Essay 1 Critically assess the contention that we should refuse work. PDF

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Critically assess the contention that we should refuse work. ...

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2520939 Critically assess the contention that we should refuse work.

The term ‘work’ can be described as being engaged in some form of physical or mental activity in order to achieve a result; do work. Work can also be looked at as something that describes everyday tasks that need to be undertaken, therefore this would be described as work, as you would logically be ‘working’ to get something done, this shows why work is seen as an ambiguous term, as there are many different meanings for this one term. Money is not always exchanged when work is being completed, however in most cases a monetary reward is usually put in place for people who have an ‘occupation’. Studies throughout time have shown that work has existed for many years as it has been the sole purpose of survival, examples of these include hunting, gathering and shelter building. People argue that even animals such as lions ‘work’ as they must go out, spot their prey, chase and pin it down before he can peacefully feed himself, and he must do this every day, as survival is the main goal. If the lion were to sit around and do nothing worthwhile, he would not be fed. Hence why, we as human beings, from the poorest man to the richest, must leave their house every day and work to not only earn, but also feed their family. Working is seen as a social norm in everyday society, however, Paul Lafargue and ‘autonomists’ has advocated the term ‘refusal of work’. This is when an individual refuses regular employment.

Work has been a part of society for a large number of years, human civilisation has been built on work, even before human civilisation emerged, the role of labour and the development of different kinds of tools have been the main principal to our evolution from the more primitive primates. Work is deemed as important to society as it is known to create morale and create a sense of living for some people. It allows individuals to build relationships and socialise with people they never thought they would. The main question is, why do people work? Individuals find themselves asking this question. The quick answer to this would-be money, (Vernon 2008) explains that 1“Even if work is a financial necessity, its impact will be felt far more deeply than in the bank. Work accrues meaning to itself. The meaning you derive from work is worth pursuing”. This has been researched by psychoanalysis Slavoj Žižek, as he believes that this raises one possibility, which is cleaning, so this can relate to housework. He believes that people find work surprisingly enjoyable as it perhaps, unconsciously, satisfies the need to keep the ever-intruding mess of life at bay. He understands that work is 2“the ego bringing superego-like order to libidinal chaos, as the straight furrows of the ploughed field bring symmetry to a wild stretch of land” (IVernon 2008). This tells us that most of life is not amenable to this tidying, so where it is, in the small tasks we are asked to do throughout the

11 Vernon, M. (2008) 42. Oxford: Oneworld 22 Vernon, M. (2008) 42. Oxford: Oneworld 1

2520939 years as a living brings a profound sense of contentment. It is built into our minds that work is there as a feature to structure us in different ways such as our personal and social identity, family and social bonds and building our self-esteem and self-confidence. However, the refusal of work is a term introduced that makes some people question whether or not work is actually important and necessary. There is much more to the term ‘the refusal of work’ than individuals saying that they do not want to work and going through with this. There is a much bigger background behind this. In basic terms the refusal of work argues that the time has come to challenge the work centred nature of society. People argue that jobs are an expression of our creativity and selves. (Frayne 2015) explains that 3“work has increasingly spiked its demands into our home, drawing upon our emotions and personalities to an extent never before seen or tolerated. As the ethic of hard work tightens its grip once again, employability becomes the motivating force of our ambitions, interactions and education system”. This tells us that work has become our main interest as individuals and it has taken over our lives in a way as it is all we think about and what we rely on the most to allow us to live our lives as it is deemed as our only form of income. There are many other reasons why people refuse work. Individuals feel like they are not getting to ‘live’ and ‘experience life’ therefore they do not want to waste their lives way by working in a job everyday where they may earn a wage that doesn’t even benefit them in any way. This links into there being a high work stigma, this being that there is too much attachment to work. By this I mean that people get too emotionally invested and can overwork themselves, which leaves them with no social life and can be a risk to their mental state. (Vernon 2008) states 4“how many people routinely collapse from office exhaustion at the end of every day? How many drink away their wages on a Friday night, because their work is drudgery? Their work may well have no meaning: rather, it has become a palliative to unhappiness or boredom”. People do not want to work as they do not want to live their life this way. Also, there is so much work out there that is low paid, therefore individuals don’t want to live in a work poverty setting. ‘Work poverty’ is defined as 5“individuals living in households where the household income is below the poverty threshold despite one member of the household working either full or part time”. it

33 Frayne, D. (2015) The refusal of work. Zed Books. 4

Vernon, M. (2008) 42. Oxford: Oneworld.

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Anonymous (2018) In work poverty | Employability in Scotland. Employabilityinscotland.com. Available: http://www.employabilityinscotland.com/barriers/poverty/what-you-should-know-about-tacklingpoverty/poverty-and-employment/in-work-poverty/ [Accessed: 16 October 2018]. 6

Anonymous (2018) Feminism and the Refusal of Work: An Interview with Kathi Weeks. Versobooks.com. Available: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3400-feminism-and-the-refusal-of-work-an-interview-withkathi-weeks [Accessed: 16 October 2018].

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2520939 is known that the poverty threshold is defined as under 60% of the average household income, and this is before housing costs.

