Work - A History of How We Spend Our Time

We live in a society where work defines who we are, what we do and who we spend our time with. But this wasn't always the case. For 95% of our history, our ancestors had a radically different view of its importance; hunter gatherers rarely worked more than fifteen hours per week.How did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? What are the social, economic and environmental consequences of a culture of work? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like?In this major book, James Suzman charts a natural and cultural history of work. Drawing on field work at the interface between hunter gatherer societies, simple agricultural societies and the industrialised world, and integrating new insights from epigenetics, ethology, genomics, social anthropology, economics and evolutionary theory, it challenges the way we think about work today - and shows why automation may be the key to unlocking a more sustainable future.

Report

As automation threatens to completely disrupt the global job market, it is urgent to rethink the economic, psychological and even spiritual importance of work. By examining the lives of hunter-gatherers, apes and even birds, Suzman highlights that what we consider "natural" is often just the questionable legacy of industrial gurus and agricultural religions. Knowing the history of how we have spent our time in the past will hopefully enable us to make more sensible choices in the future Yuval Noah Harari

Product details

• Authors: James Suzman
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2020
• EAN: 9781526605016
• ISBN: 978-1-5266-0501-6
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 235 mm x 40 mm
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business; Kulturanthropologie, HISTORY / Civilization, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Workplace Culture, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, Anthropologie / Kulturanthropologie, Arbeit (allgemein), Gesellschaft / Geschichte, Englische Bücher / Geschichte, Kulturgeschichte, Zeitgeschichte, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations, Office & workplace, Sociology: work & labour