In the Shadow of Formal Rules

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Abstract
We had better to examine the real practice and its results instead of beautiful words. (C.W. Mills, 1959, The Sociological Imagination) This paper examines the labour process in a Hungarian telecommunications workshop which, at first glance, seems to be organized according to post-assembly line principles. Yet closer examination shows that the 'flexible workers' coexist alongside a formally Taylorist system. The paradox is the result of the 'shortage economy' that prevails in Hungary. Equality among the flexible workers, moreover, does not exist: there are marked divisions between the core workers and the floating periphery, who bear the greater part of the burden.

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