Work and the challenge of autonomy

Abstract

Although ‘autonomy’ is rarely included as an entry in dictionaries of sociology, it is a notion that facilitates understanding of how work and, on a more general level, capitalism have evolved in modern societies. On this point, two schools of thought can be distinguished. The first of these, which is well represented through empirical studies carried out by sociologists, focuses on workplace autonomy (the ability to invent rules that are not imposed by management). The second, which is more closely associated with social philosophy, analyzes the conditions necessary for such autonomy to exist (the ability to define objectives and to identify the means for reaching them, while remaining free from any kind of systematic integration). This article revisits the presuppositions adopted and the methods employed by these two schools of thought, as well as some of the obstacles each of them encounters. The purpose is to shed light upon the many uses to which the notion of ‘autonomy’ is put, to underscore its relevance for sociological theory, and to discern the conditions necessary for studying a new alliance between work and autonomy in an underlying context where cognitive capitalism and unfettered flexibility are becoming common.