Different Trajectories in the Social Divisions of Labour: The Cutlery Industry in Sheffield, England, and Tsubame, Japan

Abstract

To contribute to the growing debate on the social division of labour and its implications for local development this paper comparatively analyses recent trends in the industrial organisation of the cutlery industry in Sheffield and Tsubame. Both industries evolved as flexibly specialised, export-oriented production systems based on a highly interdependent network of small firms. In the past 20 years, however, the social division of labour underlying Sheffield's cutlery industry has been much reduced in size and complexity while Tsubame has retained, and used, its social division of labour to adjust towards more value-added production. The different trajectories of the two systems reflect different approaches to competitiveness: in Tsubame the emphasis is on innovation; while in Sheffield the industry has been extremely conservative, placing emphasis on minimising costs.