CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Labor process theory

Theory of labour control for capital accumulation

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 14, 2025
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Labour process theory (LPT) is a Marxist theory of the organization of work under capitalism. It examines how people work, who controls their work, what skills they use in work, and how they are paid for work. Researchers in critical management studies, organization studies, and related disciplines use LPT to explain persistent conflict between employers and employees in capitalist economies, with a particular focus on deskilling, worker autonomy, and managerial control at the point of production.

Editorial summary

“Labor process theory” enters the record as theory of labour control for capital accumulation. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Labor, process and theory can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 76-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Labor, process and theory.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Labor process theory” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Labor, process and theory provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 14, 2025.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Labor process theory”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Labor process theory primary sources, Labor process theory archive and Labor research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Labor process theory”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Labor process theory” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.