Labor Process Dispersion and the New US Social Structure of Accumulation
Persistent URL
Author(s)
Goldstein, Don
Allegheny College
Date Issued
April 9, 2026
Abstract
What has happened to Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA) theory’s initial emphasis on labor process in characterizing SSAs and their stages? US SSA theorists have long focused mostly on macro and financial dynamics, institutions, and policies. Recentering the labor process points to the emergence of a distinctive set of organizational and technological tools and arrangements now shaping work in the United States and beyond, one that is qualitatively different from those that characterized the neoliberal period. Increasingly, work and workers are organizationally and spatially dispersed, even as they become more tightly integrated with the rhythms and controls of capital—in both instances, mediated by cloud-based and artificial intelligence–infused technologies. Tracing the roots of this labor process dispersion suggests that it is an element within a new, post-neoliberal institutional framework: a US capitalism that is economically, socially, and culturally dominated by a handful of giant technology firms.
Journal
Review of Radical Political Economics
Citation
Goldstein, D. (2026). Labor Process Dispersion and the New US Social Structure of Accumulation. Review of Radical Political Economics, 0(0).
Publisher
SAGE Publications
DOI
10.1177/04866134261427058
ISSN
0486-6134
1552-8502
Rights
© 2026 Union for Radical Political Economics
Type of Publication
Journal
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