Chapter 1: Whither Work? The Politics and Ethics of Contemporary Work (original) (raw)
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The Case for Work, 2024
The modern work ethic is in crisis. The numerous harms and injustices harboured by current labour markets and work organisations, combined with the threat of mass unemployment entailed in rampant automation, have inspired a strong “post-work” movement in the theoretical humanities and social sciences, echoed by many intellectuals, journalists, artists and progressives. Against this widespread temptation to declare work obsolete, The Case for Work shows that our paltry situation is critical precisely because work matters. It is a mistake to advocate a society beyond work on the basis of its current organisation. In the first part of the book, the arguments feeding into the “case against work” are located in the long history of social and political thought. This comprehensive, genealogical inquiry highlights many conceptual and methodological issues that continue to plague contemporary accounts. The second part of the book makes the “case for work” in a positive way through a dialectical argument. The very feature of work that its critics emphasise, namely that it is a realm of necessity, is precisely what makes it the conduit for freedom and flourishing, provided each member of society is in a position to face this necessity in conditions that are equal and sustainable.
Post-work society as an oxymoron. Why we cannot and should not wish work away
European Journal of Social Theory , 2021
In recent years, theorists have contended that we should move to a mode of social organisation where work and the values attached to it are no longer central, a "post-work society". For these theorists, the modern ideology of work is intrinsically unjust, even irrational, and no longer suited to the challenges of our time. The article presents an alternative response to the problems of work and employment. Rather than moving to a "post-work" society, the article argues that we should transform the world of work, precisely by keeping in view why working is important to individuals and the community. In fact, it is not realistic to believe that human societies could ever do without work. Because human societies are by necessity work societies, and work, if organized correctly, entails many goods, we cannot really, and we should not, wish work away. Keywords: Post-work society. Goods of work. Meaningful work. Marx. Dejours The world of work today is rife with problems, including the threats to many jobs from automation, rising levels of working poverty, increasingly precarious employment conditions, new forms of control and surveillance, the invasion of private life by work demands, and a heightened sense of meaninglessness in professional life. For a number of social and political theorists, these issues demonstrate that the modern work ethic has become obsolete and that it is time to move to a different, "post-work" model of social organisation, one where work is no longer central. This article presents an alternative response to the worrying situation of work and employment. Rather than moving to a "post-work" society, the article argues that we should instead reform the world of work, precisely by keeping in view why working is important to individuals and the community. We might want to reject the current work ethic, but still hold on to some "ethic of work", that is, continue to believe in and seek to realise the goods that work can bring. This argument is based on the premise that it is in fact not realistic to believe that human societies could ever do without work. Because human societies are by necessity work societies, and work, if organized correctly, entails many goods, we cannot really, and we should not, wish work away.
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
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
The future of work: Pivotal decisions for society
Technological and social change is inevitable, and a smart society should shape its future, ideally through broadly-based and well-informed discussion. Technology is likely to unravel the 'work trilogy' (of task, pay, esteem) and we have the option to construct new socially-relevant alternatives, to take a laissez-faire approach, or to resist and attempt to maintain the status quo. Technology may reduce traditional employment opportunities, and its impact depends on the social response to maintain an egalitarian society. How do we as a society, agree on and progress towards the future society we desire, particularly as our politics tends towards shorter time-frames and personalities, rather than substance and long-term goals?
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.
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.
Goodbye labouring man long live homo economicus: the new precarity in the world of work
Globalizations, 2020
This article investigates distinctiveness of work-related precarity in neoliberal orders by pursuing two main arguments. First, precarity prevailed in pre-welfare state capitalist and current era display marked similarities regarding political ideas and workers' experiences. Second, neoliberal precarity manifests its distinctiveness in the human factor and the socioeconomic circumstances surrounding it. That is, in the previous era of precarity, the labouring men who is in pursuit of social protection and solidarity refused to refashion themselves as homo economicus, thanks to a protective socioeconomic environment where countermovements against the unfolding realities of free market gathered momentum. In the neoliberal era, incorporation of market values in everyday lives, digital automation and reorganisation of the work facilitated the transformation of labouring men into homo economicus, who can function without seeking solidarity and social protection. Thus, neoliberal precarity renders it highly uncertain whether it is possible to re-embed the markets into society in foreseeable future.
Three scenarios for the future of work
International Labour Review, 2019
After presenting a historical overview of the concept of work and the different meanings that it has acquired over the centuries, the author analyses the value it holds for Europeans, and the impact on work and employment of the popular rhetoric about a technological revolution and its "inevitable" consequences. She then considers the future of work in the light of three scenarios: a "dismantling of labour law", a "technological revolution" (where automation brings an end to employment), and an "environmental transition". She argues that the latter is compatible with the imperative to take action on climate change and the expectations placed in work and employment.