The Institute dropped a historical workers’-pride argument from the Mannesmann stimulus

Evidence

Selected randomly from the company’s workforce of almost 35,000, they were each told of the interview shortly beforehand by their bosses, foremen or works representatives, and asked to come to the interview room, which was a separate room within the factory. In addition, fifty-five group discussions with a total of 539 participants were conducted by assistants of the Institute of Social Research, usually inside the factories. All the points which the preliminary research had shown to be significant in producing satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a factory were included in the newly revised version of the basic stimulus to be used for the main research. Among the points omitted was an important passage which might have been able to provide a specific historical perspective: Just think back to 1945,' the text read. What were things like? It was us, the workers, who rebuilt everything. The bosses had their hands tied. A lot of them were being held in camps or were banned for other reasons. The workers got things going on their own. And that proves we’re capable of participating in managementthat proves it’s good for the economy when workers have a say and can give their advice. That’s why we want workers’ participation now.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2064

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Horkheimer/Adorno’s project of critical social research in postwar Germany and its awkward accommodation with employers — the Institute suppressing its own empowering historical narrative. — connects to: The Mannesmann study avoided business ideology despite not enlightening workers — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2095
• SEED: An essay angle: how social-science survey design systematically strips historical and political context in the name of methodological cleanliness, and what that silence reveals.

Broader Connections

• The Mannesmann study avoided business ideology despite not enlightening workers #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2095