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

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.

Work in the Twenty-First Century and the Relevance of the Theory of Value

“…For Previtali & Fagiani (2015), capital increases surplus value through a continuing process of change both in the means of production and in methods of labour organisation through the application of technology. These changes in turn reduce the value of the commodity and of labour power.…”

“…It is part of class struggle dynamics, being a political and social control variable. This leads to a complex and contradictory interrelationship between science and value insofar as the potential of science is limited by its class determination (Previtali & Fagiani, 2015).…”

“…given the subjection of its development to the material base of the relations be- For Previtali & Fagiani (2015), the restructuring process can be seen as nothing more than capital restructuring itself to ensure its continuing expansion and accumulation. In this new context, it is possible to modify relationships with the working class through the introduction of a range of flexibilisation processes, including outsourcing and subcontracting of labour, the introduction of temporary work and group work and a series of heavy defeats of the trade union movement that was born when Taylorist-Fordist practices held sway.…”

“…But this element is not new in itself in the field of control of workers and attempts to break class solidarity. The novelty consists in the development of subjective elements that constrain workers to participate in the management of their own work making them, in effect, comanagers of the streamlining of the production process (Previtali & Fagiani, 2015). In this context, Antunes draws attention to the new techniques of management of the labour force including the production cells, working in teams and in semi-autonomous groups, the multifunctional labour, more qualified and participatory.…”

A Growing Smile and a growing demise: the diminishing value of Damietta furniture making

“…Previtali & Fagiani (2015) Deskilling and Degradation of Labour.19Cédric Durand & Wiliiam Milberg (2020) Intellectual monopoly in global value chains, Review of International Political Economy, 27(2), pp. 404-429, DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2019.1660703.…”