The debate surrounding the transformation of work at the hands of
digital technology and the anxieties brought forth by automation, the
sharing economy, and the exploitation of leisure
We have been told that digital technology is now threatening the
workplace as we know it, that advances in computing and robotics will
soon make human labor obsolete, that the sharing economy, exemplified by
Uber and Airbnb, will degrade the few jobs that remain, and that the
boundaries between work and play are collapsing as Facebook and
Instagram infiltrate our free time.
In this timely critique, Greg Goldberg examines the fear that work is
being eviscerated by digital technology. He argues that it is not
actually the degradation or disappearance of work that is so troubling,
but rather the underlying notion that society itself is under attack,
and more specifically the bonds of responsibility on which social
relations depend. Rather than rushing to the defense of the social,
however, Goldberg instead imagines the appeal of refusing the hard work
of being a responsible and productive member of society.