115 research outputs found
A Future Fit For Wales: the roadmap to a shorter working week
No full textThis is a research document on the prospect of a shorter working week in Wales. We consider its feasibility in the short and long term and detail immediate steps – as part of a roadmap – that policymakers in Wales can take to move towards an economy of improved work-life balance for the population of Wales
Georges Bataille as a Thinker of Statehood: A Relational and Materialist Approach
No full textTurning to Georges Bataille’s thought to understand contemporary transformations of statehood is not an obvious gesture. It may even seem incongruous to resort to this French avant-garde theorist, literary critic, mystic and philosopher to talk about something so institutionalized as statehood. In fact, Bataille as a theorist of politics is still a problematic figure for academic literature: is there a political thought in Bataille and, if so, is this something we can use without ending up flirting with fascism? In 1996, Carolyn Dean wrote that we need to take some distance from Bataille’s ambivalence due to a ‘desire for accountability’. 1 Habermas, discussing the meaning of modernity and postmodernity, classifies Georges Bataille within the line of the young conservatives, together with Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Bataille, Habermas argues, opposes instrumental reason and the spontaneous powers of imagination, thus transforming will to power or sovereignty into a principle only accessible through evocation. 2 In consequence, this line of thinking exaggerates the autonomy of the artistic sphere over and above morality and science, thus deviating from modernity for exalting (at the expense of the others) one of the spheres into which the Enlightenment has partitioned social and spiritual life. As Wolin remarks, Habermas in this text posits some affinities between French theory and German conservative theorists during the Weimar Republic, such as Carl Schmitt. 3 Critiques of the idea of reason, of liberalism, individualism and constitutionalism pave the way for a weakening of democracy and for the risks of fascism. Nevertheless, if the German critics of reason of the 1920s were in favour of an authoritarian state, for authors such as Bataille and Foucault, as well as Derrida, any adhesion to the concept of state is extremely problematic. Despite these differences, Wolin endorses the parallel established by Habermas between the French and the German line of conservative critiques of modernity: ‘One of the intellectual traits that ties Bataille most closely to the German young conservatives is his “affect against the universal”.’ 4 Bataille is here once again reduced to a Manichean opposition between reason and unreason, calculation and life. In this chapter, not only do we argue against associating Bataille’s political theory with fascism, but, more importantly, we point to a line in his thinking that is an ‘undercover’ trace within modernity itself and that could be useful when conceptualizing today’s forms of statehood restructuring and of state-effects. We argue here that Bataille’s political theory is closer to the one of his master Alexandre Kojève than to romantic irrationalist positions, and that the two both share a hyper-modern and hyper-rationalist vision
Exploring our latent potential
No full text© 2018 The Author/s and IPPR. Moving towards an economy of freedom
Georges Bataille and Contemporary Thought
No full textThis edited collection acts simultaneously as a companion to Bataille's three-volume secular theodicy and as a laboratory for new syntheses within his thought
WRINKLING OF ELASTOPLASTIC CIRCULAR PLATES DURING STAMPING
No full texthttp://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:A1986F715900009&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Materials Science, MultidisciplinaryMechanicsMaterials Science, Characterization & TestingSCI(E)8ARTICLE4345-3532
The day after tomorrow: stress tests, affordability and the roadmap to the four day week
No full textSummary of findings
• We provide a conservative, ‘worst-case’ scenario for the
impacts on profitability of a suddenly-implemented four
day week in the private sector.
• We find that a four day week with no loss of pay would
be affordable for most firms once the initial phase of the
Covid-19 crisis has passed.
• However, some firms in some industries would experience
cashflow problems if changes were implemented too
quickly.
• A four day week with no loss of pay will most likely be
implemented in the public sector before the private
sector.
• Public sector organisations could influence private
sector businesses through procurement policy and other
indirect routes.
• The process of changing expectations and behavioural
norms could be sped up by the creation of more bank
holidays, and the reintroduction of pro-union legislation.
Even if a four day week in the private sector took longer
than expected, a four day week in the public sector
could support the UK’s long-term recovery from the
Covid-19 crisis
Keynes, Foucault and the 'disciplinary complex': A contribution to the analysis of work
No full textEconomists often agree that productivity and wealth levels rose sharply until the 2008 crash, particularly in the developed world (see inter alia Piketty & Saez, 2013; OECD, 2015). Such prosperity, however, still has not caused a significant reduction of the working week, which remains, on average, 40 hours a week in developed nations. This article deploys a critical examination of the longstanding utopia of a reduced working week. We propose a return to John Maynard Keynes’s economic reflections in early 20th century concerning the material possibilities for future generations, and how high productivity levels associated with new technological advances could, and should, allow individuals to reduce their workload without harming the economy. Whilst reviving Keynes’s reflections on the links between the economy and the lives of the population, we also introduce the (Foucaultian) concept of the ‘disciplinary complex’ and explore some of its explanatory potential. Finally, we suggest that in order to reach the ‘post-work’ world that Keynes predicted for us, we must consider the role of labour not just in economic terms, but also as a disciplinary institution that has its own inner cultural and practical mechanisms. Overcoming the disciplinary complex, and the work-centred society, therefore requires technological, economic but above all cultural and organisational overhaul
A Scottish four day week: initial costings for implementation in the public sector
No full textAt a glance: A four day week in the Scottish public sector would cost between £1.4bn and £2bn. This constitutes 3% of the public sector pay bill in Scotland (and 2% of Scottish public spending overall). These figures do not take into account the reduced costs to the healthcare system that having a healthier workforce would bring. Such a scheme would create between 45,000 and 59,000 new job opportunities in the sector. Scotland has a high rate of public sector employment when compared to the rest of the UK. A four day week in the Scottish public sector would be a high-impact, low cost policy that could pioneer better work-life balance for workers across the UK
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