Filed under: ideas | Tags: article, economics, lifestyle, report, research, society, time, working
The link below connects to a recent report issues by the New Economics Foundation on how the value of work is calculated. It can be dowloaded in .pdf format, or ordered printed and bound.
Thank you for passing this my way, Monika!!
————————
This report takes a new approach to looking at the value of work. We go beyond how much different professions are paid to look at what they contribute to society. We use some of the principles and valuation techniques of Social Return on Investment analysis to quantify the social, environmental and economic value that these roles produce – or in some cases undermine.
* * *
Pay matters. How much you earn can determine your lifestyle, where you can afford to live, and your aspirations and status. But to what extent does what we get paid confer ‘worth’? Beyond a narrow notion of productivity, what impact does our work have on the rest of society, and do the financial rewards we receive correspond to this? Do those that get more contribute more to society?
Our report tells the story of six different jobs. We have chosen jobs from across the private and public sectors and deliberately chosen ones that illustrate the problem. Three are low paid – a hospital cleaner, a recycling plant worker and a childcare worker. The others are highly paid – a City banker, an advertising executive and a tax accountant. We examined the contributions they make to society, and found that, in this case, it was the lower paid jobs which involved more valuable work.
The report goes on to challenge ten of the most enduring myths surrounding pay and work. People who earn more don’t necessarily work harder than those who earn less. The private sector is not necessarily more efficient than the public sector. And high salaries don’t necessarily reflect talent.
The report offers a series of policy recommendations that would reduce the inequality between different incomes and reconnect salaries with the value of work.
* * *
Filed under: activism, artists, contemporary art, ideas, interactive, videos | Tags: activism, art, contemporary art, ideas, lifestyle, other exhibitions, overwork, social, society, technology, time, videos, work, working
Every day the same dream — you are late for work
A short existential game about alienation and refusal of labour. Or, if you prefer, a playable music video. Created by Molleindustria, an entity that aims to reappropriate video games as a popular form of mass communication. Their objective is to investigate the persuasive potentials of the medium by subverting mainstream video gaming clichè (and possibly have fun in the process).
Check it out here: http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html
Filed under: events, ideas, interactive | Tags: economics, event, lifestyle, overwork, rights, society, time, work, working
Oh really? Well, that’s quite an interesting point from which to commence a debate on this subject.
Click here to read Professor Robert J. Gordon’s defence of this motion and John de Graaf’s rebuttal. John O’Sullivan moderates and citizens of the interwebs are welcome to contribute their comments, as well.
As of day two, 18% of people logging in to The Economist’s website have voted in favour of the motion, and 82% have voted in opposition. Gee… I can’t really say I’m surprised 
Check it out! http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/160
Filed under: ideas | Tags: ideas, lecture, lifestyle, rights, society, technology, text, time, work
Thanks Monika!
* * *
Transcribed from a lecture presented at The New School on October 9, 2009, sociologist Andrew Ross weighs the gains of a digital paradigm in terms of labor. On the one hand, active, digitally-networked societies offer information-rich public goods that can bolster creativity and politically progressive organizing. However, the
virtue of ‘openness’ uncritically extolled by technolibertarians must be considered against its sacrificial costs—the loss of rights for creative producers who are tempted by the prospect of aesthetic recognition, the outsourcing of labor to unsustainable workplace conditions, the corporate monetization of social participation on the web, and the transference of labor from manufacturers to consumers that help create a paradigm of perennial work without rest. Ross’ insight considers a range of perspectives that implicate a vertically and horizontally stratified megalopolis such as New York City.
http://wherewearenow.org/vol1/change/on-the-digital-labor-question/
Filed under: events, ideas, interactive | Tags: artists, event, ideas, other events, society
Reposted from e-flux via CCS Bard…
A series of talks…
Wyoming Evenings: What is the Good of Work? (1/4)
What is the good of work? How and why did the sixties and seventies vision of a future defined by leisure change into the reality of an exhausting life of increasingly purposeless work? What are the implications of the shift from a Fordist model of production to a post-Fordist one? Why is work valorized in contemporary society? What happened to the radical potential of labor? What can we learn by examining its various critiques, from those expressed in the Middle Ages and up through the strategies employed by the Situationists and others? Unemployment is becoming a reality for an increasing number of people. How might we think of unemployment as an artistic and philosophical category?
