Re-thinking the future of work: Beyond binary hierarchies (original) (raw)
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University of Bristol Law Research Paper Series, 2018
Discussion of a world without work usually comes accompanied by either fear or fantasy of a workerless world. A hashtag search on twitter for #futureofwork yields many photos of robots, yet very little insight into how such a world will emerge and its relation to the one in which we currently carry out our working lives. In this paper we argue that behind projections of a workerless world, and behind fears of a lack of jobs, are the continuities of dynamics already in play, and that these are capitalist working relations. This working paper firstly offers a contextualisation of the ‘future of work’, shaping new understandings of what is meant by the ‘worker’ in the contemporary context. Whilst acknowledging technical changes in the contemporary context of working relations, we argue that it is the continuities and contradictions in current labour market dynamics that more usefully identify the challenges for both conceptualising and regulating contemporary work. Highlighting the spatial challenges to contemporary workplace governance we look at three factors: the mobility of work, the mobility of things as trade, and the ‘new workers’ (hyperflexible workers employed through platforms and other new arrangements of work that are made possible by technological advances) to identify key continuities in the factors and actors of the so called ‘future’ of work. To contextualise these factors as they manifest in particular sectors, we consider the cases of care work and agricultural work, both areas which have been subject to great speculation over projected transformation. The paper then turns to the challenges of law and regulation and demonstrates how work is enmeshed in legal developments which go far beyond labour and employment law. In conclusion, we argue that there is need for a radical new conceptualisation of work, in both social and legal terms, yet this must be grounded in recognition of the continuities of capitalist relations of production and accumulation, rather than the fears and fantasies of a worker-free future.
Work and Totality a Dialectical Approach to the Future of Work Narrative
2020
Our current confluence of global crises points to the very real possibility of systems collapse. These crises will continue to accelerate under capitalism due to its inherent structural contradictions. Capitalism's profit motive creates its insatiable need for perpetual growth, a growth only achieved through the exploitation of man and nature. Radical systems change is therefore required and only a collective agent can affect this change. While the working class has so far failed to live up to its potential as that collective agent, the human drive to work-to contribute to society and to express itself creatively-will continue to play a primary role in bringing about the required change. Drawing from the philosophical tradition of German Idealism and its progenitors, this thesis positions the future of work in a way that breaks with the current alienated and reified experience of capitalist labour and replaces it with a vision of work that is autonomous, democratic, and part of a collective praxis. It draws upon the thinking of G.W.F. Hegel to show the mediating role that work plays in both subjective recognition and the progress of consciousness. It also draws upon insights from Friedrich Schiller, Herbert Marcuse and Karl Marx to show how work is key to our very being-a form of being that expresses its essence through work. This thesis contrasts labour under capitalism with a normative, postcapitalist vision of work. In doing so it utilizes the critical insights of Georg Lukács and his interlocutors Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Lukács' concept of reification and his bourgeois antimonies, as well as Adorno's and Horkheimer's critique of the positivist worldview and instrumental reason are also brought to bear. Finally, Adorno's negative dialectics and his associated constellation approach are used in a combined methodological approach that examines key policy alternatives related to the future of work. Each policy option is judged upon its relative merits in terms of its ability to negate and replace the structural causes of our current state of crises. In doing so, this thesis presents a novel analytical tool for policy assessment.
The future of work: actuality, seeking new visions, challenges
IOSR-JHSS, 2019
The aim of the article is to present some selected reflections upon the future of work. Its first part presents the main drivers of change, which are even quicker and even more difficult to predict. Their directions seem to be similar all over the world, though their scale and speed depend on the characteristic features of given societies. In the following part of the paper, some hypothetical scenarios have been painted of what work could become in the future. The indicated visions pose a challenge both for employees and the representatives for governments and policy-makers who shape the market policy. Work transformations clearly imply the need for participating in lifelong learning and education, as is necessary to support the acquiring and development of the competences individuals require in the changing world of work.
