The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries

Kathi Weeks

ISBN 10: 0822351129 / ISBN 13: 9780822351122

Published by Duke University Press, 2011

About this Item

2011. Paperback. Challenges the presupposition that work, or waged labour, is inherently a social and political good Series: A John Hope Franklin Center Book. Num Pages: 304 pages. BIC Classification: JFFK; JHBL; JPFC. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 154 x 236 x 18. Weight in Grams: 424. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780822351122

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822351129
• ISBN 13: 9780822351122
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In The Problem with Work, Kathi Weeks boldly challenges the presupposition that work, or waged labor, is inherently a social and political good. While progressive political movements, including the Marxist and feminist movements, have fought for equal pay, better work conditions, and the recognition of unpaid work as a valued form of labor, even they have tended to accept work as a naturalized or inevitable activity. Weeks argues that in taking work as a given, we have “depoliticized” it, or removed it from the realm of political critique. Employment is now largely privatized, and work-based activism in the United States has atrophied. We have accepted waged work as the primary mechanism for income distribution, as an ethical obligation, and as a means of defining ourselves and others as social and political subjects. Taking up Marxist and feminist critiques, Weeks proposes a postwork society that would allow people to be productive and creative rather than relentlessly bound to the employment relation. Work, she contends, is a legitimate, even crucial, subject for political theory.

About the Author

Kathi Weeks is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at Duke University. She is the author of Constituting Feminist Subjects and a co-editor of The Jameson Reader.