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Two seminal crises of the early 21st century – the 9/11 terrorist attacks and COVID-19 pandemic – have led emerging generations of workers to prioritize the meaning and purpose of work. At the same time, other social and environmental crises are threatening, capitalism is evolving, and technology is advancing. In this book, a philosopher and organizational psychologist who together research meaningful work consider what these forces mean for whether work might give meaning and purpose to our lives or take it away.The authors introduce key concepts – meaning, purpose, and work, among others – and consider how they show up in individuals'experience of work, what role organizations play in cultivating them, and the responsibilities of markets and states to the individuals and organizations working within them. Each chapter includes questions and prompts for review and reflection for students and workers who read the book. The final chapter concludes by introducing an original “6 P” framework for making sense of the functional and moral purpose of work among individuals, organizations, and systems: to pursue and perform, provide and produce, and price and protect work.Readers will emerge with an understanding of the meaning of meaning as well as a practical appreciation for the role of meaning in their own work, the managerial responsibilities they may have for serving the purpose of the organization they work for, and the societal challenges that make the quest for meaningful work a timely imperative

In On the Reproduction of Capitalism, Louis Althusser cited an appendix which, it seems, remains lost or was never completed. This appendix was titled ‘the Ideology of Work'. This book takes inspiration from this appendix, to think about what is at stake for both Marxism and sociology in analysing work from an Althusserian perspective today. The dominant form of this ideology of work today is theoretical humanism. This book demonstrates how theoretical humanism has undermined the analysis of work and makes the case for a Marxism in sociology with a committed theoretical anti-humanism at the forefront of its endeavour.

Even as the rewards of work decline and its demands on us increase, many people double-down on their commitment to wage slavery-working harder, doing overtime, and learning to hustle. To paraphrase Spinoza, why do people fight to be exploited as if it were liberation?To find the answer, The Double Shift turns to the intersection of Marx and Spinoza and examines contemporary ideologies and the modern phenomena of work-motivational meetings at Apple Stores, the culture of Silicon Valley, as well as film and television, from Office Space to Better Call Saul-to argue for the transformation of our collective imagination and attachment to work.

What is work that's worth doing in a life worth living? A revealing exploration of the questions we ask and the stories we tell about our work. According to recent studies, barely a third of American workers feel “engaged” at work, and for many people around the world, happiness is lowest when earning power is highest. After a global pandemic that changed why, how, and what people do for a living, many workers find themselves wondering what makes their daily routine worthwhile. In Is Your Work Worth It?, two professors – a philosopher and organizational psychologist – investigate the purpose of work and its value in our lives. The book explores vital questions, such as: Should you work for love or money? When and how much should you work? What would make life worth living in a world without work? What kind of mark will your work leave on the world? This essential book combines inspiring and harrowing stories of real people with recent scholarship, ancient wisdom, arts, and literature to help us clarify what worthy work looks like, what tradeoffs are acceptable to pursue it, and what our work can contribute to society.

This is the first book to explore the meaning and significance of leisure in Chinese society, as well as the relationship between leisure and work that reveals so much about a society's cultural values.Exploring philosophical and theoretical concepts from a Chinese perspective, the book also presents a series of cutting-edge case studies of leisure and work life that add a new dimension to our understanding of contemporary China. Featuring the work of leading Chinese researchers, the book examines key concepts and theories in contemporary leisure studies, including workleisure relationships, free time, freedom, labour alienation, leisure alienation, the impact of technology on leisure and work, and subjective well-being and health. It also presents an important snapshot of life in contemporary China – and contemporary Leisure Studies in China – at a moment in which China's society and economy are adjusting to a new post-COVID reality.This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in leisure studies, sociology, Asian studies, and cultural studies.

En un momento en el que, no solo por razones tecnológicas sino culturales, el mundo del trabajo se halla en plena redefinición, el propósito de este libro es explicitar un concepto humano de trabajo que, al lado de su dimensión productiva, tome en consideración sus dimensiones existenciales y relacionales, mostrando su centralidad para orientar en términos humanos la cuestión del desarrollo. Frente a la minusvaloración del trabajo en el mundo clásico, el pensamiento social moderno se caracterizó por subrayar la importancia del trabajo, no solo desde el punto de vista económico y social, sino también desde el punto de vista de la formación de la propia identidad. La confluencia de ideales ilustrados y románticos en la cuestión del trabajo permite sostener que la cultura moderna está marcada por sucesivas inflexiones en la manera de abordarlo. Sin embargo, desde hace varias décadas la experiencia del trabajo se ha problematizado: ya sea porque se lo considera exclusivamente en términos de rendimiento o en términos de autorrealización individual, para muchas personas el trabajo ha dejado de representar el lugar privilegiado desde el que articular desarrollo personal y desarrollo social. Por esta razón, resulta oportuno reflexionar nuevamente sobre el sentido del trabajo y su lugar en nuestra vida, poniendo de relieve sus dimensiones específicamente humanas, así como su relación con el descanso, el ocio y la fiesta. Ana Marta González, es Catedrática de Filosofía en el Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad de Navarra e investigadora del Instituto Cultura y Sociedad de la misma universidad, donde actualmente dirige la línea estratégica «Trabajo, cuidado y Desarrollo». Miembro ordinario de la Academia Pontificia de Ciencias Sociales, entre sus publicaciones más recientes figuran El deseo de saber: formación intelectual y cultura emocional (Rialp, 2022); Descubrir el nombre. Subjetividad, identidad, socialidad (Comares, 2021), Kant on Culture, Happiness and Civilization (Palgrave, 2021), Culture, Education, and Social Theory in Kant's thought (Kargadan Publishing House, 2021).

