Recent Works
Autonomy Institute
17th April 2025
What is meant by the de-commodification of labour?
The answer to this question turns out to be anything but straightforward. For example, one can discern instances in the history of capitalism where commodification has represented an emancipatory moment, such as the liberation of women from traditional patriarchy in the twentieth century by means of access to the wage.
The politics of free time and the de-commodification of labour
(Source: Anybotics – CC 4.0)
A good deal of what goes by the name of “post-work theory” today begins in a reaction to the deepening economic and social contradictions associated with post-Fordist, neoliberal capitalism in the digital age.
Post-work theory as both generational politics & class politics
Emancipations
Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2024
A Journal of Critical Social Analysis
Siegel, Tedd (2024) "Review of Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back, by Elizabeth Anderson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Signs of the Great Refusal
(punctum books, 2023)
Postwork Political Theory
In recent years, developed countries have witnessed the rise of a popular literature and social media discussion having to do with ‘the problem with work today.’ Much of this literature presents what amounts to an unacceptable either/or: workers are encouraged either to ‘lean-in,’ and become better ‘human capitals,’ or else they are being offered palliative care for these same “neoliberal selves,” by means of admonitions to undertake personal projects of self-optimization, recovery, and wellness.
What does it mean to ground a national identity in a shared and voluntary political commitment to live according to a certain set of principles? Can civic nationalism and constitutional patriotism be defended? In the 90s and 2000s, these notions took quite a beating. But the current rise of neo-nationalism in mature, Western democracies places the question of civil society once again at the heart of both theoretical and practical concern. Why should it be so difficult to describe the solidarity of constitutionally patriotic citizens for whom the nation is a shared democratic, civic life?
In Dark Times
Blog (2016 - 2023)
In Dark Times started with the observation, in the days immediately following the 2016 presidential election, that people seemed to be saying these words repetitively – “clearly, we’re living in dark times.” Steve Heikkila and Tedd Siegel sing through these dark times together in a series of political essays.
