Prelims

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A World Beyond Work?

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SocietyNow

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Endorsements

Praise for A World Beyond Work?

A World Beyond Work? is one of the great books of our generation. The future of work and the notion of basic income are topics on which every active citizen must form a view. Too often, these topics are discussed by referring to money and the state in an untheorised and, ultimately, naïve way. Dinerstein and Pitts avoid these pitfalls by drawing on the work of Marx. Political issues and issues in the social sciences compete for attention and, sometimes, have an ephemeral feel. A World Beyond Work? is different. It is a landmark. We shall be consulting Dinerstein and Pitts for years.

–Richard Gunn, co-founder of open Marxism

As we look towards building the economic order of the twenty-first century, post-capitalist and post-work visions capture the interest of many across the left and beyond. Dinerstein and Pitts undertake the necessary work of taking this stance seriously, offering a balanced, dense, thoughtful and enriching critique.

–Alessandro Gandini, University of Milan

This is a timely and important book. In it, Dinerstein and Pitts carefully dissect loose arguments that automation and basic income necessarily promise a better future. Their theoretical and empirical rigour offer a vital corrective to misplaced and uncritical hope and invite scholars and activists to think carefully about the demands they are making, how, and why.

–Neil Howard, University of Bath

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein and Frederick Harry Pitts' book is a fundamental contribution to the debate on post-capitalist utopias. The coronavirus crisis has accelerated the morbid symptoms of austerity-driven capitalism, and we must develop new strategies to escape the increasingly authoritarian trends of nation-states. A World Beyond Work offers a blueprint ready to develop a future against and beyond capitalism. This will be an essential read for the next decade.

–Mònica Clua Losada, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

With an insightful combination of theoretical debates on political economy, the State and social change, this book offers a perceptive debunking of political practice today for a new radical horizon, this book is a must read in these dire times.

–Mariano Féliz, National University of La Plata

This book offers a scholarly contribution to studies of value, work, (un)employment, and social movements in the twenty-first Century. This is also a book about hope and creativity at a time of narrow horizons and bleak pessimism. It brings to us a world with new possibilities of freedom. Dinerstein and Pitts point to new pathways to this world – pathways broader than postwar social democracy, more radical than the traditional communist parties, and carefully attuned to our own times of overlapping crises of profitability, living standards, health and the environment. A must!

–Alfredo Saad-Filho, King's College London

This is a ground-breaking contribution to debates about the future of work, mechanisation and social reproduction. Anyone interested in these themes – and particularly the highly topical issue of universal basic income – should read Dinerstein's and Pitts' powerful critique. The authors offer a vital antidote to the technological utopianism widespread on the left today.

–Adrian Wilding, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

The book provides a sustained critique of the notion that we are on the verge of a post-work society, where the travails of wage labour will be overcome by a fully automated production process, underpinned by a universal basic income. Grounded in Karl Marx's value theory of labour, the authors argue human emancipation cannot be dependent on state handouts; but, rather, on the everyday prefigurative struggles of grassroots social movements. Study this book.

–Mike Neary, Emeritus professor, University of Lincoln

Discussing the world to come is essential, but even more important is where we stand to enter this important debate. This book offers an open Marxist critique of the post-capitalist UBI and automation-based utopia by placing ‘uncomfortable' categories (value, money, state, and class struggle) at the center of the analysis to comprehend the contradictory dynamics and emancipatory power of concrete struggles (utopias) against the world of money.

–Luciana Ghiotto, University of San Martin

A World Beyond Work? is a spirited and rigorous counter argument to the pro UBI Post-Work Prospectus school. The careful ways in which Dinerstein and Pitts have mobilised open Marxist theory, contemporary left politics and case studies of social movements within and outside the UK makes this book both intellectually and politically powerful. Written in pre COVID times, it will be a must read for Marxist and non-Marxist scholars of work in years to come.

–Maud Perrier, University of Bristol

Title Page

A World Beyond Work?

Labour, Money and the Capitalist State between Crisis and Utopia

by

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein

University of Bath

and

Frederick Harry Pitts

University of Bristol

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Copyright © 2021 Ana Cecilia Dinerstein and Frederick Harry Pitts.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78769-146-9 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-143-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-145-2 (Epub)

Dedication

For Elsie, Nico and Owain

About the Authors

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein is Reader in Sociology at University of Bath. Her publications include The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The Art of Organising Hope (Palgrave, 2015), Social Sciences for An-Other Politics: Women Theorising without Parachutes (Editor, Palgrave, 2016), and Open Marxism 4: Against a Closing World (Editor, Pluto Press, 2019).

Frederick Harry Pitts is Lecturer in Work, Organisation & Public Policy at University of Bristol School of Management. He is author of Value (Polity, 2020), Corbynism: A Critical Approach (Emerald, 2018) and Critiquing Capitalism Today: New Ways to Read Marx (Palgrave, 2017), and co-edits Futures of Work (Bristol University Press).