Upending our perception of employment, a surprising investigation into the mystical nature of our daily toil. Dreamwork is a book about the ideas, dreams, dreads, and ideals we have about work. Its central argument is this: Although we depend on the idea of work for our identity as humans, we feel we must disguise from ourselves the fact that we do not know what work is. There is no example of work that nobody might, under some circumstances, do for fun. All work is imaginary—which is not to say that it is simply illusory, but rather that, to count as work, it must be imagined to be work. In other words, a large part of what we mean by working is this work of imagining. Work is therefore essentially mystical—just the opposite of what it is taken to be by all of us spending our days at desks, behind cash registers, and in factories. Delving into this complex mythos, Dreamwork looks in turn at worries about whether or not work is hard; the importance of places of work; the meanings of hobbies, holidays, and sabbaths; and the history of dreams of redeeming work.

Labor and labor norms orient much of contemporary life, organizing our days and years and driving planetary environmental change. Yet, labor, as a foundational set of values and practices, has not been sufficiently interrogated in the context of the environmental humanities for its profound role in climate change and other crises. This collection of essays demonstrates the urgent need to rethink models and customs of labor and leisure in the Anthropocene. Recognizing the grave traumas and hazards plaguing planet Earth, contributors expose fundamental flaws in ideas of work and search for ways to redirect cultures toward more sustainable modes of life. These essays evaluate Anthropocene frames of interpretation, dramatize problems and potentials in regimes of labor, and explore leisure practices such as walking and storytelling as modes of recasting life, while a coda advocates reviving notions of work as craft.

What Thoreau can teach us about working—why we do it, what it does to us, and how we can make it more meaningfulHenry at Work invites readers to rethink how we work today by exploring an aspect of Henry David Thoreau that has often been overlooked: Thoreau the worker. John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle overturn the popular misconception of Thoreau as a navel-gazing recluse who was scornful of work and other mundanities. In fact, Thoreau worked hard—surveying land, running his family's pencil-making business, writing, lecturing, and building his cabin at Walden Pond—and thought intensely about work in its many dimensions. And his ideas about work have much to teach us in an age of remote work and automation, when many people are reconsidering what kind of working lives they want to have.Through Thoreau, readers will discover a philosophy of work in the office, factory, lumber mill, and grocery store, and reflect on the rhythms of the workday, the joys and risks of resigning oneself to work, the dubious promises of labor-saving technology, and that most vital and eternal of philosophical questions, “How much do I get paid?” In ten chapters, including “Manual Work,” “Machine Work,” and “Meaningless Work,” this personal, urgent, practical, and compassionate book introduces readers to their new favorite coworker: Henry David Thoreau.

Articulating an Augustinian treatment of the nature, limits, meaning, and end of work, this volume will push Augustinian studies toward a more-detailed engagement with issues of political economy. Zachary Settle argues that we inhabit a culture that insists that our life's meaning is bound up in our work; we experience constant pressures at work to be more efficient and productive; and we know the ways in which our work-structures contribute to a seemingly ever-growing, corrosive system of poverty and oppression. These cultural assumptions regarding work, along with a cluster of other labor-related problems (i.e. automation, wage depression, wage theft, the rise of a flexible labor force, a lack of worker representation, over-work, and productivism) have rightfully raised a number of questions about the nature, meaning, and limits of our working lives and working structures. This book sets out the ways in which St. Augustine offers us-in piecemeal fashion-elements with which we can assemble an alternative vision. By examining his understanding of the role of work in the context of the monastery, we see his understanding of both the ways we should undertake our work and the ends toward which we should direct that work during our lives in a sinful world. Settle draws on these piecemeal treatments of work scattered throughout St. Augustine's varied writings in order to develop and articulate a unified theology of work.

The Body Productive represents a new and radical approach to the relationships between capitalism, work and the body. Self-evident, natural, biological - this is how we think of the body on an everyday basis. However, this supposedly most direct aspect of our being may in fact be a primary site of socio-economic mediation and ideological reproduction. How are bodies produced under capitalism? How, in turn, does capitalism make bodies productive? How is the body (and knowledge of the body) shaped by demands of production, consumption and exchange, and how can these logics be resisted, challenged and overcome?These are the questions at the heart of The Body Productive, a collection of original, radical new approaches to the relationships between capitalism, work and the body from an international group of scholars and activists. Taking inspiration from the neglected theoretical work of François Guéry and Didier Deleule, and bridging Marxist and Foucauldian traditions, this book rethinks the relationships between the biological and the social; the body and the mind; power and knowledge; discipline and control.

