Abstract
This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.
The paper discusses the question of the cultural meaning of work in postindustrial societies and pleads for a wider anthropological perspective on this topic. Based on a critique of postmodern discourses of our society it will be shown that work in our individualistic society still has a central and positive meaning although it underlies the typical ambivalence of modernity between liberty and discipline. Prejudices against the unemployed, just as the memories and experiences of workers in a mining community, show a positive attitude towards work. Even under unfavourable conditions people develop specific and creative ways to organize work that refer to more than just the necessity of subsistence.
Publisher Notes
- This article was previously published by Museum Tusculanum Press.