The transition from socialism in Eastern Europe is not an isolated event but part of a larger shift in world capitalism the transition from Fordism to flexible or neoliberal capitalism Using a blend of ethnography and economic geography Elizabeth C Dunn shows how management technologies like niche marketing accounting audit and standardization make up flexible capitalism s unique form of labor discipline This new form of management constitutes some workers as self auditing self regulating actors who are disembedded from a social context while defining others as too entwined in social relations and unable to self manage Privatizing Poland examines the effects privatization has on workers self concepts how changes in personhood relate to economic and political transitions and how globalization and foreign capital investment affect Eastern Europe s integration into the world economy Dunn investigates these topics through a study of workers and changing management techniques at the Alima Gerber factory in Rzeszow Poland formerly a state owned enterprise which was privatized by the Gerber Products Company of Fremont Michigan Alima Gerber instituted rigid quality control job evaluation and training methods and developed sophisticated distribution techniques The core principle underlying these goals and strategies the author finds is the belief that in order to produce goods for a capitalist market workers for a capitalist enterprise must also be produced Working side by side with Alima Gerber employees Dunn saw firsthand how the new techniques attempted to change not only the organization of production but also the workers identities Her seamless engaging narrative shows how the employees resisted redefined and negotiated work processes for themselves