Abstract
It is some time since the Department of Employment confirmed that the use of contractors and subcontractors in British industry was increasing (Employment Gazette, October 1985), and recent studies (see, for example, Guardian, 24 September 1986) would appear to suggest that this trend is not confined to the nationalised industries and services where contracting out has been a method of privatisation. Although we now know a great deal about the effect of this trend on the workforce (for recent examples see Guardian, 21 January 1987, Listener, 12 November 1987 and Hurstfield, 1987a, 1987b), the theory of contracting and subcontracting remains underdeveloped. Researchers who have tried to look beyond the social effects of contracting-out enter a realm of some confusion. For example, Ascher (1987) concludes that it is doubtful whether contracting out public services has been more efficient or cheaper (also see Fevre, 1986). This chapter begins with the assumption that some knowledge of the place of contractors and subcontractors in the history of industrial change will help to clear away some of the confusion inherent in contemporary explanations of this form of industrial organisation. But before we consider the historical data, we must first define the form of industrial organisation which interests us.
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Fevre, R. (1990). Sub/contracting and Industrial Development. In: Kendrick, S., Straw, P., McCrone, D. (eds) Interpreting the Past, Understanding the Present. Explorations in Sociology. British Sociological Association Conference Volume Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20786-2_12
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