This dissertation explores the claim that, in advanced capitalist countries like Canada, a powerful knowledge class is assuming increasing dominance within the social relations of production. Attached to such theories are claims of trends toward post-bureaucratic organizations, rising job complexity and autonomy, and increased power within operational and strategic decision-making processes. In my study I focus on Canadian “specialist” employees (professionals and semi-professionals) and managers. I present aggregated and disaggregated data from two Canadian surveys conducted in 1983 and 2004 and complement this with original interviews with information technology (IT) workers and engineers. I find a seeming paradox within the labour process of specialists and managers, with task-level autonomy declining even as job complexity and involvement in organizational decisions are rising. I provide evidence that imperatives for profit/cost effectiveness are leading to efforts to make specialist and managerial labour and knowledge more transparent, integrated, and manageable, but this is not the same as degradation or proletarianization. In contrast to my expectation, I find boundaries in the division of labour are durable despite this “socialization” of many labour processes. I argue that a specialist-and-managerial class (SMC) exists in Canada, and will continue to exist, though it is subordinate to and exploited by the capitalist elite even as it excludes and exploits the working class through occupational closure and credential barriers. The SMC is thus contradictory, internally heterogeneous and fraying at its borders, but simultaneously resilient. The resiliency comes via possession of specific strategic knowledge and consequent ability to secure rents and/or control specific organization assets via delegated authority. Resiliency is also structural, with management in many organizations retaining an interest in separating planning and design (“conception”), on the one hand, from process and completion (“execution”), on the other, in order to maximize efficiency and productivity through more centralized control.

Drawing on labour process theory and Bourdieu’s field theory, this study explores the challenges that newspapers face in maintaining their relevance to readers in an age where news has been de-commoditised and made readily available on the web. Empirically the study is based on four case studies of incidents where different newspapers were reported to the Press Ombudsman for inaccurate reporting in recent years. In-depth interviews were conducted with key informants from the selected cases. In addition to that, a key informant from the office of the Press Ombudsman was also interviewed to provide further insight into the effectiveness of the Press Code in regulating accuracy in news reporting as well as the challenges that newspapers are faced with in that regard. It is argued that the digitalisation of media increases the tension between the production of news as a public good vs. its delivery as a commodity that has to ensure profit. Media is an essential pillar of democratic South Africa as it provides news to ensure that citizens are informed about issues that concern them and have the ability to make decisions on matters of concern – i.e. a public good. It is therefore crucial that news be reported in an accurate and professional manner adhering to the standards set by the Press Code. Newspapers are faced with the challenge of ensuring a balance between producing news that is accurate and adheres to the set standards outlined in the Press Code while also ensuring that they remain profitable – i.e. news as a commodity. The findings from this study illustrate that all errors are not due to commercial pressure and that newspapers therefore still have room to manoeuvre, put differently, there is room for agency. This implies that newspapers have to come up with strategies to continue to produce news effectively and attempt to avoid errors in news reporting. As is shown, in some instances quality of news can be compromised in the long run, as in the case of sensationalising news stories and headlines. When news is sensationalised, it is reported in an exaggerated manner and this may result in the accuracy of the news story or headline being lost. Pressures existent in the process of news production in addition to inadequate training and inadequately verifying information from news sources were found as some of the challenges in journalists’ and/or editors failures to appropriately apply the Press Code in news reporting. Failure to adhere to and appropriately apply the Press Code results in inaccurate news reporting by newspapers. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Sociology / unrestricted

This thesis aims at examining processes in capitalist food production through a case study of Vion’s Halls factory in Broxburn, Scotland, which closed in 2012. The researcher uses his position as a former employee to receive interviews with former workers at the factory to gain knowledge about what happened in the factory and how that relates to bigger developments in the economy. Concepts such as buyers-driven supply chains, absolute and relative value production and flexible accumulation are guiding the interviews, using parts of the extended case method. Through this theoretical approach, the intention is to reach a better understanding of the local process and its interplay with broader developments and at the same time hopes to contribute to the theoretical field. No solid conclusion about the relationship of power in the supply chain could be gained from the interviews even if, in line with other studies, it indicates a move toward a buyers-driven supply chain with production for the retailers’ labels instead of its own brand. This was not followed by changes in the form of production with more flexibility and adaptations to rapidly changing markets, as was the case in the clothing industry. Instead, the Fordist method of standardized mass production appears to be utilized. A picture emerges of how Vion tries to counteract falling profits by intensifying the work process and extending the hours of production. This was made partly through aggressive management and the employment of skilled agency workers, getting more produced with fewer workers and without any substantial investments in new machines or technology.

