Work want work : labour and desire at the end of capitalism

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 – from Lucian Freud to Google, Anthony Giddens to selfies, Jean-Luc Nancy to Amy Winehouse – 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? "The idea that not working can be an active, positive, even material quality is not new. The term désœuvrement, literally "unworking" or "the absence of work," has been examined by many thinkers, but it is it so simply achieved? Work Want Work considers in captivating detail how a logic of work has surreptitiously integrated itself into everything we do, even as the place of formal work has become dissipated and unreliable, and even as certain utopian writers are calling for its abolishment. Through an interrogation of sociological data, political theory, legislation, the testimonies of workers and an eclectic mix of cultural texts--from Lucian Freud to Google, Anthony Giddens to selfies, Jean-Luc Nancy to Amy Winehouse--Mareile Pfannebecker and James A. Smith lay out how capitalism has put our time, our subjectivities, our experiences, and our desires to work in unprecedented ways only possible on the basis of globalized technologies. But at a time where the end of work is proclaimed from so many corners, with Silicon Valley idealists, social democratic politicians, and left-wing theorists all anticipating a fully automated future, can we really prescribe what humanity and society will look like post-work?" --Amazon.com Front Cover -- Praise -- Half Title -- About the authors -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface: the putting to work of everything we do -- 1: Lifework -- On not being a baker -- Nostalgia for work -- What will we do in the post-work utopia? -- Literary communism -- 2: Work expulsions -- The end of unemployment -- 'I would prefer not to' -- Malemployment and disemployment -- 3: We Young-Girls -- Histories of the Young-Girl -- Amy or Peaches? -- The hard work of being a Young-Girl -- 4: Three ways to want things after capitalism How the logic of work has crept into everything we do, even as we articulate post-capitalist and post-work possibilities