Overview

On February 5th 2002, 800 workers in an English vacuum cleaner factory were told their jobs were relocating to Malaysia. The company claimed this was inevitable. But was it really? Using extensive archival research, ethnographic storytelling and local myths to powerful effect, this bold new book uses the closure of one factory as a case study to explore the contradictions of globalisation and the sociological problem of order. Deftly examining how global network capitalism operates within and through particular places at particular moments, the book raises fundamental questions about the meaning of society.

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9781529210293

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Reviews

What's natural and what's political? What's necessary and what's contingent? What belongs to the global market and what specifically to a market-town in Wiltshire? Matthew David has written an imaginative, witty, and very intelligent account of what was at stake in the modern vacuum business. Steven Shapin, Harvard University In this imaginatively structured and engagingly written book Matthew David shows us, not just that the international patent system is a significant cog in the global capitalist machine, but also what that means for real people, their lives and their livelihoods. This is an important book for anyone wanting to understand what can happen - politically, economically and socially - in the wake of an intellectual property monopoly. Fiona Macmillan, Birkbeck, University of London When, in 1992, US Presidential candidate Ross Perot reimagined the flight of jobs from the US to Mexico as a 'giant sucking sound,' little did he know of the provenance of his metaphor. Professor Matthew David adds gravitas to Perot's sound bite and its kin. Free trade reminds us of the challenges posed by the vacuum for scientific and political authority. This engrossing book connects the dots between the Boyle-Hobbes debate of the 1600's to Dyson's own Brexit first in 2002/2003 to Malaysia with its factories and then in 2019 to Singapore with its offices. Professor David unlocks a legal sociological inquiry into economic and social displacement. His must-read book fills the void created by political rhetoric with possibilities for an informed rebuilding of our economies and aspirations. Shubha Ghosh, Syracuse University Essential reading. This book is a treasure trove of insight into what cultural and economic sociology can accomplish. Chris Rojek, City University, London This is a joyous and disruptive work of social theory, seriously amusing and deeply serious by turns. It brings Thomas Hobbes into collision with the Dyson airblade, and connects a medieval monk's fantasy of flight with the neo-liberal fiction of a frictionless market. All are brought to earth in Malmesbury by the necessarily local work of ordering the entailed states of nature and society (and of sociological explanation itself). John Holmwood, University of Nottingham Matthew David delivers a whimsical take on globalisation and capitalism that weaves curious historical tales into the seemingly unrelated overseas relocation of the Dyson vacuum cleaner factory in 2002. Living in a Vacuum? explores how the 'facts' of intellectual property and the global market are as open to challenge as the local myths that delight us. Bethany Klein, University of Leeds From the Boyle-Hobbes dispute over the possibility of a vacuum to Dyson's offshoring of its vacuum cleaner production, Matthew David provides a rich, engaging and carefully interwoven narrative documenting the tensions and contradictions in global network capitalism. Challenging the prevailing assumptions about globalization, this book will make you rethink the debate on regulation and deregulation. Peter K. Yu, Texas A&M University

Author Information

Matthew David is Associate Professor in Sociology at Durham University. The author of numerous books and journal articles, his latest work builds on prior expertise relating to intellectual property and global network capitalism.

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