【摘要】 台灣的衛星電視新聞台駐地記者，在新聞勞動者之中，是相當特殊的一群。在台北、台中、高雄等都會地區之外，其他縣市的電視新聞採訪工作，全都是由這群集文字、攝影於一身的單機記者，一個人負責整個縣市的新聞。 駐地記者由於負責的範圍太大，以致於經常得遭遇超額勞動的剝削，在無力正面抵抗媒體組織剝削的情況下，會以各種佔便宜（fiddling）以及搞破壞（sabotage）的行為，回應媒體組織的壓迫。 另外，這群駐地記者聯合起來，也發展出了包括限制產出、協調合作等趕工遊戲（the game of making out），伴隨這些趕工遊戲產生的場域文化，最後以一種難以被察覺的間接性破壞，慢慢的對新聞工作造成傷害。本研究即是探索勞動過程中，媒體組織的新聞產製結構對於駐地記者的控制，及其回應方式，所形成的場域文化，對駐地記者的主體重塑，以及對新聞工作的影響，進行相關理論概念的回顧整理，與現實面的質性探索。 / <Abstract> Local correspondents of Taiwan's satellite news channels constitute a unique category of their own. Except for Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, the metropolitan areas, local correspondents, responsible for covering news stories for their respective counties, work as cameramen and reporters at the same time. Due to time and space constraints, they devise a strategy to fulfill designated jobs and overcome the challenges. They nonetheless are both exploited by overtime working practices and feel vulnerable to organizational demands. As its consequence, they formulate a casual but reliable network to scratch one another's back. In addition, they develop a game of making-out, including a reduction of outputs…etc... The daily-working practice of local correspondents is such that its culture chips away spaces for developing a professional news production ethics

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:25:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edson B Souza.pdf: 1550991 bytes, checksum: ecd9785b874ca41270273338bf7f6ce2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-04 / The present study approches the theoretical and practical aspects of the means of evidence which are foreseen and/or allowed within the ambit of a labour process and, following that, some specifics considerations about the evidence achieved through illicit or atypical means were made. Its starting point was the historical evolution of the evidences, rapidly examined. In the sequence, the issues concerning the concept and the judicial nature of the evidences as well as the dogma of truth in the process were confronted. In the following stages the principles, classification and means of evidence were studied. Since the analysis of each typical means of evidence is not a part of the object of this study, really short comments were made about them. Continuous act was seen, also in a very brief passage, as well as the stages of the probatory activities and the moments and places in which they are produced. The instructional power of the judge and the onus of the evidence were studied in the sequence to address to the analysis of the value judgment of the means of evidence. At the final stages came the analysis of illicit and atypical evidences. The last chapter was dedicated to the practical management of the evidences within the labour process. The adopted method in this study was the research of national and foreign doctrines, as well as jurisprudence, especially from TST (Federal Labour Court) and STF (Supreme Court / O presente estudo aborda os aspectos teóricos e práticos dos meios de prova previstos/permitidos no âmbito do processo do trabalho e, em seguida, foram tecidas algumas considerações específicas sobre as provas obtidas por meio ilícito e as atípicas. Seu ponto de partida foi a evolução histórica das provas, que foi visitada rapidamente. Na seqüência, foram enfrentadas as questões ligadas ao conceito e a natureza jurídica das provas, bem como o dogma da verdade no processo. Nas etapas seguintes foram estudados os princípios, as classificações e os meios de prova. Como a análise de cada meio de prova típico foge ao objeto do trabalho, foram realizados brevíssimos comentários sobre eles. Ato contínuo foi visto, também em breve passagem, as etapas da atividade probatória e os momentos e locais em que elas são produzidas. Os poderes instrutórios do juiz e o ônus da prova foram estudados logo em seguida para dirigir-se a análise da valoração dos meios de prova. Sobreveio, nas etapas finais, a análise das provas ilícitas e atípicas. O último capítulo foi dedicado ao manejo prático das provas no processo do trabalho. O método adotado neste estudo foi o da pesquisa da doutrina nacional e estrangeira, bem como a análise da jurisprudência, em especial do TST e do STF