These questions will be examined during four events at the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building in the East Village. Each event will involve two guests–one artist and one cultural producer of another kind. Marysia Lewandowska and Peter Fleming will be the guests at the first event on October 17, 2009.
Marysia Lewandowska is a Polish-born, London-based artist and a Professor at Konstfack Stockholm. Her past and current projects reflect the ways in which institutions determine the exchange of values between art and its publics. She is currently developing Women’s Audio Archive as part of her residency at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
Peter Fleming is professor of Work, Organization and Society at the Queen Mary College (University of London). One of his areas of research concerns the cultural politics of work organizations and the modes of ideological control that operate to enlist the participation of labor.
Events to follow in this series:
December 5th, 2009. 4pm
Marion von Osten and Tom McCarthy
January 30th, 2010. 4pm
Liam Gillick and Gianni Vattimo
March 13th, 2010. 4pm
Carles Guerra and Michael Hardt
For more information: http://www.bard.edu/ccs/exhibitions/sites/exhibition.php?g=680534&type=1
Filed under: ideas, news articles | Tags: art, article, books, economics, event, ideas, installation, lifestyle, news articles, overwork, society, technology, work
A recent flurry of great blog suggestions have arrived from Monika, Abby, and electronic news lists at large. Rather than post each separately (the ongoing plight of overwork is driving me nuts!), I am summarizing the links here. All can be found at http://delicious.com/notimetolose, as well…
“The Long Work Hours Culture”
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=405651&encCode=917617571BC14249875JTBS737226611
Julia Bryan-Wilson, Art Workers. Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era, October 2009
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10899.php
The Vera List Centre for Art and Politics
Panel Discussion & Art Installation: Changing Labor Value
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
http://www.veralistcenter.org/237
But, oh my… the one from Abby on Family360 sounds especailly wacky!! I think I will post it separately… asap. :Shudder!:
Filed under: news articles | Tags: article, lifestyle, news articles, overwork, society, technology, time, work, working
Thanks for sending this along, Monika!
BlackBerrys ‘adding 15 hours’ to working week
Alan Jones, Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 August 2009 19.23 BST
Reposted from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/23/blackberry-work-life-balance
Staff with mobile technology such as BlackBerrys work an extra 15 hours a week as they constantly check emails even when out of the office, new research found today. A survey of more than 600 employees revealed many were turning into workaholics because of the ability to receive and send messages and work online even when they were at home. The employment law firm Peninsula said the working week was being extended to about 55 hours for many people and urged employers to make sure their staff were not breaching working time regulations. PA
• This article was amended on Tuesday 25 August 2009. We said the working day was being extended to about 55 hours for many people; we meant the working week. This has been corrected.
Filed under: news articles | Tags: article, issues, news articles, society, tragic, work, working
Reposted from: euro|topics 18/09/2009
La Vanguardia - Spain
Working life a source of insecurity
After several employees at telephone company France Télécom took their own lives in the last few months the daily La Vanguardia favours intervention by the French government aimed at making the process of privatising the company more humane: “The case of France Télécom certainly gives pause for reflection. No one denies that we are living in a competitive society, nor that the effort or ability to adapt to new challenges is vital for professional and entrepreneurial advance. But nor would anyone in their right mind deny that a revision of the labour policy at France Télécom is necessary. … Working life, which used to provide security nowadays generates insecurity. Therefore it is crucial to find a balance between the demands of a competitive society and public health. Cases like that of France Télécom should not be repeated.”
