ABSTRACT
Theinterestsofcapitalwerepursuedlargelyunfetteredbyconsiderationof thoseoflabourintheinitialphasesofestablishingcapitalistsocialrelationsin theseareas.Withthepassageoftime,thedominantcapitalistfirmsdeveloped institutionalformsandlinkagesthroughwhichtheirinterestscouldbeorganizedandrelationshipsbetweenthemregulated.Inthisway,aswellasthrough politicalandsocialrelationshipsdevelopedwithinthesphereofcivilsociety, theemergentclassofindustrialcapitalistsformeditselfintheseareas(see Grabher,1990;Hudson1989a).Overthesubsequentyears,too,slowly,haltinglyandoftenasaresultofbittercapital/labourconflict,anembryonic workingclassbegantoestablishitselfinitsemergentplacesandinstitutional arrangementswereconstructedtorepresenttheinterestsofworkersandtheir familiescounterposedtothoseofcapital(see,forexample,Thompson,1968). Inpart,thisinvolvedthecreationoftradesunionstorepresenttheinterestsof labouraswage-labourvis-a-viscapitalintheworkplace,characteristicallyassociatedwithongoingstrugglesovertheconditions,termsandwagesassociated withwork.Inpart,andgenerallylinkedtothis,itinvolvedtheformationof
political parties to represent more general working-class interests, both as producers and also as consumers, often articulated through claims for state provision of housing, educational, health and social services. Indeed, typically over the years there was a growing national state involvement in regulating the conditions of reproduction of labour power in such areas and industries and, on occasion, those of production itself. In this way, national states established regulatory frameworks that mediated relationships between local areas and an international economy and set the limits within which local institutional forms have been created (see, for example, Lash and Urry, 1987). A history of dependency upon wage-labour and service provision by major privatesector industrial enterprises often resulted in an easy slippage to dependence upon the state as a source of jobs and services. Indeed, the balance of private and public sector involvement in the provision of jobs, housing and services has varied precisely because such a switch was often an explicit objective of working-class political parties and trades unions in these old industrial areas.
