Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

New Directions in Labour Process Theory

2023

Labour Process Theory: taking stock and looking ahead

  • Francesco Bagnardi
  • Vincenzo Maccarrone
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2023-167002
Submitted
gennaio 31, 2024
Published
2024-02-13

Abstract

The article critically reconstructs the trajectory of the Labour Process Theory debate from Braverman onwards. It analyses the second wave classics and the principal underpinnings of the so-called core labour process theory. It describes the debate spurred by the formalisation of the core theory vis-à-vis changing productive structures. It identifies a few threads of fruitful internal debate that are crucial for the analysis of current trends and transformation of work: the missing subject, the connectivity gap, and the role of technology. The ways in which the LPT literature has tackled such issues seems promising of an open and lively debate that reasserts the relevance of the Labour Process Theory as an analytical framework that remains crucial in the current sociology of work.

References

  1. Atzeni M (2010) Workplace Conflict: Mobilization and Solidarity in Argentina. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  2. Ackroyd S., Thompson P. (1999). Organizational Misbehaviour. London: Sage
  3. Andriasevijc (2022). The dormitory regime revisited: time in transnational capitalist production. In: Baglioni E., Campling L., Coe N.M., Smith A., a cura di, Labour Regimes and Global Production. Newcastle: Agenda Publishing
  4. Baglioni E. (2018). Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture. Journal of Economic Geography, 18(1): 111–137. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbx013
  5. Baglioni E., Campling L., Coe N.M., Smith A., (2022). Introduction: labour regimes and global production. In: Baglioni E., Campling L., Coe N.M., Smith A., a cura di, Labour Regimes and Global Production. Newcastle: Agenda Publishing.
  6. Bagnardi, F. (2023). Manufacturing informality. Global production networks and the reproduction of informalized labour regimes in Europe’s peripheries. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 29(3): 271-299. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801231167160
  7. Bélanger J., Edwards, P. (2013). The nature of front-line service work: distinctive features and continuity in the employment relationship. Work, employment and society, 27(3): 433-450. DOI: 10.1177/0950017013481877
  8. Bellofiore, R. and Halevi, J. (2010) "Could Be Raining", International Journal of Political Economy, 39(4): 5-30. DOI: 10.2753/IJP0891-1916390401
  9. Borghi V., Dorigatti, L. and Greco L. (2017). Il lavoro e le catene globali del valore. Roma: Ediesse.
  10. Braverman (1974). Labour and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press
  11. Burawoy M. (1979). Manufacturing consent: Changes in the Labour Process under Monopoly Capitalism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
  12. Burawoy M. (1985). The Politics of Production: Factory Regimes Under Capitalism and Socialism. London: Verso
  13. Cavendish R. (1982). Women on the line. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  14. Ceccagno A., Sacchetto D. (2020). The mobility of workers living at work in Europe. Current Sociology, 68(3): 299-315. DOI: 10.1177/0011392119863831
  15. Chicchi, F., Marrone, M., & Casilli, A. A. (2022). Introduction: Digital labor and crisis of the wage labor system. Sociologia del lavoro, 163: 51-69. DOI: 10.3280/SL2022-163003oa
  16. Cini, L. (2023). Resisting algorithmic control: understanding the rise and variety of platform worker mobilisations. New Technology, Work and Employment, 38, 125–144. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12257
  17. Cockburn C. (1983). Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. London: Pluto Press
  18. Collinson D.L. (2003). Identities and Insecurities: Selves at Work. Organization, 10(3): 527–547. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084030103010
  19. Contu A. (2008). Decaf Resistance: On Misbehavior, Cynism, and Desire in Liberal Workplaces. Management Communication Quarterly, 21(3): 364-379. DOI: 10.1177/0893318907310941
  20. Cushen J., Thompson P. (2016). Financialization and value: why labour and the labour process still matter. Work, employment and society, 30(2):352-365. DOI: 10.1177/0950017015617676
  21. Davies S. (1990). Inserting Gender into Burawoy’s Theory of the Labour Process. Work, employment and Society, 4(3): 391-406. DOI: 10.1177/0950017090004003005
  22. Drahokoupil J. (2015). The outsourcing challenge: organizing workers across fragmented production networks. Brussels: ETUI.
  23. Edwards R. (1979). Contested terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century. New York: Basic Books.
  24. Edwards P.K. (1986). Conflict at Work: a materialist analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.
