Work and the labour process: ‘Use-value’ and the rethinking of skills and learning

This chapter builds from questions posed within a large-scale empirical project looking at the changes in work, learning and technological design of welfare work in Ontario (2002-06) (Hennessy and Sawchuk, 2003; Sawchuk, 2003a). Simply put, this research demanded answers that were not forthcoming from existing literature. Therefore, drawing on sociology of work and Labour Process Theory (LPT), I explore current theoretical models of skill, knowledge and work with the goal of opening a new level of integrated analysis.