Labour process theory: in and beyond the core: continuities, challenges, and choices

Paul Thompson, Chris Smith

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Since the publication of Braverman’s seminal Labor and Monopoly Capital (1974), labour process theory (LPT) has become a successful theory-building project driven by empirical expansion and conceptual innovation, operating as the equivalent of a normal science, with a distinctive scope and specific empirical focus on workplace regimes in the context of capitalist political economy. It’s toolkit or conceptual architecture combines underpinning and ordering principles with contingent and flexible operational categories concerning labour power and control. Though LPT has built stronger conceptual connections between workplace and accumulation regimes, changes in the global order have brought new theoretical and empirical challenges that are requiring it to adjust some of its core concepts and boundaries to consider development such as new sources of labour power, migration, and mobility.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-25
Number of pages25
JournalWork in the Global Economy
Volume4
Issue number2
Early online date7 Oct 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 7 Oct 2024

Keywords

  • labour process theory • workplace regimes • normal science • core theory • labour indeterminacy

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