This book explores the growing tension between the requirements of employers for a flexible work force and the ability of parents and communities to nurture their children and provide for their health, welfare, and education. Global competition and the spread of information technology are forcing businesses to engage in rapid, worldwide production changes, customized marketing, and just-in-time delivery. They are reorganizing work around decentralized management, work differentiation, and short-term and part-time employment. Increasingly, workers must be able to move across firms and even across types of work, as jobs get redefined.

But there is a stiff price being paid for this labor market flexibility. It separates workers from the social institutions—family, long-term jobs, and stable communities—that sustained economic expansions in the past and supported the growth and development of the next generation. This is exacerbated by the continuing movement of women into paid work, which puts a greater strain on the family's ability to care for and rear children. Unless government fosters the development of new, integrative institutions to support the new world of work, the author argues, the conditions required for long-term economic growth and social stability will be threatened. He concludes by laying out a framework for creating such institutions.

Prizes

Nominated for Society for the Study of Social Problems C. Wright Mills Award 2000,Nominated for William J. Goode Book Award 2002

This is a very ambitious, creative, and broad-sweeping effort to recast thinking about labor market policies to encompass family-work relations, globalization, and changes in technology. Martin Carnoy has broken new ground and provided a very substantial and valuable contribution. -- Thomas A. Kochan, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Martin Carnoy has written a very exciting book that will stimulate much useful discussion. He presents a nuanced and balanced view of the knowledge economy and the transformations that are occurring in the workplace and the family. His policy suggestions should have a great impact on politicians, pundits, and the public discourse. -- Eileen Appelbaum, Economic Policy Institute

Martin Carnoy is Professor of Education and Economics at Stanford University.