The sociology of organization and of business enterprise shows that constraints on employees and on the autonomy of individuals coexist in work situations. This conclusion certainly represents progress within the discipline of sociology. However, it is a sociological approach that involves certain limits, such as an excessive emphasis on the autonomy of employees, which requires a reorientation of the analysis of work towards greater contextualization and a taking into greater account the mediation of constraints. The scientific and political issues of this renewal of the sociology of work are important : the maintenance of theoretical pluralism ; the need to take distance from individualistic philosophies and totalizing sociologies ; to identify the political determinants of work constraints.