The Obsolescence of Labour? Philosophical-Political Reflections on Contemporary Manifestations of Labour

Abstract

The coordinates of contemporary labour are in continuous and rapid transformation. On the one hand, precariousness and flexibility are watchwords in today’s labour policies. On the other hand, the encroachment of working time into living time, as well as the accelerated platformisation and automation of workplaces, leads us to reflect on the issue of human dignity and freedom. Already in the middle of the last century, the philosopher of technique Günther Anders questioned whether the obsolescence of the human being does also concern the obsolescence of labour. In fact, he had already foreseen how contemporary workers are unfree not only because they are excluded from the ownership of “their” means of production or products, but because they do not overlook the whole of the production context in which they are integrated. At the same time, workers do not know the end product and its meaning - these remain “transcendent” issues. Against this background, we intend to discuss the extent to which the traditional concept of labour is obsolete through the analysis of its fundamental coordinates: space, time and relations. The main purpose will be to highlight risks and perplexities regarding the new dimension of labour. This will be done through the interpretative lens of political philosophy but without excluding transdisciplinary and intersectional insights.