نوشته‌های جامعه‌شناختی ۱

From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt —"a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate" ( Slate )—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs...and their consequences. Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs." It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society's most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. "Clever and charismatic" ( The New Yorker ), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and "a thought-provoking examination of our working lives" ( Financial Times ). Cover Praise Title Contents Dedication Preface: On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs 1. What Is a Bullshit Job? Why a Mafia Hit Man Is Not a Good Example of a Bullshit Job On the Importance of the Subjective Element, and Also, Why It Can Be Assumed That Those Who Believe They Have Bullshit Jobs Are Generally Correct On the Common Misconception That Bullshit Jobs Are Confined Largely to the Public Sector Why Hairdressers Are a Poor Example of a Bullshit Job On the Difference Between Partly Bullshit Jobs, Mostly Bullshit Jobs, and Purely and Entirely Bullshit Jobs 2. What Sorts of Bullshit Jobs Are There? The Five Major Varieties of Bullshit Jobs 1. What Flunkies Do 2. What Goons Do 3. What Duct Tapers Do 4. What Box Tickers Do 5. What Taskmasters Do On Complex Multiform Bullshit Jobs A Word on Second-Order Bullshit Jobs A Final Note, with a Brief Return to the Question: Is It Possible to Have a Bullshit Job and Not Know It? 3. Why Do Those in Bullshit Jobs Regularly Report Themselves Unhappy? About One Young Man Apparently Handed a Sinecure Who Nonetheless Found Himself Unable to Handle the Situation Concerning the Experience of Falseness and Purposelessness at the Core of Bullshit Jobs, and the Importance Now Felt of Conveying the Experience of Falseness and Purposelessness to Youth Why Many of Our Fundamental Assumptions on Human Motivation Appear to Be Incorrect A Brief Excursus on the History of Make-Work, and Particularly of the Concept of Buying Other People’s Time Concerning the Clash Between the Morality of Time and Natural Work Rhythms, and the Resentment It Creates 4. What Is It Like to Have a Bullshit Job? Why Having a Bullshit Job Is Not Always Necessarily That Bad On the Misery of Ambiguity and Forced Pretense On the Misery of Not Being a Cause On the Misery of Not Feeling Entitled to One’s Misery On the Misery of Knowing That One Is Doing Harm Coda: On the Effects of Bullshit Jobs on Human Creativity, and On Why Attempts to Assert Oneself Creatively or Politically Against Pointless Employment Might Be Considered a Form of Spiritual Warfare 5. Why Are Bullshit Jobs Proliferating? A Brief Excursus on Causality and the Nature of Sociological Explanation Sundry Notes on the Role of Government in Creating and Maintaining Bullshit Jobs Concerning Some False Explanations for the Rise of Bullshit Jobs Why the Financial Industry Might Be Considered a Paradigm for Bullshit Job Creation On Some Ways in Which the Current Form of Managerial Feudalism Resembles Classical Feudalism, and Other Ways in Which It Does Not How Managerial Feudalism Manifests Itself in the Creative Industries through an Endless Multiplication of Intermediary Executive Ranks Conclusion, with a Brief Return to the Question of Three Levels of Causation 6. Why Do We as a Society Not Object to the Growth of Pointless Employment? On the Impossibility of Developing an Absolute Measure of Value How Most People in Contemporary Society Do Accept the Notion of a Social Value That Can Be Distinguished from Economic Value, Even If It Is Very Difficult to Pin Down What It Is Concerning the Inverse Relationship Between the Social Value of Work and the Amount of Money One Is Likely to Be Paid for It On the Theological Roots of Our Attitudes Toward Labor On the Origins of the Northern European Notion of Paid Labor as Necessary to the Full Formation of an Adult Human Being How, with the Advent of Capitalism, Work Came to Be Seen in Many Quarters Either as a Means of Social Reform or Ultimately as a Virtue in Its Own Right, and How Laborers Countered by Embracing the Labor Theory of Value Concerning the Key Flaw in the Labor Theory of Value as It Became Popular in the Nineteenth Century, and How the Owners of Capital Exploited That Flaw How, over the Course of the Twentieth Century, Work Came to Be Increasingly Valued Primarily as a Form of Discipline and Self-Sacrifice 7. What Are the Political Effects of Bullshit Jobs, and Is There Anything That Can Be Done About This Situation? On How the Political Culture under Managerial Feudalism Comes to Be Maintained by a Balance of Resentments How the Current Crisis over Robotization Relates to the Larger Problem of Bullshit Jobs On the Political Ramifications of Bullshitization and Consequent Decline of Productivity in the Caring Sector as It Relates to the Possibility of a Revolt of the Caring Classes On Universal Basic Income as an Example of a Program That Might Begin to Detach Work from Compensation and Put an End to the Dilemmas Described in This Book Acknowledgments About the Author Notes Preface: On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs Chapter 1: What Is a Bullshit Job? Chapter 2: What Sorts of Bullshit Jobs Are There? Chapter 3: Why Do Those in Bullshit Jobs Regularly Report Themselves Unhappy? