Paper short abstract:

Using ethnographic fieldwork in the American heartland in the late 20th century, this paper considers the changing nature of work as experienced in traditional manufacturing jobs to understand how capitalist transformations settle into the subjectivities of those who must bear their consequences.

Paper long abstract:

To place into perspective the upheavals occuring in labour processes during the present capitalist crisis, this paper looks back at a key moment in the spread of the process of de-industrialisation across the United States in the late 20th century. Addressing questions about the nature of work as experienced by (mainly) white male workers in traditional manufacturing jobs in the American Midwest, the paper focuses on the reshaping of the labour process in the era of flexible accumulation -- such as the changes in the scheduling of work shifts to meet the demands of just-in-time production, or changes in management techniques such as the introduction of the 'team' concept -- and the ways in which they were understood and taken on board. The intention here is to use ethnographic practice to cast light on the processes by which capitalist transformations settle into the subjectivities of those who must bear their consequences, in order to better understand the possible political trajectories of the ways in which labour is being produced in the present conjuncture.