The Dilemma of Skill Reproduction in Pursuit of Flexibility

Abstract

In production processes, two kinds of flexibility have been pursued in parallel from the 1980s. One is “functional flexibility, ” which leads to “re-skilling” processes, and the other is “numerical flexibility, ” which means organizational rationalizations such as outsourcing and the sub-contracting system. Through continuous argument in labor research, the question of how to evaluate the transformation of autonomy in “re-skilling” processes remains controversial. Critical analyses recognize such “autonomy” as an alternative pattern of management against or among workers. However, recent discussions demand us to integrate the debate between skill and organizational formations and to address the fundamental question of social systems.In this paper, I examine the social foundation of skills in discussing the skill reproduction dilemma in the housing industry. In Japan, large housing companies have promoted industrialization of small timber-framed building construction while incorporating small local contractors, which traditionally consist of a few carpenters and apprentices, as their sub-contracting firms. In recent years, in addition to the prefabrication method, these companies also started to engage in traditional construction method where local contractors take all the responsibilities of the production processes. This vertical integration causes fragmentation and standardization of labor processes, cut-down of production schedule, significant reduction of contracting prices, and so on. As a result, the apprentice system is no longer sustainable on site. Although large housing companies and trade unions have tried to establish new training institutions, neither of them has proved to be successfully functional as a sufficiently independent system. I argue that the pursuit of the two kinds of flexibility does not necessarily ensure the social foundation of skills and add that the difficulty of skill-reproduction also indicates to us the need to reconsider the concepts of skills and control beyond labor processes.