Work and the Precarisation of Existence
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a new perspective on contemporary debates about the transformations of work and employment, and their impacts on individuals and communities, by focusing on the writings of Christophe Dejours.
Abstract: This article aims to present a new perspective on contemporary debates about the transformations of work and employment, and their impacts on individuals and communities, by focusing on the writings of Christophe Dejours. Basically, the article attempts to show that Dejours' writings make a significant contribution to contemporary social theory. This might seem like an odd claim to make, since Dejours' main training was in psychoanalysis and his main activity is the clinical, psychiatric study of pathologies linked to work. However, in the course of his career, Dejours has greatly extended this initial clinical interest, and by integrating insights from philosophy and other social sciences, has developed a highly sophisticated and consistent theoretical model of work. Starting from a narrow psychopathological focus, Dejours has gradually developed a full-blown theoretical defence of the centrality of work. The article outlines the main features of Dejours' metapsychological model, and the structuring role...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present some of the main features of the centrality of work within the framework of the "psychodynamic" approach to work developed by Christophe Dejours and argue that we should distinguish between four separate but related ways in which work can be said to be central: psychologically, in terms of gender relations, social-politically and epistemically.
Abstract: This article briefly presents some of the main features of the notion of "centrality of work" within the framework of the "psychodynamic" approach to work developed by Christophe Dejours The paper argues that we should distinguish between at least four separate but related ways in which work can be said to be central: psychologically, in terms of gender relations, social-politically and epistemically
108 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the ethical framing of employment in contemporary human resource management (HRM) is examined using Axel Honneth's theory of recognition and classical critical notions of reification.
Abstract: This article examines the ethical framing of employment in contemporary human resource management (HRM). Using Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition and classical critical notions of reification, I contrast recognition and reifying stances on labor. The recognition approach embeds work in its emotive and social particularity, positively affirming the basic dignity of social actors. Reifying views, by contrast, exhibit a forgetfulness of recognition, removing action from its existential and social moorings, and imagining workers as bundles of discrete resources or capacities. After discussing why reification is a problem, I stress that recognition and reification embody different ethical standpoints with regards to organizational practices. Thus, I argue paradoxically that many current HRM best practices can be maintained while cultivating an attitude of recognition. If reification is a type of forgetting, cultivating a recognition attitude involves processes of “remembering” to foster work relations that reinforce employee dignity.
66 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the theme of l'evaluation a partir de l'analyse du travail proposee en psychodynamique du travisail is aborde le theme de l’evaluation.
Abstract: Cet article aborde le theme de l’evaluation a partir de l’analyse du travail proposee en psychodynamique du travail. L’analyse des situations de travail et de la maniere dont l’experience du travail determine l’etablissement du rapport au reel permet de developper une conception critique des fondements de l’evaluation. A partir de la reference a la dynamique de la reconnaissance du travail et de ses effets sur l’identite, les auteurs proposent plusieurs arguments en faveur de la centralite subjective du travail. Ils expliquent enfin en quoi cette these permet de remettre en cause les pratiques d’evaluation individualisee et quantitative du travail a partir de l’exemple de la dynamique de la reconnaissance.
60 citations
Additional excerpts
...…reconnaissance du travail sont donc essentiellement déterminées par l’importance du réel dans l’expérience humaine, parce que le travail consiste précisément à dépasser la résistance du réel grâce à l’expérience du corps, qui se fait connaître sur le mode premier de la souffrance (Deranty, 2008)....
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01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a method to improve the accuracy of 6.8×6.8.0.0% and 6.5×5.8% respectively.
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58 citations
Posted Content•
01 Jan 2012TL;DR: In this paper, the ethical framing of employment in contemporary human resource management (HRM) is examined using Axel Honneth's theory of recognition and classical critical notions of reification.
Abstract: This article examines the ethical framing of employment in contemporary human resource management (HRM). Using Axel Honneth's theory of recognition and classical critical notions of reification, I contrast recognition and reifying stances on labor. The recognition approach embeds work in its emotive and social particu-larity, positively affirming the basic dignity of social actors. Reifying views, by contrast, exhibit a forgetfulness of recognition, removing action from its existential and social moorings, and imagining workers as bundles of discrete resources or capacities. After discussing why reification is a problem, I stress that recognition and reifi-cation embody different ethical standpoints with regards to organizational practices. Thus, I argue paradoxically that many current HRM best practices can be maintained while cultivating an attitude of recognition. If reification is a type of forgetting, cultivating a recognition attitude involves processes of ''remembering'' to foster work relations that reinforce employee dignity.
52 citations
Cites background from "Work and the Precarisation of Exist..."
