Suchergebnisse

Labour process analysis (LPA) is a well-established approach to the sociological study of work which attends to the instabilities of capitalism and, more specifically, to the volatile and contested nature of social relations at work. However, an unreflexive 'neo-orthodoxy' has emerged in recent years that is constrained by a series of dualistic and (critical) realist assumptions which inhibit the development of this distinctive sociology of work. This article contends that the potential of LPA can best be fulfilled through a renewal of critical reflection upon the foundational assumptions of LPA that can open up an acknowledgement and appreciation of the embroilment of subjectivity in the reproduction and transformation of production relations. This development is consistent with the central analytical importance ascribed to the 'indeterminacy of labour' in LPA but invites the adoption of a negative ontology in order to advance a less narrow conception of its meaning and significance. Studies of the new media and creative industries are engaged to indicate how a revitalized labour process analysis might embrace this ontology as a way of exploring and explaining the radical contingency of organization in contemporary social relations.

Die folgenden Anmerkungen zur arbeitssoziologischen Bewusstseinsforschung beanspruchen nicht, eine Bilanz zu ziehen oder systematisch Forschungsbestände zu sichten. Es geht vielmehr darum, aus der Perspektive einer Reihe von SOFI-Forschungen in Göttingen thematische Impulse zu geben und eine konzeptionelle wie methodische (Er)Weiterung der Arbeitssoziologie zu bekräftigen.

This article opens by suggesting that the decline in the sociology of work in the UK has been overstated; research continues, but in locations such as business schools. The continued vitality of the field corresponds with material changes in an increasingly globalized capitalism, with more workers in the world, higher employment participation rates of women, transnational shifts in manufacturing, global expansion of services and temporal and spatial stretching of work with advanced information communication technologies. The article demonstrates that Labour Process Theory (LPT) has been a crucial resource in the sociology of work, especially in the UK; core propositions of LPT provide it with resources for resilience (to counter claims of rival perspectives) and innovation (to expand the scope and explanator y power of the sociology of work). The ar ticle argues that the concept of the labour power has been critical to underpinning the sustained influence of labour process analysis.

Customers play a key part in the working experience of a significant proportion of the working class in contemporary service work. This e-special issue features articles selected from previous issues of Work, Employment and Society which have made significant contributions to our understanding of the role of the customer within the social relations of interactive service work. This introduction argues that the literature in this area is implicitly comprised of three approaches: an approach which sees worker–customer relations merely as an additional dimension; an approach which sees the customer's role as having knock-on implications for a limited number of dimensions of work organization; and an approach which sees implications of the customer across the whole of work organization. The contributions of the e-special articles are brought out by positioning them within these approaches. This introduction ends with a consideration of strengths and weaknesses in the three approaches.