  25. Edwards PK (1990). Understanding Conflict in the Labour Process: The Logic and Autonomy of Struggle. In: Knights D., Willmott H., a cura di, Labour Process Theory. Basingstoke and London: The Macmillan Press
  26. Edwards P., Hodder A. (2022). Conflict and control in the contemporary workplace: Structured antagonism revised. Industrial Relations Journal, 53(3): 220-240. DOI: 10.1111/irj.12363
  27. Elger T., Smith C., a cura di (2010). Global Japanization? The Transnational Transformation of the Labour Process. London: Routledge.
  28. Friedman A.L. (1977). Industry & Labor: Class Struggle at Work and Monopoly Capitalism, London: The Macmillan Press
  29. Gandini A (2019) Labour process theory and the gig economy. Human Relations 72: 1039–1056. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726718790002
  30. Hammer N., Plugor R. (2019). Disconnecting Labour? The Labour Process in the UK Fast Fashion Value Chain. Work, employment and society, 33(6), 913–928. DOI: 10.1177/0950017019847942
  31. Harrisson (1994). Lean & Mean: Why Large Corporations Will Continue to Dominate the Global Economy. New York: The Guilford Press
  32. Hassard J., Hogan J., Rowlinson M. (2001). From Labour Process Theory to Critical Management Studies. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 29(3): 339-362.
  33. Heiland H. (2021a). Neither timeless, nor placeless: Control of food delivery gig work via place-based working time regimes. Human Relations. doi:10.1177/00187267211025283
  34. Heiland, H. (2021b). Controlling space, controlling labour? Contested space in food delivery gig work. New Technology, Work and Employment, 36: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12183
  35. Hochschild A.R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press
  36. Ikeler P. (2016). Deskilling emotional labour: evidence from department store retail. Work, employment and society, 30(6) 966–983. DOI: 10.1177/0950017015609031
  37. Jaros (2000). Labor Process Theory, International Studies of Management & Organization, 30(4): 25-39. DOI: 10.1080/00208825.2000.11656798
  38. Jaros S.J. (2005). Marxian Critiques of Thompson’s (1990) ‘core’ Labour Process Theory: An evaluation and extension. Ephemera: theory & politics in organization, 5(1): 5-25.
  39. Jonas A. (1996) Local Labour Control Regimes: Uneven Development and the Social Regulation of Production, Regional Studies, 30(4), 323-338, DOI: 10.1080/003434096123313496
  40. Joyce S. and Stuart M. (2021) Digitalised management, control and resistance in platform work: a labour process analysis. In Haidar J. and Keune M., a cura di, Work and Labour Relations in Global Platform Capitalism. Cheltenham/Geneva: Edward Elgar/ILO, 158–184.
  41. Kelly, J. (1998), Rethinking Industrial Relations: Mobilisation, Collectivism and Long Waves. London: LSE/Routledge.
  42. Korczynski, M. (2003). Communities of Coping: Collective Emotional Labour in Service Work. Organization, 10(1): 55–79. DOI: 10.1177/1350508403010001479
  43. Knights D. (1990). Subjectivity, Power and the Labour Process. In: Knights D., Willmott H., a cura di, Labour Process Theory. Basingstoke and London: The Macmillan Press
  44. Lei Y. W. (2021) Delivering Solidarity Platform: Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy. American Sociological Review 86(2): 279–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122420979980
  45. Littler C. (1990). The Labour Process Debate: A Theoretical Review 1974-1988. In: Knights D., Willmott H., a cura di, Labour Process Theory. Basingstoke and London: The Macmillan Press
  46. Murray, F. (1983). The decentralisation of production - the decline of the mass-collective worker? Capital & Class, 7(1), 74–99. DOI:10.1177/030981688301900104
  47. Newsome K., Taylor P., Bair J., Rainnie A., a cura di (2015). Putting Labour in its Place: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains. London: Palgrave.
  48. O’Doherty D., Willmott H. (2001). Debating Labour Process Theory: The Issue of Subjectivity and the Relevance of Poststructuralism, Sociology, 35(2): 457-476. Doi:10.1017/S0038038501000220
  49. O’Doherty D., Willmott H. (2009). The Decline of Labour Process Analysis and the Future Sociology of Work. Sociology, 43(5): 931–951. DOI: 10.1177/0038038509340742
  50. Pattenden J. (2016). Working at the margins of global production networks: local labour control regimes and rural-based labourers in South India, Third World Quarterly, 37(10), 1809-1833. DOI:10.1080/01436597.2016.1191939
  51. Pollert A. (1981). Girls, Wives, Factory Lives. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press
  52. Schaupp, S. (2022). Algorithmic Integration and Precarious (Dis)Obedience: On the Co-Constitution of Migration Regime and Workplace Regime in Digitalised Manufacturing and Logistics. Work, Employment and Society, 36(2), 310-327. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211031458
