Untitled - socium.ge

Labor in the network society 175region over time has becoming increasingly unstable, with workers movingfrequently from firm to firm, increasing levels of temporary workers,subcontracted employment relationships, self-employed workers, and independentcontractors.What are the social implications of this rise in labor flexibility? There isnow general agreement that these contemporary labor patterns, which arenot limited to Silicon Valley but are, in fact, fairly widespread, representquite fundamental changes in work and employment. Despite an intensedebate, however, there remains wide-ranging disagreement about how tocharacterize these changes in work and how to understand the implicationsfor workers’ livelihoods in contemporary labor markets. Silicon Valleyprovides useful lessons for contributing to these debates. Just like studyingwork in British textile mills of the early nineteenth century in order to understandthe implications of the industrial revolution, or examining work in USauto plants of the early twentieth century in order to understand the implicationsof Fordist production systems, analyzing work in Silicon Valley atthe turn of the twenty-first century provides useful insights into the ways inwhich the information revolution is transforming work globally.In this chapter, I will discuss two fundamental features of labor marketsin Silicon Valley that are particularly important for understanding broaderpatterns of work restructuring. First, Silicon Valley labor markets are characterizedby a high degree of flexibility, but in analyzing this flexibility it isessential to make a distinction between flexible work and flexible employment.Flexible work practices are driven largely by competitive dynamics inknowledge-intensive industries, while flexible employment is shaped moreby the legal and institutional framework that governs employment relations.Second, these high levels of flexibility are leading both employers and workersto turn to third-party intermediaries to help them navigate the complexand rapidly changing labor markets, and these intermediaries are, in turn,shaping regional labor-market dynamics in important ways.After addressing both of these factors in turn, this chapter concludes witha discussion of the implications of these factors for social structures in theregional labor market, arguing that labor flexibility and intermediationcontribute significantly to the high levels of inequality and insecurity thatworkers face in the regional labor market. In trying to understand the resultingsocial structure, however, it is essential to examine career trajectories,rather than simply the distribution of jobs, and recognize that people’soutcomes in the labor market are shaped not just by their skill levels, but alsoby the strength and quality of their regional social networks and theirregional bargaining power.