Factory production emerged as a means of controlling workers, not technical superiority

Evidence

Why, then, the historical emergence of factory production? The answer seems to be that it was an effective means of economic and social control. First, if all workers could perform all tasks, their knowledge of the produc­ tion process would allow them to band together and go into production for themselves. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 748

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Marglin’s critique invoked here and to wider debates on deskilling advanced by Braverman and later labor-process theory. — connects to: Hierarchy in production arises from control mechanisms, not property ownership per se — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 602; Industrial habits are imposed historically through brute coercion, not consent; Worker control of production proved viable in socialist experiments. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 789 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Industrial habits are imposed historically through brute coercion, not consent #corroborates (0.85)
• Worker control of production proved viable in socialist experiments. #contradicts (0.80) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 789
• Disciplines precede and enable capitalist labor organization, not the reverse #expands (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 293