Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introductions
- Part II Models and realities
- 3 Introduction
- 4 Changing forms of labor conflict: secular development or strike waves?
- 5 Strikes and power in Britain, 1870–1920
- 6 Two strike waves in Imperial Russia, 1905–1907, 1912–1914
- 7 Strikers in revolution: Russia, 1917
- 8 Strikes in Imperial Russia, 1895–1913: a quantitative analysis
- 9 Labor conflicts in Italy before the rise of fascism, 1881–1923: a quantitative analysis
- 10 Strikes and politics in the United States, 1900–1919
- Part III Workers in metal-processing enterprises in comparative perspective
- Part IV The effects of short-term variation
- Part V Conclusion
4 - Changing forms of labor conflict: secular development or strike waves?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introductions
- Part II Models and realities
- 3 Introduction
- 4 Changing forms of labor conflict: secular development or strike waves?
- 5 Strikes and power in Britain, 1870–1920
- 6 Two strike waves in Imperial Russia, 1905–1907, 1912–1914
- 7 Strikers in revolution: Russia, 1917
- 8 Strikes in Imperial Russia, 1895–1913: a quantitative analysis
- 9 Labor conflicts in Italy before the rise of fascism, 1881–1923: a quantitative analysis
- 10 Strikes and politics in the United States, 1900–1919
- Part III Workers in metal-processing enterprises in comparative perspective
- Part IV The effects of short-term variation
- Part V Conclusion
Summary
Two major approaches resting on different theoretical models are currently influencing quantitative research on industrial strikes in Germany. The first of these focuses on long-term tendencies at work in the evolution of industrial labor conflicts, as reflected in longer-term changes in form that strikes allegedly underwent in the course of industrial development. The other stresses the discontinuities in patterns of labor unrest reflected in the phenomenon of strike waves. These two approaches were originally used separately, but most recently have been combined in quantitative studies. The following observations are intended to contribute to reflection on the development of these two approaches, and particularly on the further possibilities for their joint application in quantitative studies of industrial strikes.
For the benefit of the non-German reader, I shall first summarize the major propositions about the changes in form that strikes purportedly underwent in the course of industrial development, and the general thesis concerning the rationalization of strike behavior on which these propositions rest.
According to this thesis, articulated in German research by H. Volkmann in the course of his work on modernization processes, the changes in production techniques and organization that took place in the course of the industrial revolution created an entirely new framework for labor relations. The fact that processes of industrial development unfolded in cycles contributed – given their effects on the recruitment of work forces – to gaps between changes in the character and forms of production on the one hand, and changes in industrial relations, conflict-solving methods, and political participation on the other.
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- Strikes, Wars, and Revolutions in an International PerspectiveStrike Waves in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, pp. 47 - 78Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989
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