Here is a one-stop research resource on the assembly and manufacturing plants on the U.S.-Mexico border, termed Maquiladoras. A combination bibliography and directory, Las Maquiladoras focuses on various aspects of the American-owned companies that are located in Mexico and employ Mexican citizens.While the thrust of the items included in the select bibliography is on the industrial, commercial, and financial aspects of the phenomenon, including the actions of multinational corporations and their investments, there are also entries dealing with the matter of labor, United States and Mexican governmental undertakings, legal and urban problems, regional development and planning, population, technology transfer, sociocultural considerations, and the interdisciplinary field of border studies, which is concerned with a host of topics ranging form health and education to urban geography, economic matters, and the cultural impact on border residents of the establishment of maquiladoras. The impact of economic development, industrialization, and urbanization on border culture is also reflected.In the directory, readers can locate names and addresses of local, state, and federal level government agencies in the U.S. and Mexico; information centers; labor unions; professional associations; and research centers.The bibliography, comprised of books and book chapters, pamphlets, conference papers and proceedings, government publications, scholarly dissertations, videotapes of television programs, and magazine, journal, and newspaper articles, will be an indispensable tool for business people, bankers, journalists, government experts, economists, students, and librarians. The current interest in border studies and in Mexico, in particular, will make this unique book especially useful to scholars of folklore, geography, history, labor, political science, and sociology.Special features in the book include a list of experts in a variety of disciplines and a listing of U.S. and Mexican cities and towns on opposite sides of the border. Because the number of maquiladoras is expected to continue expanding rapidly, this volume should remain a highly valuable resource.

First published in 1989, this book focuses upon the phenomenon of export-led industrialisation fuelled by foreign investment and technology. He concentrates on Mexico, where US companies have been taking advantage of inexpensive labour to establish "maquila" factories that assemble US parts for export. Through this detailed study of the maquila industry, Sklair charts the progress from the political imperialism of colonial days to the economic imperialism of today.

On the basis of systematic research and personal experience, For We Are Sold, I and My People uncovers some of the social costs of modern production. Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly peels off the labels--"Made in Taiwan," "Assembled in Mexico"--and the trade names--RCA, Sony, General Motors, United Technologies, General Electric, Mattel, Chrysler, American Hospital Supply--to reveal the hidden human dimensions of present-day multinational manufacturing procedures. Focusing on Cuidad Juarez, located at the United States-Mexican border, Fernandez-Kelly examines the reality of maquiladoras, the hundreds of assembly plants that since the 1960s have been used by the Mexican government as part of its development strategy. Most maquiladoras function as subsidiaries of large U.S.-based corporations and a majority of the employees are women. Drawing from current knowledge in political economy and anthropology, this study focuses on one common denominator of the international division of labor--a growing proletariat of Third World women exploited by what some experts are calling "the global assembly line."

The emergence of global assembly plants is closely linked to the creation of a global female industrial labor force. Women and Work in Mexico's Maquiladoras examines this larger process in Mexico, where--despite a century of industrialization and a tradition of well-paid, highly organized, male workers--the maquiladora factories have turned to predominantly female labor. Exploring this dramatic shift, this book convincingly demonstrates how gender restructuring in workplaces and households has become a crucial element in the reorientation of Mexican development. The author compares Mexico's new industrial system with its historical antecedent and documents federal policy changes that have resulted in distinct patterns of gender, unionization, household form, and social welfare. Rich in ethnographic detail, the book uses the voices of workers themselves to provide an intimate look at how daily lives have been transformed--in ways that could not have been foreseen--by the national and international processes shaping the country's industrial transition.

Progress does not come easily to the maquiladoras. These foreign-owned assembly plants have moved southward from the border into Sonora and Chihuahua, giving rise to the concept of "desert capitalism." However, the plants have not necessarily brought about the improvements in the lives of workers that had been so hopefully expected. Sociologist Kathryn Kopinak here examines the maquiladora industry in Nogales, Sonora, and explores various questions concerning how it is changing with NAFTA and other attempts at regional integration. Focusing on the auto-parts industry, Kopinak observes that few maquiladoras have taken steps toward more sophisticated technology and innovative labor practices anticipated by the "second wave" hypothesis of modernization. She argues instead that the apparent advances have not benefitted the overwhelming majority of Mexican employees by increasing their wages or involving them in the workplace. Women workers in particular are segmented at the bottom of the job ladder. Kopinak provides information on facilities in both Nogales and the town of Imuris to offer a balanced perspective on border and inland maquiladoras. Desert Capitalism draws on interviews with workers about their daily lives in both their home and adopted communities and on interviews with Mexican and U.S. plant managers. Community surveys, newspaper advertisements, and government records are other important sources of data. It also reviews and synthesizes literature published only in Spanish and utilizes creative quantitative statistical techniques. The book thus marks a significant study of people's lives that seeks to contribute to the understanding of ongoing continental economic reorganization, and it holds important lessons for scholars of economics, anthropology, political science, history, sociology, women's studies, and regional planning.