Future of work or future without work: from Marx to contemporary thinkers
Keywords:
future of work, social reproduction work, work automation, work humanization, work abolition, post-work, anti-workAbstract
This text attempts to present and critically analyze two prevailing Neo-Marxist schools of thought on the future of work, that derive from Marx’s ambivalent attitude toward work and the role of technology in society. Contemporary thinking on the future of work is split between its humanization and overcoming alienation in a capitalist society on one side, and anti-work and post-work theoretical perspectives that propose its abolition through automation and technological innovations introduced by capitalism on the other. A two-way evolution of the Marxist thought on the future of work will be presented in relation to the growing usage of digital technologies and the development of artificial intelligence, while the disagreement between the two schools of thought won’t be seen as a setback, but the focus will be shifted towards their joint contribution to reexamining the concept of work in social theory and political practice. The question about the future of work will also be analyzed through the lens of gender, in order to draw attention to the position of the social reproduction work and the risk of it being perceived as a highly ethical and authentic form of work that does not require reorganization. An anthropological perspective that emphasizes the link between human communities and work, not in order to project the future society, but to examine the transformation of the concept of work in relation to social, economic, and political frames, that is, at the intersection of neoliberalism and the development of new technologies in the contemporary context, will also be taken into consideration. By analyzing the future of work through different paradigms, we are called to open a new chapter in social theory that will serve as inspiration for future political demands that would lead the society out of the capitalist system.
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