ABSTRACT
Increasingly divided into antagonistic or disparate groups at the place of work and residence, decomposed or diluted by various levels of stratification, the working class allegedly has lost all unity. The workplace, consequently, is the locale par excellence of working-class formation and of working-class divisions; nevertheless, it cannot be separated from other milieux of class reproduction, such as the labor market and the place of residence. An analysis of the dual process of decomposition and recomposition of the working class in all its complexity today implies, in our opinion, a double effort. A common defect of current efforts to ascertain the forms of working-class recomposition is the radical separating out of fractions of the working class from the totality of working-class and wage-earning strata. Contrary to technical and technocratic myths prevalent at the beginning of automation, capitalist elites themselves have recognised the total ineffectiveness of the old Taylorist system in running automated systems.
