Deskilling and degradation of labour in contemporary capitalism: the continuing relevance of Braverman

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 9, Issue 1

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Deskilling and degradation of labour in contemporary capitalism: the continuing relevance of Braverman

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Author(s): Fabiane Santana Previtali , Cílson César Fagiani

Publication date (Print): Spring 2015

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

This article examines the continuing relevance of Harry Braverman's thesis on the degradation of work to the new circumstances of the twenty-first century. It argues that, despite claims that the standardisation and deskilling of work that characterised the Taylorist/Fordist period have given way to new forms of knowledge-based production and an integration of mental and manual labour, the concept of degradation is still relevant. New conditions of production demand a new and more versatile kind of worker who is able to meet the requirements of production processes that require intensive use of information technologies, are globally dispersed and related to the consumption of products with a high technological density. Nevertheless, the new conditions of capital accumulation are still based on the same laws of value and require intensive control and surveillance of the worker. This control, however, takes new forms under regimes of flexible accumulation, and is founded in managerial strategies built on workers' involvement and participation. Ensuring workers' compliance with such strategies requires the creation of the new kinds of subjectivity. The article goes on to discuss the education reforms required to produce such subjectivities, and the transformation of pedagogical processes and teaching labour that are necessary to achieve these reforms. It concludes by reflecting on the implications of the resulting individualisation of workers' subjectivities for class solidarity.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Spring 2015

Volume: 9

Issue: 1

Pages: 76-91

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.9.1.0076

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.9.1.0076

SO-VID: bfe5bb00-9c58-4ec6-ab39-4efe12f2250b

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

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Antunes, R. & Alves, G. (2004) ‘As Mutações no Mundo Do Trabalho na Era da Mundialização do Capital’, Educação & Sociedade. Campinas , 25 (87), May/Aug:335–351.
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Aglietta, M. (1979) A Theory of Capitalist Regulation . London: Verso.

[2] Antunes, R. (2013) The Meanings of Work: Essay on the Affirmation and Negation of Work , Brill, Leiden/ Boston Historical Materialism Book Series, V. 43.

[3] Antunes, R. & Alves, G. (2004) ‘As Mutações no Mundo Do Trabalho na Era da Mundialização do Capital’, Educação & Sociedade. Campinas , 25 (87), May/Aug:335–351.

[4] Bihr, A. (1998) Da Grande Noite à Alternativa: o movimento operário europeu em crise , São Paulo: Boitempo.

[5] Braverman, H. (1998) Trabalho e Capital Monopolista . Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.

[6] Burawoy, M. (1978) ‘Toward a Marxist theory of the labour process: Braverman and beyond’. Politics and Society . 8 (3–4): 247–312.

[7] Carter, et al. (2014) ‘“They can't be the buffer any longer”: front-line managers and class relations under white collar lean production’, Capital & Class , 38 (2):323–343. Accessed on 25 March, 2014 from: http://cnc.sagepub.com/content/38/2/323.

[8] Edwards, R. (1979) Contested Terrain: the transformation of the workplace in the twentieth century . London: Heinemann.

[9] Fagiani, C. C. & F. S. Previtali, F Previtali (2014) ‘A nova configuração da classe trabalhadora no século XXI: qualificação e precarização’, Revista Ciências do Trabalho , 3: 53–67.

[10] Frigotto, G. (2006) ‘Fundamentos científicos e técnicos da relação trabalho e educação no Brasil de hoje’. J. C. F Lima & L. M. W. Neves (eds). Fundamentos da educação escolar do Brasil contemporâneo . Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz: 233–263.

[11] Garcia, M. M. A & S. B. Anadon, (2009) ‘Reforma educacional, intensificação e auto-intensificação do trabalho docente’, Educação & Sociedade , 30 (106):63–85, Jan/Apr. 63. Accessed December 13, 2011 from: http://www.cedes.unicamp.br

[12] Gounet, T. (1997) ‘La Stratégie Japonaise de Iorissen’. Études Marxistes , 37, Mai-Jun. Accessed on 10 January, 2014 from: http://www.marx.be/fr/content/%C3%A9tudesmarxistes?action=get_doc&id=33&doc_id=193.

[13] Harvey, D. (1992) Condição Pós-Moderna . São Paulo: Edições Loyola.

[14] Harvey, D. (2011) O Enigma do Capital: as crises do capitalismo . São Paulo: Boitempo.

[15] Hoffman, K. & R. Kaplinsky (1988) Driving Force: the global restructuring of technology, labor and investment in the automobile and components industries . Boulder: Westview Press.

[16] Kuenzer, A. Z. (2003) ‘Educação profissional: categorias para uma nova pedagogia do trabalho’, Boletim Técnico do Senac . Accessed on 10 February, 2011 from: http://www.senac.br/BTS/252/boltec252b.htm.

