Work and Society (original) (raw)

Work is a central feature of everyday life, but what do we actually mean by 'work'? On the surface work seems to be a straightforward idea: we all have to do it to earn a living; it takes up a lot of time and eats up our 'leisure'. Yet work does not mean the same thing to all people, across all cultures and throughout all times. In fact, work—its meaning, organisation and practice—is going through an intense period of transformation right now in all parts of the world. Where work is carried out, who performs it, how it is conceived and organised are all changing, in part because of the increasingly central role digital technology plays in carrying out everyday life. Just imagine how hard it would be to find employment without being able to search for a job on the internet. Think about how you would keep in contact with your friends, family and colleagues without a mobile phone. Changes to work are also due to the expansion of global capitalism and rise of new modes of production (how people organise themselves to produce goods and services), premised on the ideal of fast-moving and flexible knowledge-based economies. It would be tempting to emphasise the globalising tendency of these changes, but in actuality these are highly uneven in and across national borders and are not driven or determined solely by one all-powerful homogenising force. In this chapter we probe changes in contemporary work and the links between work, technology and identity. What is the place of work in our everyday lives today? What is the role of digital technology in complicating traditional divisions between 'work' and 'leisure', 'production' and 'consumption', 'public and 'private'? What are the other factors besides technology that contribute to these changes? Work is less secure and stable today than it has been in the past, and some have described these new conditions of work as 'precarious work' (Fudge & Owens 2006). Who is most affected by these changes? When addressing these questions, we are concerned not only with common experiences, but also with variations within societies and cultures that lead to distinct expressions of work, organisation and identity. After reading this chapter, you should be able to: ~ Understand that work has different meanings and histories ~ Provide some explanation for why and how work is changing, with particular attention to the role of digital technology ~ Understand how changes to work impact on the relationship between 'work and 'life', on 'production' and 'consumption', and on identity processes ~ Understand the impacts that these changes have on a range of social groups, such as youth and the aged. C h a p t e r