The Stasis Center for Practical Philosophy, together with the Libromarxism Club of Libertarian Political-Philosophical Theory, is holding an open lecture by Helen Hester, Post-Work Politics With and Beyond Technologies. The lecture will be held in English (without translation) and will be available to students online and in person (Conference Hall).
REGISTER FOR LECTURE (for online visitors only)
This talk will consider post-work politics and its relationship to technology. Looking first at discussions of technological unemployment, it will point to some of the problems associated with discourses of ‘full automation’. Important here will be the role of technology within one gendered (and often forgotten) sphere of labour — that is, social reproduction. What do post-work proposals surrounding automation miss when it comes to activities such as paid and unpaid care? Whilst acknowledging that there have indeed been lacunas, omissions, and failings within post-work projects up until this point, the paper will argue that said projects nevertheless offer conceptual and practical resources for the pursuit of a more emancipatory future. How might post-work positions be extended, developed, and teased out in ways that answer or learn from some of their most astute critics?
Helen Hester is an Associate Professor of Media and Communications at the University of West London. Her research interests include technology, social reproduction, and the future of work, and she is a member of the international feminist working group Laboria Cuboniks. Her books include Beyond Explicit: Pornography and the Displacement of Sex (SUNY Press, 2014), Xenofeminism (Polity, 2018), and After Work: The Politics of Free Time (Verso, 2018, with Nick Srnicek).