Labour Process Theory and the New Digital Workplace

Abstract

The digitalisation of work has become a key topic in public and academic debate over the past few years.The leading prophets have promised nothing less than a 'digital revolution' that radically changes labour markets (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2012).'This time, it's different', promise others (Ford, 2015).The difficultybut also the fascinationwith this ongoing discussion on digitalisation is that it brings together very different technological and social developments.While the public debate focuses on a rather black-and-white picture, the academic debate provides a more nuanced insight into the changing world of work.On one hand, we can observe a new phase of technological change in traditional manufacturing industries, which is linked to the development of the Internet of Things, new robotic approaches, wearable computing and other technologies (such as 3D printers) and is described using terms such as 'advanced manufacturing techniques', 'digital manufacturing techniques', 'the smart factory' or 'Industrie 4.0' (Forschungsunion and Acatech, 2013; IDA, 2012;Lucke et al. 2008).On the other hand, there are (relatively) new Internet-based business models and companies in which data generation and management play a central role extended in scale and scope.Though business models and companies are diverse and range from huge transnationals like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Uber to smaller, more niche-