Internal diversity and change in the UK: The changing forms and levels of coordination in wages and working conditions within the ceramic tableware sector 1945–2008

Abstract

This article presents findings from a longitudinal analysis of postwar (1945–2008) changes to coordination in wages and working conditions within a single-case study sector in the UK – ceramic tableware production. It proposes three modes of incremental change during this period: layering in the immediate postwar years ( c. 1950); conversion during the 1970s; and displacement in the early 1980s. Shaped by (a) the internal and external pressures actors faced, (b) the veto possibilities and (c) the levels of discretion in the implementation and enforcement of targeted institutions for key actors at different stages, this sector saw different forms and levels of coordination in wages and working conditions come to prominence at different points during the second half of the twentieth century.