Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nebraska at Omaha, 2013
This study constitutes a re-evaluation of the Marxian theory of exploitation and its capacity to explain the relations in modern retail department stores. Responding to Mulder (2011), questions are explored concerning whether or not companies are able to extract a surplus amount of labor from employees that don't produce a material good. Put it another way, this study looks at whether or not the capitalist department store appropriates the fruits of labor from an employee, when her or his "fruits" are so much more abstract and varied than those of a factory worker? An extensive theoretical analysis of vol. 1 of Capital is performed, followed by an analysis of neo-Marxian theories of exploitation in order to explore the utility of Marx's classical work for describing the relations between department store retail workers and their companies
