>at any rate, I thought of this because I caught some heat some
>months when, talking about the sociology of power, readers disagreed
>with my argument that the least efficient method of extracting labor
>is through the use of direct force. They felt that the threat of
>physical force was the best way to extract labor power.
Really? What percentage of work hours are produced under force, maybe .000001%? Isn't this the whole point of Foucault's emphasis of the shift from societies run by sovereign power to those run by discipline. Or to put it in a different idiom, from feudalism to capitalism.
Btw, I'm now reading a book you might like that has some great moments about technology, and generally connects Marx with poststructuralism in a way I like. The Micropolitics of Capital, by Jason Read.