On Being at Work

Inspired by the work of the philosopher Judith Butler, influenced by Marx’s theory of alienation and intrigued by theories of death, this book develops an anti-methodological approach to studying working lives. Distinctions are drawn between labour (the tasks we do in our jobs) and work (self-making activities that are carried out at the workplace): between the less than human, zombie-like laborer and the working human self. Nancy Harding argues that the experience of being at work is one in which the insistence on practising one’s humanity always provides a counter-point to organisational demands.

Nancy Harding is Professor of Organization Theory at Bradford University School of Management. She is currently writing a series of books on the social construction of, respectively, the manager (Routledge, 2003), the employee (Routledge, 2013), and the organization (forthcoming).