Work Is a Four Letter Word
Seriously...8 Jan 2016

Work Is a Four Letter Word

Many of us have grown up with the belief that a strong work ethic is a positive thing, and that by contrast idle hands are the devil's playthings. According to Professor Andrew Hussey, that argument makes very little sense. Starting off with a line from the Cilla Black song 'Work is a Four Letter Word' he offers a powerful counter-argument by navigating the ideas of, among others, Bertrand Russell, John Ruskin and the Situationists in France, whose graffiti slogan 'Ne Travaillez Jamais' - never work - still appears regularly on Parisian streets. Hussey argues that the corporate culture in particular, born out of mid-20th Century America and built upon ideologies of work developed during the industrial revolution and on through to the development of the assembly line, can have a hugely corrosive impact on people's lives. The programme features the voices of workers from the 1930s through to the present day, describing working life in call centres where even a trip to the toilet is timed by management. Hussey doesn't however suggest that we all take to the sofa to watch TV and eat crisps, though; instead he argues that by taking control of the work we do and the way we do it, work can actually become a positive force in our lives, once stripped of what he regards as the caustic power of modern managerialism.

Episoder(484)

Stealing Power

Stealing Power

Meter tampering means altering a meter to prevent it from fully recording how much electricity or gas is being used, or bypassing the meter completely to energy usage being recorded at all. It may see...

30 Jul 202428min

The Club Nobody Wants to Join

The Club Nobody Wants to Join

There Is a club that no high school principal in the USA wants to join, but they are all incredibly grateful that its there. Because in the event of the worst possible scenario happening, they will ne...

23 Jul 202428min

Searching for Butterflies

Searching for Butterflies

In the mountains of Latakia, Syria, Mudar Salimeh devotes much of his time to searching for butterflies. A geologist, artist, and nature lover, Mudar's fascination with butterflies began in the spring...

19 Jul 202428min

Brood X

Brood X

Every 17 years in the eastern United States, a roaring mass of millions of black-bodied, red-eyed, thumb-length insects erupt from the ground. For a few glorious weeks the periodical cicadas cover the...

9 Jul 202428min

Stoppage Time for Scunthorpe

Stoppage Time for Scunthorpe

When Bury FC was expelled from the Football League after 125 years, the government commissioned a fan-led review of football's financial stability. Centring the importance of football clubs to hundred...

5 Jul 202428min

The City That Stayed at Home

The City That Stayed at Home

At the last general election, three of the four seats with the lowest turnout, where the lowest number of eligible people came out to vote, were in Hull. Alex Forsyth sits down with people who stay at...

28 Jun 202428min

Living Without My Smartphone

Living Without My Smartphone

A group of teenagers agree to give up their smartphones for 5 school days. The phones are locked in a box, and our subjects pick up their old style “brick” phone instead. What’s the best and worst o...

25 Jun 202428min

The Beauty of Everyday Things

The Beauty of Everyday Things

Poet Ian McMillan has a gift for the art of small pleasures; the joy of close observation; revelling in everyday things, places and encounters; describing and re-describing them endlessly. In the comp...

21 Jun 202428min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
popradet
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
alt-fortalt
grenselos
wolfgang-wee-uncut
synnve-og-vanessa
min-barneoppdragelse
krisemoter
fladseth
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
frokostshowet-pa-p5
198-land-med-einar-trnquist
den-politiske-situasjonen