The Quality of work: the labour process and sociotechnical approaches

This article reports on a survey which was carried out on all work or labour related papers that were presented at the XII. World Congress of Sociology in Madrid (July 1990). Its aim was to investigate whether the Dutch labour process debate was reflected elsewhere. The analysis shows that the Netherlands are in a special position in this respect and that modern sociotechnical theory does not enjoy comparable popularity in other countries. The article ends with an interpretation of this finding and an attempt to explain the absence of this debate as well as the lack of an engineering approach in other West European countries.