„New Work ist mehr als Tischkicker, Sofas und Hunde im Büro, es ist die Chance für mehr Sinnhaftigkeit und echte Antworten auf die großen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit.“ Tina Müller, CEO Douglas Group „Dieses Buch ist eine frohe Botschaft für alle, die sich bei dem Wort Veränderung nicht sofort im Blackberry verkrallen. Wenn das Bild der Arbeit neu entworfen werden muss, dann ist dieses Buch die Sixtinische Kapelle.“ Micky Beisenherz, Autor, Moderator und kritischer Geist „Seit über 300 Podcast-Folgen sind Christoph und Michael ‚On The Way to New Work'. Zusammen mit Swantje haben sie nun das lange versprochene Buch nachgelegt. Es dürfte der Goldstandard werden für deutschsprachige Literatur zu diesem Thema. Ich weiß, wie viel Arbeit und Leidenschaft darin stecken.“ Philipp Westermeyer, Gründer und CEO Online Marketing Rockstars Was steckt hinter New Work, was bringt und wie funktioniert es? Nur selten ist klar, was genau darunter zu verstehen ist. „On The Way to New Work“ ist ein lebensnahes und unterhaltsames Buch für Menschen, die tiefer in das Thema New Work eintauchen wollen. Es möchte Menschen für das Arbeitsleben stärken. Es ist ein Begleiter auf dem Weg zu New Work und liefert einen fundierten Überblick sowie konkrete Tools, um den Begriff mit Leben zu füllen. Das Buch inspiriert, Neues auszuprobieren und umzudenken, und bietet dabei zahlreiche Ansatzpunkte, wie dies im Alltag aussehen kann. Über die Autor:innen: Swantje Allmers unterstützt als Executive Coach und Beraterin Führungskräfte, Teams und Unternehmen auf dem Weg zu neuem Arbeiten in den Bereichen Selbstmanagement, Leadership Agilität, Organisationsentwicklung sowie Change und Transformation. Sie ist Co-Gründerin und Geschäftsführerin der NWMS GmbH (New Work Masterskills). Dr. Michael Trautmann war geschäftsführender Partner bei Springer & Jacoby und als Global CMO jüngster Topmanager bei der Audi AG. Heute begleitet er Unternehmen, Marken und Menschen dabei, an ihrer Ausrichtung zu arbeiten. Er ist Co-Host des Podcasts „On The Way to New Work“ und Co-Gründer der NWMS GmbH (New Work Masterskills). Christoph Magnussen berät mit seiner Firma Blackboat Unternehmen bei der Einführung von technologischen, kulturellen und räumlichen Lösungen, um die Zusammenarbeit nachhaltig zu stärken. Er ist ein gefragter Keynote-Speaker für Digitalisierung und Neue Arbeit sowie Co-Host des Podcasts „On The Way to New Work“. „Die Autor:innen nehmen uns mit auf eine Reise, an der wir alle teilnehmen werden, auch wenn wir sie nicht gebucht haben.“ Claudia Willvonseder, ehe. Global CMO IKEA und Geschäftsführerin Dr. Oetker „Ich glaube, dass wir im 21. Jahrhundert die Möglichkeit haben, die Arbeit um das Leben herum zu bauen.“ Sascha Lobo, Blogger, Autor und Journalist

The Platonic tradition affords extraordinary resources for thinking about the meaning and value of work. In this historical survey of the tradition, Jeffrey Hanson draws on the work of its major thinkers to explain why our contemporary vocabulary for appraising labor and its rewards is too narrow and cramped. By tracing out the Platonic lineage of work Hanson is able to argue why we should be explaining its value for appraising it as an element of a happy and flourishing human life, quite apart from its financial rewards.Beginning with Plato's extensive thinking about work's relationship to wisdom, Hanson covers the singularly powerful arguments of Augustine, who wrote the ancient world's only treatise dedicated to the topic of manual labor. He discusses Bernard of Clairvaux, introduces the priest-craftsman Theophilus Presbyter, and provides a study of work and leisure in the writings of Petrarch. Alongside Martin Luther, Hanson discusses John Ruskin and Simone Weil: two thinkers profoundly disturbed by the conditions of the working class in the rapidly industrializing economies of Europe.This original study of Plato and his inheritors'ideas provides practical suggestions for how to approach work in a socially responsible manner in the 21st century and reveals the benefits of linking work and morality.

Is work as we know it disappearing? And if so why should we care? These questions are explored by Raymond Geuss in this compact but sweeping survey which integrates conceptual analysis, historical reflection, autobiography and social commentary. Geuss explores our concept of work and its origins in industrial production, the incentives and compulsions which societies use to get us to work, and the powerful hold which the work ethic has over so many of us. He also looks at dissatisfaction with work - which is as old as work itself - and at various radical proposals for doing away with it, and at the seemingly irreversible growth of unemployment as a result of mechanisation. His book will interest anyone who wishes to understand the place of work in our world. This new series offers short and personal perspectives by expert thinkers on topics that we all encounter in our everyday lives.

•• A New York Times Bestseller ••NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time • The New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Elle • Vulture • Fortune • Boing Boing • The Irish Times • The New York Public Library • The Brooklyn Public Library'A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto.'—Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book ReviewOne of President Barack Obama's'Favorite Books of 2019'Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the YearIn a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives. Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind's role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.

Le thème du « Travail » a été abordé dans la plupart de ses composantes : individuelle, collective, sociale, matérielle, symbolique, historique, philosophique, culturelle. Les améliorations proposées (formation et enseignement) ont pour but l'efficacité économique et la justice sociale pour ce qui constitue souvent une part importante de la vie des hommes. Les esquisses de l'avenir sont à la fois mesurées et raisonnables, les risques étant pesés à l'aune de la dignité humaine.

Artistic labour was exemplary for Utopian Socialist theories of'attractive labour', and Marxist theories of'nonalienated labour', but the rise of the anti-work movement and current theories of'fully automated luxury communism'have seen art topple from its privileged place within the left's political imaginary as the artist has been reconceived as a prototype of the precarious 24/7 worker. Art and Postcapitalism argues that art remains essential for thinking about the intersection of labour, capitalism and postcapitalism not insofar as it merges work and pleasure but as an example of noncapitalist production. Reassessing the contemporary politics of work by revisiting debates about art, technology and in the nineteenth and twentieth century, Dave Beech challenges the aesthetics of labour in John Ruskin, William Morris and Oscar Wilde with a value theory of the supersession of capitalism that sheds light on the anti-work theory by Silvia Federici, Andre Gorz, Kathi Weeks and Maurizio Lazzarato, as well as the technological Cockayne of Srnicek and Williams and Paul Mason. Formulating a critique of contemporary postcapitalism, and developing a new understanding of art and labour within the political project of the supersession of value production, this book is essential for activists, scholars and anyone interested in the real and imagined escape routes from capitalism.

