Bewitched by the work ethic: Opening the political and social imagination
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description |
The contemporary political and social imagination is fundamentally constrained by the paradigm of a (capitalist) work ethic that maintains and legitimises the status quo. It perpetuates the undemocratic and unfree wage labour. In the workplace there is a hierarchy of power and authority; there are rulers and ruled. The employer can even be described as a private government. However, there is a fundamental lack of democratic participation of 'citizens' in this 'government'. As for the (formal) freedom to enter the labour market, I argue that it is constrained by the need to work to live in dignity. In the work itself, one is often reduced to a resource. In pure form of work, the worker exists as a thing. Today, this trend continues, and humans are becoming objects of algorithmic AI behaviour management. People cannot choose what, when and how they do things. Work is an activity at the command of another. The restriction of freedom by the employer also goes beyond the labour relationship and extends into the private life of the employee. The problem of democracy could be solved by reorganising labour relations. While this is desirable, it is not sufficient to secure freedom. We should therefore limit work as much as possible, open our imagination and seriously consider the possibility of a post-work society. |
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