The Ideology of Work

Samuel J.R. Mercer is a lecturer in social policy at Liverpool Hope University. He is a member of the editorial board of Rethinking Marxism and has published work in journals such as Economy and Society and Décalages.

Acknowledgements



Introduction: The Ideology of Work

 1 A Crisis of Marxism

 2 Structure of the Book



1 The Humanist Controversy

 1 Humanism as a Theoretical Problem

 2 Humanism as a Political Problem

 3 Anti-humanism after Althusser: The Spinozist Detour

 4 Anti-humanism after Althusser: The Hegelian/Lacanian Detour

 5 A Sociological Detour: Anti-humanism and Work

 6 Conclusion



2 The Concept of ‘Labour’ in Marx’s Critique of Political Economy

 1 Marx Explodes the Concept of ‘Labour’

 2 A ‘Politics of Labour’

 3 Labour and Ideology

 4 Conclusion



3 ‘Social Labour’ and the Critique of Work in Marxist Theory

 1 ‘Social Labour’

 2 Theory, Politics and ‘Social Labour’ in the Marxist Critique of Work

 3 Conclusion



4 Theoretical Humanism and the Post-work Imaginary

 1 A Brave New World of (Post-)work

 2 The Problem with Post-work

 3 The Theoretical Humanism of Post-work Thought

 4 Conclusion



5 Social Reproduction and Theoretical Anti-humanism

 1 A ‘Crisis’ of Feminism?

 2 Emotion, Alienation and Reproductive Labour

 3 Towards an Anti-humanist Theoretical Feminism: Social Reproduction Theory

 4 Conclusion



6 ‘Making’ History: The Concept of Labour and the Anthropocene Discourse

 1 Labour and the Theoretical Humanism of the Anthropocene

 2 Alienation, Modernity and the Anthropocene

 3 Humanism, Historicism, Marxism: Labour Between ‘Fossil Capital’ and the ‘Capitalocene’

 4 Conclusion



Conclusion: Marxism in Sociology



References

Index