Capitalism’s presence in nearly all areas of contemporary life is widely-known and unshakeable. There is perhaps nowhere more true than in the workplace. Why then, ask the authors of this collection, have the broad concepts of work and capitalism become a progressively smaller focus in sociology in recent decades, shunted to the sidelines in favor of more granular subjects in labor studies? Capitalism and Labor calls for sociologists to refocus their research on the unavoidable realities of the capitalist system, particularly in the wake of the global financial and economic unrest of the past decade. Although they provide no easy solutions, the essays in this book will serve as a starting point for sociologists to renew their focus on labor and its inextricable relationship to capitalism in the twenty-first century.

Klaus Dörre is professor of sociology of work and industrial and economic sociology at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. Nicole Mayer-Arhuja is professor of sociology and director of the Sociological Research Institute at Georg August University, Göttingen. Dieter Sauer is senior researcher at the Institute for Social Science Research. Volker Wittke (1957-2012) was professor at the Sociological Research Institute at Georg August University, Göttingen. Julian Müller is a translator of German.