Labor processing labor: A new critical literature for information systems research

Upheavals in the World Economy have vibrated throughout the employment, academic and pedagogical sectors of Information Systems (IS) practice, research and teaching. A radical response–intellectual and practical–is warranted by these changes — given that there is no clear end in sight to these ongoing disruptions. This paper proposes that this unprecedented milieu calls for a fundamental shift in the socio-economic, historical literature that has traditionally informed IS. As academics, we are obligated to explore all intellectual and practical resources that are resilient and adequate to the present task. This paper urges scholars to take IS beyond its technocratic traditions, to literatures that provide a fundamental socio-historical perspective. We examine the transformations currently underway in the IS labor markets, using Marx's notions of the ‘formal’ and ‘real’ subsumption of the labor process. Marx's framework is the first step in opening up for inquiry the bewildering dynamic that characterizes the present situation.