Introduction

This volume brings together a number of papers originally delivered at the annual UMIST-Aston Labour Process Conferences. Previous collections have explored a variety of issues within the labour process debate — such as the redesign of jobs, the position of women, the management of labour and the impacts of new technology (Knights et al., 1985; Knights and Willmott, 1986; 1986a; 1987; International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 1986). This volume attends more closely to the theoretical underpinnings of labour process analysis. Through a diverse range of commentaries on the state of labour process theory, it provides an assessment of its viability, offers a variety of proposals for its reconstruction, and suggests a number of directions for its further development.