Rethinking the Labor Process

Edited by Mark Wardell, Thomas L. Steiger, and Peter Meiksins

Subjects: Industrial / Labor Relations
Series: SUNY series, The New Inequalities
Paperback : 9780791442821, 279 pages, September 1999
Hardcover : 9780791442814, 279 pages, September 1999

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Table of contents

Preface

1. Labor Processes: Moving Beyond Braverman and the Deskilling Debate
Mark Wardell

2. To Control and Inspire: U. S. Management in the Age of Computer Information Systems and Global Production
Philip Kraft

3. Braverman, Taylorism, and Technocracy
Beverly H. Burris

4. Deskilled and Devalued: Changes in the Labor Process in Temporary Clerical Work
Jackie Krasas Rogers

5. Spread over Time and Place: Redivided Labor and the Role of Technical Infrastructure
Joan Greenbaum

6. Dialectics of the Labor Process, Consumer Culture, and Class Struggle: The Contradictory Development of the American Automobile Industry
David Gartman

7. Degradations of Labor, Cultures of Cooperation: Braverman's 'Labor,' Lordstown, and the Social Factory
Larry W. Isaac and Larry D. Christiansen

8. Gender, Occupational Sex Segregation, and the Labor Process
James A. Geschwender with Assistance of Laura E. Geschwender

9. Forms of the Labor Process and Labor's Share of Value
Thomas L. Steiger

10. Reevaluating the Labor Process Debate
Chris Smith and Paul Thompson

References

About the Authors

Index

This diverse collection rethinks and reinvigorates the field of labor process.

Description

While paying tribute to Harry Braverman for launching the research field known as the labor process, this book neither eulogizes nor castigates his work. Rather, it takes stock of the field, showing its blend of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and revealing its diverse contributions to the sociology of work, organizations, and stratification. Both U. S. and British authors use this venue as an opportunity to rethink and reinvigorate the labor process field, yet they maintain an intellectual commitment to the spirit with which Braverman wrote his work. They focus on aspects central to the labor process perspective, including management strategies, technology, innovations in the workplace, the value of labor, and control and resistance.

Contributors include Beverly H. Burris, Larry Christiansen, David Gartman, James A. Geschwender, Laura E. Geschwender, Joan Greenbaum, Larry Isaac, Philip Kraft, Jacki Krasas Rogers, Chris Smith, Thomas L. Steiger, Paul Thompson, and Mark Wardell.

Mark Wardell is Associate Professor of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations and Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University; Thomas L. Steiger is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women Studies at Indiana State University; and Peter Meiksins is Associate Professor of Sociology at Cleveland State University.

Reviews

"More than any other single source, this book brings together a diverse set of authors whose work has been influenced by Harry Braverman, who have reflected on that influence, and who extend this into work reported in this new book. There is a very nice balance in the book between qualitative and more quantitative studies. This demonstrates some of the power of analysis influenced by Braverman's work. " — William W. Falk, coeditor of High Tech, Low Tech, No Tech: Recent Industrial and Occupational Change in the South