The Utopian Socialists and the Critique of Capitalism: Sense and Senselessness in the Organisation of Labour

Abstract

This article deals with unemployment—one of the most pressing contemporary issues—and some related problems such as overwork, underemployment and working poor. It suggests that this issue is as old as capitalism and claims that some of the 19th-century debates on this issue are more illuminating than mainstream contemporary debates. The article shows that a proposal for an essential solution to unemployment and related issues may be advanced by looking at these 19th-century debates and argues that an essential solution requires the questioning of the logic of capital, namely the production for profit rather than the satisfaction of human needs.