Work–life advantage: sustainingregional learning and innovationAl JamesOxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017ISBN: 978-1-118-94483-7 (paperback)248 pp. Price: $39.95ISBN: 978-1-118-94484-4 (hardback)248 pp. Price: $94.95This fascinating book offers a well-groundedand clearly stated argument that work–lifebalance is a crucial element in the mix offactors that sustain regional learning andinnovation, making a significant contributionto the literature that has burgeoned on thistopic in recent decades. In the process, itdevelops a profound critique of the literatureon regional development as largely genderblindand overly focused on production networksto the neglect of processes of socialreproduction.The book is based on extensive researcharound Dublin, Ireland and Cambridge,UK—including surveys of 150 employers,over 60 interviews with IT professionals andadditional interviews with informants fromunions, development agencies and other organisationsbefore the crisis of 2008; supplementedby online surveys with IT workers inlate 2008 and 2010. While the data weregathered during a particular era of financialboom and bust, they do not appear dated—atleast partly because the IT sector suffered lessthan many others and more generally becauseissues of gendering and work–life balance in IThave been persistent across a variety of technologyand other business cycles.This research is presented in three coreempirical chapters. The first of these presentsthe core work processes in IT and the work–life conflict they create, maintaining a commendablefocus on how the dynamic intersectionof work practices and gendered meaningsof work create varying challenges at differenttimes. The second empirical chapter focusesmore closely on policies and practices designedto reduce work–life conflict within firms.Nicely weaving together statistical and interviewdata, the chapter assesses the ‘mutualgains’ for firms and workers of various initiatives,finding that practices that workers particularlyvalue (e.g. working from home,reduced hours) also provide benefits to firmsof more diverse workforces, less fatigue andincreased productivity.Perhaps, the most distinctive contributionof the book is in the final empirical chapterthat extends this analysis to inter-firm relationsand regional processes. Part of theanalysis consists of a critique of the dominantunderstandings of ‘zero drag’ regional labourmobility as a vehicle of learning and innovation.However, James put his data to gooduse to go further and document how the searchfor work–life balance is a major motivatingfactor in labour mobility and how that mobilityis most constrained for the women workerswho are in greatest need of its potentialbenefits. Again, firms and regional economiesas well as workers would benefit from worklifefriendly mobility.This is an excellent book. It is clearlywritten and engaging with a commendablemix of empirical rigour and detail, passion forthe issues at hand and a commitment to theimportance of tackling them based on carefulresearch. The focus on ‘mutual gains’ provesto be very useful because James examines thedynamics of actual and potential gains indetail rather than just relying on the phrase asa slogan. The book goes well beyond the pointthat there are quite generalised benefits forfirms to outline the various benefits and thedifferent conditions under which they arise—as well as some potential benefits that are onlyrarely realised.The book also opens up a range of questionsthat it doesn’t quite answer. While thefocus on work–life balance is an advantage, inthat it provides clear links to organisationalchoices and policy relevant issues, a moresustained reconstruction of regional learningtheories at the end of the book would havefurther augmented the findings. The implicationsof the analysis for this literature couldThe Author(s) (2019). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.comJournal of Economic Geography 19 (2019) pp. 539–540 doi:10.1093/jeg/lbz005Advance Access Published on 26 February 2019Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article-abstract/19/2/539/5365501 by University of Sheffield user on 07 June 2019be taken even further. To what extent areinter-personal networks between partner companies,for example, drivers of an ‘always on’culture?More attention could also have been paid tothe occupational and organisational difference inthe workers’ settings, disaggregating the categoriesof ‘worker’ and ‘firm’. While the distinctfocus on intra- and inter-firm processes yieldedrich insights, this raised the question of how firmsinteracted with their broader regional environmentand how this shaped work–life balance.The enduring puzzle of unrealised mutual gainsremains—if there are gains to be made by firms(of which they are somewhat aware), then whydon’t they act to take advantage of them?Critically, perhaps the solutions as well as someof the problems lie at the regional level. If manyworkers are partly motivated by the search forwork work–life balance friendly employers butemployers are still not responding in largenumbers to these ‘market signals’, then collectiveaction at the regional level will be critical. Despitethe rhetorical commitment to limitless growth,ICT firms may be willing to sacrifice a degree ofgrowth to forego disruption of gendered practices.While the book touches on these issues,there is much more to be said (as James notes).James ends the book on a number ofpotential extensions of this work, rightlyrecognising some limits of an exclusivelyregional focus. Some extensions refine thefocus on production and labour networksthrough a greater focus on inter-firm networksbeyond the region—particularly because thesedynamic regions are as global as they are local.How do these inter-regional ties shape firmcapacities within regions and how do work–lifebalance practices diffuse across these transnationalorganisational networks? Another setof extensions beyond the regional focus, alsonoted by James, are in the direction ofcomparative analysis of different regions andanalysis of how they are shaped by theirpolitical and institutional environments. Thebook touches on the comparative differencesbetween Ireland and the UK without fullyanalysing them.This is an informative and insightful book.For those interested in gendering of economiclife, this book will be a welcome addition totheir stock of knowledge, adding the region tothe list of deeply profoundly gendered economicinstitutions. For those whose focus is onregional development but who have paid littleattention to gender, this is a must read.Sea´n O´ RiainDepartment of Sociology, National Universityof Ireland Maynoothsean.oriain@mu.ie540 . Book ReviewsDownloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article-abstract/19/2/539/5365501 by University of Sheffield user on 07 June 2019
