Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism

Description

'Work hard, get paid.' It's simple. Self-evident. But it's also a lie—at least for most of us. For young people today, the old assumptions are crumbling; hard work in school no longer guarantees a secure, well-paying job in the future. Far from equating to riches and fulfilment, 'work' increasingly means precarity, anxiety and alienation. Amelia Horgan poses three big questions: what is work? How does it harm us? And what can we do about it? Along the way, she explores the many facets of work under capitalism: its encroachment on our personal lives; the proliferation of temporary and zero-hours contracts; burnout; and how different jobs are gendered or racialized. While abolishing work altogether is not the answer, Lost in Work shows that when workers are able to take control of their workplaces, they become less miserable, and even open doors allowing them to fight back against the elite. Amelia Horgan is a writer and researcher. She has written for various publications including Tribune, the Guardian and VICE. Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Work’s fantasy Two kinds of unfreedom Wanting work 1. Work, capitalism and capitalist work A stitch in time; the history of garment manufacturing Free and forced work; the dynamics of capitalism History and myths 2. Contesting ‘work’ The hidden abode’s hidden abode The housework debates The fight for legal recognition Work’s conceptual creep 3. The paradox of new work ‘New work’ Measuring changes things: neoliberalism and perverse incentives The experience of ‘New Work’ 4. What does work do to us as individuals? Control and the illusion of choice ‘Good work’ Work, inequality, and shame 5. Jobification nation: When play is serious business The cult of continuous improvement Identity curation and social media The false promise of education 6. What does work do to society? Shared lives, isolated worlds Work, class and status Jobs for the girls Nature’s work 7. Phantoms and slackers: Resistance at work A taxonomy of slacking off Workers, Monitored What are we resisting? 8. Getting together: Organised labour and the workers’ dream Strength in numbers From defence to hope When we snap 9. Time off: Resistance to work Family realism Care chains Conclusion: Getting to work