Page 79 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

significance of capitalist social relations and the processes of capital accumulation
rather than the role of information or knowledge management, as is commonly
found in theories of post-industrialism.
56 Disorganized capitalism involves a world-wide de-concentration of capital in the
context of the fact that the growth of capitalism in the ‘developing world’ since the
early 1970s has led to increasing competition for the West in the extractive and
manufacturing industries and a consequent decline in those sectors of Western
economies. Subsequent sectoral reorganization has led directly to the decrease in
the absolute and relative size of the core working class, along with the emergence
of a service class. It has also led to a reduction in regional and urban concentration
together with a rise in flexible forms of work organization and a decline in national
bargaining procedures.
These changes in economic practices and class composition are said to have an
affinity with alterations in political thinking. This is manifested in the increased
independence of large corporations from state regulation, the breakdown of state
corporatist authority and challenges to the centralized welfare provision. The
change in the role of the state is an aspect of the general decline in the salience and
class character of politics and political parties. This arises from an educationally
based stratification system that disorganizes the traditional links between
occupation and class politics.
Links Capitalism, globalization, post-Fordism, post-industrial society