The Case for Work

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 just.

Jean-Philippe Deranty, Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Sydney

Jean-Philippe Deranty is Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney. He has published extensively on Hegel and post-Hegelian philosophy and the philosophy of work.

IntroductionPART I: THE CASE AGAINST WORK1. A modern value2. The work ethic3. Abstract labour4. Work as discipline5. Aristotelian objections6. Nihilistic work7. The imminent obsolescence of work8. The social and political irrelevance of workPART II: THE CASE FOR WORK9. Feminism's ambivalent attitude to work10. The work of social reproduction11. The long history of work12. The social centrality of work13. Facing necessity14. Organizing necessityConclusion: Transcending necessity