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The article presents the author's views on the concept of cognitive capitalism with reference to the relation between capital transformation and employment relations. Topics discussed include philosophy on classical sociology, theoretical approaches on capitalism and perspectives on labor process theory.

Academics and policy makers manifest a continued obsession with the ‘new’ workplace and economy, with the idea of the paradigm break as the core justification for discontinuity. The latest variant — the knowledge economy — reproduces many recurring features of paradigm break arguments, such as a shift to a horizontal division of labour, with even less justification. The two main problems with managerial and radical versions of such thinking is the overemphasis on discontinuity and the treatment of change as consisting of cohesive and mutually-supportive elements. Not only does the contemporary division of labour contain many traditional hierarchical features, but changes in the labour process, employment relations and organisational governance are frequently pulling in different and destructive directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]