What’s Wrong with Work?

by Lynne Pettinger

Why does work matter? As changes occur in how work is organised across the globe, What’s wrong with work shows that how workers are treated has wide implications beyond the lives of workers themselves. Recognising gender, race, class and global differences, the book looks at three kinds of increasingly important work – green work, IT work and the ‘gig’ economy - within the context of the neoliberal society, the promises of technologisation and anticipated environmental catastrophe. It considers the ways formal work is often dependent on informal work, especially domestic work and care work. Accessible and engaging, it concludes by considering political and ethical questions in what might make work better, arguing that there is a collective responsibility to address bad work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 24, 2019

Reviews

[Salma · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, the most challenging part of the book is its complexity.

When Pettinger asks "What's wrong with work?" she unravels three other questions about how work is organised, how work is connected to other work, and what work does. By asking these questions, any work in the world has always been a starting point for understanding the relationship between people, the environment and capitalism at its daily core.

Although it will be challenging to grasp the idea, one of the great points Pettinger offer is her idea to merge ethics and care in every part of this book. Bringing 'feeling' into the labour discourse, as it connects the threads - in labour studies - that have been missing from most capitalocene dull studies.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5