The Refusal of Work

The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work

David Frayne

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781783601202
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Relations de travail et relations industrielles

Paid work is absolutely central to the culture and politics of capitalist societies, yet today's work-centred world is becoming increasingly hostile to the human need for autonomy, spontaneity and community. The grim reality of a society in which some are overworked, whilst others are condemned to intermittent work and unemployment, is progressively more difficult to tolerate. In this thought-provoking book, David Frayne questions the central place of work in mainstream political visions of the future, laying bare the ways in which economic demands colonise our lives and priorities. Drawing on his original research into the lives of people who are actively resisting nine-to-five employment, Frayne asks what motivates these people to disconnect from work, whether or not their resistance is futile, and whether they might have the capacity to inspire an alternative form of development, based on a reduction and social redistribution of work. A crucial dissection of the work-centred nature of modern society and emerging resistance to it, The Refusal of Work is a bold call for a more humane and sustainable vision of social progress.

Index

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A

achievement, social, measured through work, 15

Adam, a former computer programmer, 120, 127–8, 138–41, 170, 180

Adorno, Theodor, 69–72, 75, 76–7, 162; ‘Free Time’, 69

advertising, 85–8, 171; spending of industry, 88

affluence, ideals of, 181

agoraphobia, 152, 153

Alan, a former office administrator, 157–8

alienating tendencies, use of term, 62

alienation, 9, 48, 50, 61, 62, 63, 90, 93, 126, 146, 178, 200, 230; in Marx, 46, 47; normalisation of, 52; use of term, 51

alternatives: experimenting in, 223; utopian, 145

altruism, 113

Amazon, working conditions at, 51

anger management techniques, 53

Anne, a photographer, 127, 170; co-founder of Idlers’ Alliance, 207–8

anti-consumerist ethics, 163

anxiety, 13, 148, 151, 152, 164, 200; about education, 79; in face of consumer choices, 168

apricots, cultivation of, 79

Arendt, Hannah, 24, 39

Aristotle, concept of good life, 4

art of living, 4

Ashton, John, 229

ATOS company, 104; scandal regarding, 152

autonomous activities, 20

autonomous self-development, 36; right of, 35

autonomously organised production, 112

autonomy, 10, 29, 64, 91, 113, 141, 142, 150, 198, 205, 210–37; in work, limits to, 61–6; moral, 155; of workers, 69

B

bakeries, pro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Author
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• INTRODUCTION: The Work Dogma
• ONE: A Provocation
• TWO: Working Pains
• THREE: The Colonising Power of Work
• FOUR: The Stronghold of Work
• FIVE: The Breaking Point
• SIX: Alternative Pleasures
• SEVEN: Half a Person
• EIGHT: From Escapism to Autonomy
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index