Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2016-2
Internal diversity and change in the UK: The changing forms and levels of coordination in wages and working conditions within the ceramic tableware sector 1945–2008
This article presents findings from a longitudinal analysis of postwar (1945–2008) changes to coordination in wages and working conditions within a single-case study sector in the UK – ceramic tableware production. It proposes three modes of incremental change during this period: layering in the immediate postwar years (c. 1950); conversion during the 1970s; and displacement in the early 1980s. Shaped by (a) the internal and external pressures actors faced, (b) the veto possibilities and (c) the levels of discretion in the implementation and enforcement of targeted institutions for key actors at different stages, this sector saw different forms and levels of coordination in wages and working conditions come to prominence at different points during the second half of the twentieth century.
BatesRH (1989) Beyond the Miracle of the Market: The Political Economy of Agrarian Development in Kenya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.
BatesRH (1990) Capital kinship, and conflicts: The structuring influence of capital in kinship societies. Canadian Journal of African Studies24: 151–164.
3.
BendixR (1976 [1956]) Work and Authority in Industry. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
4.
BoyerR (2006) How do institutions cohere and change? The institutional complementarity hypothesis and its extension. In: WoodGWJamesP (eds) Institutions, Production, and Working Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5.
BrownW (1993) The contraction of collective bargaining in Britain. British Journal of Industrial Relations31: 189–200.
6.
BrownWWalshJ (1991) Pay determination in Britain in the 1980s. Oxford Review of Economic Policy7: 44–59.
Business Monitor – Report on the Census of Production (GB) (1979) Pottery (PA462). London: HMSO.
12.
CATU (Ceramic and Allied Trades Union) (1971) The Newsletter of the Ceramic and Allied Trades Union Spring.
13.
Ceramic NTO (National Training Organisation) (2001) Sector Workforce Development Plan. Electronic copy supplied by the Association for Ceramic Training and Development (ACTD).
14.
Committee of Inquiry on Industrial Democracy (GB) (Bullock Report) (1977) Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Industrial Democracy. London: HMSO.
15.
CraftsN (1991) Reversing relative economic decline? The 1980s in historical perspective. Oxford Review of Economic Policy7(3): 81–98.
16.
CrouchC (1993) Industrial Relations and European State Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
17.
DeegR (2007) Complementarity and institutional change in capitalist systems. Journal of European Public Policy14(4): 611–630.
18.
DonovanLord (1968) Report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers Associations 1965–1968. London: HMSO.
19.
GayPWSmythRL (1974) The British Pottery Industry. London: Butterworths.
20.
GospelHDrukerJ (1998) The survival of national bargaining in the electrical contracting industry: A deviant case?British Journal of Industrial Relations36(2): 249–267.
21.
GospelHEdwardsT(2012) Strategic transformation and muddling through: Industrial relations and industrial training in the UK. Journal of European Public Policy19(8): 1229–1248.
22.
GregoryDLSmythRL (1971) The worker and the pottery industry. Studies on the British Pottery Industry, No. 4, Department of Economics, University of Keele.
23.
GruberL (2000) Ruling the World: Power Politics and the Rise of Supranational Institutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
24.
HallPASoskiceD (2001) An introduction to the varieties of capitalism. In: HallPASoskiceD (eds) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
25.
HallPAThelenK (2009) Institutional change in varieties of capitalism. Socio-Economic Review7(1): 7–34.
26.
HoltRTTurnerJE (1970) The methodology of comparative research. In: HoltRTTurnerJE (eds) The Methodology of Comparative Research. New York: The Free Press.
27.
HowellC (2007) The British variety of capitalism: Institutional change, industrial relations and British politics. British Politics2: 239–263.
28.
HymanR (2001) Understanding European Trade Unionism: Between Market, Class and Society. London: Sage.
29.
HymanRFernerAE(eds) (1994) New Frontiers in European Industrial Relations. Oxford: Blackwell.
30.
JessopB (2011) Rethinking the diversity and variability of capitalism: On variegated capitalism in the world market. In: LaneCWoodGT (eds) Capitalist Diversity and Diversity within Capitalism. London: Routledge.
31.
KnightJ (1992) Institutions and Social Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
32.