The'job system'for organizing work has only existed for around 200 years - since the industrial revolution. Always problematic, it now approaches collapse, and what follows, either for good or ill, depends on decisions made and executed in current times. Many people are filled with dismay, and turn for succor to political opportunists. Prescient of the looming disaster, Frithjof Bergmann began to devise alternatives to the job system in the 1970s. He started with the fostering of dialogue, about ameliorating the impacts of layoffs in times of recession, among the workforce in the auto industry and community, in Flint, Michigan. What has evolved, over years, is his proposed alternative to the job system. New Work, New Culture recounts the development of his ideas, and describes one course which humanity might follow, that all might live better lives.

Ce voyage à travers la littérature sur le travail se propose de marquer les points saillants qui ont marqué la « fin de la classe ouvrière » d'abord en France, mais aussi ailleurs. Ce parcours est axé sur l'alternative qui se présente au travail ; l'échec des pays de l'Est, la fragilisation des syndicats, les renoncements des social-démocraties et ceux de l'Europe. Mais il existe des réflexions et des initiatives porteuses d'espoir : définition des biens communs, du travail bien fait, des entreprises « libérées » ou « délibérées », le syndicalisme écrasé, l'altermondialisme revu et corrigé par la question environnementale.

Ce livre présente et analyse les théories et les conceptions classiques du travail qui ont accompagné l'émergence des sociétés occidentales et marqué nos manières de penser et de vivre le travail. Spécialistes internationaux dans le domaine, les auteurs se penchent d'abord sur le sens du travail chez les philosophes de l'Antiquité, puis chez saint Augustin, Luther, Calvin, les puritains anglais et, évidemment, Hegel. Par la suite, ils revisitent les grandes analyses du monde du travail en économie politique et en sociologie, notamment chez Smith, Proudhon, Fourrier, Durkheim, Weber et Marx. Enfin, les auteurs traitent de tendances plus récentes, notamment celles de la « convergence », depuis le trade-unionisme chez les Webb en Grande-Bretagne jusqu'à l'approche institutionnelle du travail chez Commons aux États-Unis.

A proposta desta coleção, Cadernos de TTO, Trabalho, Tecnologia e Organização é trazer para o espaço público uma leitura que permita uma reflexão sobre temas que, muitas vezes, são discutidos na academia ou no interior das organizações, mas que poucas vezes chegam ao espaço público. Os temas, muitas vezes polêmicos, interessam particularmente àqueles que buscam, além de um conhecimento mais aprofundado sobre questões relevantes para os mais diversos setores da economia, elementos que lhes permitam construir respostas para melhorar os resultados da produção e do trabalho, no que diz respeito à qualidade, à produtividade, à saúde e ao desenvolvimento profissional.

Le travail est-il liberté ou aliénation?Le travail est-il, quoiqu'on fasse, l'opposé de la liberté et de la « vraie vie », dont l'humanité pourrait, et devrait parvenir à se libérer? Ou bien, est-il une modalité essentielle de l'accomplissement de soi, le lieu essentiel de la vie sociale en même temps que d'une transformation du monde capable de libérer l'homme du règne de la nécessité? La modernité a exalté cette seconde perspective. Mais la crise de la modernité fait resurgir la première, et semble conduire à osciller entre ces représentations opposées.Par rapport à ces tendances souvent enchevêtrées dans le débat contemporain, la pensée de Simone Weil (1909-1943) présentée dans ce livre Penser le travail avec Simone Weil peut apparaître paradoxale. D'une part, nul n'a davantage qu'elle, à partir de son expérience directe de la condition prolétarienne des années 30, analysé et dénoncé l'aliénation du travail. Mais d'autre part, aucun autre philosophe n'a sans doute affirmé autant la valeur humaine et spirituelle du travail authentique, et la possibilité réelle d'élaborer une « civilisation » et une « spiritualité » du travail.Un grand thème associé à un auteur incontournable pour mieux comprendre notre monde moderne.EXTRAITLe travail est-il, quoi qu'on fasse, l'opposé de la liberté et de la « vraie vie », dont l'humanité pourrait, et devrait parvenir à se libérer? Ou bien, est-il, peut-il, doit-il être, une modalité essentielle de l'accomplissement de soi, le lieu essentiel de la vie sociale en même temps que d'un rapport au monde capable de libérer l'homme du règne de la nécessité? La modernité a exalté cette seconde perspective, celle d'une humanité prométhéenne qui, par l'alliance de la science et du travail, se rendrait « maître et possesseur de la nature » et réaliserait ainsi enfin la liberté des hommes. Mais cette même modernité a engendré la condition prolétarienne, l'aliénation du travail et la crise écologique. Faut-il rompre avec la « valeur travail », ou continuer à l'affirmer?À PROPOS DE L'AUTEUREmmanuel Gabellieri, né en 1957, est philosophe. Il enseigne à l'Université catholique de Lyon où, après avoir été doyen de la faculté de philosophie et sciences humaines de 2005 à 2014, il dirige aujourd'hui le CRESO (Centre de recherches en entrepreneuriat social), tout en étant vice-recteur chargé de la recherche.À PROPOS DE LA COLLECTIONLa collection Penser avec propose de renouveler la réflexion sur les grands thèmes de l'économie et du management, en invitant à la lecture d'un auteur de référence. L'œuvre de l'auteur est exposée de manière à éclairer son contenu, ses apports et aussi ses limites pour appréhender la réalité du monde économique contemporain. La collection permet de se forger une culture critique en revenant aux auteurs classiques et en pensant avec eux.

This revolutionary book presents a new conception of community and the struggle against capitalism. In Undoing Work, Rethinking Community, James A. Chamberlain argues that paid work and the civic duty to perform it substantially undermines freedom and justice. Chamberlain believes that to seize back our time and transform our society, we must abandon the deep-seated view that community is constructed by work, whether paid or not. Chamberlain focuses on the regimes of flexibility and the unconditional basic income, arguing that while both offer prospects for greater freedom and justice, they also incur the risk of shoring up the work society rather than challenging it. To transform the work society, he shows that we must also reconfigure the place of paid work in our lives and rethink the meaning of community at a deeper level. Throughout, he speaks to a broad readership, and his focus on freedom and social justice will interest scholars and activists alike. Chamberlain offers a range of strategies that will allow us to uncouple our deepest human values from the notion that worth is generated only through labor.

