Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Work Want Work : Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism - Dr James Smith

Work Want Work

Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism

By: Dr James Smith, Mareile Pfannebecker

Hardcover | 15 March 2020

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $190.00

$167.99

12%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $42.00 with

 or 

Ships in 3 to 5 business days

Work Want Work considers in captivating detail how a logic of work has become integral to everything we do, even as the place of formal work has become increasingly precarious. With reference to sociological data, philosophy, political theory, legislation, the testimonies of workers and an eclectic mix of cultural texts â" from Lucian Freud to Google, Anthony Giddens to selfies, Jean-Luc Nancy to Amy Winehouse â" Pfannebecker and Smith lay out how the capitalism of globalized technologies has put our time, our subjectivities, our experiences and our desires to work in unprecedented ways.

As every part of life is colonized by work without securing our livelihoods, new questions need to be asked: whether a nostalgia for work can save us, how ideas of work change conceptions of political community, how employment and unemployment alike have become malemployment, and whether the work of our desire online can be disentangled from capitalist exploitation.

The biggest question, at a time when the end of work and a fully automated future are proclaimed by Silicon Valley idealists as well as by social democratic politicians and left-wing theorists, is this: how can we propose a post-work society and culture that we will actually want?

Industry Reviews
A fascinating review of the state of play - and work - in contemporary society. Pfannebecker and Smith have produced a little gem of an alternative future; stop "working" and read it! * Keith Grint, The University of Warwick *
Combining an unprecedented overview of contemporary paradoxes in the politics of anti-work with a fresh and sophisticated argument for a liberatory post-capitalist horizon predicated on sharing limits, Work, Want, Work is a marvellously compact, well-written, informative and thoughtful book. * Sophie Lewis, author of Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family *
Excellent - a much needed reflection on contemporary work from a quite different perspective. * Nik Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work *

More in Philosophy

How Lucky Am I : A Skeleton's Guide to Living Your Best Life - Christian Watson
Joyful, Anyway : Finding Delight in Impossible Times - Kate Bowler
The Beginning Comes After the End : Notes on a World of Change - Rebecca Solnit
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind : 50th Anniversary Edition - Shunryu Suzuki
Nineteen Eighty-Four : Collins Classics - George Orwell
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse - Charlie Mackesy

RRP $45.00

$31.75

29%
OFF
12 Rules for Life : Antidote to Chaos - Jordan B. Peterson

RRP $26.99

$21.99

19%
OFF
Ikigai : The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life - Hector Garcia
The Art Of War : Collins Classics - Sun Tzu
The Denial of Death - Ernest Becker

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World - William Dalrymple
Beginning to Live : The Art of Existential Freedom - Emmy van Deurzen
Collins Classics - The Republic : Collins Classics - Plato