KnightJ (2001) Explaining the rise of neoliberalism: The mechanisms of institutional change. In: CampbellLPedersenOK (eds) The New Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
33.
LambertNJ (2014) Resource longevity and the ‘pull’ of existing organisational paths: Strategic adjustment and response by UK producers to a new international division of labour in the ceramic tableware sector. Competition and Change18(1): 131–149.
34.
LaneCWoodGT (2009) Capitalist diversity and diversity within capitalism. Economy and Society38(4): 531–551.
35.
LaneCWoodGT(eds) (2011) Capitalist Diversity and Diversity within Capitalism. London: Routledge.
36.
LibecapGD (1989) Contracting for Property Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
37.
LipsetSM (1967) A biography of a research project: Union democracy. In: HammondPE (ed.) Sociologists at Work. New York: Doubleday.
38.
MahoneyJThelenK (2010) A theory of gradual institutional change. In: MahoneyJThelenK (eds) Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
39.
MillwardNStevensMSmartDHawesW (1992) Workplace Industrial Relations in Transition. Aldershot: Dartmouth.
40.
Ministry of Labour and National Service (1959) Industrial health: A survey of the pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent. A Report by H.M Factory Inspectorate. London: HMSO.
41.
MoeTM (2005) Power and political institutions. Perspectives on Politics3(2): 215–233.
42.
MorganG (2007) National business systems research: Process and prospects. Scandinavian Journal of Management23: 127–145.
43.
NBPI (National Board for Prices and Incomes) (1970) Pay and Other Terms and Conditions of Employment of Workers in the Pottery Industry, Report No. 149. London: HMSO.
44.
NBPI (National Board for Prices and Incomes) (1971) General Problems of Low Pay, Report No. 169. London: HMSO.
45.
NJC (National Joint Council for the Pottery Industry) (1960, 1970, 1978, 1980, 2004) Wage Structure. Stoke-on-Trent: NSPW/CATU.
46.
OffeCWiesenthalH (1986) Two logics of collective action: Theoretical notes on social class and political form. In: OffeC (ed.) Disorganized Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
47.
OwenH (1901) The Staffordshire Potter. Bath: Kingsmead Reprints.
48.
PalierB (2005) Tracing the political processes of path-breaking changes in French social policy. In: StreeckWThelenK (eds) Continuity and Discontinuity in Institutional Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
49.
PontussonJ (2005) Inequality and Prosperity: Social Europe versus Liberal America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
50.
PoppA (2003) ‘The true potter’: Identity and entrepreneurship in the North Staffordshire potteries in the later nineteenth century. Journal of Historical Geography29(3): 317–335.
51.
RaginC (2000) Casing and the process of social inquiry. In: RaginCBeckerHS (eds.) What is a Case: Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
52.
RaginCZaretD (1983) Theory and method in comparative research: Two strategies. Social Forces61(3): 731–754.
53.
RowntreeHAF (1950) Work measurement: Its implications to the pottery industry. CeramicsJuly: 259–264.
54.
ScharpfF (1997) Games Real Actors Play: Actor-centred Institutionalism in Policy Research. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
55.
SchicklerE (2001) Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
56.
SkocpolT (1984) Emerging agendas and recurrent strategies in historical sociology. In: SkocpolT (ed.) Vision and Method in Historical Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
57.
StreeckW (2009) Reforming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
58.
StreeckWThelenK (2005) Introduction: Institutional change in advanced political economies. In: StreeckWThelenK (eds) Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
59.
SwensonP (2002) Capitalists against Markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
60.
TsebelisG (1990) Nested Games. Berkeley: University of California Press.
61.
WaltonJ (2000) Making the theoretical case. In: RaginCBeckerHS (eds) What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
62.
WhippR (1990) Patterns of Labour, Work and Social Change in the Pottery Industry. London: Routledge.
63.
WilkinsonAWoodGT (2012) Institutions and employment relations: The state of the art. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society51: 373–388.
64.
WilliamsBR (1958) The pottery industry. In: BurnD. (ed.) The Structure of British Industry: A Symposium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
65.
WoodGTLaneC (2011) Institutions, change, and diversity. In: LaneCWoodGT (eds) Capitalist Diversity and Diversity within Capitalism. Routledge: London.
66.
YinRK (1984) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
