The problem with work : feminism, Marxism, antiwork politics, and postwork imaginaries / Kathi Weeks.
In The Problem with Work, Kathi Weeks boldly challenges the presupposition that work, or waged labor, is inherently a social and political good. While progressive political movements, including the Marxist and feminist movements, have fought for equal pay, better work conditions, and the recognition...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Durham :
Duke University Press,
[2011]
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| Series: | John Hope Franklin Center book.
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| Summary: | In The Problem with Work, Kathi Weeks boldly challenges the presupposition that work, or waged labor, is inherently a social and political good. While progressive political movements, including the Marxist and feminist movements, have fought for equal pay, better work conditions, and the recognition of unpaid work as a valued form of labor, even they have tended to accept work as a naturalized or inevitable activity. Weeks argues that in taking work as a given, we have "depoliticized" it, or removed it from the realm of political critique. Employment is now largely privatized, and work-based activism in the United States has atrophied. We have accepted waged work as the primary mechanism for income distribution, as an ethical obligation, and as a means of defining ourselves and others as social and political subjects. Taking up Marxist and feminist critiques, Weeks proposes a postwork society that would allow people to be productive and creative rather than relentlessly bound to the employment relation. Work, she contends, is a legitimate, even crucial, subject for political theory. --- Book Description. |
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| Physical Description: | 287 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0822350963 9780822350965 0822351129 9780822351122 |