Power At Work: A Global Perspective on Control and Resistance: 16 (Work in Global and Historical Perspective, 16) - Hardcover

Marcel Van Der Linden; Nicole Mayer-Ahuja

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3111082350 ISBN 13: 9783111082356

Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2023

Synopsis

Between working men and women (which may include “free” wage earners, chattel slaves, indentured labourers, sharecroppers, domestic servants, and many others) and those employing them, there has always been a constant – mostly silent but sometimes overt – struggle concerning employers’ discretionary power and over the interpretation of formal and informal rules. There is a constantly shifting frontier of control, that is, an ongoing struggle for control in the workplace, with managers and supervisors trying to increase their power over their subordinates, and their subordinates, in reaction, trying to maintain and increase their relative autonomy. The detailed case studies in this volume span three centuries and cover different parts of the world. Still, they speak to each other in many ways, highlighting the fact that power at work, whether on the shopfloor or beyond, results from a wide range of complex interrelations. Between technological innovations and the ways in which they are actually implemented. Between the division of labour at the site of production or service provision and changing standards of social segmentation beyond the premises of the company, which can be reinforced – or weakened – by management strategies of utilizing labour power as well as workers’ reaction to these strategies. And finally, between politics in production, which shape the relations between capital and labour on the shopfloor, and state politics of production, which cannot be understood without reference to broader developments in economy and society.

About this title

About the Author

Nicole Mayer-Ahuja, University of Goettingen; Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

From the Back Cover

There is an ongoing struggle for control in the workplace, mostly silent, sometimes overt, between working men and women (with more or less formal "freedom") and those employing them. The frontiers of control are constantly shifting, with managers trying to increase their power over subordinates and workers trying to maintain or expand their relative autonomy. The case studies in this volume cover three centuries and different parts of the world. Still, together they demonstrate that power at work results from complex interrelations: between technological innovations and the ways in which they are implemented; between standards of social segmentation beyond the company’s premises, and management strategies of utilizing labour power which may weaken or reinforce differences and competition among workers; and between politics in production, which shape the relations between capital and labour on the shopfloor, and state politics of production that are linked to broader developments in economy and society.

Edition details

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3111082350
• ISBN 13: 9783111082356
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360