The new international division of labour has transformed the economic structure of Turkey from an import-substituted to an export-oriented economy. Starting from the early 90s, many Moldovan migrants began to come to Turkey in order to work temporarily in the informal economy. They worked in clothing and shoe ateliers until the beginning of this century. Nowadays many Moldovan migrants work in clothing shops as Russian-speaking sales assistants and in the cargo firms as carriers. Based on this historical context, this study explores the changing labour market position and workplace interactions of irregular Moldovan migrants, who are working in the textile/clothing sector in Istanbul, Turkey. I firstly try to understand the mechanisms of the changing labour market positions of irregular migrants by focusing on the factors and agents behind these dynamic processes. Secondly, I intend to analyze the labour process control regimes and resistance in the workplaces where migrants work. With this aim in view, I conducted field research in Istanbul consisting of 35 in depth and informal interviews with Moldovan migrants, Turkish employers and Turkish employees. As a result of the analyses of my findings, I first observed that although foreign workers cannot change the exploitative working conditions, they can find ways of escaping from exploitative working conditions in a context. Secondly, the level of exploitation in informal working conditions are not only determined by the necessities of capitalist accumulation regimes and the migration policies of the state but also by the preferences of employers based on economic and cultural motives but also.

Introduction: This qualitative case study extends the research of algorithmic management by examining the experiences of food-delivery workers working for the gig company Foodora. As Foodora promotes the job as flexible and autonomous, the utilisation of labour process theory (LPT) in this study helps to uncover if these sentiments hold true in practice by examining what Foodora’s labour process looks like, and how control, autonomy, and individualism take shape in the workplace. Method: Interviews with eight Foodora delivery workers working in Sweden were carried out, where the data was transcribed and coded. Analysis: Using LPT as a framework for the analysis, the material was coded according to the themes of control, transparency, resistance, consent, and individualism. By doing this, the study contextualises algorithmic management within the wider framework of capitalistic management forms and highlights how it impacts worker experiences. Results: The results show that the experiences of the job were largely different among the individual participants of the study. It is proved that Foodora’s employment of algorithmic management impacts almost every aspect of the daily work since it centres around following automated directives which the workers receive through an app. Individualism is accentuated by a self-entrepreneurial discourse promoted by Foodora and the fact that the workforce is dispersed with limited opportunities to interact. Despite being a dispersed workforce, the workers have been able to organise which has led to a growing number of workers joining the union. Conclusion: The impacts of algorithmic management are proved to be evident. The varied experiences of the job could have multiple explanations and needs to be explored further in relation to economical and societal factors. The effects of the newly implemented collective bargaining agreement also need to be examined in future research.

The academy school programme, OFSTED’s use of school performance data, and performance management and performance related pay reforms are dramatically transforming the work and employment landscape in teaching. Yet there is limited knowledge of teachers’ experiences of work in relation to this context. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the impact of these education reforms on school teachers’ working lives through a labour process perspective. A critical realist ethnography of an inner-city secondary academy school was conducted over four months. This comprised a six-week shadowing phase, document collection and 26 semi-structured interviews with Teachers, Managers, HR and Trade Union Representatives. Findings reveal that the removal of a contextual value added measure from school performance metrics leads to an increase in teachers’ workloads and an extension of their working hours. This is compounded by an unofficial erosion of teachers’ directed working time that infiltrates through the academy trust. Pressures on workload also stem from management-led initiatives generated by appraisals in leadership programmes. Furthermore, teachers’ work becomes standardised and re-organised through the heterarchical multi-academy trust model in an effort to improve the school’s OFSTED rating. Performance related pay reforms act as a parallel instigator to the standardisation of work, polarising the creative and mundane aspects of teaching across the workforce, whilst oppositional orientations to work form as the majority of teachers align with a shared sense of commitment to work. This thesis amalgamates labour process theory with the hollowing out thesis, making key theoretical, conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions, alongside practical recommendations. / Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences at the University of Bradford Scholarship

