This book is an attempt to explain the temporal movement of postwar Italian strikes: why and when strikes go up or down and what the strategies of the main actors involved are. In many ways, the book is unique in the social sciences. First, it takes an inductive approach. Rather than start with theories and then use available empirical evidence to test the explanatory power of the theories, the book starts with date. Second, the book is based on a variety of empirical evidence: statistical, historical, ethnographic and survey material. Third, the book considers the strategies of all the actors involved: workers, employers, the state and the radical left. Finally, the book does not simply explain the movement of strikes; more broadly, it attempts to show how strikes, in their turn, deeply affect the economic, institutional and political spheres of society.
This is a book about strikes, focusing on the strategic interaction of workers, employers, and the state. It is, importantly, based on different forms of empirical evidence: statistical, historical, ethnographic, and survey. Focusing on a variety of actors, theories, and forms of empirical evidence, the book is almost unique in the social sciences.
