"The Abolition of Work" is an essay written by Bob Black in 1985. It was part of Black's first book, an anthology of essays entitled The Abolition of Work and Other Essays published by Loompanics Unlimited.[1] It is an exposition of Black's "type 3 anarchism" – a blend of post-Situationist theory and individualist anarchism – focusing on a critique of the work ethic.[2]
 | |
| Author | Bob Black |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Donna Kossy |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Critique of work |
| Genre | Social criticism |
| Published | 1986 |
| Publisher | Loompanics |
| Publication place | United States |
| ISBN | 0-915179-41-5 |
| OCLC | 15135277 |
Influence
edit"The Abolition of Work" was a significant influence on futurist and design critic Bruce Sterling, who at the time was a leading cyberpunk science fiction author and called it "one of the seminal underground documents of the 1980s".[3] The essay's critique of work formed the basis for the anti-labor faction in Sterling's 1988 novel Islands in the Net.[3]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ Black, Bob (1986). The Abolition of Work and Other Essays. Port Townsend: Loompanics Unlimited. ISBN 0-915179-41-5.
- ^ Porton, Richard (1999). Film and the Anarchist Imagination. London: Verso. pp. 166–172. ISBN 1-85984-261-5.
- ^ a b McCaffery, Larry (1991). "Bruce Sterling". Across the Wounded Galaxies. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 217. ISBN 0-252-06140-3.
Further reading
edit- Seyferth, Peter (2019). "Anti-Work: A Stab in the Heart of Capitalism". Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics. Routledge. p. 384. doi:10.4324/9781315619880-31. ISBN 978-1-315-61988-0. S2CID 242759065.
- Sinha, Maya (September 1995). "The end of work (Rev. of The Abolition of Work and Other Essays)". Mother Jones. 20 (5): 82. ISSN 0362-8841.
External links
edit| External audio | |
|---|---|
 The Abolition of Work, a free mp3 recording from the Audio Anarchy project. Part of the Anti-Work Essays series. |
- The Abolition of Work and Other Essays, the 1986 collection by Bob Black hosted in its entirety on Inspiracy.com
- "The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective", chapter thirteen of Women, Race & Class, by Angela Davis.
- The Abolition of Work on YouTube