SO4013 Work

1
SO4013Work Industry

• Week 3
• Labour Process Theory

2
Harry Braverman 1920-1976

• Labor Monopoly Capital the degradation of work
  in the 20th century (1974)
• Active Marxist (Trotskyite)
• Problem of the persistence of a non-revolutionary
  working class in advanced capitalist societies

3
Marx Labour Theory of Value

• (economic) Value is created by labour alone
  dead labour
• Labour, in capitalists societies, is a commodity
  bought by labour to produce profit
• 12 profit is the value produced by labour that
  is retained by capital. That is, profit
  withheld value
• However, capital must ensure the reproduction of
  labour (subsistence) before it takes profit. That
  is, profit surplus value
• Therefore, the central problem for capital is how
  to get labour to engage in effort for which it is
  not rewarded

4
Labour Process

• Marx distinguished between the labourers work
  (labour) and his capacity to work (labour power).
  In capitalism, the employer buys labour power and
  not labour
• Source Abercrombie et al Penguin
  Dictionary of Sociology
• The labour process is the means through which
  capitalists convert labour power (potential) into
  labour performed (actual effort) in order to
  maximise surplus value.
• Source Me

5
Two Phases of Capitalism

• Competitive Capitalism The early period of
  capitalism (also typical of conditions in new
  product markets) in which numerous producers
  compete against each other, typically through
  price reduction.
• Monopoly Capitalism The later period of
  capitalism (also typical of mature product
  markets) in which markets are dominated by one or
  a few major producers. Competition is replaced by
  strategies to maintain demand for the product.
• Cartels (or trusts) may form a collusive
  association of independent enterprises formed to
  monopolise production and distribution of a
  product or service

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The Development of Monopoly Capitalism

• Vertical Integration As weaker producers fail
  their market share is taken up by survivors. As
  these become larger so they extend their
  activities by incorporating all phases of the
  production process into the organisation, from
  the extraction of raw materials to the sale of
  the eventual products.

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• Extraction of surplus value under Competitive
  Capitalism
• Adam Smith (1776) Division of Labour The process
  through whereby productive tasks become separated
  and more specialised
• Charles Babbage (1832) Labour Cheapening
  Distributing work so that it is performed by the
  cheapest labour available

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• Extraction of surplus value under Monopoly
  Capitalism
• Frederick Taylor (1898) Scientific Management
  Rational strategies including e.g. time motion
  study, through which control is exercised over
  labour by separating the planning and
  organisation of work (mental labour) from the
  performance (physical execution) of work.
• Henry Ford (1913) Mass Production The large-scale
  production of goods and services through
  standardised design and standardised production
  methods.

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• The Labour Market under Competitive Capitalism
• Task specialisation and labour cheapening
  produces a separation between a labour
  aristocracy of high skilled, high priced workers
  and a larger group of semi- and unskilled workers
• The role of trade unions in protecting privileged
  and powerful labour
• Bravermans tendency to underplay this development

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• The Labour Market under Monopoly Capitalism
• A new group of employees is established,
  managers, (indirect producers) who represent the
  interests of capital by controlling and
  instructing labour (direct producers)
• Direct producers become largely performers of
  routine activities degraded/deskilled
• Direct producers lose their power to control the
  labour process because they are stripped of
  knowledge of how production is organised. Re
  Foucault on the relationship between knowledge
  and power

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Mass Production and Labour

• Mass production typically creates labour that is
• a) Low skilled
• b) Disposable
• c) Closely supervised
• d) Fragmented
• Consequently labour becomes homogenised. That
  is, uniform in its lack of power over the labour
  process

12
Extension of the degradation of labour
(de-skilling)

• According to Braverman although the degradation
  of labour began in manufacturing industry its
  techniques have been extended to service,
  white-collar and professional work re e.g. the
  computerisation of skilled, knowledge-based work
  in these sectors e.g. CAD (Computer Aided Design)

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Criticisms of Labour Process Theory

• Empirical
• The theory is out of date
• It is based on poor, selective history, leading
  to a romantic view of past skilled labour
• Skilled work has not declined
• The working class has not been homogenised

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Criticisms of Labour Process Theory

• Theoretical
• Labour Process Theory confuses class
  (employees/employers) and status
  (workers/managers)
• Labour Process Theory fails to distinguish
  between the degradation (de-skilling) of work
  and of workers