TY - JOUR
T1 - Notes on the Meaning of Work
T2 - Labor, Work, and Action in the 21st Century
AU - Fayard, Anne Laure
N1 - Funding Information:
This essay was originally presented in the sub-theme ?Reflections on the New World of Work? at EGOS, July 2-4, 2015, Athens, Greece. I would like to thank the organizers and participants of the sub-themes. I would also like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. I am also grateful to Amy Wrzesniewski, Manos Gkeredakis and Anca Metiu for their suggestions on early versions of this manuscript. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Part of the research discussed here was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation NSF VOSS [Grant 1122381].
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - There is growing evidence that the nature of work is evolving, with the emergence of new forms such as open innovation and crowdsourcing, freelancing and the gig economy and artificial intelligence, and robotics. Debates about the consequences of these changes are flourishing. However, it seems that what work means for different protagonists varies. This essay proposes to explore how philosophers have thought about work to analyze recent empirical phenomena. It combines Hannah Arendt’s distinction between labor, work, and action with Nancy Harding’s distinction between labor and work to investigate activities that might or might not be described as work. It examines two technology-enabled platforms representative of the “gig economy”: on-demand mobile workforce and crowdsourcing for innovation. More broadly, in this time of constant change, tracing conceptual boundaries between different human activities allows us to reveal the social and political implications of new activities described as work.
AB - There is growing evidence that the nature of work is evolving, with the emergence of new forms such as open innovation and crowdsourcing, freelancing and the gig economy and artificial intelligence, and robotics. Debates about the consequences of these changes are flourishing. However, it seems that what work means for different protagonists varies. This essay proposes to explore how philosophers have thought about work to analyze recent empirical phenomena. It combines Hannah Arendt’s distinction between labor, work, and action with Nancy Harding’s distinction between labor and work to investigate activities that might or might not be described as work. It examines two technology-enabled platforms representative of the “gig economy”: on-demand mobile workforce and crowdsourcing for innovation. More broadly, in this time of constant change, tracing conceptual boundaries between different human activities allows us to reveal the social and political implications of new activities described as work.
KW - philosophy of science
KW - qualitative research
KW - quality of work life
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U2 - 10.1177/1056492619841705
DO - 10.1177/1056492619841705
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065747810
VL - 30
SP - 207
EP - 220
JO - Journal of Management Inquiry
JF - Journal of Management Inquiry
SN - 1056-4926
IS - 2
ER -