Critical Sociology 1–14 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0896920515623076 crs.sagepub.com Global Production in a Romanian Village: Middle-Income Economy, Industrial Dislocation and the Reserve Army of Labor Milosz Miszczynski Oxford Brookes University, UK Abstract This article contributes to the discussion about the process of relocation of industrial production. The study focuses on a community in Eastern Europe which witnessed a cycle of events: from localization of a high-scale global factory in 2007 to its unexpected displacement in 2012. In this study is analyzed the process of the community’s inclusion in the production system, and it is argued that the challenge of production mobility is distinctively different in middle-income economies. Employing a cultural approach to the study of global production, the process of social reconstruction caused by the investment is chronologically outlined and its outcomes for the local labor market and host community are described. Keywords labor, corporate restructuring, post-industrial, workers, neo-Marxism, Romania Introduction Increasing the geographic mobility of workplaces has become the biggest challenge for the work- force in the manufacturing sector since the 1970s. Industrialized economies have witnessed disap- pearing factories. Continuing layoffs, a result of moving production to cheaper locations, have changed cities and regions traditionally regarded as industrial. Even the most prestigious manufac- turers, often considered symbols of nations and their values, such as British Jaguar or Burberry, have ended up offshoring their production cycles. In the new locations, existing regimes of produc- tion influenced new work organization and efficiency (Brass, 2011). New host economies gained growth and competitiveness by taking up the production. Investments stimulated economic activity and created new jobs. However, the long presence of investment was not guaranteed in new loca- tions. Offshoring processes may migrate further, leaving the previous locations and using the Corresponding author: Milosz Miszczynski, Oxford Brookes University Business School, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK. Email: mmiszczynski@brookes.ac.uk Article