  53. Smith C. (2006). The double indeterminacy of labour power: labour effort and labour mobility. Work, employment and society, 20(2): 389–402. DOI: 10.1177/0950017006065109
  54. Spencer D. (2001). Braverman and the Contribution of Labour Process Analysis to the Critique Production – Twenty-Five Years on. Work, employment and society, 14(2): 223-243
  55. Taylor, P., Bain, P. (2003). ‘Subterranean Worksick Blues’: Humour as Subversion in two call centres. Organization Studies, 24(9): 1487–1509. DOI: 10.1177/0170840603249008
  56. Tassinari, A. and Maccarrone, V. (2020) Riders on the storm: workplace solidarity among gig economy couriers in Italy and the UK. Work, Employment and Society, 34 (1). pp. 35-54. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019862954
  57. Thompson (1990). Crawling from the Wreckage: The Labour Process and the Politics of Production. In: Knights D., Willmott H., a cura di, Labour Process Theory. Basingstoke and London: The Macmillan Press
  58. Thompson P. (2003). Disconnected capitalism: or why employers can’t keep their side of the bargain. Work, employment and society, 17(2): 359-378. DOI: 10.1177/0950017003017002007
  59. Thompson P. (2013). Financialization and the workplace: extending and applying the disconnected capitalism thesis. Work, employment and society, 27(3): 472-488. DOI: 10.1177/095001701347
  60. Thompson P. (2016). Dissent at work and the resistance debate: departures, directions, and dead ends, Studies in Political Economy, 97(2): 106-123, DOI: 10.1080/07078552.2016.1207331
  61. Thompson P., Ackroyd (1995). All quiet on the workplace front? A critique of recent trends in British industrial sociology. Sociology, 29(4): 615-633. DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42855608
  62. Thompson P., Laaser K. (2021). Beyond technological determinism: revitalising labour process analyses of technology, capital and labour. Work in the Global Economy, 1(1-2): 139-159. DOI: 10.1332/273241721X16276384832119
  63. Thompson P., Smith C. (2009). Waving, Not Drowning: Explaining and Exploring the Resilience of Labor Process Theory. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 21: 253–262. DOI 10.1007/s10672-009-9116-4
  64. Thompson, P. Warhurst C., a cura di (1998). Workplaces of the Future. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan
  65. Tirapani A.N., Willmott H. (2023). Revisiting conflict: Neoliberalism at work in the gig economy. Human Relations, 76(1): 53-86. DOI: 10.1177/00187267211064596
  66. van Doorn, N. and Shapiro, A. (2023). Studying the Gig Economy ‘Beyond the Gig’: A Research Agenda. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4583329 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4583329
  67. Veen A., Barratt T. and Goods C. (2020) Platform-capital’s ‘app-etite’ for control: a labour process analysis of food-delivery work in Australia. Work, Employment and Society 34(3): 388-406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019836911
  68. Vidal M. and Hauptmeier M. (2014). Comparative political economy and labour process theory: toward a synthesis. In: Vidal M. and Hauptmeier M., a cura di, Comparative Political Economy of Work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  69. Vincent S. (2011). The emotional labour process: An essay on the economy of feelings. Human Relations, 64(10): 1369-1392. DOI: 10.1177/0018726711415131
  70. Weil D. (2014). The Fissured Workplace: Why work became so bad for so many and what can be done to improve it. Harvard University Press
  71. West J. (1990). Gender and the Labour Process: A Reassessment. In: Knights D., Willmott H., a cura di, Labour Process Theory. Basingstoke and London: The Macmillan Press
  72. Willmott H. (1990). Subjectivity and the Dialectics of Praxis: Opening up the core of Labour Process Analysis In: Knights D., Willmott H., a cura di, Labour Process Theory. Basingstoke and London: The Macmillan Press
  73. Willmott H. (2010). Creating ‘value’ beyond the point of production: branding, financialization and market capitalization. Organization, 17(5): 517-542. DOI: 10.1177/1350508410374194
  74. Wills J. (2008). Subcontracted Employment and Its Challenge to Labor. Labor Studies Journal, 34(4): 441-460. DOI: 10.1177/0160449X08324740
  75. Wood A., Graham M., Lehdonvirta V. and Hjorth I. (2019) Good Gig, Bad Gig: Autonomy and Algorithmic Control in the Global Gig Economy. Work, Employment and Society 33(1): 56-75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017018785616
  76. Woodcock J. (2020). Reflecting on a call centre workers’ inquiry. Contradictions, tensions, and the role of the researcher. Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 1: 103-118.
  77. Woodcock J. (2021). Workers Inquiry and the Experience of Work: Using Ethnographic Accounts of the Gig Economy. In: Aroles J., de Vaujany FX., Dale K., a cura di, Experiencing the new world of work. Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108865814

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...