Work-life advantage: sustaining regional learning and innovation Al James Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017 ISBN: 978-1-118-94483-7 (paperback) 248 pp. Price: $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-118-94484-4 (hardback) 248 pp. Price: $94.95 This fascinating book offers a well-grounded and clearly stated argument that work-life balance is a crucial element in the mix of factors that sustain regional learning and innovation, making a significant contribution to the literature that has burgeoned on this topic in recent decades. In the process, it develops a profound critique of the literature on regional development as largely genderblind and overly focused on production networks to the neglect of processes of social reproduction. The book is based on extensive research around Dublin, Ireland and Cambridge, UK-including surveys of 150 employers, over 60 interviews with IT professionals and additional interviews with informants from unions, development agencies and other organisations before the crisis of 2008; supplemented by online surveys with IT workers in late 2008 and 2010. While the data were gathered during a particular era of financial boom and bust, they do not appear dated-at least partly because the IT sector suffered less than many others and more generally because issues of gendering and work-life balance in IT have been persistent across a variety of technology and other business cycles. This research is presented in three core empirical chapters. The first of these presents the core work processes in IT and the work- life conflict they create, maintaining a commendable focus on how the dynamic intersection of work practices and gendered meanings of work create varying challenges at different times. The second empirical chapter focuses more closely on policies and practices designed to reduce work-life conflict within firms. Nicely weaving together statistical and interview data, the chapter assesses the 'mutual gains' for firms and workers of various initiatives, finding that practices that workers particularly value (e.g. working from home, reduced hours) also provide benefits to firms of more diverse workforces, less fatigue and increased productivity. Perhaps, the most distinctive contribution of the book is in the final empirical chapter that extends this analysis to inter-firm relations and regional processes. Part of the analysis consists of a critique of the dominant understandings of 'zero drag' regional labour mobility as a vehicle of learning and innovation. However, James put his data to good use to go further and document how the search for work-life balance is a major motivating factor in labour mobility and how that mobility is most constrained for the women workers who are in greatest need of its potential benefits. Again, firms and regional economies as well as workers would benefit from worklife friendly mobility. This is an excellent book. It is clearly written and engaging with a commendable mix of empirical rigour and detail, passion for the issues at hand and a commitment to the importance of tackling them based on careful research. The focus on 'mutual gains' proves to be very useful because James examines the dynamics of actual and potential gains in detail rather than just relying on the phrase as a slogan. The book goes well beyond the point that there are quite generalised benefits for firms to outline the various benefits and the different conditions under which they arise- as well as some potential benefits that are only rarely realised. The book also opens up a range of questions that it doesn't quite answer. While the focus on work-life balance is an advantage, in that it provides clear links to organisational choices and policy relevant issues, a more sustained reconstruction of regional learning theories at the end of the book would have further augmented the findings. The implications of the analysis for this literature could The Author(s) (2019). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email:
[email protected] Journal of Economic Geography 19 (2019) pp. 539-540 doi:10.1093/jeg/lbz005 Advance Access Published on 26 February 2019 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article-abstract/19/2/539/5365501 by University of Sheffield user on 07 June 2019 be taken even further. To what extent are inter-personal networks between partner companies, for example, drivers of an 'always on' culture? More attention could also have been paid to the occupational and organisational difference in the workers' settings, disaggregating the categories of 'worker' and 'firm'. While the distinct focus on intra- and inter-firm processes yielded rich insights, this raised the question of how firms interacted with their broader regional environment and how this shaped work-life balance. The enduring puzzle of unrealised mutual gains remains-if there are gains to be made by firms (of which they are somewhat aware), then why don't they act to take advantage of them? Critically, perhaps the solutions as well as some of the problems lie at the regional level. If many workers are partly motivated by the search for work work-life balance friendly employers but employers are still not responding in large numbers to these 'market signals', then collective action at the regional level will be critical. Despite the rhetorical commitment to limitless growth, ICT firms may be willing to sacrifice a degree of growth to forego disruption of gendered practices. While the book touches on these issues, there is much more to be said (as James notes). James ends the book on a number of potential extensions of this work, rightly recognising some limits of an exclusively regional focus. Some extensions refine the focus on production and labour networks through a greater focus on inter-firm networks beyond the region-particularly because these dynamic regions are as global as they are local. How do these inter-regional ties shape firm capacities within regions and how do work-life balance practices diffuse across these transnational organisational networks? Another set of extensions beyond the regional focus, also noted by James, are in the direction of comparative analysis of different regions and analysis of how they are shaped by their political and institutional environments. The book touches on the comparative differences between Ireland and the UK without fully analysing them. This is an informative and insightful book. For those interested in gendering of economic life, this book will be a welcome addition to their stock of knowledge, adding the region to the list of deeply profoundly gendered economic institutions. For those whose focus is on regional development but who have paid little attention to gender, this is a must read. Sean O Riain Department of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth
[email protected] 540 . Book Reviews Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article-abstract/19/2/539/5365501 by University of Sheffield user on 07 June 2019