Le travail est-il une dimension fondamentale de la condition humaine? Quand et comment l'Occident en est-il arrivé à faire du travail une notion abstraite et de sa pratique quotidienne un élément central de nos vies? Afin de répondre à de telles questions, ce livre propose de revisiter les grands auteurs classiques et modernes de manière à circonscrire leurs interrogations relatives à l'effort, à l'oeuvre et au travail. Les penseurs étudiés dans cet ouvrage ont tous participé à des moments clés de l'histoire de l'Occident. Ainsi en est-il des philosophes et des théologiens, par exemple les philosophes grecs de l'Antiquité, puis saint Augustin, Luther, Calvin, les puritains anglais et évidemment Hegel. En économie politique, les conceptions et les analyses du travail chez Smith, Saint-Simon, Proudhon et Marx ont joué un rôle décisif dans l'émergence et la critique de la conception moderne du travail. En sociologie, Durkheim, Weber et plus récemment Habermas ont, chacun à leur manière, examiné de près la reconfiguration du lien social dans des sociétés de plus en plus façonnées par de nouvelles dynamiques du travail. Cet ouvrage contribue à conjurer l'amnésie conceptuelle et théorique afin de tracer les discontinuités et les continuités de nos interrogations sur le travail. Il convie les grands auteurs classiques et modernes à enrichir notre regard sur les réalités actuelles du travail afin de nous aider à penser différemment notre avenir.

Wie sollte unsere Arbeitswelt beschaffen sein? Und warum hat sie die fragliche Beschaffenheit nicht? Diese Fragen, die seit dem Ausbruch der Weltwirtschaftskrise vor zehn Jahren verstärkt diskutiert werden, fallen traditionell in den Untersuchungsbereich der Kritischen Theorie in der Tradition der Frankfurter Schule. Glaubt man Axel Honneth, dem neben Jürgen Habermas bedeutendsten zeitgenössischen Vertreter dieser Schule, dann möchten wir, die Angehörigen moderner westlicher Gesellschaften, in der Arbeitswelt eine Art von sozialer Freiheit realisieren, die spezifische Formen der Kooperation und Anerkennung einschließt. Der gegenwärtige (»neoliberale«) Kapitalismus ist für Honneth deshalb problematisch, weil er den institutionellen Erfordernissen dieser Freiheit nicht gerecht werden kann. Der vorliegende Band rekonstruiert die Grundlagen der Honneth'schen Neoliberalismuskritik, diagnostiziert einige Probleme, welche diese Theorie aufwirft, und erläutert, wie sich dieselben im Rückgriff auf Hegels Sozialphilosophie beheben lassen.

A fresh approach to our careers, offering hopeful solutions to a myriad of professional challenges. Work can be a source of creativity, excitement, and purpose. Yet many of us find ourselves confused, discouraged, and exhausted by our jobs. We are often tempted to blame ourselves, and to feel privately ashamed by our jobs. However, as this book lucidly explains, there are many reasons why our jobs demoralize us, including the evolution of modern work, the role of technology, and the mechanics of the economy.The Sorrows of Work offers an invigorating and optimistic perspective on our working lives - and presents the skills and tools we need to overcome any professional challenge.AN INVIGORATING GUIDE to the professional challenges we all face.ILLUSTRATED with full color images throughout.FRESH CAREER PERSPECTIVES from The School of LifeBUILD THE SKILLS you need to thrive in your career.

This book presents a broad-ranging survey of contemporary writing about work and employment. It identifies three broad traditions of research and commentary on work - the unitary perspective, the pluralist perspective and the critical perspective - and describes the contemporary output of these traditions; i.e. it surveys current research and argument found within these traditions. The book also surveys debate between these traditions, and the second part of the book presents a detailed account of debate over four current issues. These issues are employee participation, customer culture, equality and diversity and the impact of the global financial crisis. The source material for the book comes from the UK, USA and other countries and the arguments contained within it have international relevance. The book provides an overview of recent work on the employment relationship and the debate and controversy that can be seen in this area of study. Framing Work will be of interest to academics researching and writing about employment and to advanced students in Industrial Relations, Human Resource Management, Organization Studies, and Sociology.

This book examines the importance of work in human well-being, addressing several related philosophical questions about work and arguing on the whole that meaningful work is central in human flourishing. Work impacts flourishing not only in developing and exercising human capabilities but also in instilling and reflecting virtues such as honor, pride, dignity, self-discipline and self-respect. Work also attaches to a sense of purposefulness and personal identity, and meaningful work can promote both personal autonomy and a sense of personal satisfaction that issues from making oneself useful. Further still, work bears a formative influence on character and intelligence and provides a primary avenue for exercising complex skills and garnering esteem and recognition from others. The author defends a pluralistic account of meaningful work, arguing that work can be meaningful in virtue of developing capabilities, supporting virtues, providing a purpose, or integrating elements of a worker's life. In light of the impact of meaningful work on living well, the author argues that well-ordered societies provide opportunities for meaningful work, that individuals would be well advised to pursue these opportunities, and that the philosophical view of value pluralism, which casts work as having no special significance in an individual's life, is false. The book also addresses oppressive work that undermines human flourishing, examining potential solutions to mitigate the impact of bad work on those who perform it. Finally, a guiding argument of the book is that promoting meaningful work is a matter of ethics, more so than a matter of politics. Prioritizing people over profit, treating workers with respect, respecting the intelligence of working people, and creating opportunities for people to contribute developed skills are basic ethical principles for employing organizations and for communities at large.

