Silício em DeLanda (2019 [2006])

The two extreme forms to which different ways of coping with resource dependencies give rise are rarely actualized, and when they are they are only approximated for a certain amount of time. Nevertheless it is still possible to compare mixtures dominated by one or the other extreme form. In these comparisons it is important to include not only the industrial firms themselves but also a variety of other organizations, such as universities, trade associations and unions, since it is the entire assemblage that displays certain recurrent characteristics. Annalee Saxenian’s study of two American industrial regions involved in the manufacture of computers, Silicon Valley in northern California and Route 128 in Boston, contrasts the properties of these assemblages. Saxenian writes: […] “Silicon Valley has a regional network-based industrial system that promotes collective learning and flexible adjustment among specialist [78] producers of a complex of related technologies. The region’s dense social networks and open labour markets encourage experimentation and entrepreneurship. Companies compete intensely while at the same time learning from one another about changing markets and technologies through informal communication and collaborative practices; and loosely linked team structures encourage horizontal communication among firm divisions and with outside suppliers and customers. The functional boundaries within firms are porous in a network system, as are the boundaries between firms themselves and between firms and local institutions such as trade associations and universities… The Route 128 region, in contrast, is dominated by a small number of relatively integrated corporations. Its industrial system is based on independent firms that internalize a wide range of productive activities. Practices of secrecy and corporate loyalty govern relations between firms and their customers, suppliers, and competitors, reinforcing a regional culture that encourages stability and self-reliance. Corporate hierarchies ensure that authority remains centralized and information flows vertically. The boundaries between and within firms and between firms and local institutions thus remain far more distinct in this independent-firm system.” [Nota de rodapé 26: Annalee Saxenian, Regional Advantage. Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 2–3.] (DeLanda 2019 [2006]:77-8)

While the assemblages of organizations populating Silicon Valley and Route 128 realize points near different extremes of the continuum of forms they also interact with one another since many of these organizations belong to the same industry. This implies that there are, in addition, processes of territorialization and deterritorialization common to both extreme forms, those involved in the stabilization of the identity of an entire industry. The integrating and regulating activities of organizations such as trade and industry associations are a key component of these processes. Industry associations are instrumental in leading their members towards consensus on many normative questions which affect them collectively, particularly the setting of industry-wide technological standards. Trade associations can serve as clearing-houses for information about an industry’s sales, prices [81] and costs, allowing their members to coordinate some of their activities. They also reduce interorganizational variation by sponsoring research (the results of which are shared among members) and promoting product definition and product-quality guidelines. [Nota de rodapé 30: Saxenian, Regional Advantage, pp. 34-6 ] The degree of organizational uniformity is also increased by the creation of behavioural norms by professional and worker associations: norms that may be informal and non enforceable but which nevertheless help to standardize occupational behaviour, expectations and wages. [Nota de rodapé 31: Pfeffer and Salancik, The External Control of Organizations, pp. 178–9.] (DeLanda 2019 [2006]:80-1)

DELANDA, Manuel. 2019 [2006]. A new philosophy of society: assemblage theory and social complexity. London: Bloomsbury Academic.