Control in an Internationalized Labour Process: Engineering Work in Global Design Networks

Abstract

This article analyses the engineering labour process within global networks of production and design of the electronics industry. Its main argument is that the labour process in peripheral product design locations in Eastern Europe has developed considerably with regards to levels of autonomy in work tasks organization and control structure. A detailed case study on one particular product development centre in Bucharest, Romania illustrates these developments. Labour process theory is employed to analyse and understand dynamics in the local labour process organization, while the global design network approach locates labour process dynamics within a network perspective. Local factors such as the labour market are central to the analysis advancing a more dialectical perspective on the relations between global and local levels of internationalization. The analysis shows how integrated forms of international division of labour are increasingly developing.