Futureworkers may be interested in this review essay by Alan Wolfe from the
September/October issue of American Prospect. In the article, Wolfe
discusses works by Daniel Bell, Shirley Burgraf, David Gordon, Arlie
Hochschild, John Hood, Benjamin Hunnicutt, Sanford Jacoby, Robert Lane,
Myron Magnet, Edmund Phelps, Jeremy Rifkin, William Julius Wilson and Robert
Wuthnow.
http://epn.org/prospect/34/34wolfnf.html
"The debate over the moral meaning of work begins with an argument about
whether work is basically degrading or ennobling. Is work, as Herbert
Marcuse argued in Eros and Civilization, such a restraint on people's
capacities for freedom that, in a future utopia, it would become the
exception and leisure the rule? Or has work, as Daniel Bell wrote in The End
of Ideology, "always stood at the center of moral consciousness" in the
West-either as a corrective to idleness in Christian doctrine, or as a
necessity for genuine humanity in the ideas of Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey,
or Hannah Arendt?
"Prompted by such developments as the globalization of capitalism, corporate
downsizing, welfare reform, considerations of gender equality, and the
appeal of voluntarism, the United States is experiencing a revival of debate
over the moral meaning of work. Unlike many debates, this one is not between
left and right; one can find enthusiasts for, and critics of, work on both
sides of the political spectrum. It makes more sense to understand the
debate as one between moderates who appreciate work for encouraging people's
moral capacities but also seek to enrich it and balance it with other
commitments, and those who find work oppressive and stultifying. Liberals
and conservatives who maintain the latter disagree only over whether the
demise of work should be celebrated in the name of freedom or its extension
encouraged in the name of discipline."
http://epn.org/prospect/34/34wolfnf.html
Regards,
Tom Walker
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#408 1035 Pacific St.
Vancouver, B.C.
V6E 4G7
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(604) 669-3286
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
