Alienation Is Not "Bullshit": An Empirical Critique of Graeber's Theory of BS Jobs.

Autor/inn/en	Soffia, Magdalena; Wood, Alex J.; Burchell, Brendan
Titel	Alienation Is Not "Bullshit": An Empirical Critique of Graeber's Theory of BS Jobs. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Entfremdung ist kein 'Bullshit': Eine empirische Kritik an Graebers Theorie über BS-Jobs.
Quelle	In: Work, employment and society, 36 (2021) 5, S. 816-840 PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1469-8722
DOI	10.1177/09500170211015067
Schlagwörter	Soziale Anerkennung; Sozialer Wert; Entfremdung; Zufriedenheit; Erwerbstätigkeit; Lohnarbeit; Werttheorie; Arbeit; Arbeitsplatz; Ausgeübter Beruf; Qualifikation; Internationaler Vergleich; Einflussfaktor; Qualität; Sektorale Verteilung; Abhängig Beschäftigter; Marx, Karl; Europa
Abstract	"David Graeber's 'bullshit jobs theory' has generated a great deal of academic and public interest. This theory holds that a large and rapidly increasing number of workers are undertaking jobs that they themselves recognise as being useless and of no social value. Despite generating clear testable hypotheses, this theory is not based on robust empirical research. We, therefore, use representative data from the EU to test five of its core hypotheses. Although we find that the perception of doing useless work is strongly associated with poor wellbeing, our findings contradict the main propositions of Graeber's theory. The proportion of employees describing their jobs as useless is low and declining and bears little relationship to Graeber's predictions. Marx's concept of alienation and a 'Work Relations' approach provide inspiration for an alternative account that highlights poor management and toxic workplace environments in explaining why workers perceive paid work as useless." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2021/4