ABSTRACT

This book introduces new approaches that deploy concepts from Marx’s critique of political economy to renew the study of labour, value and social antagonisms in the broad area of management and organisation studies.

Exploring established and emergent strands of Marxian theorising inside and outside management and organisation studies, it delves into, beyond and behind the ‘hidden abode’ of production to examine a range of issues including: the relationship between the workplace and the market; the relationship between conflicts at work and wider social and political movements; the role of class, gender and race in capitalist society; and the interconnection of work and labour with the environmental crisis.

The book will be of interest for academics, postgraduate students and researchers interested in radical perspectives on work, organisation and economic life. Representing both a critical introduction to existing theories and a theoretical contribution to the development of the field of study in its own right, it condenses challenging ideas into a short, readable volume without losing their complexity or sophistication.

chapter 1|19 pages

Introduction

From critical management studies to the critique of political economy

chapter 2|28 pages

Into the hidden abode

From the labour process to the valorisation process

chapter 3|34 pages

Beyond the hidden abode

From class composition to the crisis of value

chapter 4|33 pages

Behind the hidden abode

From primitive accumulation to the metabolic rift

chapter 5|19 pages

Conclusion

From the politics of value to the politics of work