[17] Maciel, R. M. & F. S. Previtali, (2011) ‘Impacto das Políticas Públicas do Trabalhador da Educação na Rede Estadual de Ensino de Patos de Minas / MG em 2011’, Revista Labor , 1 (6): 326–343.

[18] Marx, K. (2010) Manuscritos econômicos e filosóficos de 1844 , Tradução Jesus Ranieri, São Paulo: Boitempo.

[19] Marx, K. (2013) O Capital . Livro 1. São Paulo: Boitempo.

[20] Meiksins, P. (1994) ‘Labor and Monopoly Capital for the 1990s: a review and critique of the labor process debate’, Monthly Review , 46 (6):45–59.

[21] Milkman, R. (1997) Farewell to the Factory: auto workers in the late twentieth century . Los Angeles: University of California Press.

[22] Milkman, R. & S. Luce (2013) The State of the Unions 2013: a profile of organized labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States . New York: The Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies and the Center for Urban Research, CUNY Graduate Center. Accessed on 12 Deccember, 2013 from: https://sps.cuny.edu/filestore/8/6/3_bc4b97196c5659e/863_916e1989d05f0e6.pdf.

[23] Nogueira, C. (2006) O Trabalho Duplicado: a divisão sexual do trabalho e na reprodução: um estudo das trabalhadoras do telemarketing . São Paulo: Expressão Popular.

[24] Noronha, O. M. (2008) ‘Globalização, Mundialização e, C. Lucena (ed). Capitalismo, Estado, Educação . Campinas:2–35.

[25] Oliveira, D. A. (2004) ‘A Reestruturação do Trabalho Docente: precarização e flexibilização’. Educação & Sociedade , 25 (89): 1127–1144, Set./Dez. Accessed, 17 December, 2013 from:http://www.cedes.unicamp.br.

[26] Piore, M. & C. Sabel (1984) The Second Industrial Divide – possibilities for prosperity . New York: Basic Books.

[27] Pollert. A. (1996) ‘Team Work on the Assembly Line: contradiction and the dynamics of union resilience’, Ackers, et al. (ed), The New Workplace and Trade Unionism , London: Routledge: 124–143.

[28] Previtali, F. S. (2006) ‘O Caso Mercedes-Benz: ABC e Campinas’, R. Antunes (ed.) Riqueza e Miséria do Trabalho no Brasil , São Paulo: Boitempo:213–220.

[29] Previtali, F. S., S. P. Morais & C. C. Fagiani (2013) ‘Ethanol workers in Brazil: the other side of wealth’, Workers of the World , 1 (3):227–245.

[30] Previtali, F. S. O. (2009) ‘Controle do Trabalho pelo Discurso da Qualificação do Trabalhador no Contexto da Reestruturação Produtiva do Capital’, Publicatio UEPG. Ciências Humanas, Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Linguística, Letras e Artes , 17:141–155.

[31] Previtali, F. S. & A. F. (2008) ‘Reestruturação produtiva e novas formas de controle no local de trabalho: a experiência da indústria de fumo em Uberlândia-MG’, Antíteses , 1:1–25.

[32] Saviani, D. (2007) ‘Trabalho e educação: fundamentos ontológicos e históricos’, Revista Brasileira de Educação , 12 (34), Jan/Abr.: 152–165. Accessed, March 18, 2013 from: http://www.educacao.salvador.ba.gov.br/site/documentos/espaco-virtual/espaco-escola/apoio/Trabalho-e-educacao.pdf.

[33] Sewell, G. (1998) ‘The Discipline of Teams: the control of team-based industrial work through electronic and peer surveillance’, Administrative Science Quarterly , 43 (2), June: 397–428.

[34] Sewell, G. (2005) ‘Nice Work? Rethinking Managerial Control in an Era of Knowledge Work’, Organization , 12 (5):685–704. Accessed, January 10, 2014 from: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/managingandorganizations/downloads/Online%20articles/ch12/2%20-%20Sewell.pdf.

[35] Silva, M. A. M. (1999) Errantes do fim do século . São Paulo: Edunesp.

[36] Silva Júnior, J. R. (2002) Reforma do Estado e da educação no Brasil de FHC , São Paulo: Xamã.

[37] Tomaney, J. (1996) ‘A New paradigm of Work Organization and Technology?’ A. Amin (ed), Post-Fordism , Oxford: Blackwell. 1996: 24–52.

[38] Thompson. P. (2010) ‘The capitalist labour process: concepts and connections’, Capital and Class , 34 (1):7–14. Accessed, February 4, 2010 from:http://www.izt.uam.mx/sotraem/Bibliografia/Thompsonthecapitalist.pdf.

[39] Womack, J., D. T. Jones & D. Roos, (1990) The Machine that Changed the World , New York: Rawson Associates.

[40] Yates, M. (1999) ‘Braverman and the Class Struggle’, Monthly Review . 50 (8), January, Accessed January 12, 2014 from: http://monthlyreview.org/1999/01/01/braverman-and-the-class-struggle.