Greening Auto Jobs - by Caleb Goods (Hardcover)

About the Book

Greening Auto Jobs: A Critical Analysis of the Green Job Solution provides a major contribution to the growing and important field of environmental sociology and labor studies by providing a theoretical and practical understanding of how the broader political-economic relation...

Book Synopsis

Greening Auto Jobs: A Critical Analysis of the Green Job Solution provides a major contribution to the growing and important field of environmental sociology and labor studies by providing a theoretical and practical understanding of how the broader political-economic relations of society affect the relationship between labor and the environment.

Review Quotes

Caleb Goods' Greening Auto Jobs: A Critical Analysis of the Green Job Solution provides a refreshing new approach to understanding and analyzing developments in the green economy. Unlike other books where the world of work and workers are typically absent, Goods places them at the forefront of discussions about ecological sustainability. This book is about much more than the 'greening' of auto jobs. It provides readers an engaging and critical insight into the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical challenges surrounding 'green' jobs and the 'greening' of capitalism. Goods' critical analysis forces everyone from multinational corporations, national governments, consumers, workers, and unions to take stock of their role and actions in the climate crisis. It is a must read for anyone concerned about the direction of contemporary solutions to global environmental crisis.

Fascinating and indispensable, Greening Auto Jobs describes the fate of manufacturing's lead industry in Australia, as green hopes give way to the decimation of the industry and manufacturing as a whole. There are, in fact, two interlocked stories here. The first describes the vulnerability of a small, prosperous, manufacturing country to deindustrialization, caught between global restructuring of international supply chains by rootless multinational companies and the strategic paralysis of national government, unable to plan ahead creatively. The second story traces the efforts of Australian unions and companies to green-adapt the labor process in automobile production. The two stories are linked by the unexpected speed by which 20th century globalization has been unhinged by 21st century climate change. Caleb Goods' graceful analysis of the interdependence of the stories and their vulnerability is a cautionary tale for developed, industrialized countries, both large and small.

How can we move--as this book shows we must--beyond the dead-end debate that pits jobs against the environment? Looking afresh at the concept of 'green jobs, ' Caleb Goods examines recent initiatives in one decisive sector, the auto industry, to show that policy-makers and industry insiders all too commonly either misconceive the problems we face or simply wish them away. The arguments in this thoughtful and engaging book not only urge us to take environmental crisis seriously, but provide an innovative and powerful framework for rethinking paths to ecological sustainability.

This is an important contribution to global debate about the creation of 'green jobs' and whether the automotive industry can be environmentally sustainable. The book contains a valuable case study of the Australian Labor government's recent attempt to implement a 'Green Car Policy' during a period when the industry has been struggling to survive in many countries. Caleb Goods situates the Australian experience in the context of the international 'battle' over green job creation and draws important lessons for the global economy and environmental policies. This is a book which should be read by everyone with an interest in the future of work and our ecological future.

About the Author

Caleb Goods is a research fellow at the University of Western Australia Business School.