There is a lot of thought around why the refusal of work may be a benefit to society in terms of individuals and also different groups of individuals, for example, feminists. Marxism focuses a lot on the feminist analysis of gendered forms of both waged and unwaged work. on Kathi Weeks is an individual who sees herself as a Marxist and believes that 6“the refusal of work is important politically because I believe that work and the relations of (re)production are profoundly meaningful sites of political consciousness and contestation”. Weeks understands that the wage system isn’t working for almost everyone and that feminists have realised that refusing domestic work is a far more difficult project with a chance of more far-reaching effects. The gender division of labour is powerful when looking at gender differences and inequalities surrounding work, this is due to there being a large gender divide when looking at childcare for example. The refusal of work allows feminists to have a vitally important line of critical analysis and agenda for political practice. As said above. Feminists believe that we need to take account for both unwaged and waged work, therefore if they refuse work that is domestic, it is more difficult and has more drastic effects as this has an effect on the entire organisation of work and life.

Not everyone agrees with the refusal of work. There have been things put in place to try and forbid this from happening. The universal basic income is a payment which comes from the government that is put in place to cover the costs of living for everyone. This is given to everyone no matter what their work status is or how much they earn. People believe this has been introduced to help create circumstances for democracy and also for self-government. People believe it could break the link between income and employment. Women are seen as major benefits to this policy. This is because of the burden of care and the unequal domestic division of labour. One of the main advantages of this policy would be that, because it is given to everybody, it would be a beneficial way of ensuring that nobody is left struggling to afford to live, therefore making money situations fair for everyone. However, there is a chance that this idea could undermine work-based society and may dissolve the link between work and ‘paid employment’. Therefore, people could still take advantage of this policy, and still decide to refuse work. There has been a lot of interest regarding this income policy. This is because people are starting to believe that technology is taking over our labour jobs which is leaving people unemployed. This makes people believe they should refuse work, because with all of these advances and progression in technology, there’s a possibility It can decrease the amount of human labour actually needed. There is also more ideology that goes against the refusal of work.

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2520939 Glucksman’s notion of the ‘Total Social Organisation of Labour’ studies how there is a denied difference between work and employment and wanting a more inclusive understanding of work through various socio-economic forms and looking at non-work. This approach wants to attempt to fade the ‘blurry line’ that falls between work and ‘non-work’ that exist in a variety of socio-economic spaces. Work is seen by a lot of individuals as important. The key project of the utopian struggle for communism is reconceptualising what work is and how we can do it. They understand that individuals demand meaningful jobs, not jobs that make people spend their days off in misery thinking about having to go back to work. This is possible however the problem is that the capitalist class cannot organise their system in any other way. However, it is important to examine the case of why work is important. The Marxist idea of work is a lot more hopeful than the ideas that some postmodernists have. Derrida believed 7“that all work was automatically alienating, despite the social conditions in which it happened. From a socialist perspective, our work doesn’t have to be alienating; it can be transformed and brought back into alignment with our humanity. It can emerge as an organic and natural component of who we are, a complement to our other natural desire – to relax and enjoy our leisure”. This shows that maybe work is somewhat important and that we need to begin to acknowledge the importance of work in the development of our civilisation. Doing this will allow us to overcome the thought that work is an ‘unhealthy’ thing and that we can actually live in a non-alienating work-relationship society.

To conclude, I believe that there are some strong points for and against it, however I believe that work plays an extremely important part in society, whether it being waged or unwaged. I think that, after having looked at all of this research, that the refusal of work is not something that I, myself would agree with, there are some valid points such as how work can be seen as alienating and taking over people’s lives, however I think that we as individuals can make work less horrible for ourselves by having a healthy mind-set.

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Anonymous (2018) The Importance of Work. The Occupied Times. Available:

https://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=11498 [Accessed: 17 October 2018].

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Anonymous (2018) Feminism and the Refusal of Work: An Interview with Kathi Weeks. Versobooks.com. Available: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3400-feminism-andthe-refusal-of-work-an-interview-with-kathi-weeks [Accessed: 16 October 2018].

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Anonymous (2018) Futures of Work ~ The refusal of work: Past, Present and Future. Futuresofwork.co.uk. Available: https://futuresofwork.co.uk/2018/09/05/the-refusalof-work-past-present-and-future/ [Accessed: 17 October 2018].

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Anonymous (2018) Inworkproject.eu. Available: http://www.inworkproject.eu/toolbox/images/pdf/Why%20is%20work%20important.pdf [Accessed: 9 October 2018].

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Anonymous (2018) In work poverty | Employability in Scotland. Employabilityinscotland.com. Available: http://www.employabilityinscotland.com/barriers/poverty/what-you-shouldknow-about-tackling-poverty/poverty-and-employment/in-work-poverty/ [Accessed: 16 October 2018].

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Anonymous (2018) Libcom.org. Available: https://libcom.org/files/the-problem-with-work_feminism-marxism-kathi-weeks.pdf [Accessed: 17 October 2018].

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Anonymous (2018) Review: ‘The Refusal of Work’, by David Frayne | Financial Times. Ft.com. Available: https://www.ft.com/content/46ae5d52-8f80-11e5-a549-b89a1dfede9b [Accessed: 17 October 2018].

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Anonymous (2018) The Importance of Work. The Occupied Times. Available: https://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=11498 [Accessed: 9 October 2018].

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Frayne, D. (2015) The refusal of work. Zed Books.

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Ruccio, D. (2018) Utopia and work. Real-World Economics Review Blog. Available: https://rwer.wordpress.com/2018/06/20/utopia-and-work/ [Accessed: 17 October 2018].

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Vernon, M. (2008) 42. Oxford: Oneworld.

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