Wer den krisenhaften Stillstand unserer Gegenwart verstehen will, findet in diesem Buch nicht nur eine bestechende Kritik der Arbeitsgesellschaft, ihrer ideologischen Grundlagen und politischen Funktionslogik, sondern auch den Grundriss einer aufregenden emanzipatorischen Alternative. Das Festhalten an der Hegemonie der Erwerbsarbeit hat eine Ideologie der Beschäftigung und einen Staat der Arbeitsbeschaffung hervorgebracht. Der Autor analysiert diese Festlegung als zentralen Entwicklungsengpass der Gesellschaft. Vor diesem Hintergrund deutet er den Begriff der Arbeit neu und plädiert für eine Sozialordnung, die auf allgemeiner Arbeitszeitverkürzung und einem bedingungslosen Grundeinkommen beruht. Mit dieser Alternative vor Augen kann der Leser sehen, wie sich zahlreiche Dilemmata der Arbeits- und Sozialpolitik, der Familien- und Geschlechterpolitik, der Bildungs-, Wissenschafts- und Kulturpolitik, ja sogar der intellektuellen Arbeit selbst auflösen lassen und einer befreienden Praxis weichen können.

Selon l'esprit du temps, tout en ce monde, serait évaluable. Ce qui se dérobe à l'évaluation serait donc suspect de collusion avec la médiocrité ou l'obscurantisme. Le travail n'échappe pas à cette logique et son évaluation objective est à la base des nouvelles méthodes de gestion, de management et d'organisation du travail. Pourtant, l'investigation clinique du travail suggère qu'une part essentielle de l'activité humaine relève de processus qui ne sont pas observables et résistent donc à toute évaluation objective. Source de difficultés qui augmentent la charge de travail, l'évaluation des performances a aussi des effets pervers (sentiments d'injustice ou conduites déloyales entre collègues). Il se pourrait qu'une bonne part de la souffrance et de la pathologie mentale dans le monde du travail soit liée aux nouvelles formes d'évaluation.

An eye-opening, groundbreaking tour of the purpose of work in our lives, showing how work operates in our culture and how you can find your own path to happiness in the workplace.Why do we work? The question seems so simple. But Professor Barry Schwartz proves that the answer is surprising, complex, and urgent. We've long been taught that the reason we work is primarily for a paycheck. In fact, we've shaped much of the infrastructure of our society to accommodate this belief. Then why are so many people dissatisfied with their work, despite healthy compensation? And why do so many people find immense fulfillment and satisfaction through “menial” jobs? Schwartz explores why so many believe that the goal for working should be to earn money, how we arrived to believe that paying workers more leads to better work, and why this has made our society confused, unhappy, and has established a dangerously misguided system.Through fascinating studies and compelling anecdotes, this book dispels this myth. Schwartz takes us through hospitals and hair salons, auto plants and boardrooms, showing workers in all walks of life, showcasing the trends and patterns that lead to happiness in the workplace. Ultimately, Schwartz proves that the root of what drives us to do good work can rarely be incentivized, and that the cause of bad work is often an attempt to do just that. How did we get to this tangled place? How do we change the way we work? With great insight and wisdom, Schwartz shows us how to take our first steps toward understanding, and empowering us all to find great work.

The value of work cannot be underestimated in today's world. Work is valuablebecause productive labour generates goods needed for survival, such as food andhousing; goods needed for self-development, such as education and culture; andother material goods that people wish to have in order to live a fulfilling life. Ajob also generally inspires a sense of achievement, self-esteem and the esteem ofothers. People develop social relations at work, which can be very important forthem. Work brings both material and non-material benefits.There is no doubt that work is a crucial good. Do we have a human right to thisgood? What is the content of the right? Does it impose a duty on governments topromote full employment? Does it entail an obligation to protect decent work?There is also a question about the right-holders. Do migrants have a right to work,for example? At the same time many people would rather not work. What kind ofright is this, if many people do not want to have it? The chapters of this bookaddress the uncertainty and controversy that surround the right to work both intheoretical scholarship and in policymaking. They discuss the philosophicalunderpinnings of the right to work, and its development in human rights law atnational level (in jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan,France and the United States) and international level (in the context of the UnitedNations, the European Social Charter, the International Labour Organization, theEuropean Convention on Human Rights and other legal orders).

Wie kann die Entstehung des kritischen Potentials der Hegelschen Philosophie historisch verständlich werden? In der Beantwortung dieser Frage wird Hegels Transformation der „Arbeit des Republikaners für das Allgemeine“ (1795) über die „allgemeine Arbeit des Krieges“ (1802) bis zur „Arbeit des Begriffes“ (1807) rekonstruiert. Diese Transformation erfolgt in Hegels Teilnahme an revolutionshistorischen Heroismusformen, die Citoyen-Substitute für die bourgeoise Hegemonie begründen. Für Hegels Übergang vom jakobinischen zum napoleonischen Substitut spielt zunächst die „höhere Aufklärung“ der „Vereinigung“ (Hölderlin) die Schlüsselrolle, sodann die durch Schellings „Anschauung“ ermöglichte Rezeption der manufakturbürgerlichen Ökonomie (A. Smith) im Unterschied zur handelsbürgerlichen Ökonomie (J. Steuart). Mit der Arbeit des Geistes beginnt die genuin Hegelsche Objektivierung des heroischen Idealismus durch die spekulativ-systematische Selbstbegründung des Begriffs. Daran konnte Marx in seiner Frage nach der Überwindung des Gegensatzes zwischen abstrakter und konkreter Arbeit durch Formen der „allgemeinen Arbeit“ und der „unmittelbar gesellschaftlichen Tätigkeit“ anschließen.

