Synopses & Reviews
Mass unemployment re-emerged as a public issue during the late 1980s. Yet for twenty years a chronic lack of jobs has been increasingly accepted as an early symptom of the "post industrial society"--a future with permanently high levels of unemployment. Jocelyn Pixley's book is a reappraisal of the employment debate. It asks whether there is an alternative to wage labor that does not undermine citizen rights and finds, from the various OECD governments that have already pursued this post-industrial strategy, that there is none. Citizenship and Employment blends a range of theoretical, historical and sociological approaches to a contentious issue facing all capitalist societies.
Review
"Provocative reading." Choice
Synopsis
A reappraisal of the employment debate, blending a range of theoretical, historical, and sociological approaches to contentious issues facing all capitalist societies.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: developing a case against 'alternative work'; Part I. Breaking the Nexus on Theory: 2. The post-industrial strategy: alternatives to wage labour as policy?; 3. The cash/work nexus: past struggles, same problems?; 4. Challenging the employment system: the counter culture and reforming governments; Part II. Alternatives in Practice: 5. Guaranteed income schemes: the success of the 'backlash'; 6. State promotion of communes: austerity and alternative lifestyles; 7. Worker cooperatives: as supply-side 'solutions' to paid work; Part III. Citizens and Work: 8. Dole-work and 'acceptable levels' of unemployment: rights for citizens and duties for the rest; 9. The politics of full employment versus the separation of income from work; 10. Participation, work and social movements: the defences against the State; 11. Conclusion: in place of post-industrial dreams.