Field observations from a workshop producing Tiffany-style stainedglass lamps on the USA-Mexican border provide the materials for an analysis of labor discipline within a modern-day craft 'putting out' system. It is only through locating the immediate activities of the workshop within the network of environing interpersonal relationships, organizations and international markets, however, that we are able to understand the operative processes of labor discipline reflected in 'what is happening' in the workshop. The analysis enables us to 'read' the produced lamp itself as a text commenting on the binational relations of production and consumption concretized within its commodity form.
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