Value

This entry introduces value as an interdisciplinary category of inquiry which has been intertwined with theories of labour and organisation since the inception of its study with Aristotle. The entry charts how the development of mercantile and industrial capitalism saw vying views of value resolve themselves in the body of work associated with classical political economy, which defined the mainstream terrain of value theory until the neoclassical revolution. The entry explores two countervailing tendencies in the theorisation of value defined by the social approach they take to economic processes, both of which owe their origins to Aristotle in some way: institutionalist and Marxist critiques of political economy. Whilst the former weilds some influence in contemporary management and organisation studies, it is the latter that has motivated the richest work on value in this literature, largely through the lens of strands like Labour Process Theory, autonomist Marxism and so-called ‘paleo-Marxism’. The entry ends by suggesting the directions in which this growing literature on the intersection of value, labour and struggles over class, race, gender and environment might be taken in future.