Rationalisation, modernisation de l’organisation du travail et transformation de la vie des mineurs de charbon dans le Japon du xxe siècle

Du début des années 1920 et aux années 1960, les mines de charbon japonaises évoluèrent d’un modèle industriel fondé sur un travail intensif et peu coûteux, à un nouveau modèle porteur d’une transformation de type fordiste favorisant le développement d’une main d’œuvre mieux formée et plus directement contrôlée. Ce processus de mécanisation, de rationalisation du travail et de normalisation des modes de vie des communautés minières fut néanmoins loin d’être univoque. Dès les années 1930, la « rationalisation » fut aussi décriée par les syndicats comme une menace, responsable de l’intensification du travail à l’origine d’un nombre grandissant d’accidents du travail et de catastrophes minières. Pour analyser les différentes étapes de ce processus de mutation et les conséquences qu’il engendra, cet article aborde aussi bien l’organisation de la production que les systèmes de salaire, l’hygiène, les formes de dialogue entre employeurs et mineurs et les conditions matérielles de vie, tel que le logement.From the early 1920s to the 1960s, Japanese coal mines evolved from an industrial model based on intensive, low-cost labor to a new model with a Fordist transformation that encouraged the development of a better trained and more directly controlled workforce. However, this process of mechanization, rationalization of labor and standardization of mining communities’ lifestyles was far from univocal. As early as the 1930s, “rationalization” was also criticized by unions as a threat, responsible for the intensification of work which led to a growing number of accidents in the workplace and mining disasters. In order to analyze the different stages of this process of change and the consequences it produced, this article addresses both the organization of production and wage systems, hygiene, forms of dialogue between employers and miners and material living conditions, such as housing

Introduction

Japan is often presented as a country devoid of natural resources, yet this island nation once had significant deposits of copper, silver and gold. After extraction methods were modernised following the Meiji Restoration, these metals played an important role in the industrialisation of Japan. Ashio 足尾 copper mine, for example, established in the sixteenth century, was one of the world’s largest copper-extracting facilities by the late 1800s. Although coal-mining in the proto-industrial perio..

The Rationalisation and Modernisation of Labour Organisation and the Transformation of Coal Miners’ Lives in Twentieth-century Japan

From the early 1920s to the 1960s Japanese coal mines evolved from an industrial model based on intensive, low-cost labour to a new model involving a Fordist transformation that encouraged the development of a better trained and more directly controlled workforce. However, this process of mechanising production, rationalising labour and standardising mining communities’ lifestyles had a variety of impacts, not all of them positive. As early as the 1930s, “rationalisation” was labelled a threat by the unions, presented as the main cause of labour intensification and the growing number of workplace accidents and mining disasters hitting the industry at the time. In order to analyse the different stages and consequences of this process of change, this paper focuses on a variety of issues, including the organisation of production, wage systems, occupational hygiene, employer-miner dialogue and material living conditions such as housing.Du début des années 1920 et aux années 1960, les mines de charbon japonaises évoluèrent d’un modèle industriel fondé sur un travail intensif et peu coûteux, à un nouveau modèle porteur d’une transformation de type fordiste favorisant le développement d’une main d’œuvre mieux formée et plus directement contrôlée. Ce processus de mécanisation, de rationalisation du travail et de normalisation des modes de vie des communautés minières fut néanmoins loin d’être univoque. Dès les années 1930, la « rationalisation » fut aussi décriée par les syndicats comme une menace, responsable de l’intensification du travail à l’origine d’un nombre grandissant d’accidents du travail et de catastrophes minières. Pour analyser les différentes étapes de ce processus de mutation et les conséquences qu’il engendra, cet article aborde aussi bien l’organisation de la production que les systèmes de salaire, l’hygiène, les formes de dialogue entre employeurs et mineurs et les conditions matérielles de vie, tel que le logement

Éditorial

À l’encontre de certains clichés entretenant l’idée d’un archipel sans ressources naturelles, le Japon a été le lieu d’importants gisements de cuivre, d’argent ou d’or. L’extraction de ces métaux a été modernisée après la Restauration de Meiji, jouant un grand rôle dans l’industrialisation du Japon. Ainsi, la mine d’Ashio 足尾, exploitée depuis le xvie siècle, devint l’une des plus importantes mines de cuivre au monde à la fin du xixe siècle. Si l’extraction du charbon ne revêtait pas une impor..

Polymer multilayer films obtained by electrochemically catalyzed click chemistry.

We report the covalent layer-by-layer construction of polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films by using an efficient electrochemically triggered Sharpless click reaction. The click reaction is catalyzed by Cu(I) which is generated in situ from Cu(II) (originating from the dissolution of CuSO(4)) at the electrode constituting the substrate of the film. The film buildup can be controlled by the application of a mild potential inducing the reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) in the absence of any reducing agent or any ligand. The experiments were carried out in an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance cell which allows both to apply a controlled potential on a gold electrode and to follow the mass deposited on the electrode through the quartz crystal microbalance. Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) modified with either alkyne (PAA(Alk)) or azide (PAA(Az)) functions grafted onto the PAA backbone through ethylene glycol arms were used to build the PEM films. Construction takes place on gold electrodes whose potentials are more negative than a critical value, which lies between -70 and -150 mV vs Ag/AgCl (KCl sat.) reference electrode. The film thickness increment per bilayer appears independent of the applied voltage as long as it is more negative than the critical potential, but it depends upon Cu(II) and polyelectrolyte concentrations in solution and upon the reduction time of Cu(II) during each deposition step. An increase of any of these latter parameters leads to an increase of the mass deposited per layer. For given buildup conditions, the construction levels off after a given number of deposition steps which increases with the Cu(II) concentration and/or the Cu(II) reduction time. A model based on the diffusion of Cu(II) and Cu(I) ions through the film and the dynamics of the polyelectrolyte anchoring on the film, during the reduction period of Cu(II), is proposed to explain the major buildup features.journal articleresearch support, non-u.s. gov't2010 Feb 16importe