Citizenship and Employment

Mass unemployment re-emerged as a public issue during the late 1980s. Yet for twenty years a chronic lack of jobs has been increasingly accepted as an early symptom of the 'post industrial society' - a future with permanently high levels of unemployment. Post-industrial writers argue that it is now time to develop alternatives to paid work or to separate income from employment, because technological and other changes have made it futile for many people to seek conventional work. Jocelyn Pixley's book is a reappraisal of the employment debate. It asks whether there is an alternative to wage labour that does not undermine citizen rights and finds, from the various OECD governments that have already pursued this post-industrial strategy, that there is none. Citizenship and Employment blends a range of theoretical, historical, and sociological approaches to contentious issues facing all capitalist societies. It argues that people excluded from mainstream work become powerless and experience a more meaningless life than those who either have work or are able to choose to withdraw from paid work. Extending citizenship to all requires, as a basis, reaffirming its links with employment and seeking political options that recognise and support the opportunity for all men and women to obtain proper work.