ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at connecting the two levels, usually treated separately, to study effects of changes of the international division of labour on the organisation of work within single production units. It is also possible to study the reverse effect, how changes in the organisation of work at the individual level affect commodity flows and industrial location patterns at the global level, though that approach is not taken here. The chapter focuses on fragmentation, but is itself a fragment. Further research, aiming at a comprehensive empirical investigation of Swedish car production, will test the hypotheses made here in detail to expand the model connecting the international and individual levels. The concept of fragmentation denotes a division of a whole into pieces which are only remainders of the original totality. A thorough investigation of the Volvo case indicates that, until about 1978, Volvo increasingly integrated units in the production system for cars within its own structure.
