Comic · Palgrave Macmillan

Simone Weil on Work, Oppression, and Emancipation

Critical Perspectives

This book makes a powerful case for returning to Simone Weil to reflect on the philosophy of work today. In the age of the Anthropocene, of AI, of automation, and of the crisis of meaning, this volume argues that we must think of work as something that is much more than an economic activity done for a wage. The problem of work, this volume argues, is thoroughly political. The book examines the meaning and organization of labour and the forms of oppression and suffering it can entail, from 1930s factories to the jobs of our contemporary world. It also explores the modes of attention and emancipation that are possible at work. Placing Weil in conversation with other thinkers (e.g. Marx, Fanon, Tronti, Bataille, Graeber), contributors analyze the challenges and possibilities of transforming work into a dignified activity.