Deskilling or enskilling?: an empirical investigation of recent theories of the labour process.

This article involves an investigation of the effects of technological changes since 1970 upon the division of labour in three British paper mills. The data was collected in the Spring and Summer of 1984 and is used to develop a model of technical change and the division of labour that moves well beyond positions in the field. In particular, Braverman's theory of deskilling is challenged empirically and theoretically. A new theory — the compensatory theory of skill — is set out in the early stages of the article and a modified version of this approach is accepted in the conclusions. The most important finding involves the rapid increase in maintenance skills in the three pants examined. Other significant findings centre on the need for production workers to interpret computer controlled dials or meters and then to respond using their traditional detailed understandings of the processes of paper manufacture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]