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Capitalism, Subjectivity and Ethics: Debating Labour Process Analysis

Centre for Social Theory and Technology & Department of Management, University of Keele, Newcastle-under-Lyme, UK

In this paper I want to try and establish whether any common ground, in theory or practice, might be found between some kind of adherence to labour process Marxism and a broadly poststructuralist strategy which seeks to destabilize any kind of universalizing theory for organizational studies. In the first half of the paper, I will attempt to draw together the key differences and similarities between some of the recent contributions to this debate by a group of British writers-Smith, Thompson, Ackroyd, Knights and Willmott. The second half of the paper attempts to consider three key questions that these pieces raise. First, I will consider the definitional boundaries of labour process analysis. Second, I will examine the relationship between organization studies and dualism. Finally, I will address the connections between ontology, epistemology and ethics and conclude with some suggestions about the `primacy of the latter.

Key Words: labour process • ethics • organizations • poststructuralism

Organization Studies, Vol. 20, No. 1, 25-45 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840699201002


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