ABSTRACT
Regions such as South Yorkshire are employment-based social formations; that is, societies in which institutions of wage and salary labor are primary mediators of most social processes, including those which provide necessities. These institutions constitute the most visible terrain of social process in such social formations because of their importance to the patterns of social reproduction. In employment societies, the bulk of social surplus is created through the production and sale of commodities for profit. "Political economy" refers to the institutions for profit accumulation and to the system under which such institutions function. 1
