Mercer, Samuel J.R. (2022) 'Social Labor' and the Marxist Critique of Work. Décalages, 2 (4). pp. 43-74.
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Abstract
This paper argues that when it comes to thinking about work and labor, Marxism experiences a continued difficulty in holding theory and politics together without reliance on the concept of "social labor": a humanist ideological concept which mystifies the role of social relations in explaining work under capitalism. The evidence for this is collected through a reading of a number of important contributions within the Marxist sociology of work. At its conclusion, the paper turns back to Althusser and his critique of work and ideology in order to point towards the framework for an alternative critique of work that makes a conceptual move away from humanist ideas of alienation and social labor, towards materialist notions of interpellation and social relations.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Louis Althusser; work; labor; theoretical anti-humanism; sociology; post-work |
| Faculty / Department: | Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Samuel Mercer |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Mar 2022 13:30 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Jan 2023 14:33 |
| URI: | https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3495 |
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