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 1) Chapter 4: What Is It Like to Have a Bullshit Job? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 2) Chapter 5: Why Are Bullshit Jobs Proliferating? Chapter 6: Why Do We as a Society Not Object to the Growth of Pointless Employment? Chapter 7: What Are the Political Effects of Bullshit Jobs, and Is There Anything That Can Be Done About This Situation? Bibliography Copyright Bullshit Jobs Preface: On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs What Is a Bullshit Job? why a mafia hit man is not a good example of a bullshit job on the importance of the subjective element, and also, why it can be assumed that those who believe they have bullshit jobs are generally correct on the common misconception that bullshit jobs are confined largely to the public sector why hairdressers are a poor example of a bullshit job on the difference between partly bullshit jobs, mostly bullshit jobs, and purely and entirely bullshit jobs What Sorts of Bullshit Jobs Are There? the five major varieties of bullshit jobs 1. what flunkies do 2. what goons do 3. what duct tapers do 4. what box tickers do 5. what taskmasters do on complex multiform bullshit jobs a word on second-order bullshit jobs a final note, with a brief return to the question: is it possible to have a bullshit job and not know it? Why Do Those in Bullshit Jobs Regularly Report Themselves Unhappy? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 1) about one young man apparently handed a sinecure who nonetheless found himself unable to handle the situation concerning the experience of falseness and purposelessness at the core of bullshit jobs, and the importance now felt of conveying the experience of falseness and purposelessness to youth why many of our fundamental assumptions on human motivation appear to be incorrect a brief excursus on the history of make-work and particularly of the concept of buying other people’s time concerning the clash between the morality of time and natural work rhythms, and the resentment it creates What Is It Like to Have a Bullshit Job? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 2) why having a bullshit job is not always necessarily that bad on the misery of ambiguity and forced pretense on the misery of not being a cause on the misery of not feeling entitled to one’s misery on the misery of knowing that one is doing harm coda: on the effects of bullshit jobs on human creativity, and on why attempts to assert oneself creatively or politically against pointless employment might be considered a form of spiritual warfare Why Are Bullshit Jobs Proliferating? a brief excursus on causality and the nature of sociological explanation sundry notes on the role of government in creating and maintaining bullshit jobs concerning some false explanations for the rise of bullshit jobs why the financial industry might be considered a paradigm for bullshit job creation on some ways in which the current form of managerial feudalism resembles classical feudalism, and other ways in which it does not how managerial feudalism manifests itself in the creative industries through an endless multiplication of intermediary executive ranks conclusion, with a brief return to the question of three levels of causation Why Do We as a Society Not Object to the Growth of Pointless Employment? on the impossibility of developing an absolute measure of value how most people in contemporary society do accept the notion of a social value that can be distinguished from economic value, even if it is very difficult to pin down what it is concerning the inverse relationship between the social value of work and the amount of money one is likely to be paid for it on the theological roots of our attitudes toward labor on the origins of the northern european notion of paid labor as necessary to the full formation of an adult human being how, with the advent of capitalism, work came to be seen in many quarters either as a means of social reform or ultimately as a virtue in its own right, and how laborers countered by embracing the labor theory of value concerning the key flaw in the labor theory of value as it became popular in the nineteenth century, and how the owners of capital exploited that flaw how, over the course of the twentieth century, work came to be increasingly valued primarily as a form of discipline and self-sacrifice What Are the Political Effects of Bullshit Jobs, and Is There Anything That Can Be Done About This Situation? on how the political culture under managerial feudalism comes to be maintained by a balance of resentments how the current crisis over robotization relates to the larger problem of bullshit jobs on the political ramifications of bullshitization and consequent decline of productivity in the caring sector as it relates to the possibility of a revolt of the caring classes on universal basic income as an example of a program that might begin to detach work from compensation and put an end to the dilemmas described in this book Acknowledgments About the Author Bibliography 'Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world?' David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative online essay titled On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs. He defined a bullshit job as 'a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence, even