Effective Worker Resistance and Realist Ideology Critique

Abstract When do workers have good reasons to endorse a specific resistance strategy against managerial injustice? The answer partly requires clarifying whether that form of resistance is effective. But how should we understand efficacy? Political theorists cannot simply refer this question to empirical researchers. There is conceptual unclarity on what counts as efficacy. This paper shows that efficacy is a complex concept with multiple politically relevant dimensions. We illustrate this complexity by developing an epistemic notion of efficacy through a method of ideology critique, articulating a distinct dimension of effective resistance. A practice of resistance is epistemically efficacious if it reliably disrupts the mechanisms of ideological legitimation in the workplace by creating opportunities for egalitarian and collective contestation. Epistemic efficacy is a distinct evaluative lens that can assess the effectiveness of a resistance practice. After presenting the main argument, we apply our framework to the case of gossip as workplace resistance.