I början av 1990-talet släpptes djävulen lös. Den kallades valfrihetsrevolutionen och utlovade en billigare, bättre och effektivare välfärdssektor. Systemskiftet genomfördes trots att väljarna sagt nej och folkrörelsetraditionen användes för att öppna dörrarna för välfärdskoncernerna. Resultatet blev fallande skolresultat, återkommande skandaler och personal som detaljkontrolleras, dränks i administration och pressas av tidsstudier istället för ta hand om gamla, vårda sjuka och ge unga kunskaper. I ett antal reportage får vi bland andra möta Berit som måste rusa mellan pensionärerna, Tomas som styrs av kundomdömen och Ronia, som tvingas sitta hemma och vänta på att någon ska behöva henne några enstaka timmar. Välkommen till välfärdsfabriken!

One of the most vexing questions in contemporary political philosophy and social theory concerns the framework within which to undertake a normatively well-grounded, empirically attuned critique of capitalist society. This volume takes the debate forward by proposing a new framework that emphasizes the central anthropological significance of work (its role in constituting human subjectivity) as well as the role work has in the formation of social bonds. Drawing on the philosophy of Hegel and the post-Hegelian tradition of critical social theory, special attention is given to the significance of recognition in work, the problems of misrecognition generated in the present culture of capitalism, and the normative resources available for criticising it.

Die Arbeitswissenschaft in der NS-Zeit war bislang kaum ein Forschungsthema. Die wissenschaftssoziologisch orientierte Studie versucht, diese Lücke zu schließen. Ihrem Gegenstand nähert sie sich aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Untersucht wird die Institutionalisierung der Arbeitswissenschaft in den Hochschulen sowie in Forschungsanstalten wie etwa in dem Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Arbeitsphysiologie, dem Arbeitswissenschaftlichen Institut der Deutschen Arbeitsfront. Zudem werden die Akteure des Wissenschaftssystems - die Hochschullehrer - in den Blick genommen. Auf zwei Dimensionen des Handelns richtet sich dabei die Analyse: Wissenschaft als soziales - im Kern politisches - und Wissenschaft als erkenntnis-produzierendes Handlungssystem.

Der Arbeitsbegriff Hegels ist mehrdeutig: Er umfasst den Bereich der ökonomischen Arbeit ebenso wie die Arbeit, die den Geist der Menschheit in der Geschichte, der Kunst und der Gesellschaft hervorbringt und entwickelt. Die Gemeinsamkeit dieser unterschiedlichen Arbeitsbegriffe liegt nach Hegel darin, dass sie von der menschlichen Existenz nicht wegzudenken sind. Beide bestimmen den vernünftigen Zugriff der Menschen auf ihre Umwelt in der gleichen Weise: Die Menschen formulieren Zwecke, die sie an ihre Umwelt herantragen und durch geeignete Mittel zu verwirklichen suchen, gleich, ob diese Zwecke ökonomisch, kulturell oder moralisch bestimmt sind. Darüber, dass die zweckmäßige Bestimmung als Form der Bestimmung und Gestaltung der Welt im Geist der Menschheit insgesamt verstanden wird, wird die ökonomische mit der moralischen Arbeit vermittelt und Arbeit bei Hegel so insgesamt zum Ausdruck von Selbstbestimmung. Hegel vertritt damit einen Arbeitsbegriff, der für die Moderne prototypisch ist. Dass Arbeit frei mache, ist nicht nur die in grausamer Weise ideologisch umgesetzte Devise der Nationalsozialisten, sondern ein Gedanke, der eine Grundannahme der normativen Ideale der Moderne im gesamten politischen Spektrum darstellt. Diese Problematik aufnehmend, nimmt die Autorin die Hegelsche Intention einer vernünftigen Begründung des Verhältnisses der Menschen zu sich selbst, zu einander und zu ihrer Umwelt ernst und befragt seinen Arbeitsbegriff nach den Grenzen vernünftiger Begründbarkeit. Sie unterstellt dabei, dass die kritische Aufarbeitung nicht nur der Auslegung eines ‚Klassikers‘ dient, sondern einen Begriff zu klären vermag, an dem auch unsere Gegenwart sich messen lassen muss.

Play is a foundational concept that animates life, work, creativity and organization; and while play is essential, it also dislodges the very meaning of these terms. Organization in Play explores different meanings, usages and understandings of play to present novel and insightful perspectives on capitalism, management, markets, bureaucracy and other organizational phenomena. It traces how early capitalism, with its ethos of austerity and distaste for recreation, has given way to a more ludic version in recent times. At the same time, children – those playmakers supreme – have been, curiously, excluded from scholarly conversation about organization. The authors examine this and other paradoxes using a wide range of sources – from Weber to Sesame Street, from Star Trek to Lacan, from Riverdance to Beckett – that shed light on the capricious boundaries between work and play, rationality and foolishness, sense and nonsense. Play points us to the liminal and the extraordinary, where meaning is ambiguous at best, and where conventional notions about order and disorder, movement and stasis, centre and periphery are undone and are put into play. It focuses our attention on the silences and absences, the comic and the theatrical, the folly and the madness of markets, organizations, management and work practices in contemporary capitalism. Drawing on a deep engagement with sociological and organizational literatures, the authors show how a play perspective enhances our understanding of the institutions we inhabit and which inhabit us.