though as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.' After a million views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. . . . Graeber, in his singularly searing and illuminating style, identifies the five types of bullshit jobs and argues that when 1 percent of the population controls most of a society's wealth, they control what jobs are 'useful' and 'important.' . . . Graeber illustrates how nurses, bus drivers, musicians, and landscape gardeners provide true value, and what it says about us as a society when we look down upon them. Using arguments from some of the most revered political thinkers, philosophers, and scientists of our time, Graeber articulates the societal and political consequences of these bullshit jobs. Depression, anxiety, and a warped sense of our values are all dire concerns. He provides a blueprint to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture, providing the meaning and satisfaction we all crave.--Jacket. Preface: On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs -- What is a bullshit job? -- What sorts of bullshit jobs are there? -- Why do those in bullshit jobs regularly report themselves unhappy? -- What is it like to have a bullshit job? -- Why are bullshit jobs proliferating? -- Why do we as a society not object to the growth of pointless employment? -- What are the political effects of bullshit jobs, and is there anything that can be done about this situation? David Graeber. Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-333). " 'Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world?' David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative online essay titled On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs. He defined a bullshit job as 'a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence, even though as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.' After a million views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. . . . Graeber, in his singularly searing and illuminating style, identifies the five types of bullshit jobs and argues that when 1 percent of the population controls most of a society's wealth, they control what jobs are 'useful' and 'important.' . . . Graeber illustrates how nurses, bus drivers, musicians, and landscape gardeners provide true value, and what it says about us as a society when we look down upon them. Using arguments from some of the most revered political thinkers, philosophers, and scientists of our time, Graeber articulates the societal and political consequences of these bullshit jobs. Depression, anxiety, and a warped sense of our values are all dire concerns. He provides a blueprint to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture, providing the meaning and satisfaction we all crave."--Jacket "Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world?" David Graeber asked this question in an online essay titled On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs. He defined a bullshit job as 'a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence, even though as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.' After a million views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. Graeber identifies the five types of bullshit jobs and argues that when 1 percent of the population controls most of a society's wealth, they control what jobs are 'useful' and 'important.' Graeber illustrates how nurses, bus drivers, musicians, and landscape gardeners provide true value, and what it says about us as a society when we look down upon them. Using arguments from some of the most revered political thinkers, philosophers, and scientists of our time, Graeber articulates the societal and political consequences of these bullshit jobs. Depression, anxiety, and a warped sense of our values are all dire concerns. He provides a blueprint to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture, providing the meaning and satisfaction we all crave From bestselling writer David Graeber—"a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate" (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs...and their consequences.Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs." It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society's most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. "Clever and charismatic" (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and "a thought-provoking examination of our working lives" (Financial Times) From bestselling writer David Graeber, a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs, and their consequences. Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After a million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are millions of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation. Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber that argues the existence and societal harm of meaningless jobs. He contends that over half of societal work is pointless, which becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth. Graeber describes five types of bullshit jobs, in which workers pretend their role isn't as pointless or harmful as they know it to be: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters. He argues that the association of labor with virtuous suffering is recent in human history, and proposes universal basic income as a potential solution.