New Cultures of Work
“New Cultures of Work” invites students to rethink the modern compulsion to produce. This course begins with a survey of socialist, feminist, and black radical critiques of work. We then move on to consider flashpoints of historical struggle within distinct paradigms of capitalism: from the industrial revolution to deindustrialization and neoliberalism, and finally, our own uncertain present. In the final weeks, we look at recent debates around creative work, care work, and “fully automated luxury communism.”
Course materials include (1) empirical studies and testimonials; (2) theoretical analysis and interpretation; and (3) depictions in popular, experimental, and documentary film. Performance is evaluated through ten reading responses, one reading report, and a final essay.
Week 1
Introduction
- screening: Harun Farocki, Workers Leaving the Factory (1995)
Week 2
The Capitalist Division of Labor
- Adam Smith, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
- Karl Marx, from Capital: A critique of political economy, volume 1 (1867)
- screening: Robert Greene, Bisbee ’17 (2018), part 1
Weeks 3 – 5
Machines, Discipline, and the Wage
- Gavin Mueller, from Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites are right about why you hate your job (2021)
- screening: Robert Greene, Bisbee ’17 (2018), part 2
- Harry Braverman, from Labor and Monopoly Capital: The degradation of work in the twentieth century (1974)
- screening: Graham Chedd, People's Century: On the line (1995)
- John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity” (1963)
- Karen Brodine, “Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking” (1990)
- Leslie Feinberg, from Transgender Warriors (1996)
Weeks 6 – 7
Unwaged Work and Structural Unemployment
- Ruth Schwartz Cowan, “The ‘Industrial Revolution’ in the Home: Household technology and social change in the twentieth century” (1983)
- Adrian Forty, from Objects of Desire: Design and society since 1750 (1986)
- screening: William Asher, I Love Lucy season 2 episode 1 (1952)
- James Boggs, from The American Revolution: Pages from a negro worker’s notebook (1963)
- Eldridge Cleaver, “On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party” (1969)
- screening: Lichtman, Gessner, and Bird with the LRBW, Finally Got the News (1970)
Week 8
Anti- and Post-Work Politics
- Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, antiwork politics and postwork imaginaries (2011)
- screening: Bill Clinton and Lillie Harden, “Announcement on Welfare Reform” (1996)
Weeks 9 – 11
Working Lives
- Paul Willis, from Learning to Labour: How working-class kids get working-class jobs (1977)
- screening: Paul Arnold, Seven Up! (1964); Michael Apted, from 21 Up! (1977)
- Jennifer Silva, from Coming Up Short: Working-class adulthood in an age of uncertainty (2013)
- Angela McRobbie, “‘Everyone is Creative’: Artists as New Economy pioneers?” (2013)
- screening: Jean-Luc Godard, Tout Va Bien (1972), part 1
- Endnotes, “Sleep-Worker’s Enquiry” (2010)
- Molly Osberg, “Inside The Barista Class” (2014)
- Elastico Gomez, “We Are, All of Us, Machines: How to work at Amazon” (2019)
- screening: Jean-Luc Godard, Tout Va Bien (1972), part 2
Weeks 12 – 14
Technology, Precarity, and the Future of Work
- Jason Smith, from Smart Machines and Service Work: Automation in an age of stagnation (2020)
- Aaron Bastani, from Fully Automated Luxury Communism (2019)
- Aaron Benanav, from Automation and the Future of Work (2020)
- screening: Andrew Norman Wilson, Workers Leaving the Googleplex (2011)
- Precarious Workers’ Brigade, from Training for Exploitation? Politicising employability and reclaiming education (2017)
- Silvio Lorusso, from Entreprecariat: Everyone is an Entrepreneur. Nobody is Safe. (2019)
See my essay on this course under Writing.