Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

REGULATION SCHOOL THEORY
people in manufacture worked in companies with more than 500 employees
(Westergaard and Resler, 1975, pp. 151–2). A corollary was the development
of distinctive localities, areas – often entire towns, though more commonly a
particular district – known by what they produced: for example, Derby for its
railway works and Rolls-Royce factory, Shotton, Corby and Consett for their
steelworks, Coventry for its automobiles, and Birmingham for various engineering
enterprises.
Industrial workers
Throughout this period the predominant group in employment was industrial
workers. These were those predominantly male blue-collar employees employed
in manufacture and some extractive industries who evidenced strong regional
and class attachments that were echoed in political affiliations and attitudes.
Constituting almost 70 per cent of the British workforce in 1951, male manual
workers still accounted for almost 60 per cent of the total twenty years later
(Harrison, 1984, p. 381) and, in the early 1960s, about 60 per cent of all employment
was located in sectors covering a range of industrial activities from mining
to chemical production, while 43 per cent of jobs were accounted for by manufacturing
alone (Gershuny and Miles, 1983, p. 20).
In industry there was a high degree of unionisation among the workforce that
was recognised by most employers and channelled into institutional arrangements
for handling labour and management relationships. At the local level this
found expression in agreed negotiation procedures while at the highest levels
it was reflected in a tendency towards what became known as corporatism
(Middlemass, 1979), in which employers’ representatives, trade union leaders
and politicians would meet regularly to agree on issues of mutual concern. This
reached its peak in the 1960s with regular ‘beer and sandwiches’ meetings at
10 Downing Street and the formulation of the Social Contract by the Premier and
leading trade unionists.
Above all, perhaps, the longest boom in capitalism’s history meant continual
economic growth and, with it, full employment. With the exception of a few
pockets, unemployment in Britain virtually disappeared, rates hovering around
2 per cent throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. This ‘frictional unemployment’,
accounted for chiefly by those temporarily out of work while seeking alternative
jobs, meant there was stability, assurance and confidence for the majority of the
population.
Mass consumption
Over these years mass consumption became the norm, facilitated by (relatively)
high and increasing wages, decreasing real costs of consumer goods, 2 full employment,
the rapid spread of instalment purchase 3 and credit facilities, and, of course,
the stimulation that came with the growth of advertising, fashion, television and
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