Post-Work as Political Thought: Establishing and Questioning the Boundaries of a Tradition

Room – Roscoe 2.4

Ben Turner (Queen Mary University of London); Jonjo Brady (Queen Mary University of London)

Post-work ideas have generated considerable attention over the last decade. Whilst automation has driven numerous concerns surrounding the future of employment, it has also inspired utopian visions of a world where work is radically reduced and in which individuals have greater freedom to pursue flourishing beyond the workplace. Whilst some of these proposals have arisen from political theory, much of post-work thought is situated within cognate disciplines or is aimed towards a wider, public readership. Consequently, the place of post-work within political theory is currently unclear. This workshop interrogates the significance of post-work within political thought and aims to give shape to future political theory within and related to post-work thought.

It does so by asking three questions. First, what claims characterise post-work political theory, do they form a coherent tradition, and what distinguishes the political theory of post-work from other approaches to work in the discipline? Post-work may be seen to consist of a tightly defined set of positions, but it may also be understood as a loose constellation of views related to work that might not formally be considered as ‘post-work.’ The prevailing narrative ascribed to post-work is pursuit of the radical reduction of working time through automation, but it also encompasses a range of other concepts and policies that can be separated from the automation thesis, including the critique of the work society, basic income and new forms of public ownership. The primary aim of this workshop is to interrogate the boundaries of post-work and to explore whether it represents a distinct space within the wider political theory of work.

Second, does post-work rest on a distinct canon of authors and texts? Whilst post-work is usually associated with recent claims about automation, a range of authors used the label of post-work prior to the turn of the millennium. Moreover, post-work thinkers draw heavily on a range of other theorists and schools of thought, including but not limited to Keynes, Gorz, Italian Autonomism, Anti-Work thought, the Wages for Housework Movement, social reproduction theory, and Degrowth economics. The secondary aim of this workshop is to explore and understand how these and other intellectual trajectories shape post-work political thought, as well as their bearing on the relevance of post-work discourse today.

Third, does post-work theory have significance for political theory beyond the topic of work? Many post-work ideas rely on explicit or implicit claims regarding the concepts of obligation, legitimacy, equality, distribution, justice and autonomy insofar as they concern work. Some of these discussions might represent innovation within the discipline, influencing debates beyond work. The tertiary aim of this workshop is to explore post-work’s wider significance.