in Northern plant communities. In the union stronghold of Schenectady, GE's strategic use of the emergent 'business climate' concept undermined union power to resist employment restructuring by reshaping the local politics of employment security: it mobilized community actors against labor's framing of the problem and enhanced the Company's ability to present its position as non-political or disinterested, which aided its operation of symbolic power. This article advances our understanding of the sources of legitimacy in claims-making and shows how cultural processes can contribute to change in the distribution of workplace rewards

Economic system · Economics · Economy · Fordism · Framing (construction) · Institutionalisation · Legitimacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Restructuring · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy