Satanic Mills or Silicon Islands?

"Satanic Mills or Silicon Islands? accomplishes the all too rare feat of marshalling rich empirical research to arrive at important new theoretical insights on an issue"The nature of industrial relations under the twin regimes of neoliberal globalization and flexible production'that matters. This book deserves wide notice."-Industrial and Labor Relations Review "Working in the best traditions of industrial ethnography Steven McKay shows how globalization, far from being the cliched homogenizing force, fans out into a variety of production regimes. There's no best practice, but a wide range of locally sensitive managerial strategies to elicit worker commitment. Satanic Mills or Silicon Islands? is a must-read for all those who study work and politics."-Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley "This important and original book addresses workplace and labor issues of global significance. To my knowledge, there has not previously been an in-depth study of the developmental strategy or high-tech industrial production in the Philippines. Steven McKay's comparative case-study design is admirable and shows the variation across four firms in a single industry. His discussions of the more technical aspects of high-tech production are readily comprehensible to general readers. This book's firm-level data and worker narratives are rich, revealing, and at times moving."-Ching Kwan Lee, University of Michigan "Steven McKay's empirical data is rich, his writing is clear and informative, and the cases he examines display a fascinating range of workplace politics within a broadly similar national, technological, and market context. Satanic Mills or Silicon Islands? will have a wide audience in sociology, industrial relations, and among critical scholars of globalization."-Sean O'Riain, National University of Ireland, Maynooth