Engineers and the Labour Process

1996 ◽  
pp. 189-216
Author(s):  
Chris Smith
Keyword(s):  
Labour Process

scholarly journals Algorithmic Integration and Precarious (Dis)Obedience: On the Co-Constitution of Migration Regime and Workplace Regime in Digitalised Manufacturing and Logistics

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110314
Author(s):  
Simon Schaupp
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Manual Work ◽  
Work Control ◽  
Permanent Residence ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
Self Organisation ◽  
And Migration

This article analyses the interaction of the algorithmic workplace regime and the migration regime in manual work in platform logistics and manufacturing in Germany. Based on ethnographic case studies, the article reconstructs how companies integrate migrant workers by using systems of algorithmic work control. These simplify the labour process and direct workers without relying on a certain language. Algorithmic work control, however, does not realise its intended disciplining effects on its own but is dependent on external factors. A precarious residence status is such an external disciplining factor as it can create an implicit alliance of migrant workers with their employers in the hope for permanent residence. Nonetheless, the interaction of the two regimes also produced new forms of solidarity between the workers, which in some cases led to new forms of self-organisation. Thus, workplace regime and migration regime co-constitute each other.

scholarly journals Moral economy, solidarity and labour process struggle in Irish public transport

2019 ◽  
pp. 0143831X1989123
Author(s):  
Emma Hughes ◽  
Tony Dobbins ◽  
Doris Merkl-Davies
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Process Theory ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Competitive Tendering ◽  
Labour Process

This article empirically applies Knut Laaser’s integrated conceptual framework, combining Sayer’s moral economy (ME) theory with labour process theory (LPT), to examine how two rival Irish unions engaged with an uneven moral economy and consciously sought to build collective worker solidarity during a dispute over competitive tendering and marketization. Using qualitative data from a case study of BusCo in Ireland’s public transport sector, the article enriches sociological understanding of trade union solidarity, and how it is engendered, contested and experienced.

scholarly journals Emotional Labour and the Autonomy of Dependent Self-Employed Workers: The Limitations of Digital Managerial Control in the Home Credit Sector

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702097950
Author(s):  
Esme Terry ◽  
Abigail Marks ◽  
Arek Dakessian ◽  
Dimitris Christopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Digital Control ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
Emotional Labour ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
Heterogeneous Nature ◽  
Worker Autonomy ◽  
The Impact

Changes to the labour process in the home credit sector have exposed the industry’s agency workforce to increased levels of digital managerial control through the introduction of lending applications and algorithmic decision-making techniques. This article highlights the heterogeneous nature of the impact of digitalisation on the labour process and worker autonomy – specifically, in terms of workers’ engagement in unquantified emotional labour. By considering the limitations of digital control in relation to qualitative elements of the labour process, it becomes evident that emotional labour has the scope to be a source of autonomy for dependent self-employed workers when set against a backdrop of heightened digital control. This article therefore contributes to ongoing labour process debates surrounding digitalisation, quantified workers and digital managerial control.

The Decline of Labour Process Analysis and the Future Sociology of Work

Sociology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 931-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian O'Doherty ◽  
Hugh Willmott
Keyword(s):  
Process Analysis ◽  
Sociology Of Work ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
The Future

The Degradation of Work? Skill, Deskilling and the Labour Process

1983 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 282
Author(s):  
G. Salaman ◽  
Stephen Wood
Keyword(s):  
Labour Process ◽  
Work Skill

From production to reproduction: Pension strikes and changing characteristics of workers’ collective action in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 002218562110520
Author(s):  
Elaine Sio-ieng Hui ◽  
Chris King-chi Chan
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Pearl River Delta ◽  
Global South ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
Rural Migrant ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Pearl River ◽  
New Framework

Workers in the global South are becoming increasingly sensitive to their pension rights. In recent years, rural migrant workers in China have staged a series of protests to fight for pension protection. Drawing from two in-depth case studies conducted in the Pearl River Delta, we explain why workers staged pension strikes, what these protests looked like, how the employers and the government responded, and how these protests differed from previous strikes. Building upon insights from the sociology of collective action and labour process theory, we formulate a new framework for examining labour protests. In addition to seeing workers’ collective action as defensive or offensive, this framework helps us interpret these actions in relation to the spheres of production and reproduction. It classifies pension strikes in China as defensive actions located in the sphere of reproduction, which are distinct from previous strikes that were either defensive or offensive actions situated in the sphere of production. This synthesised framework assists us in theorising that workers’ protest activities, especially in the global South, are not restricted to the traditional production sphere but can also be found in the reproduction sphere.

Who is pulling the strings in the platform economy? Accounting for the dark and unexpected sides of algorithmic control

Organization ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135050842097452
Author(s):  
Edouard Pignot
Keyword(s):  
Digital Control ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
Structuralist Theory ◽  
Ideological Fantasy ◽  
Platform Economy ◽  
The Way

This paper aims to address the dark side perspective on digital control and surveillance by emphasizing the affective grip of ideological control, namely the process that silently ensures the subjugation of digital labour, and which keeps the ‘unexpectedness’ of algorithmic practices at bay: that is, the propensity of users to contest digital prescriptions. In particular, the theoretical contribution of this paper is to combine Labour Process with psychoanalytically-informed, post-structuralist theory, in order to connect to, and further our understanding of, how and why digital workers assent to, or oppose, the interpellations of algorithmic ideology at work. To illustrate the operation of affective control in the Platform Economy, the emblematic example of ride-hailing platforms, such as Uber, and their algorithmic management, is revisited. Thus, the empirical section describes the way drivers are glued to the algorithm (e.g. for one more fare, or for the next surge pricing) in a way that prevents them, although not always, from considering genuine resistance to management. Finally, the paper discusses the central place of ideological fantasy and cynical enjoyment in the Platform Economy, as well as the ethical implications of the study.

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