DIFFERENT TRAJECTORIES IN THE SOCIAL DIVISIONS OF LABOR - THE CUTLERYINDUSTRY IN SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND, AND TSUBAME, JAPAN

To contribute to the growing debate on the social division of labour a nd its implications for local development this paper comparatively ana lyses recent trends in the industrial organisation of the cutlery indu stry in Sheffield and Tsubame. Both industries evolved as flexibly spe cialised, export-oriented production systems based on a highly interde pendent network of small firms. In the past 20 years, however, the soc ial division of labour underlying Sheffield's cutlery industry has bee n much reduced in size and complexity while Tsubame has retained, and used, its social division of labour to adjust towards more value-added production. The different trajectories of the two systems reflect dif ferent approaches to competitiveness: in Tsubame the emphasis is on in novation; while in Sheffield the industry has been extremely conservat ive, placing emphasis on minimising costs.