[pt] Nos últimos anos observaram-se mudanças significativas no mundo do trabalho devido à reestruturação produtiva do sistema capitalista. O período da pandemia da COVID-19 atuou como um catalisador dessas mudanças, produzindo desdobramentos como a ampliação do teletrabalho e, posteriormente, a criação de formatos híbridos de trabalho. Essas transformações motivaram a realização dessa tese que, utilizando a perspectiva teórica da Teoria do Processo de Trabalho (LPT), objetivou compreender, a partir das narrativas emergentes das vivências de trabalhadores em regimes remoto e híbrido as dinâmicas de controle-resistência desse processo de trabalho. Com este intuito, sob o posicionamento ontológico do Realismo Crítico e por meio da abordagem metodológica da Análise de Narrativa Temática (ANT), foram entrevistados 15 trabalhadores que atuam em regime de teletrabalho na modalidade híbrida ou integralmente remota com vistas a entender suas vivências de trabalho. Assim, suas narrativas reconstituíram o movimento dinâmico e integrador da dicotomia capital-trabalho e do tensionamento entre controle-resistência, apontando para o aspecto recursivo, e por vezes contraditório, dessas categorias constituintes do devir organizacional. As histórias narradas também indicaram a experiência ambígua da sobreposição das dimensões individuais e laborais; a articulação de narrativas que tensionam os conflitos marcados pela subjetividade das estratégias de controle e da individualidade das formas de resistência; além da percepção da presença de um elemento geracional a influenciar as vivências. Finalmente, ainda que o teletrabalho possa se configurar como uma expressão da integração do lar como espaço de produção de mais-valia – ele também aparece como terreno contestado e palco da disputa entre a vida e o capital. / [en] In recent years, there have been significant changes in the world of work due to the productive restructuring of the capitalist system. The COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for these changes, producing developments such as the expansion of teleworking and, later, the creation of hybrid work formats. These transformations motivated this thesis which, using the theoretical perspective of Labour Process Theory (LPT), aimed to understand how the work process and its dynamics of control and resistance are experienced and narrated by workers in the context of remote or hybrid work. To this end, under the ontological stance of Critical Realism and using the methodological approach of Thematic Narrative Analysis (ANT), 15 workers who work remotely in the hybrid or fully remote modality were interviewed in order to understand their work experiences. Their narratives reconstructed the dynamic and integrating movement of the capitallabour dichotomy and the tension between control-resistance, pointing to the recursive and sometimes contradictory aspect of these categories that make up the organisational becoming. The stories told also indicated the ambiguous experience of the overlapping of individual and labour dimensions; the articulation of narratives that tension conflicts marked by the subjectivity of control strategies and the individuality of forms of resistance; as well as the perception of the presence of a generational element influencing experiences. Finally, although teleworking can be configured as an expression of the integration of the home as a space for the production of surplus value - it also appears as contested terrain and the stage for the dispute between life and capital.

