Manufacturing Dissent Since 1996
New interviews throughout the week

On life and work under the lifework regime - and maybe one day beyond it.

Mar 16 2020
We've seen the security of your job breaking down, while simultaneously the amount of you that can be put to work is greatly expanded. It's a combination of new kinds of insecurity setting into our general lives, just at the same time more and more of us can be monetized. Of course a Silicon Valley entrepreneur would tell you it's a great thing that you can be using a side-hustle, you can be camming on Snapchat or selling on eBay every hour of the day - it's very rarely you who is going to be seeing the benefit of that.

Mareile Pfannebecker and J. A. Smith examine the realities of life swallowed by labor in the neoliberal era - as we spend more time working for other people (at work, on our phones) for less and less, the lines between work and not-work blur enough to see a future beyond the capitalist machine.

Mareile and J. A. are authors of Work, Want, Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism from Zed Books.

 

Guest

J.A. Smith

James A. Smith is a lecturer in the English department at Royal Holloway, University of London.

 

Guest

Mareile Pfannebecker

Mareile Pfannebecker is a writer and translator based in Manchester.

 

Related Interviews
Kate Wagner
Jun 13 2023

McMansions: American Apocalypse

Claire Provost
May 16 2023

How Corporations Overthrew Democracy

Esme von Hoffman
Jan 9 2023

Not All Crypto Bros / Esmé von Hoffman

Jodi Dean
Oct 17 2022

Whither the Left / Jodi Dean

Lyndsie Bourgon
Oct 3 2022

Tree Thieves / Lyndise Bourgon