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Crawling from the Wreckage: The Labour Process and the Politics of Production

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Labour Process Theory

Part of the book series: Studies in the Labour Process ((SLP))

Abstract

Considerable uncertainty exists concerning the intellectual validity and purpose of ‘labour process theory’. It is now common ground that such theory is in crisis. John Storey (1985a: 194) sums up what he considers to be the general state of play:

It is not perhaps an exaggeration to claim that the labour process bandwagon has run into the sand. Indeed the catalogue of amendments and criticisms attaching to labour process theory has led a number of critics to call for little less than the abandonment of labour process theory. It has served a useful purpose but it is now holed and patched beyond repair.

Thanks to Peter Armstrong, Jim McGoldrick, David Knights and Trevor Hooper for comments on the earlier draft of the paper. Responsibility remains my own.

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Authors
  1. Paul Thompson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UMIST, Manchester, UK

    David Knights (Senior Lecturer in the Manchester School of Management) & Hugh Willmott (Lecturer in the Manchester School of Management) (Senior Lecturer in the Manchester School of Management) &  (Lecturer in the Manchester School of Management)

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© 1990 David Knights and Hugh Willmott

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Thompson, P. (1990). Crawling from the Wreckage: The Labour Process and the Politics of Production. In: Knights, D., Willmott, H. (eds) Labour Process Theory. Studies in the Labour Process. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20466-3_3

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