Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism

by Michael Burawoy

Since the 1930s, industrial sociologists have tried to answer the question, Why do workers not work harder? Michael Burawoy spent ten months as a machine operator in a Chicago factory trying to answer different but equally important Why do workers work as hard as they do? Why do workers routinely consent to their own exploitation?

Manufacturing Consent , the result of Burawoy's research, combines rich ethnographical description with an original Marxist theory of the capitalist labor process. Manufacturing Consent is unique among studies of this kind because Burawoy has been able to analyze his own experiences in relation to those of Donald Roy, who studied the same factory thirty years earlier. Burawoy traces the technical, political, and ideological changes in factory life to the transformations of the market relations of the plant (it is now part of a multinational corporation) and to broader movements, since World War II, in industrial relations.

Genres: Sociology, Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, Labor, Theory, Academic

286 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1980

About the author

Michael Burawoy was a British sociologist working within Marxist social theory, best known as the leading proponent of public sociology and the author of Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism—a study on the sociology of industry that has been translated into a number of languages.
Burawoy was a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was president of the American Sociological Association in 2004. In 2006–2010, he was one of the vice-presidents for the Committee of National Associations of the International Sociological Association (ISA). In the XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology he was elected the 17th President of the International Sociological Association (ISA) for the period 2010–2014.

Reviews

[Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burawoy never fails to come off like a pretentious academic, but I believe Berkeley will do that to you. This is a classic study for any organizational ethnographer, qualitative methodologist or general lover of social research and theory.

[Shaun Richman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a little dense and slow-going in the first section, as the author lays down concepts and history of this specific plant. But once it clicks, this is a very interesting contribution to many fields of labor studies.

[Ari Stillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this important book, Burawoy spends roughly a year working in a factory on the outskirts of Chicago and breaks down the relations of production. The author differentiates consent from coercion in the labor process with the former entailing a kind of freedom to 'game' the system allowing workers to 'make out' with optimal piece rates that also fosters a culture in which respect is given to those best able to make out (as a reflection of skill and seniority). In this way, worker surplus labor becomes obscured as workers think they are following their own interests (competitive individualism). Management, in turn, gains productivity with marginal increase in what they must pay, so they make out in their own way. Other actors come into play, such as the trade union (collective bargaining), which effectively pushes the negotiation of consent off the shop floor and into board rooms and represents worker rights and freedoms. However, Buroway contends, unions succeed in co-opting workers in embracing capitalism despite their alienation from their labor. There's much more to it than that, but these are the parts that interest me.

At times the Marxist terminology he uses throughout obscures the actual relations themselves, abstracting what he observes to be concrete. Of course, this is done intentionally as Burawoy sought to elevate his discussion of concrete relations to that of macrostructural theory. As others have pointed out, aside from downplaying race and erasing gender since there were few female workers – he could have engaged with them as a small sub-sample – the author likewise does not engage with how his model might or might not apply to non-factory work settings. In particular, white-collar / middle class or service sector work would seem to invite interesting and important alternate settings to explore Burawoy's conjectures.

[victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

didn't finish, but had some interesting and thought-provoking moments.

[John NM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as a window into the intellectual history of the discipline. Still offers fascinating perspectives on important questions, but often a bit too dated.

[Alessandra Liebmann]

Oops this is the one

[Ludmila R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rest in peace Michael Burawoy

[CL Chu · Rating 4 out of 5]

When magical girls form unions they still help capitalism.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

braverman vs burawoy