ephemera issue on free work released

new ephemera issue on free work released
The relationship between freedom and work is a complex one. For some, they are considered opposites: ‘true’ freedom is possible only once the necessity of work is removed, and a life of luxury attained. For others, work itself provides an opportunity to achieve a sense of freedom and authenticity. In recent years for example, advances in human resource management have promoted hard work, a deep sense of commitment to one’s job, and the acceptance of working conditions that are ostensibly exploitative, as offering the promise of freedom. Recent corporate and entrepreneurial celebrations of playfulness also provide examples of the deep entanglement of contemporary forms of knowledge work with ideals of freedom.

In this issue of ephemera, our contributors inquire into the relation between freedom and work. They ask, for example, whether it is even possible to free oneself from ideals of freedom? Or is the fantasy of an imagined place of freedom, the utopia in which no work taints our lives, simply too prevalent? It may be the case that in contemporary life, we fool ourselves yet further when we ask for freedom within our working life. But can we free ourselves from the very prospect of freedom?

This issue is also available in print, produced in cooperation with MayFly Books.

From now on, all issues of ephemera will be available in print, produced in cooperation with MayFly Books. [Please note that vol. 12, no. 1/2 is already available to buy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1906948151.]

CONTENTS
editorial: Free work - Armin Beverungen Birke Otto Sverre Spoelstra Kate Kenny

Roundtable: Free work- Jana Costas Susanne Ekman Christian Maravelias Sverre Spoelstra

Articles
Work experience without qualities? A documentary and critical account of an internship - Joanna Figiel

Migrant self-employment between precariousness and self-exploitation - Antonie Schmiz

‘And if I don’t want to work like an artist...?’ How the study of artistic resistance enriches organizational studies - Brigitte Biehl-Missal

Locating work in Santiago Sierra’s artistic practice - Andrés Montenegro

Materiality at work: A note on desks - Lisa Conrad Nancy Richter

Working through the allotment - Abigail Schoneboom Julian May

FUL’s free work - Committee – The Free University of Liverpool

Fate work: A conversation - Valentina Desideri Stefano Harney

reviews

Control and becoming in the neoliberal teaching machine - Amit S. Rai

Having knowledge: How handbooks are shaping the way we think and work - Helen Nicholson

The history of philosophy – an obituary? - Stephen Dunne

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