This paper presents the historical development of productive forces and citizenship rights and their mutual interference. The general hypothesis is that the organization of the capitalist labour process is mainly shaped by the state of productive forces and by the legal and political status of labour in civil society. By delineating the development of productive forces, the author makes use of the concept of 'industrial revolution' and describes a sequence of three distinct industrial revolutions and their main characteristics. Having sketched the contours of the organization and control of the labour process in the first and second industrial revolutions, the main challenges and opportunities of the third industrial revolution are discussed with the two following conclusions: (1) a convergence of the imperatives of the productive forces with the 'rising expectations' of workers could positively determine future labour relations in mature civil societies; (2) new tensions, however, may arise out of tendencies towards 'industrial feudalism' and a 'new hierarchical order' in hightech production.
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