Comment Postfordism refers to an economy based on flexible accumulation. Stuart Hall (1991, 58) characterizes Postfordism as follows: "a shift to the new 'information technologies;' more flexible, decentralized forms of labor process and work organization; decline of the old manufacturing base and the growth of the 'sunrise,' computer-based industries; the hiving off or contracting out of functions and services; a greater emphasis on choice and product differentiation, on marketing, packaging, and design, on the 'targeting' of consumers by lifestyle, taste and culture rather than by categories of social class; a decline in the proportion of the skilled, male, manual working class, the rise of the service and white-collar classes and the 'feminization' of the work force; an economy dominated by the multinationals, with their new international division of labor and their greater autonomy from nation-state control; and the 'globalization' of the new financial markets, linked by the communications revolution." |
