Critique of work
Critique of work or critique of labour is the critique of, and/or wish to abolish, work as such, and to critique what the critics of works deem wage slavery.[1][2][3]
Critique of work can be existential, and focus on how labour can be and/or feel meaningless, and stands in the way for self-realisation.[1][4][3] But the critique of work can also highlight how excessive work may cause harm to nature, the productivity of society, and/or society itself.[5][6][7] The critique of work can also take on a more utilitarian character, in which work simply stands in the way for human happiness as well as health.[8][2][1][9]
Contemporary era[edit]
David Graeber[edit]
The anthropologist David Graeber has written about bullshit jobs, which are jobs that are meaningless and do not contribute anything worthwhile, or even damage society.[14] Graeber also claims that bullshit jobs are often not the worst paid ones.[15]
The bullshit-jobs can include tasks like these:[16]
In art[edit]
The Swedish Public Freedom Service is a conceptual art project which has been running since 2014, promoting an anti-work message.[35] One of the artists involved argued in relationship to the project that "changes in the last 200 years or so have always been shifts in power, while not much that is fundamental to the construction of society has changed. We are largely marinated in the belief that wage labour must be central."[36]