The Sociology Book

228

acknowledging that he is following

in this intellectual tradition, Harry

Braverman’s classic 1974 study,

Labor and Monopoly Capital:

The Degradation of Work in the

Twentieth Century, is a systematic

inquiry into the nature of industrial

work and the changing composition

of the working class under the

conditions of monopoly capitalism.

Braverman’s analysis pivots

on the notion of “de-skilling”: that

advances in industrial technology

and machine production have led to

the alienation and “deconstruction”

of skilled members of the industrial

S

ince the 1950s, Karl Marx’s
concept of alienation has
been the leading analytical
lens through which sociologists
from North America and Europe
have sought to understand the
modernization of employment
and its effects on the workforce.
Both Marx and Max Weber had
predicted that the rise of industrial
technology would be accompanied
by a drive toward ever-greater
levels of efficiency, and the
rationalization of the workforce
into increasingly differentiated
and specialized parts. Explicitly

working class and craftsmen. He

believed that the de-skilling of work

and the degradation of industrial

workers was a process that had

been gathering momentum since

World War II. Although his focus

was on factory workers, he also

dealt with, albeit in less detail,

office and clerical workers.

Myths of skilled labor

The idea that the industrialization

of factory work is empowering for

workers is tackled head on by

Braverman and found seriously

wanting. Drawing on his own

HARRY BRAVERMAN

The US economy undergoes rapid

industrialization in the 1950s.

The “scientific” division of labor emphasizes

rationalization, calculability, and control.

Skilled factory and office workers are alienated by

increased automation and managerial control.

Claims of increased training, skill, and education

prove false as workers’ overall skill levels decline.

The more sophisticated machines

become, the less skill the worker has.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

De-skilling

KEY DATES

1911 US mechanical engineer

Frederick Winslow Taylor

publishes The Scientific

Principles of Management.

1950s The translation

into English of Karl Marx’s

writing on alienation brings

his work back into vogue in

Anglophone sociology.

1958 US thinker James R.

Bright publishes Automation

and Management, which

warns of links between

automation and de-skilling.

1960s Mechanization causes

widespread alienation among

unskilled and semiskilled

workers in the US.

1970s A US governmental

report entitled Work in

America concludes that

significant numbers of workers

are dissatisfied with their jobs.