Recent years have seen a rise in immaterial labour in the United Kingdom and other developed economies. Sociological explanatory accounts of these developments focus primarily on economic drivers. Little, if any, inquiry has been made into the potential role of law. This article seeks to identify the aspects of law that may be constitutive of employer and worker perceptions of the acceptability (or otherwise) of employer demands for immaterial labour. Two key contributions are made. The first is a setting‐out of a methodological approach to exploring the constitutive effect of law that emphasizes the internal operation of legal doctrine as critical to understanding its sociological implications. The second is the development of substantive knowledge on the potential role of law vis‐à‐vis the rise of immaterial labour.

中文翻译：

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重新诠释法律的沉默：考察法律学说与非物质劳动兴起之间的联系

近年来，英国和其他发达经济体的非物质劳动力有所增加。这些发展的社会学解释主要集中在经济驱动因素上。几乎没有人对法律的潜在作用进行过调查。本文旨在确定可能构成雇主和工人对雇主对非物质劳动的要求（或其他方面）是否可接受的看法的法律方面。做出了两个关键贡献。首先是探索一种方法学方法，以探索法律的本性效应，强调法律学说的内部运作对于理解其社会学含义至关重要。第二个方面是关于法律对非物质劳动兴起的潜在作用的实质性知识的发展。