On 10/11/07, Michael Nuwer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Also > > doesn't the idea of organized workplaces automatically assume the > > factory system as the predominant organizational unit? Isn't there a > > rather basic contradiction here? i.e. how can you decommodify labor > > while staying within the organized workplace (which is premised on > > division of labor ad-absurdum)? > > I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're getting at. All workplaces > are organized in some why or another. You seem to have a particular kind > of organization in mind, but I'm not clear on what that is.
Thanks for the references. What I meant was the union movement was apparently not radical enough in its goals to fundamentally change the factory system itself. The factory system is a particular kind of organization originating from the early stages of the industrial revolution. www.unc.edu/~tgeraght/personal/Factory_OEEH.pdf I'd imagine that the early logic for the factory was mechanization and efficiencies from scale. Certainly it makes sense for some kinds of production e.g. automobiles. But it seems like *all* economic activity has come to be organized in this way. The efficiency gains of the factory system comes at a price. There is a lot of literature on how it reduces labor to mere appendages to machines and the harmful effects of over-specialization. Also a hierarchical boss-servant organization is an inevitable corollary of the factory. So why is it that the labor movement apparently made no attempt to critically question the logic of this institution in the first place? On a separate note: does the efficiency logic of a centralized workplace still apply today? Is such an organization really essential for a modern economy - which is dominated by services anyway? Why is there so little telecommuting even today for such professions as computer programming and accounting? (I'd argue that the free software projects are proof that alternative types of organization for production are feasible at least for computer programming.) -raghu.
