Бесполезный труд: концепция Дэвида Грэбера

Abstract

David Graeber (1961–2020) presented his concept of rethinking the role of work in hu­man life and society. In science, the concepts of work are polarized with the predomi­nance of socio-economic views. The relevance of the researcher’s approach is due to the fact that he offers a value-semantic interpretation of the civilizational development of work, taking into account the changes of man and societies. The article gives an assess­ment of his social theory of work. Graeber devoted many of his books and articles to this phenomenon of human individual and collective life activity, in which he considers work and professions as useless for society and the individual himself, because they act only as a set of actions subordinate to some social force. An analysis of his views reveals several important areas within Graeber’s conception: 1) rethinking the role of work in human life and societies is possible on the basis of changes not only of an economic nature, but also on the basis of stratificational and socio-political changes; 2) work symbolizes the pay­ment by humanity of ephemeral debts accumulated over the course of civilizational de­velopment; 3) the bureaucratization of work increases its uselessness and limits the social will of the individual in the exercise of work functions and professional competencies. These features can be considered fundamental in understanding the thinker’s theory, since through all his works there is a refrain about the need to rethink key social values (work, money, finance, taxes, resources and others), the nature of which is determined not only by economic relations, but also by value-semantic ones. Thus, it is concluded that Grae­ber’s contribution to modern knowledge consists in his proposed new coordinate system for revaluing the role of work and labor relations in human existence.