For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

Post-work

by Aronowitz, Stanley; Cutler, Jonathan (2013)

Abstract

For two centuries, America was the land of opportunity which beckoned the call of the good life. Yet as the 21st century approaches, the United States is still characterized as the home of downsizing jobs and lost security, of disappointed hopes and expectations. The computer and the age of digital technology came with the promise of quality of life improvements for all; but, unfortunately, people seem to be working more for less. In "Post-Work," Stanley Aronowitz and Jonathan Cutler have collected essays from a variety of scholars to discuss the dreary future of work. The introduction, "The Post-Work Manifesto, ," provides the framework for a radical reappraisal of work and suggests an alternative organization of labor. The provocative remaining essays that follow focus on specific issues that are key to our reconceptualization of the notion and practice of work, with coverage of the fight for shorter hours, the relationship between school and work, and the role of welfare, among others. Armed with an interdisciplinary approach, "Post-Work" looks beyond the rancorous debates around welfare politics and lays out the real sources of anxiety in the modern workplace. The result is an offering of hope for the future--an alternative path for a cybernation, where the possibility of less work for a better standard of living is possible.

Keywords

Post-Work, Post-Work Society, Social Organisation, Social Theory, Employment, Work Society, Work Centrality, The Value Of Work

Themes

Centrality of Work, Capitalism

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