3 - Fordism and its Crises

Question 1

What is fordism?

Answer 1

It is defined through three ways in literature: its era(WWII-mid 1970s) - characterised by high economic growth, reorganisation of the production system that revolutionsied industry & the broader system of capitalism

Question 2

How is fordism characterised?

Answer 2

Mass production/consumption, oligopoly power, state regulation, highly structured labour relations(unions)

Question 3

What made Ford Fordist?

Answer 3

New structures of management & control(severe technical divsion of labour to increase worker productivity), moving assembly line with machinery operated by deskilled workers(time to make Model T reduced from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes), hierarchical control(centralise all work-floor knowledge in management)

Question 4

What was working at Ford like?

Answer 4

High levels of intensity/stress - (Grandin, 2010) stated ‘never before had human beings been fitted so closely into the machines’ & constant surveillance(at home, at work etc)

Question 5

What characterised Fordsim II(regulationist Fordism)?

Answer 5

Unionisation - meant workers shared in the productivity increases as they commanded a 25-fold wage increase & a 40% reduction in working hours, allowing workers to consume industrial products on a mass scale

Question 6

How was Fordism weakened?

Answer 6

Declining corporate profits and productivity rates, increasing importance of imported goods, firms leaving the country as economy globalised etc.