The case for work

A post-work movement is gaining popularity among academics, artists, and activists, in reaction to the many harms and injustices plaguing current labour markets and work organizations, and the looming disruptions that automation is likely to cause. This movement anticipates and welcomes the demise of work as a central value of modern society. Against this rejection of work's significance, The Case for Work argues that our situation is critical precisely because work matters, that it is a mistake to advocate a society beyond work on the basis of the current state of work. Rather, because work matters, we should try to organize it differently. The first part of the book locates the arguments feeding into the 'case against work' in the long history of social and political thought. This genealogical enquiry highlights many conceptual and methodological issues in classical and contemporary accounts. The second part of the book makes the 'case for work' in a positive way, through a dialectical argument. It shows that the very features of work that its critics emphasize, which make it akin to a 'realm of necessity', can in fact become the conduit for individual self-development and social solidarity, provided work is organized in conditions that are fair and equal.