Search

This article explores organizational restructuring in one large public institution as a situated response to the instabilities brought on by globalization. Drawing upon ethnographic research with the Los Angeles public school system, I argue that a process of fragmented centralization is taking place, whereby decision-making authority is becoming more centralized while accountability for centrally made decisions is becoming more distributed. This process is propelled, in part, by the rise of a new occupational group of information technology (IT) specialists that is integrating itself into places of power and altering all aspects of organizational operations, transforming the school system into a post-Fordist organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the claims that we are living in a new global, post-Fordist era, The claims of both globalization and post-Fordism are examined, as well as some of the implications for development. Both theses are questioned, and in particular it is argued that in some respects the two arguments contradict rather than complement each other. An alternative approach is put forward, focusing on the contemporary context for development in the global economy, critically using the notion of global commodity chains. It is argued that we are currently witnessing a variety of strategies of capital accumulation in the world economy, and insofar as generalizations can be made, we have witnessed the end of the Third World as a homogeneous block. While some formerly peripheral countries are now a constituent part of the world economy, others are marginal to its needs. These countries are not so much exploited as simply left out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]