The mirage of the end of work

Will technological progress lead to a world without work? The debate on the ‘end of work’ is currently climbing back up the news agenda following a number of alarmist forecasts about the number of jobs that will be destroyed by digitalisation. The technological optimism underlying these forecasts is somewhat naïve, however, and ignores the societal dimensions inherent to the spread of innovations. It also reveals a simplistic understanding of work itself, which is more than simply a set of tasks that could be performed (to a greater or lesser extent) by intelligent machines. Work is the product of organisational choices and power relations, and it provides individuals with a place in the society in which they live and recognition by its members; this means that thinking about the work of tomorrow also means thinking about its importance for society at the individual and collective levels. Finally, technology is less likely to replace work than to move it elsewhere – not only up or down the links of the relevant value chain, but also among occupations and among employment statuses. What we need to worry about is not a world without work, but a world where employment relations have withered away