The oscillating participation: the work in the factory

Mimmo Carrieri re-evaluates the various phases of the workers participation within the enterprise system beginning with the tensions connected to the growth of the democratic mechanisms, to the economic world born within the workers movement. The author begins with the consideration that the incisive concepts of trenchant participation must be analytically reconsidered, distinguishing "involvement" and "participation". Nevertheless the transit to the post-fordism production system characterized by flexibility and organized turbulence appears to be moving in the opposite direction. The growing share of "fluctuating" employment drives workers emotionally further distant from the establishment and less interested in dynamics of decisional involvement. As the author observes, an important step forward would consist in rethinking the rules concerning the bargaining structure, encouraging means of strong participation, therefore joint decision-making between parts. This clearly requires political commitment , bound together with the desire of investing in the participation of the workers, together with a cultural pitch of the interested parties to weave (a trustworthy relationship) relationships based on reliance inside the potentially disrupted dynamics of the molecular capitalism.

Keywords: Workers Participation; Trade Unions; Molecular Capitalism; Post-Fordism; Democracy.

Mimmo Carrieri, La partecipazione oscillante: il lavoro nell’impresa in "PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO" 0/2008, pp , DOI: