Taylor, Graham (Graham John) (1993) Safe in their hands? : public service and the state regulation of the water industry in Britain. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The primary concern of the thesis is the development of a materialist
analysis of the state regulation and administration of labour in the
context of the development of the water industry in England and
Wales over the past two centuries. The project develops and explores
the methodological and conceptual premises of Karl Marx contained
principally in Vol. I. of Capital, the Grundrisse and A Contribution to
the Critique of Political Economy. The project determines the form
and function of the state 'logically' as a precipitate of the
contradiction between value and use-value, and traces the 'historical'
manifestation of state 'forms' through the movement of this
contradiction. The 'determination' of the 'municipal', 'planner-state'
and 'neo-liberal' state 'forms' of regulating the water industry
developed through the contradiction between value and use-value and
the project traces the way in which this was manifested through the
struggle between concrete and abstract labour or the working class
and capital. The struggle between abstract and concrete labour
shifted the contradiction between value and use-value to the level of
the state which became manifested through the struggle over the form
of the state; as manifested through the contradiction between
regulation and administration. The specific form of this struggle
with respect to the water industry became a struggle over the form
of 'public service'. The thesis, therefore, develops an analysis of the
struggle between concrete and abstract 'public service'. The thesis
emphasises the way in which different forms of abstract and concrete
state regulation have fundamental implications for the form of
'management' within industry; and highlights the importance of
'valorisation' imperatives with regard to the study of management and
labour process. The thesis finally develops the 'socialist pluralism'
of GDH Cole to develop an outline of a non-alienated water industry.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Water utilities -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Water utilities -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century, Water utilities -- Government policy
Official Date:	August 1993
Dates:	Date Event August 1993 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Clarke, Simon, 1946-
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC) (R00429024939)
Extent:	465 leaves
Language:	eng

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