Labor Process

Labor process theory is a Marxist theory about the organization of work in capitalist societies and specifically critiques the scientific management of Frederick Taylor, which revolutionized factory and corporate organization in the early 20th century. Labor process theory draws principally on Marx and on American economist Harry Braverman, who wrote primarily in the 1960s and 1970s. Also important to the theory is the notion of two kinds of subsumption of labor. In formal subsumption, existing forms of labor production are assimilated, such as when a company purchases the produce grown by a traditional farmer. In real subsumption, methods and processes of production are transformed by capital, such as in the modern agriculture industry's giant greenhouses or factory-like chicken farms.

Marx had, of course, been interested in ...