(p.66) Since neither the burdens nor rewards of work are proportionately shared under capitalist modes of production though, one criticism of capitalism is that it inadequately compensates workers for the sacrifices that they endure. Karl Marx’s concept of exploitation may be read as this kind of critique, since for him workers are exploited under capitalism because their wages are systematically less than the value of the goods their efforts produce. As Axel Honneth’s early analysis has stressed though, there is a second line of critique that also stems from Marx, but which invokes a very different underlying conception of the role...

(p.67) I argue that one intrinsic contribution of work to human life is to express what Richard Sennett terms craftsmanship – the “desire to do a job well for its own sake” 5 – and that craftsmanship in this sense provides a normative standard against which the organisation of work can be assessed. More precisely, I argue that craftsmanship can meet the standards of social critique within the Critical Theory tradition, especially as Honneth has interpreted this tradition.

(p.72) [C]raftsmanship at work carries normative significance because the opportunity to “work well” can substantially affect workers’ well-being under contemporary social conditions, where well-being is conceived in broadly Aristotelian terms.