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Synopsis
First published in 1974, this text is written in a direct way by Harry Braverman, whose years spent as an industrial worker gave him insight into the labour process and the conviction to reject the reigning wisdoms of academic sociology. Here, he analyzes the division of labour between the design and execution of industrial production, which underlies all our social arrangements. This new edition features a new introduction by John Bellamy Foster, setting the work in historical and theoretical context, as well as two more articles by Harry Braverman.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book explains, in a very accessible way, the constant efforts made this century to reduce the control workers have over their work, and to remove as much as possible the need for workers to exercise judgement and skill. It challenges the popular view that capitalism requires an increasingly skilled workforce, and demolishes the categories (such as 'white-collar' and 'semi-skilled') on which such an analysis is based. The sections on Taylorism, and the various time and motion schemes applied to factory and office work, would just be hilarious (do you know how long it takes to grasp something with two fingers as opposed to three?) if only these theories had not condemned millions to stupifying boredom. I was a bit dubious about how up to date this book would be, given that it was written in 1974. However many of the processes Braverman discusses are still making their way through office work, service industries etc. and the insights seem fresh and relevant even a quarter of a century after they were committed to paper.
Format:Paperback
Braverman's book is subtitled "The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century", but it is still very relevant in the twenty-first. It shows the effects of the development of capitalism on the nature of work (the labour process) and on the composition of the working class since Marx's time.
Braverman shows how several factors combine to make the labour process an alienating one under capitalism: capitalist management and control; the way the capitalists use new technology; the division of labour; and the separation of the "conception" or planning side of work from its "execution". Underlying all these, of course, is the lack of control by workers over the means of production.
He shows how the capitalists try to deskill as far as possible every new type of skilled job that is thrown up by their ever-changing system, so that they can both reduce wage levels and also more easily control the alienated labour of the workers.
Finally, Braverman was also one of the first Marxists to show in detail how white collar workers have become part of the working class, and how even many "professional" jobs are being proletarianised.
Phil Webster.
Braverman shows how several factors combine to make the labour process an alienating one under capitalism: capitalist management and control; the way the capitalists use new technology; the division of labour; and the separation of the "conception" or planning side of work from its "execution". Underlying all these, of course, is the lack of control by workers over the means of production.
He shows how the capitalists try to deskill as far as possible every new type of skilled job that is thrown up by their ever-changing system, so that they can both reduce wage levels and also more easily control the alienated labour of the workers.
Finally, Braverman was also one of the first Marxists to show in detail how white collar workers have become part of the working class, and how even many "professional" jobs are being proletarianised.
Phil Webster.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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6 reviews
57 of 61 people found the following review helpful
Updating labor theory for the age of high technology
21 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
Labor and Monopoly Power, by Harry Braverman, brings basic Marxist labor theory up to date for the modern age. Though written 25 years ago, Braverman's work is the ideal guideline to understanding the age of information technology. Braverman expertly explodes the smug myths of "knowledge age" boosters by drawing the parallels to earlier industrial technology. The major misapprehension exploded is the one that says workplace automation demands higher skills and upgrades jobs. Braverman, through developing and applying the ideas not only of Marx, but of management proponents such as Babbage, Taylor and Bright, makes a convincing case for the opposite. Computers, like other technology before them, are being applied in ways that expose two objectives: (1) the reduction of the absolute numbers of workers, and (2) the reduction of skills among the remaining workers. Braverman's 1974 book was prophetic in that it described longstanding capitalist relationships that, applied vigorously since that time, have led to increasing income inequality in America.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Finest book on economics from the last half of the 20th century
9 Oct 2007
Format:Paperback
The finest book on economics from the last half of the 20th century. No one should claim they understand capitalism if they can't address the fundamental points of this book. It shows Why Labor Matters--and how suppressing the social and political power of labor makes the system work.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
a classic analysis of what capitalism does to work
16 July 2007
Format:Paperback
This is a very detailed study, written by a writer who had been a skilled craft worker earlier in his life, not an academic. The book provides a good theoretical understanding of the way the logic of capitalist development degrades work. Through his discussion of Taylorism, aka "scientific management," Braverman shows how the breaking up of work into tasks and then re-defining the jobs is used to concentrate the conceptual and decision-making control into a hierarchy, and the control of workers is thus diminished. Capitalists will tend to do this because it strengthens their bargaining clout in dealing with workers.
But this is not a "technological determinist" argument. On the contrary, in his intro Braverman criticizes technological determinism. Rather, it is a particular social system, particular class interests, that shape decisions about what techniques are used in production. Technology is not neutral or independent of who controls it.
The alternative, which Braverman has hinted at in some of his writings, would be an economic system in which the physical work is re-integrated with the conceptual and decision-making tasks so that workers would become masters of production. But this would require a different economic system than capitalism, a labor-managed economic system.
But this is not a "technological determinist" argument. On the contrary, in his intro Braverman criticizes technological determinism. Rather, it is a particular social system, particular class interests, that shape decisions about what techniques are used in production. Technology is not neutral or independent of who controls it.
The alternative, which Braverman has hinted at in some of his writings, would be an economic system in which the physical work is re-integrated with the conceptual and decision-making tasks so that workers would become masters of production. But this would require a different economic system than capitalism, a labor-managed economic system.
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