Industrial Transformation and the Decline of Craft

The Decomposition of Skill in the Printing Industry, 1931-1978

Bibliographic Data

ID5007146
AuthorsMichael Wallace (0000-0003-3351-9223), A L Kalleberg (0000-0002-1590-7583)
Year1982
Volume47
Issue3
Pages307
Publication date1982-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2094988
OpenAlexW2330072458
LanguageEN
Citations received49
References cited18

Printers have long been considered the epitome of the skilled blue-collar craftsmen. The complexity and variety of the work process, the state of technology in the industry, and the role of strong unions in maintaining shop floor autonomy have been important factors in preserving high levels of skill, and thus power, among printers. Recently, however, all this has been changing. The steady decline of industrial profit margins after World War II has led many large printing establishments to introduce more sophisticated printing technologies, particularly computerized typesetting processes, which have routinized work tasks and led to a decline of skill among printing craftsmen. In this paper, we provide substantive and empirical evidence for these processes with a time-series analysis of data from the printing industry for the years 1931-1978. We find support for our theory of industrial transformation. Specifically, our data suggest that skill levels in the industry have indeed declined and, moreover, that these declines are largely due to the shift to more capital-intensive printing techniques. Our arguments also support the view that social relations of production between employers and employees influence the nature of technology utilized in an industry

Art · Business · Craft · Decomposition · Manufacturing engineering · Transformation (genetics · Visual arts · Chemistry · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Engineering · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub