The Work and Thought Library publishes titles that put the Dopolavoro programme in a theoretical and research context and publishes titles that contribute to understanding work in contemporary society through different perspectives. Thus, the work seeks to be understood through its historical role and in relation to other basic social activities such as exchange, it seeks to contribute to the understanding of work by problematising the relationship of work with technology, education, and social organisation. The library is also an introduction to the Dopolavoro Conference: Social Change, New Technologies and the Future of Work, where most of the authors published in the library have their presentations.
Vivek Chibber: Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital (2019)
In his book, Vivek Chibber (IN) analyses capitalism as a system whose main determinants are the socialisation of work and the private appropriation of surplus-value, and opposes the essentialisation of cultural and social differences between the East and the West, explaining how capitalism can be effectively integrated with different social and cultural institutions.
Ankica Čakardić: Specters of Transition – A Social History of Capitalism (2019)
The book is a blend of social philosophy, social theory and history. It analyses the occurrence and source of the early so-called “agrarian capitalism” through a Marxist analysis of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, through the works of Hobbes and Locke in which the theoretical affirmation of capitalism comes to light. Ankica Čakardić (HR) finally offers a proposal for a Marxist-feminist analysis of agrarian capitalism.
Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (2020)
In the book Postcapitalism and a World Without Work, authors Nick Srnicek (CA) and Alex Williams (UK) address the question of how we shape our future today as crises change, and politics withers and retreats in the face of technological, economic, and social change. The book offers a diagnosis of how and why we lost the ability to create a better future, and offers a look at an alternative policy, one that seeks to shape the future and create a more modern world than capitalism allows.
James Bridle: A New Dark Age (2019)
A New Dark Age by James Bridle (UK) provides an overview of art history, technology and information systems and argues that today’s approach to understanding the world is based on the belief that our existence is understood in a computerised way and that having more information is sufficient enough to understand it. In reality, however, we are lost in a sea of information; we are increasingly separated by fundamentalisms, simplified narratives, conspiracy theories, and fact-less politics. We are briefly living in a new dark age.
Deborah Cowen: The Deadly Life of Logistics – Mapping Violence in Global Trade (2019)
This book is about how the seemingly banal and technocratic management of the movement of things through space has become the driving force of war and commerce. Deborah Cowen (CA) explores how the military art of moving things has gradually become not only the umbrella science of business management but also perhaps the central theoretical discipline of the modern world, and how logistics transforms not only the geographies of production and distribution and security and war, but also our political relations with the world and ourselves, and therefore civic practices.
Bernard Stiegler: Automated Society – The Future of Work (2020)
Bernard Stiegler (FR) analyses the impact of automation on social organisation and proposes to separate the concepts of work and employment, with the ultimate goal of completely erasing the concept of employment from our vocabulary. The disappearance of the notion at the heart of social organisation has far-reaching consequences for the organisation of economic life, and that is precisely the theme of this book.
Kojin Karatani: The Structure of World History (2020)
The book brings about a change in the paradigm of world history observation as the focus shifts from modes of production to modes of exchange. The book deals with the various forms of exchange, based on reciprocity, redistribution and the market, and how they have evolved over different historical periods. Finally, the possibility of forming a new type of exchange which Kojin Karatani (JP) bases on Kant’s considerations of eternal peace is considered.
David Graeber: Bullshit Jobs (2020)
The book deals with the meaningless and socially harmful jobs that exist in our society. David Graeber (US) identifies five types of meaningless jobs to which entire occupational groups belong, accounting for almost half of all jobs in society. The book exposes the psychological destructiveness of performing such tasks due to the fact that the work ethic dominates self-esteem.