Inter-capital relations and the network organisation: Redefining the work and employment nexus

The blurring of organisational boundaries associated with 'networks' of organisations suggests the need to reconsider how work and employment are shaped by shifting inter-capital relations. Traditional theories of the internalised employment relationship understate its inter-relationship with both the form of inter-capitalist competition and the type of inter-capitalist production relations. Also, existing theories of inter-organisational contracting do not adequately address how these are shaped by employment relations, both within and between organisations. An alternative approach provides a new perspective for considering forms of countervailing power to protect workers' interests in a capitalist system continuously shifting from integrated to non-integrated forms. © The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.