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Problem With Work, The: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, And Postwork Imaginaries (2013)

by Kathi Weeks(Favorite Author)
4.05 of 5 Votes: 3
ISBN
1306120446 (ISBN13: 9781306120449)
languge
English
genre
publisher
World Scientific Publishing Company
review 1: While I'm sympathetic to the idea that there are a lot of problems with work and its centrality to most people's lives, the very high level of abstraction of the writing was an impediment to my getting into this. Doesn't really discuss any jobs in specific (is being an associate professor of women's studies at Duke, like the author, a bad job? if so, how and why? If not, then what sorts of jobs in particular are we talking about? ones with low autonomy? low wages?).I guess I've lost my touch since college in being able to read closely enough to figure out the meaning when it's page after page of highly theoretical social/cultural/political discourse not really anchored in anything from everyday life. Here's one example from p. 88, in which she is criticizing someone ... moreelse's critique of work:"Despite the importance of these authors' critique of unsustainable patterns of consumption and their interrogation of a commodity fetishism that functions to deflect questions about the relationship between consumer goods and the conditions under which they are produced, the link the authors affirm between support of productivism and opposition to consumerism reiterates one of the central tenets of the traditional work ethic."I sort of get that -- she's saying the other author is trying to shoot down traditional work ethic but actually misguidedly supports it. But long passages in that turgid style make my mind wander, which isn't conducive to getting more out of it.
review 2: Kathi Weeks tackles a lot of hard and frequently overlooked issues in this book. Her strongest analysis and critique come into play when she focuses on the secularization of the protestant work ethic and its ties to feminist labor activism and modern ways of life. Reading this book was laborious yet exciting; it challenged some of my deepest framings and beliefs. However, the race analysis in this book is glaringly lacking and, when present, tenuous at best. less
Reviews (see all)
matty53
Reads like a PhD thesis from the 90s.
jess
work sucks, I know
hamjuice
331.2 W395 2011
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