Historical transformations in work organisation

Abstract

According to Maxine Berg, author of The Age of Manufactures (1994), a major reconsideration of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, it is largely due to the influence of Marglin and Braverman that, ‘economists and economic and social historians can no longer write of industry and labour without consideration of the labour process’ (1984, p. 165). However, their influence has been felt in the debates concerning two fairly separate historical transformations in work organisation. Marglin’s account of the origins of capitalist hierarchy refers to the emergence of the ‘factory system’ during the period in British history from 1760 to 1830 commonly known as the ‘Industrial Revolution’ (Ashton, 1968). This is the period analysed by Marx (1976), following Engels’ classic study, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1969a).