...Increasingly, scholars have noted increased workforce fragmentation, resulting from increases in temporary, contingent, or precarious forms of work (Kalleberg, 2009), and the psychological costs associated with such changes (Deranty, 2008)....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 1893
TL;DR: In this paper, Durkheim's Life and Work: Timeline 1858-1917- Suggestions for Further Reading- Original Translator's Note- The Division of Labour in Society by Emile Durkhere- Preface to the First Edition (1893) - Preface and introduction to the Second Edition (1902) - Introduction - Part I: The Method of Determining This Function - Part II: THE CAUSES and CONDITIONS- 8 The Progress of the Division of labour and of Happiness- 9 The Causes- 10 Secondary Factors- 11
Abstract: Preface to this edition, by Steven Lukes- Introduction to the 1984 edition, by Lewis Coser- Introduction to this edition, by Steven Lukes- Durkheim's Life and Work: Timeline 1858-1917- Suggestions for Further Reading- Original Translator's Note- The Division of Labour in Society by Emile Durkheim- Preface to the First Edition (1893) - Preface to the Second Edition (1902) - Introduction - PART I: THE FUNCTION OF THE DIVISION OF LABOUR- 1 The Method of Determining This Function - 2 Mechanical Solidarity, or Solidarity by Similarities- 3 Solidarity Arising from the Division of Labour, or Organic Solidarity- 4 Another Proof of the Preceding Theory- 5 The Increasing Preponderance of Organic: Solidarity and its Consequences- 6 The Increasing Preponderance of Organic: Solidarity and its Consequences (cont)- 7 Organic Solidarity and Contractual Solidarity- PART II: THE CAUSES AND CONDITIONS- 8 The Progress of the Division of Labour and of Happiness- 9 The Causes- 10 Secondary Factors- 11 Secondary Factors (cont)- 12 Consequences of the Foregoing- PART III: THE ABNORMAL FORMS- 13 The Anomic Division of Labour- 14 The Forced Division of Labour- 15 Another Abnormal Form- Conclusion- Original Annotated Table of Contents
3,010 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1820
TL;DR: A Chronology Translator's preface Key to abbreviations Elements of the philosophy of right Editorial notes Glossary Select bibliography Index of subjects Index of names as discussed by the authors and a list of names.
Abstract: Editor's introduction Chronology Translator's preface Key to abbreviations Elements of the philosophy of right Editorial notes Glossary Select bibliography Index of subjects Index of names.
1,401 citations
"Work and the Precarisation of Exist..." refers background in this paper
...In this, he can be said to pursue a line in social theory that runs from Hegel (1991) to Honneth (2007b), via Durkheim (1984), for whom the main medium of social integration is cooperation through the division of labour....
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...This was in a sense the historical realization of the Hegelian ‘corporation’ as the place ensuring the well-being of the individual, and, on the basis of this basic social insurance, his or her ethical life (Hegel, 1991: 272)....
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Book•
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: The sociologist Richard Sennett surveys major differences between earlier forms of industrial capitalism and the more global, more febrile, ever more mutable version of capitalism that is taking its place.
Abstract: A provocative and disturbing look at the ways new economic facts are shaping our personal and social values. The distinguished sociologist Richard Sennett surveys major differences between earlier forms of industrial capitalism and the more global, more febrile, ever more mutable version of capitalism that is taking its place. He shows how these changes affect everyday life-how the work ethic is changing; how new beliefs about merit and talent displace old values of craftsmanship and achievement; how what Sennett calls "the specter of uselessness" haunts professionals as well as manual workers; how the boundary between consumption and politics is dissolving. In recent years, reformers of both private and public institutions have preached that flexible, global corporations provide a model of freedom for individuals, unlike the experience of fixed and static bureaucracies Max Weber once called an "iron cage." Sennett argues that, in banishing old ills, the new-economy model has created new social and emotional traumas. Only a certain kind of human being can prosper in unstable, fragmentary institutions: the culture of the new capitalism demands an ideal self oriented to the short term, focused on potential ability rather than accomplishment, willing to discount or abandon past experience. In a concluding section, Sennett examines a more durable form of self hood, and what practical initiatives could counter the pernicious effects of "reform."
1,354 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1972
TL;DR: The Hidden Injuries of Class as discussed by the authors examines the internal, emotionally hurtful forms of class difference in America now becoming visible with the advent of the “affluent” society and concludes that true egalitarianism can be achieved only by rediscovering diverse concepts of human dignity to substitute for the rigidly uniform scale against which Americans are now forced to judge one another.
Abstract: This book deals with class not as a matter of dollars or statistics but as a matter of emotions. Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb isolate the “hidden signals of class” through which today’s blue-collar worker measures his own value against those lives and occupations to which our society attaches a special premium. The authors uncover and define the internal, emotionally hurtful forms of class difference in America now becoming visible with the advent of the “affluent” society. Perceiving our society as one that judges a human being against an arbitrary scale of “achievement,” that recognizes not a diversity of talents but a pyramid of them, and accords the world’s best welder less respect than the most mediocre doctor, the authors concentrate on the injurious game of “achievement” and self-justification that result. Examining intimate feelings in terms of a totality of human relations within and among classes and looking beyond, though never ignoring, the struggle for economic survival, The Hidden Injuries of Class takes a step forward in the sociological “critique of everyday life.” The authors are critical both of the claim that workers are melting into a homogenous society and of the attempt to “save” the worker for a revolutionary role along conventional socialist lines. They conclude that the games of hierarchical respect we currently play will end in a fratricide in which no class can emerge the victor; and that true egalitarianism can be achieved only by rediscovering diverse concepts of human dignity to substitute for the rigidly uniform scale against which Americans are now forced to judge one another- and validate themselves.
1,353 citations