Economic Democracy and the Future of Work

A majority of my work focuses on questions of workplace democracy, economic democracy, labor justice, and post-work futures. Broadly speaking, I am interested in critiques of capitalist relations as sites of domination and alienation as well as how we can creatively imagine post-capitalist alternatives. Most recently, I have written about these questions in relation to digital labor and post-work.

 

I am also interested in prefigurative politics, or the creation of desired future social relations and economic alternatives in the here-and-now. In essence, prefigurative politics is about "building the new world in the shell of the old". Prefiguration requires us to think about political resistance in terms of a moral coherence between means and ends. Most recently, I have discussed prefiguration in relation to economic democracy and the possibility of a post-work future.

 

Work, Play, and Meaning in Life

In response to the domination and alienation in capitalist work, I am currently exploring the importance and value of play. While the concept of play is often associated with childhood, play is an important component of meaningful living in all stages of life. I suggest that play is not an activity but rather a way of being in the world that, among other things, privileges the pursuit of intrinsic value of activities over mere instrumentality. In relation to work, I argue that for work to be unalienated it must be playful. This has important implications for the distinction that Marx draws between the realm of necessity and the realm of freedom - between the time spent producing our basic needs and the time for free, creative activity beyond our needs. I therefore believe that play ought to be asserted as one the key components of a post-capitalist vision of the good life.

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Socialism, Solidarity, and the Sacred

My current project is aimed at understanding the role of the sacred and its importance for building the solidarity necessary for post-capitalist alternatives to take root and grow. How do we understand the sacred in both religious and secular contexts? How can this notion of the sacred allow for the pluralism necessary for building towards a democratic socialist society? What practices and ways of being in the world allow us to engage in both secular and religious forms of the sacred so as to build solidarity? What is the relationship between the socialist project and the need for a common sense of the sacred?