Cognitive Work, Communication and Governance of Labour Relationships through Regulations. Elements of Analysis for a “Political Economy of the Relation”
This article examines the prospects opened up by the research program developed as part of the journal New Perspectives in the Social Sciences around the theme of “sociology of the relationship”. Mutatis mutandis, it is proposed to reflect on some proposals that could help to identify the contours of what one might refer to a “political economy of the relationship”. To do this, it is particularly interested to the place and the role of communication in labour relations in enterprises. Two lines of thought are explored: a first track develops the idea of “cognitive labour” and stressed the diversity of the relational models by which communication makes it possible the gathering of individuals around a shared vision of the organization and work activity. This reflection leads to characterize communication as a productive activity of rules of use on the basis of an act collective. A second track examines the more general question of the place and the role of rules in the governance of corporate labour relations. The debates around the implicit and explicit dimensions and deviations between rules and its interpretation are recalled; similarly, the opposition between the public dimension rules in the heart of labour relations and the dimension private control and its application by the management. These reflections lead to propose a broader approach of communication considered an order relation vector in knowledge and learning mobilized in the work. The article briefly concludes the tensions raised by this form of communication between freedom of judgment and action and the constraints imposed on the organization and implementation of work activity levels.