Os processos de flexibilidade produtiva com transformações tecnológicas e organizacionais nas empresas, que ocorrem no Brasil sob a égide da reestruturação produtiva capitalista desde 1980 e com maior ênfase em 1990, são observados neste estudo à luz da problemática da divisão sexual do trabalho, tomando como campo de análise o segmento de eletroeletrônicos, o qual possui a mais elevada proporção de mulheres da indústria metalúrgica. A pesquisa parte da problemática da visibilização de trabalhadoras como objeto de conhecimento nas análises sobre a classe trabalhadora, procurando oferecer contribuição à sociologia do trabalho a partir de reflexão empírica-teórica gendrada sobre o trabalho, sustentando assim a necessidade do reconhecimento da composição sexuada da classe e reivindicando a indissociabilidade das dimensões classe e gênero. Com base em estudo setorial focado em duas indústrias eletroeletrônicas transnacionais no ramo de telecomunicações e informática, cujas plantas analisadas localizam-se em municípios do interior de São Paulo, foram identificadas e analisadas características do processo de trabalho em diversos setores produtivos das empresas. Essas empresas fabricam no Brasil - uma desde a década de 1990 e outra desde 2000 - telefones celulares, tablets, monitores, notebooks, entre outros equipamentos, e empregam majoritariamente mulheres. A partir do enfoque sobre o processo de trabalho, a pesquisa procurou investigar formas contemporâneas de organização do trabalho (flexíveis ou rígidas) na indústria eletroeletrônica e as condições de trabalho que delas resultam, especialmente para as operárias. Estas condições se produzem em ambiente com flexibilidade interna e externa do processo produtivo que, contudo, manteriam mecanismos rígidos de gestão, como trabalho prescrito, controle sobre o tempo, pausas e cadência e pressão por metas, métodos que predominam nas funções taylorizadas e que costumam, também, ser funções femininas. Assim, foram analisados os critérios e as formas apresentados para a divisão sexual no interior do processo de trabalho em diversos setores das duas fábricas, abordando permanências históricas e mudanças nessa divisão, assim como especificidades sobre o controle e a qualificação do trabalho feminino. Foram investigados, também, elementos da subjetividade e significado social do trabalho para as operárias, bem como práticas sociais que derivam de sua condição de sujeitos sexuados, forjadas em relações sociais de sexo/gênero e classe, nos espaços interno e externo à fábrica. Por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com trabalhadoras/es e dirigentes sindicais representantes das/os trabalhadoras/es das duas empresas, o estudo procurou compreender em que medida as formas de organização produtiva e de divisão sexual do trabalho identificadas na indústria eletroeletrônica influenciam na reprodução das relações sociais de classe e de gênero e/ou nas possibilidades de sua transformação. / The manufacturing flexibility processes together with technological and organizational changes in companies, which have occurred in Brazil under the aegis of the capitalist productive restructuring since 1980 and with special emphasis in 1990, are observed in this study in light of the sexual division of labour issues, taking the electrical & electronic field to be analysed, which has the highest proportion of women in the metallurgical industry. The research is built on the gender-awareness issues as knowledge object in the analysis of the working class, seeking to contribute to the sociology of work with a gendered empirical and theoretical reflection on work, thus justifying the need to recognize the gendered composition of the working class and claiming the inseparability of gender and class dimensions. Based on the sectorial study focused on two transnational electrical & electronic industries of the telecommunication and computer field, whose plots analysed are located in cities in the countryside of São Paulo State, characteristics of labour process were identified and analysed in various productive sectors of the companies. These companies have manufactured in Brazil - one since the 90s and the other since 2000 telephones, cellphones, tablets, monitors, laptops, among other pieces of equipment, and employed mostly women. Focused on the labour process, the research sought to investigate contemporary forms of work organization (flexible or rigid) in the electrical & electronic industry and their resultant working conditions, especially towards the female workers. Such conditions exist in an environment with internal and external flexibility of the productive process. However, these conditions would maintain strict management mechanisms such as predetermined tasks, strict time management, breaks and cadence and pressure to reach targets, methods which prevail in the Taylorized occupations which are often female occupations as well. Thus, the criteria and the forms presented to the sexual division within the labor process were analysed in various sectors of both factories, covering historical continuities and changes in this division, as well as specificities over the control and the qualification of female labour. Elements of subjectivity and the social significance of labour for the female workers were investigated, as well as the social practises that derive from their condition of gendered subjects, generated in social relations of sex/gender and class, in and out of the factory. Through semi-structured interviews with both female and male workers and trade union leaders, representatives of the workers from both companies, the study sought to understand to which extent the forms of productive organization and the sexual division of labour identified in the electrical & electronic industry influence on the reproduction of the social relations of class and gender and / or on the possibility of their transformation.