Escaping the logic of work, with Mareile Pfannebecker

12/15/20 • 39 min

The co-author of ‘Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism’ on how the logic of work has crept into all we do, and how we might untangle ourselves. Will the Covid-19 pandemic offer a way out? Or will it simply increase the twin blights of under- and over-employment – not to mention our addiction to digital labour online?

For readers of David Graeber, Donna Haraway, Aaron Bastani, Paul Mason and David Frayne.
To support what we do and access more fresh thinking, why not subscribe to New Humanist magazine? Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON to get a whole year's subscription for just £13.50.
Presenters: Samira Shackle & Niki Seth-Smith
Producer: Alice Bloch
Music by Danosongs

Reading List:

Mareile Pfannebecker and James A. Smith (2020) 'Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism'
David Graeber (2018) 'Bullshit Jobs'
Aaron Bastani (2019) 'Fully Automated Luxury Capitalism'
Paul Mason (2019) 'Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being'
Tiqqun (1999/2012) 'Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl'
Donna Haraway (1985) 'A Cyborg Manifesto'
Sophie Lewis (2019) 'Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family'
New Humanist magazine (2019) 'Fighting for the Future' by Niki Seth-Smith

Reading List:

Mareile Pfannebecker and James A. Smith (2020) 'Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism'
David Graeber (2018) 'Bullshit Jobs'
Aaron Bastani (2019) 'Fully Automated Luxury Capitalism'
Paul Mason (2019) 'Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being'
Tiqqun (1999/2012) 'Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl'
Donna Haraway (1985) 'A Cyborg Manifesto'
Sophie Lewis (2019) 'Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family'
New Humanist magazine (2019) 'Fighting for the Future' by Niki Seth-Smith

Previous Episode

Sensuous knowledge and black feminism, with Minna Salami

Why do we value some forms of knowledge over others? Minna Salami discusses her bold new book ‘Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone’ and its radical call to move beyond the damaging confines of the ‘euro-patriarchal’ to embrace a deeper way of knowing.
A conversation on decolonisation, iconoclasm, sisterhood, sexism and gender. For readers of Audre Lorde, bell hooks, James Baldwin and W E B Du Bois.
Listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON.

Presenters: Alice Bloch & Samira Shackle
Producer: Alice Bloch
Music by Danosongs
Further reading:
- Minna Salami (2020) ‘Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone’
- Audre Lorde (1984) ‘The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House’
- Audre Lorde (1979) ‘An Open Letter to Mary Daly’
- Mary Daly (1978) ‘Gyn/Ecology’
- W E B Du Bois (1903) ‘The Souls of Black Folk’
- James Baldwin (1956) ‘Giovanni’s Room’
- Nikesh Shukla (ed) (2016) ‘The Good Immigrant’
- New Humanist magazine (2020) - Charting Black Lives in the Fin de Siecle, by Lola Okolosie

Next Episode

Looking back in anger at 'Cool Britannia' with Jason Arday

Looking back in anger at ‘Cool Britannia’ with Jason Arday

The 1990s are remembered for Britpop and New Labour. But it was also a time of inequality and racism. Sociologist and Oasis fan Jason Arday draws on his South London teenage years to interrogate the period from an ethnic minority perspective that has for too long been neglected.
A discussion about music and identity, inclusion and exclusion, racism and resistance. For readers of Reni Eddo-Lodge, Robin DiAngelo - and Oasis fans, too.
Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON
Presenters: Samira Shackle & Alice Bloch
Producer: Alice Bloch
Music by Danosongs
Reading/Listening List:

Jason Arday (2019) 'Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne Supernova'
Jason Arday & Heidi Mirza (2018) 'Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy'
bell hooks (2004) 'We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity'
Kimberle Crenshaw (2017) 'On Intersectionality : Essential Writings'
Skin (2020) It Takes Blood and Guts
Oasis (1994) Definitely Maybe
Lauryn Hill (1998) The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Bloc Party (2005) Silent Alarm