Work-Place: The Social Regulation of Labor Markets.

In the author's words this book sets out "to construct, then put to work, a theoretical framework through which to analyze the local labor market" (p.261). Accordingly the book is divided into two parts. The first develops a conception of local labor markets as institutionalized and politicized arenas within which labor is allocated to jobs and wages determined. A central concept here is that of regulation, which Peck attempts to flesh out by drawing on the theory of segmented labor markets. This argument is developed against neo-classical notions of local labor markets as primarily price-regulated; and a lesser theme, is its contrast to the geographical insensitivities of segmentation theory, at least as far as local labor markets are concerned. The second half of the book consists of a number of case studies in which this approach is applied. The first two of these take mildly critical stances with respect to the labor market implications of the work of Scott on territorial production complexes and of Massey regarding the creation of spatial divisions of …