Description
The book provides a comprehensive, critical overview of philosophical, social-scientific, and humanistic arguments about the design and desirability of “post-work” society. Its purpose is to clarify the concepts and theories that inform this debate by exploring the diversity of arguments from a wide range of perspectives about the meaning of a “post-work” future.
The book’s 12 chapters were written exclusively for the volume by an international team of researchers in philosophy, political science, gender studies, law, sociology, history, and engineering. They are organized into four larger sections:
I. Defining the “Post-Work” Debate
II. From Past to Future
III. The Value and Conditions of Work vs. Post-Work
IV. The Politics and Justice of Post-Work
After a general introduction and then an initial round-table discussion among four leading theorists, the book explores topics like work as an evolving social invention, the possible effects of a shorter work week and UBI, automation, climate change, and the roles of Marxism, capitalism, and democracy in a post-work future.
Table of Contents
Introduction; I. Defining the “Post-Work” Debate: 1. Envisioning the Post-Work World: A Roundtable Conversation; II. From Past to Future: 2. A History of Work as Lived Experience; 3. The Post-work Imagination; 4. Climate Change, Automation, and the Viability of a Post-Work Future; III. The Value and Conditions of Work vs. Post-Work: 5. Self-Development and Shorter Working Hours; 6. Work and the Work Ethic: A Critique of Postwork Arguments; 7. What Is the Point of “Post-Work”? Withdrawing vs Transformative Conceptions; IV. The Politics and Justice of Post-Work: 8. Communism Should not be Post-Work; 9. Post-Work as Post-Capitalist: Economic Democracy for a Post-Work Future; 10. Get a Democratic Life: Politicizing Post-Work Critiques and Democratic Theory; 11. Post-Work and the Problem of Recognition: A Defence of Working Time Reduction; 12. How to Pay for a Post-Work World: Automation and Collective Property; Index.