John W. Budd's The Thought of Work provides a much needed and highly eloquent statement of the meanings and orientations to work across time and nations. It is essential reading for students of work from senior scholars to beginning undergraduates.— Randy Hodson, Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences The Ohio State University and past editor ― American Sociological ReviewBy drawing explicit attention to diverse, implicit meanings of work, The Thought of Work allows us to better understand work, to value it, and to structure it in desirable ways that reflect its profound importance.What is work? Is it simply a burden to be tolerated or something more meaningful to one's sense of identity and self-worth? And why does it matter? In a uniquely thought-provoking book, John W. Budd presents ten historical and contemporary views of work from across the social sciences and humanities. By uncovering the diverse ways in which we conceptualize work—such as a way to serve or care for others, a source of freedom, a source of income, a method of psychological fulfillment, or a social relation shaped by class, gender, race, and power—The Thought of Work reveals the wide-ranging nature of work and establishes its fundamental importance for the human experience. When we work, we experience our biological, psychological, economic, and social selves. Work locates us in the world, helps us and others make sense of who we are, and determines our access to material and social resources.By integrating these distinct views, Budd replaces the usual fragmentary approaches to understanding the nature and meaning of work with a comprehensive approach that promotes a deep understanding of how work is understood, experienced, and analyzed. Concepts of work affect who and what is valued, perceptions of freedom and social integration, identity construction, evaluations of worker well-being, the legitimacy and design of human resource management practices, support for labor unions and labor standards, and relationships between religious faith and work ethics.

A fierce critique of productivity and sovereignty in the world of labor and everyday life, Bruno Gullì's Earthly Plenitudes asks, can labor exist without sovereignty and without capitalism? He introduces the concept of dignity of individuation to prompt a rethinking of categories of political ontology. Dignity of individuation stresses the notion that the dignity of each and any individual being lies in its being individuated as such; dignity is the irreducible and most essential character of any being. Singularity is a more universal quality. Gullì first reviews approaches to sovereignty by philosophers as varied as Gottfried Leibniz and Georges Bataille, and then looks at concrete examples where the alliance of sovereignty and capital cracks under the potency of living labor. He examines contingent academic labor as an example of the super-exploitation of labor, which has become a global phenomenon, and as such, a clear threat to the sovereign logic of capital. Gullì also looks at disability to assert that a new measure of humanity can only be found outside the schemes of sovereignty, productivity, efficiency, and independence, through care and caring for others, in solidarity and interdependence.

In a world of changing work patterns and the global displacement of working lifestyles, the nature of human identity and work is put under great strain. Modern conceptions of work have been restricted to issues of utility and necessity, where aims and purposes of work are reducible to the satisfaction of immediate technical and economic needs. Left unaddressed is the larger narrative context in which humans naturally seek to understand a human contribution to and responsibility for themselves, others and being as a whole. What role does human work play in the development of the world itself? Is it merely a functional activity or does it have a metaphysical and ontological calling? Heidegger, Work, and Being elucidates Heidegger's philosophy of work, providing a novel interpretation of the Aristotelian understanding of work in relation to Heidegger's ontology and notion of thanking. Todd S. Mei employs Heidegger's hermeneutical approach to a critique and reconstruction of an understanding of work to show that work, at its core, is an activity centred on thanking and mutual recognition.

Ce livre veut montrer pourquoi Simone Weil, reprenant Marx et rejetant le marxisme, ne pouvait que chercher à comprendre de l'intérieur le monde ouvrier en se faisant elle-même ouvrière. Il fallait être en contact pour penser l'oppression, c'est-à-dire pour lui résister.

The essays in Recognition, Work, Politics indicate the diversity and continuity of contemporary French critical theory concerning both the question of politics and its philosophical articulation. These themes are approached and addressed from directions that include post-structuralism, the paradigm of the gift, and post-marxism. Recognition, Work, Politics also highlights critical theories developed in France today that concentrate on the central issues of recognition and work. These themes highlight the renewed reception of German Critical Theory in contemporary French thought particularly around the project of recognition developed by Axel Honneth. Philosophers and social and critical theorists published in Recognition, Work, Politics include Etienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière, Axel Honneth, Christophe Dejours, Alain Caillé, Christian Lazzeri, Emmanuel Renault, Gérard Raulet and Yves Sintomer.

Title from PDF cover (viewed on Dec. 5, 2007).

In Labor of Fire, Bruno Gullì offers a timely and much needed re-examination of the concept of labor. Distinguishing between'productive labor'(working for money or subsistence) and'living labor'(working for artistic creation), Gullì convincingly argues for a definition of work that recognizes the importance of artistic and social creativity to our definition of labor and the self. Gullì lays the groundwork for his book by offering a critique of productive labor, and then maps out his productive/living labor distinction in detail, reviewing the work of Marx and others.

This elegant essay on the justice of work focuses on the fit between who we are and the kind of work we do. Russell Muirhead shows how the common hope for work that fulfills us involves more than personal interest; it also points to larger understandings of a just society. We are defined in part by the jobs we hold, and Muirhead has something important to say about the partial satisfactions of the working life, and the increasingly urgent need to balance the claims of work against those of family and community.Against the tendency to think of work exclusively in contractual terms, Muirhead focuses on the importance of work to our sense of a life well lived. Our notions of freedom and fairness are incomplete, he argues, without due consideration of how we fit the work we do.Muirhead weaves his argument out of sociological, economic, and philosophical analysis. He shows, among other things, how modern feminism's effort to reform domestic work and extend the promise of careers has contributed to more democratic understandings of what it means to have work that fits. His account of individual and social fit as twin standards of assessment is original and convincing--it points both to the unavoidable problem of distributing bad work in society and to the personal importance of finding fulfilling work. These themes are pursued through a wide-ranging discussion that engages thinkers from Plato to John Stuart Mill to Betty Friedan. Just Work shows what it would mean for work to make good on the high promise so often invested in it and suggests what we--both as a society and as individuals--might do when it falls short.

Notre société connaît une crise du travail dont les débats récents sur les moyens de faire reculer le chômage et sur la fin du travail sont une manifestation particulièrement vive. Le présent ouvrage est une contribution philosophique à la réflexion sur le sens du travail. Il montre comment a changé le sens de la condition humaine et la place du travail dans cette condition. Une réflexion en rapport constant avec la conception du travail de H. Arendt et qui s'attache aussi à la définition de travail abstrait de K. Marx.