a plea to alter the character of labor | EUROtoday

It is an concept which has considerably “gained popularity in recent years”. The discount of working hours at present finds increasingly more defenders in Western nations.

The four-day week appeals to voices on each the left and the proper of the political spectrum. “It appears to be a lever for improving the quality of life”notes Julia Posca, Canadian sociologist and researcher on the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information, in her ebook Working much less shouldn’t be sufficient (Ecosociety). It even has, amongst its followers, employers wishing to strengthen their attractiveness, continues the writer, noting that “the wind seems to be turning”.

Throughout her work, the sociologist notes this rising enthusiasm, notes the a number of experiments carried out on the topic, whereas recalling that this motion goes within the course of historical past, working time persevering with a downward development for greater than a 12 months. century. Today we dedicate a mean of 67,000 hours of our lives to work, in comparison with round 200,000 hours at first of the twentieth century.^e century, she specifies, counting on the calculations of her counterpart Jean Viard.

The writer emphasizes {that a} new stage – a “generalized reduction in hours worked without loss of salary”which might be embodied by the transition to the four-day week – “would constitute an important social advance”. That being stated, and that is the entire level of her remarks, she believes that specializing in working time dangers distracting us from different points that are on the supply of the struggling and lack of which means of many workers.

Alternative fashions, corresponding to cooperatives

She subsequently requires going past the query of time spent within the workplace or within the manufacturing unit – “working less is not enough” – to take an curiosity in work in a way more systemic manner. Conditions and group of labor, distribution of energy, goal of duties completed… M^me Posca believes that it’s the nature of labor itself that should change, in order that it’s not “an inherently alienating experience”.

The researcher subsequently opposes to the present mannequin a utopia of labor “decommodified, democratized and depolluted”, ready, in his eyes, to revive which means to his actors. She thus calls, echoing sociologist Dominique Méda, to revive its place to “collective deliberation”in order that staff “reappropriates[nt] the flexibility to make financial choices ». This includes placing ahead various fashions, corresponding to cooperatives.

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