Review of Refashioning the Rag Trade - Dialogue (Academy of Social Science), 21(1), 56-7

Researchers who set out to report on studies of a particular industry must steer a course between two perils. On the one hand, there is the accumulation of ephemeral detail on the operations of individuals and corporations, of interest to no-one except those actually involved. An extreme form may be seen in corporate histories, such as commissioned by companies celebrating a hundred years of solvency. On the other, there is an abstract approach, in which the analysis is dominated by generalities applicable to any and every industry. Reports of the old Industries Assistance Commission tended to suffer from this defect.

In their study of Australia's textile, clothing and footwear industries, Michael Webber and Sally Weller avoid both dangers. The authors are exhibit a detailed understanding of their chosen industry, viewed from cultural and social as well as economic perspectives. On the other hand, the changes in the industry are placed firmly in the context of microeconomic reform and internationalisation.

The book begins with a brief statement of the theoretical framework, followed by a historical overview of developments in the industry from Federation to the late 1990s. The middle chapters deal with changes at the level of individual firms and their employees or outworkers. The final section deals with the impact of structural change on workers and the experience of those retrenched following tariff reductions.

There is much to appreciate here, and different readers will no doubt find different items of interest. For this reviewer, the greatest interest lay in the four-year panel study of retrenched workers. The results are generally disheartening. Despite special assistance from structural adjustment programs, about half of those retrenched never worked again. As would be expected, the experience of older workers from non-English speaking backgrounds was particularly unfavorable.

As the authors observe, the failure of retrenched workers to regain employment casts grave doubt on the theoretical model underlying microeconomic reform, in which resources (workers and capital) displaced from less productive activities are 'freed up' to move where they are more productive. It is only very recently that bodies like the Productivity Commission have taken any account of this fact.

My only quibble with this book is its reliance on the notion of the 'Federation settlement' an amalgam of Paul Kelly's 'Australian settlement' and Gerard Henderson's 'Federation trifecta'. Kelly and Henderson can certainly take comfort from the fact that their ideas are now so much part of the intellectual background as not to require attribution in a book that is otherwise meticulous with regard to footnotes and source attribution. Moreover, it is true that the Federation story fits textiles, clothing and footwear industries better than others. Nevertheless, the shift from tariff protection to globalisation and microeconomic reform cannot be properly understood without reference to the rise and fall of the Keynesian settlement established after 1945.

Supporters of the microeconomic reform program of the 1980s and 1990s would no doubt want to make other points, for example about the dynamic benefits of market-oriented reform and internationalisation. However, the findings of this study certainly cast doubt on assumptions that are frequently taken for granted in the Australian policy debate.

In summary, this is an excellent piece of work which will repay study by all those interested in the impact of internationalisation on Australian society and the Australian economy.

Webber, Michael and Weller, Sally (2001),'Refashioning the Rag Trace: Internationalising Australia's textile, clothing and footwear industries', UNSW Press, Annandale. ppX+377, RRP not stated.