Special Issue on Re-thinking Sociologies of Work: Past, Present and Future
2009
This paper traces relations between the study of work and the evolution of British sociology as an academic discipline. This reveals broad trajectories of marginalization, as the study of work becomes less central to Sociology as a discipline; increasing fragmentation of divergent approaches to the study of work; and -as a consequence of both -a narrowing of the sociological vision for the study of work. Our paper calls for constructive dialogue across different approaches to the study of work and a re-invigoration of sociological debate about work and -on this basis -for in-depth interdisciplinary engagement enabling us to build new approaches that will allow us to study work in all its diversity and complexity.
Beyond formalization: rethinking the future of work
2007
Purpose–A long-standing meta-narrative regarding the future of work is that, over history, economic activity has shifted from the informal into the formal economy and that the informal economy is now a residue existing only in the margins. This paper aims to evaluate critically this formalization thesis so as to question whether the future of work is inevitably and immutably one of formalization.
An Introduction to the Handbook for the Future of Work
The Handbook for the Future of Work, 2024
The Handbook for the Future of Work offers a comprehensive and critical analysis of a series of key debates concerning the changing nature of work and employment. The temporal focus is primarily on the last twenty years, and arguments about technology, automation and capitalist transformation, as the economic landscape shifts and new work practices and relations are established. The book is timely insofar as it intertwines the radical promises, threats and implications of this rapidly changing landscape with more formal/mainstream narratives and discussions of work and employment. In this sense it addresses a growing interdisciplinary interest by distinctively going beyond a narrow focus on the role of technology that dominates too much of the conversation on the future of work, opening out to broader debates about the character of capitalism at a time of crisis, conflict and contestation over alternatives. No single volume currently provides a detailed insight into the different domains in which the challenges – and opportunities – of technological advancement in the workplace have been considered, nor the way this multifaceted and dynamic process of economic transformation calls into question the centrality that work continues to play in our social and political imaginaries. The Handbook for the Future of Work accordingly serves as a crucial resource for navigating the complexities of this new intellectual terrain. This introductory chapter sets out the book’s thematic coverage by outlining its substantive content, including detailing how writing about the ‘future of work’ has quickly become a vitally important component of contemporary political and economic critique both inside and outside of the academy.
Does work have a future? The need for new meanings and new valuings of work
Organization, 2023
This introduction to the special section "Does Work Have a Future?" begins by reviewing the main ways work stands at the crossroads today. We identify three core disputes with the potential to disrupt the future of work but which also harbor resources for affirmative futures of work: the precariousness of work and lives under existing economic arrangements; the emergence of care work as a source of social and environmental value; and technological change. We then consider the demands for new meanings and new valuings that the manifold disputed status of work formulates. Finally, we highlight the contributions the four pieces making up this special section give to that momentous question of whether work has a future. Keywords Affirmative futures, care work, dystopian futures, future of work, meaning of work, post-work Debates about the future of work have reached something of a crescendo over recent years (Breen and Deranty, 2021). Whether it be increased employment precariousness, technological automation, wage stagnation or attacks on organized labor, there is a consensus that we are at a particular
Conclusions and future challenges: The end of work and the end of history
The Handbook for the Future of Work, 2024
This concluding chapter further dismantles the notion of a technologically determined future of work, championing instead a more nuanced understanding that recognises the significant influence of social, economic and geopolitical factors. In particular, it discusses the emergence of a 'new' or 'second' cold war or 'world civil war' as potentially (re)shaping the future of work. Its influence is felt through its impact on national industrial policies and the relationship between state, capital and labour. Demonstrative of this, the chapter considers the emergence of 'crisis corporatism', where governments collaborate with industry and labour to navigate the challenges of geopolitical competition. However, it acknowledges the inherent power imbalances within such a system, where corporate interests often hold significant sway. It underscores the necessity for strong worker organisation and collective bargaining to counter this and ensure equitable outcomes. Ultimately, the chapter emphasises the need for renewed worker agency and a shift in power dynamics as crucial elements of achieving a more positive trajectory for work in the context of contemporary geopolitical dynamics.