Silicon Valley: Vernetzte Produktion, Industriearbeit und soziale Bewegungen im Detroit der „New Economy“

Abstract

The article explores the new patterns of manufacturing organization and manufacturing work underlying the much-heralded information technology industry of California´s Silicon Valley. From a theoretical approach based on French regulation theory, critical U.S. industrial geography, and German industrial sociology the paper argues that the Silicon Valley of the 1990s has become a place of prime importance for the development of new manufacturing arrangements in the information technology industry. The article discusses the implications for Silicon Valley´s manufacturing workforce, which is mainly made up of women and non-white immigrants, and the challenges for the labor movement.