From Power Looms to Platforms: A History of Labour Process Thought on Technology

From Power Looms to Platforms examines the evolution of thinking surrounding technological change in the labour process tradition. Niall Cullinane combines historical review with a contemporary appreciation of technological change in modern labour processes to evaluate key moments of theoretical development and empirical understanding.

Chapters assess the key thematic areas of interest that technology presents from a labour process perspective. They explore technological determinism, labour control, the consequences for skill, the response of labour unions and the alternative technological designs that can support worker interests. By embedding the analysis in an awareness of how capitalist political economy shapes the labour process, Cullinane facilitates critique of the assumptions behind the Future of Work discourse that prevail under the so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’.

Scholars of business, management, employment relations, innovation and technology will greatly benefit from this consolidation of key intellectual discussions on technological change within the labour process tradition. It is also an excellent entry point for students in providing an understanding of how technology has been interpreted in the labour process tradition.

Niall Cullinane, Professor of Employment Relations, Queen's University of Belfast, UK