Paleo-Paralysis? Work, Organizations and the Labour Process Debate

Abstract

Paul Adler addresses the fall from grace of labour process theory by advocating a `paleo Marxist' perspective that would return the study of labour to its classical Marxist lineage. I find that Adler is right to emphasize the contradictions that often lie hidden within contemporary managerial regimes, yet utterly wrong to root them within the capitalist mode of production as such. So heavily deterministic and reductionist a view would, if generalized, deny us any ability to explain why managerial regimes vary across firms, industries and nation-states. Likewise, issues of organization culture, gender and racial inequalities, or worker subjectivity would all quickly vanish from sight. What Adler views as a weakness of the labour process approach — its emphasis on the negotiated nature of the wage-labour relation — in fact constitutes an enduring contribution to the study of work.