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.

In immer mehr Unternehmen arbeitet eine wachsende Zahl hochqualifizierter Beschäftigter an der Entwicklung und dem Betrieb von Informationstechnik. Waren die Arbeitswelten und Bewusstseinsformen dieser IT-Angestellten in der New Economy in den Fokus der arbeitssoziologischen Diskussion gerückt, ließ das Interesse daran nach dem Platzen der Dot.com-Blase wieder nach. Auch in der aktuellen Debatte zu Digitalisierung und Arbeit tauchen sie entgegen der immer weiter steigenden Bedeutung ihrer Erzeugnisse in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft bisher nur selten auf. Unter diesen Vorzeichen zielt der Aufsatz darauf, die Spur der IT-Angestellten wieder aufzunehmen und die Forschung dazu weiterzuführen. Im Zentrum steht die Entwicklung einer arbeitssoziologischen Perspektive auf die Arbeitspraxis jener Gruppe von Hochqualifizierten, welche die Internetanwendungen in Tech-Unternehmen entwickeln und betreiben, immer weitere Branchen umgestalten und mittlerweile als 'tech worker' öffentlich in Erscheinung treten.

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.