Discipline and labour: sociology,class formation and money in Australia at the beginning of the twentieth century

Abstract

'Social efficiency' constituted the organising motif of sociology in Australia at the begin ning of this century. This essay argues that the sociological promotion of social efficien cy can only be accounted for as an intervention into, and apprehension of, a distinctive moment in the transformation of the social relations of labour (i.e. the socialisation of labour) and the organisation of money (specifically credit), with particular regard for the division and extension of work time conceived as a social matter. This has ramifications for our understandings of knowledge and ideology, state formation and class compo sition, credit and social planning, subjection and institution, law and violence. It is also illustrative of the need to thoroughly historicise such concepts, including a reconsider ation of the presumption of state, economy and society as distinct fields.