本文從勞工史的角度探討全球第一家電子加工出口工廠──台北縣新店市的美商台灣通用器材公司──從一九六0到一九九0年代的招工模式的變化，及其在台灣都市工人階級社會形成中扮演的角色。該廠在台灣的設立可說是當代全球化中最醒目的特色──「全球裝配線」的肇端。為了適應急遽擴大的利潤與業務需求，通用與同代的加工出口廠在一九七0至一九八0年代末之間積極地招募開發台灣各地潛在的勞動力來源，並配合宿舍、學校等機構協助年輕工人適應都市環境。相應地，大工業的主流聘募手段由「特殊主義」轉變為「普遍主義」。但是，一九八0年代末之後，隨著「大招工年代」的消失與都市社會的形成，「特殊主義」的招工又取得優勢。本文利用社會史史料勾勒招工模式的歷史變遷，並將之做為台灣社會變遷的一個個案研究。對於主流慣常以經濟與「技能」等概念解釋勞動力市場變遷，作者主張以更豐富的社會觀點來代替。

The first “marquila” or export-processing plant in the world, the General Instrument, Taiwan, (GIT) plant located in Hsintien, Taiwan can be said to be the forerunner of the “global assembly line,” which is the main feature of today’s capitalist globalization. This article traces the changes of workforce recruitment atterns and practices of GIT from the 1960s to the 1990s, and discusses how these processes helped to shape the faces of today’s urban working class in Taiwan. To meet the accelerating profit and demands, GIT and other marquilas instituted aggressive recruitment tactics pursuing human resources deposits from the far corners of the island. The corporations also established institutions for habilitating young rural workers to the urban lives, with the help of schools, churches, government and other institutions. During the decades of frenzy urban-rural migration in the 1970s and 1980s, the main channels of the big corporations’ recruitment changed from particularist to more universalist in nature. However, after the end of the era, particularist hiring methods gained advantage again. Using the historical material, the author argues against the simple economistic views about the labor market and the objectivist view of “skill,” and calls for a more sophisticated analyses that can link developments in the labor market to transformation in other social dimensions.