This chapter of the book "Formations et emplois qualifiés. Les transformations dans le Bâtiment en France et au Royaume-Uni" analyses management strategies and organisational changes during a period of continuous crisis. The concept of cascading subcontracting (sous-traitance en cascade) introduced here encapsulates a new phenomenon observed simultaneously in the ever changing organisation of work between and within the firms. This is an important result of a research based on a 34 firm monographic and comparative analysis, with different company sizes from large to small ones. Cascading subcontracting results from a process of externalisation of certain sections of the labour force within leading firms that have found new ways to expand during recessive periods: their restructuring does not necessarily correspond to a reduction of their activity but to a structural reorganisation aiming to maintain or expand their market shares whilst reducing costs, risks and responsibilities. The new combinatorial dynamics associates economic growth and rise of turnovers with externalisation and reduction of employment enhancing a cascading effect on lower ranks of subcontractors that will in turn develop similar principles of restructuring. This concept is going to become a cornerstone of the theory of controlled autonomy, an analytical key of the concentration and fragmentation process.
