International Mobility, Global Capitalism, and Changing Structures of Accumulation: Transforming the Japan-India It Relationship

ISBN-13: 9780415564953 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 238 str.

Anthony P. D'Costa

Opis

International mobility is not a new concept as people have moved throughout history, voluntarily and forcibly, for personal, familial, economic, political, and professional reasons. Yet, the mobility of technical talent in the global economy is relatively new, largely voluntary, structurally determined by market forces, and influenced by immigration policies. With over a decade's worth of extensive research in India, Japan, Finland, and Singapore, this book provides an alternative understanding of how capitalism functions at the global level by specifically analyzing the international movement of technical professionals between India and Japan. There are three factors that inform this study: the services transition away from manufacturing, the movement of technical professionals in the world economy, and the demographic crisis facing Japan. The dynamics of changing capitalism are examined by theorizing the emergence of the services sector in the USA and Japan, analyzing the pronounced social inequality in India that is the basis for the global supply of highly skilled technical professionals, and providing considerable empirical data on the flows of professionals to these two countries to indicate Japan's institutional inflexibility in accommodating foreign talent. The author anticipates that Japanese industry will shed some of its institutional rigidity due to the pressures of competition and the scarcity of technical professionals. Providing a wealth of information on the topic of international mobility, this book is an essential addition for scholars and students in the field of International Development, Business Studies, Asian Studies, Migration Studies, and Political Economy.

International mobility is not new as people have moved throughout history, voluntarily and forcibly, for personal, familial, economic, and professional reasons. Yet, the mobility of technical talent in the global economy is a relatively new phenomenon, largely voluntary, structurally determined by market forces, and influenced by immigration policies. In particular, the rise of the new economy of information and communications technologies and tradable services has created an unprecedented demand for information technology workers and professionals. This economy also embodies the circulation of brain power, as opposed to simple brain drain of earlier decades, thereby inducing heightened competition among nations to secure and retain talent.

This book demonstrates the processes underlying the uneven and interconnected development of the world economy by investigating the extent to which rich countries are becoming dependent on the supply of technical professionals from developing countries, the reasons for this reliance, the beneficiaries of such mobility, how institutions such as states and businesses are coping with talent imbalances at the national and global levels, and some of the inegalitarian social consequences of talent mobility. Based on this analysis the book provides both a theoretical and empirical understanding of the dynamics of the contemporary world economy, driven by the twin forces of exploitation of unskilled labor and economic mobilization of highly skilled professionals. In this accumulation model labor markets for technical talent are regulated by state intervention in technical education, immigration policies, and national mobilization of talent for international competitiveness.

Spis treści

1. Capital Accumulation and the International Mobility of Labor: An Introduction 2. Changing Structures of Accumulation and International Mobility of Technical Professionals 3. Changing Structures of Accumulation from Manufacturing to Services 4. Positioning Japan in the International Mobility of Skilled Professionals 5. Changing Structures of Accumulation and Indian Labor Mobility 6. Crisis and Accumulation Challenges in Japan’s IT Industry 7. Institutional Stickiness and Really Existing Capitalism 8. The Final Push for Accumulation in India and Japan 9. Concluding Remarks on Accumulation, International Mobility, and Distributive Implications

O autorze

Anthony P. D'Costa is Chair and Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies and teaches in the Development Studies Program, University of Melbourne, Australia. He has written extensively on the political economy of steel, auto, and IT industries and continues to expand on the themes of capitalism, globalization, development, industrial restructuring, and changing labor markets. His latest publication is an edited book "After-Development Dynamics: South Korea’s Engagement with Contemporary Asia."