Reconstitution of Labor Process Analysis for Algorithmic Management and Platform Work

This brief narrative review traces the evolution of labor process analysis from its industrial inception to its current reinvigorated application to algorithmic management and platform work in the gig economy. Core assumptions and postulates of Labor Process Theory (LPT) as a long-standing critical framework to analyze work and employment are reviewed. A previously introduced taxonomy of distinct waves of LPT research is extended with regard to the growing number of studies on algorithmic management. Exemplary contributions to this emerging body of literature are reviewed. Relevant theoretical frameworks and approaches are suggested to complement the perspective of LPT. Declared outdated or obsolete at various points, LPT has proven resilient, reconstituting itself as a central framework to analyze new regimes of work in terms of hybridized techno-economic despotism and hegemonic biopolitical governance. In a reflexive socio-historical perspective, LPT reveals a dialectic process with fractals of labor control and valorization reappearing in different configurations. Transcending other approaches, the immanent critique of LPT provides a comprehensive picture of the dynamics and dysfunctions of the capitalist mode of production over time and possibly in the future.