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After Work

A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time
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( 545 ratings, 100 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
After Work by Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek explores the evolving concepts of work, questioning the necessity of current jobs and advocating for a move towards more equitable and sustainable future employment practices. The authors propose potential solutions for a post-work society, aiming to reduce the dominance of traditional work structures and enhance the quality of life through automation and collective welfare.
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Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you are intrigued by the future of work and how technology could reshape our lives and educational systems. It explores critical discussions around the balance between automation and human labour, offering fresh perspectives on what post-work societies might look like.

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A vital and timely manifestol for a feminist post-work politics

A vital and timely manifestol for a feminist post-work politics

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Does it ever feel like you have no free time? You come home after work and instead of finding a space of rest and relaxation, you're confronted by a pile of new tasks to complete—cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids, and so on.

In this ground-breaking book, After Work, Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek lay out how unpaid work in our homes has come to take up an ever-increasing portion of our lives—how the vacuum of free time has been taken up by vacuuming. Examining the history of the home over the past century—from running water to white goods to smart homes—they show how repeated efforts to reduce the burden of this work have faced a variety of barriers, challenges, and reversals.

Charting the trajectory of our domestic spaces over the past century, Hester and Srnicek consider new possibilities for the future, uncovering the abandoned ideas of anti-housework visionaries and sketching out a path towards real free time for all, where everyone is at liberty to pursue their passions, or do nothing at all. It will require rethinking our living arrangements, our expectations, and our cities.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

After Work by Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek is praised for its incisive critique of society's current work model and its vision for a future beyond traditional employment structures. The book explores the potential for technological advancements to reduce work and the burdens of domestic labour, particularly in single-family settings. It also invites readers to question the nature of work, advocating for more freedom and less drudgery. Reviewers appreciate its thorough research, thought-provoking arguments, and clear writing style, making it a stimulating read for those interested in social change and economic reform.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781786633071

Publisher: Verso Books

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 18 July 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Verso Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 366g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Helen Hester is Professor of Gender, Technology and Cultural Politics at the University of West London. Her research interests include technofeminism, social reproduction, and theories of work, and she's a member of the international working group Laboria Cuboniks. Her books include Beyond Explicit: Pornography and the Displacement of Sex (SUNY Press, 2014), Xenofeminism (Polity, 2018), and Post-Work (Bloomsbury, forthcoming, with Will Stronge).

Nick Srnicek is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Economy at King's College London. He is the author of Platform Capitalism (Polity, 2016) and Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (Verso, 2015 with Alex Williams).

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