The Brave New World of Work

In the The Brave New World of Work, Ulrich Beck argues that the work society as we've known it is coming to an end. More and more people are ousted from their jobs by smart technologies. In the United States, all the but the highest-level workers are now unsure of their jobs and incomes. The idea of middle-class security is eroding, and so -- Beck believes they are related -- is worker enthusiasm for democratic practices like voting. Work here and in much of the West is increasingly resembling labor patterns in the Third World -- fluid, part-time, entrepeneurial, free-lance, self-directed. The idea of the "job for life" has disappeared, temporarily creating a political economy of insecurity. Down the road, he argues, this new kind of work society may actually be good for the world, creating a new kind of civil transnationalism, and enhancing our freedom and our civic lives. The Brave New World of Work author Ulrich Beck pages 202 publisher Polity Press rating 8/10 reviewer Jon Katz ISBN 0-7456-2398-0 summary The end of the work society

Beck has written a surprising and provocative book about how working is changing radically under our very noses with little serious discussion in our media or political communities. We see stories all the time about employment rates, but most people have little or no sense of the radical changes affecting the nature of work.

Work has become unstable throughout the modern world, writes Beck, a professor of sociology at the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich. Skills can be suddenly devalued, jobs obliterated, social and welfare safety nets eroded. Companies merge, collapse, form and reform, often at the expense of their workers.

Fear and economic insecurity prevail among the middle-class majority as well as the underclass, writes Beck. "The United States is the only advanced country where productivity has constantly risen over the past twenty years, while the income of most of its citizens (eight out of ten) has either stagnated or declined. The average weekly earnings of 80 per cent of Americans in gainful employment dropped by roughly 18 per cent between l973 and l995, he reports, from $315 to $258 a week. At the same time, the real income of top managers soared by 19 per cent in just ten years between 1979 and 1989.

As entire industries rise or fall, as firms expand, shrink, separate, "downsize" and restructure, employees at all but the highest levels must go to work each day without knowing whether they will have their jobs or for how long. The newly unstable work society leads to the erosion of the middle-class and in our collective interest in civics. According to Beck, decline in civic participation and voting is directly tied to the decline of work society, which he says is closely linked to worker attitudes about democracy.

Is this all bleak? No, according to Beck. Although the loss of work security creates a temporary loss of security and social capital, he believes that down the road, this individuality and freedom -- much of it empowered by the same technology that has eroded work security -- will create a new kind of global citizen, one who is better informed, more communicative and civically-involved than before. He foresees a more inclusive kind of transnational society, with less nationalism and provincialism. The alternative facing the world is either collapse or political self-renewal, and he foresees the latter.

It's an interesting look at a subject that will affect almost every single American whose lives are being shaped by powerful technological forces they sense but don't quite understand. Work is a critical subject, and technology is changing it. In Brave New World of Work Beck helps us understand how and gives us some sense of how the new workplace might affect our futures.

You can purchase Brave New World of Work at Fatbrain.

Comments

Sounds Familiar

[The Cat]

This is nothing new. It has been apparent for years that many companies could care less about their employees. People who are quite good at their jobs (and well qualified) are casually fired as a matter of routine in the average workplace, while the hiring process has become the grandest production since Cecil B. DeMille.

Now, if only we employees could walk away from our mortgages and car payments the same way employers walk away from their employees. That would make things fair.

What's so special about work, anyway?

[CubicallyContained]

Why do we give so much importance to this concept called "work"? The only real laws that need to be addressed are the laws of physics, so work is purely a human social construction. So what if none of us has jobs and machines are doing everything? So what? Why is that a big deal? Work is merely a means to an end anyway, not an end in itself.

Any advanced alien civilization would look at us and find our troubles humorous. I certainly don't work for the sake of work -- I'm doing it precisely so I don't have to do it later. Life would be far grander if we could all focus on our hobbies and other true interests instead.

ALL Workers Are In for a Rude Surprise

[Louis Savain]

The inevitable course of technological progress is the displacement of all workers. The internet is speeding up the rate of progress in science exponentially. HAL-like intelligent machines are just around the corner. Don't be so cocky in thinking that your expertise is indispensable for ever.

All economic systems (communism, capitalism, etc...) based on human labor and competition (read: slavery) are about to become obsolete. There is only one solution: an estate-based system. Divide the land, not for a price, but for an inheritance. Or perish! The writing is on the wall. Brave new world indeed.