Some Remarks on the Notion of Labour Society A reply to Simo Aho.

The article describes a theoretical framework in relation to the notion of labor society in response to an article by Simo Aho that was published in a 1985 issue of Acta Sociologica. The term labor society has caused a lot of misunderstanding as one can see from Aho's article. Concerning his criticism of the term labor society, Aho searches for the order principle of labor society, and finds it in the position that work has as the basis of reproduction, socialization, integration and interest articulation of the population in society. He also looks for signs of an erosion of this order principle but cannot find them. The term labor society should be integrated into a socio-theoretical framework which analyzes the order principle of the development of modern industrial societies and its limits. This will help to identify the axis of conflict in these societies, which is where the discussion of labor society should begin. To understand better the nature of conflict, the social development of rationality should be related to the area of work. Finally, an appropriate concept of crisis is needed which allows to interpret some empirical tendencies. The notion labor society emphasizes a special feature of present societies, but it does not provide the order principle of society. If we desire such a principle we have to go back to the Positive Utopists, who were convinced that one could increase individual and social welfare by controlling nature with the help of science, technology and planning. The limits of this principle are becoming obvious in two ways: on the one hand in terms of material limits and on the other hand in terms of social limits. Work in the form of wage labor connects the described order principle of society with reality, and only in this context can the debate of labor society be understood.