Work and Leisure

Postmodern work and leisure 65over-exploitation of workers, social exclusion and ‘perverse integration’ areendemic. The term ‘perverse integration’ refers to the labour process of thecriminal economy. Sub-Saharan Africa and large areas of the former SovietUnion experienced a decline in most of the vital indicators of living standardsin the 1990s. Most of Latin America regressed in the 1980s (Castells1998: 70–1). As the formal economy shrinks, acute poverty intensifies andcriminal activity becomes rife. Weapons trafficking, smuggling illegal immigration,trafficking in women and children, trafficking in body parts andmoney laundering have all become significant elements in the fourth worldeconomy. Addressing the chasm between the economically advanced nationsand the third and fourth worlds, must be part of a tenable programme of civillabour. Currently, it is a neglected part of the case for the socially guaranteedincome and the reconstitution of paid employment.Finally, the discussion of civil labour and post-work society tends to beglib about the question of transgression. It assumes that releasing labourfrom the chains of alienated paid employment will result in the fully socialisedcitizen who voluntarily places individual energies at the disposal ofsociety. But this is to misconceive the egoism of individualised society asan epiphenomenon of capitalism which will vanish once the antagonismbetween capital and labour that is inherent in the employment contract isdismantled. But egoism, and the desire to go beyond socially acceptedboundaries are, perhaps, not so easily eliminated. The anthropologist, VictorTurner (1969, 1982), has postulated that the formal legal and moral systemsof society inevitably create ‘anti-structures’ in which behaviour that transgressesofficial boundaries is sanctioned and incentivised. Leisure activityis not just about reproducing existing ethical frameworks and habitualpractices; it is also about challenging and transcending them. If free andfull development mean anything they mean perpetuating some forms ofbehaviour which others find reprehensible or offensive. The discussion of civillabour as a moral category is seriously underdeveloped. The competing moralvalues that define the limits of constraint and permissiveness in work societyare unlikely to vanish in post-work society. However, it is reasonable to proposethat the removal of the antagonistic element inherent in the employmentcontract under capitalism, would alter the dynamics and content of the moralstruggle over free time. The nature of this moral struggle in post-work societyis the black hole in the various discussions over civil labour. Before we cansituate the concept of civil labour at the centre of leisure policy, as is perhapsdesirable given the transparent effects of deregulation and globalisation,there is still much work to do.ReferencesApplebaum, H. (1992) The Concept of Work. Albany, NY: State University ofNew York Press.