A Utopian Way of Thinking about Work: Tracing William Morris’ Ideas on the Concept of Work

Year 2021, Volume: 11 Issue: 2, 149 - 167, 15.06.2021

Selcan Peksan

Abstract

Sosyal teoriler, modern çalışma örgütlenmesine dair geniş bir eleştiri yelpazesi sunmaktadır. Buna karşın insan doğası ve ideal çalışmanın nasıl olabileceğine dair tartışmalar sınırlı kalmıştır. Çalışma olgusunu ütopik bir bakış açısıyla ele almayı öneren bu makale, William Morris’in çalışma kavramsallaştırmasının başlıca argümanlarını ve gelecekteki toplum vizyonunda çalışma örgütlenmesinin temel dinamiklerini konu almaktadır. Morris’in eserlerinden ütopik romanı Hiçbir Yerden Haberler, özünde çalışmanın dönüşümünü barındırması sebebiyle, derinlemesine incelenmek üzere seçilmiştir. Morris’in ütopyası olan Hiçbir Yer’deki çalışmanın başlıca özellikleri izlenerek, işlerin geleceği ile ilgili güncel tartışmalara alternatif bir perspektif geliştirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Gelecekte ulaşmak istediğimiz ideal çalışmanın nasıl olabileceği üzerine yeni arayışları tetiklemesi umuduyla Morris’in çalışmaya ilişkin görüşlerinin çağımıza ilham veren bir yaklaşım sunduğu iddia edilmektedir.

Keywords

Ütopya, William Morris, Hiçbir Yerden Haberler, çalışma kavramı, zevkli çalışma, çekici iş, çalışmanın anlamı, çalışmanın geleceği.

A Utopian Way of Thinking about Work: Tracing William Morris’ Ideas on the Concept of Work

Abstract

Social theories present a wide range of criticism regarding the modern organization of work, yet little on the nature of humans and what an ideal concept of work would be. Favoring a utopian way of thinking about work, this paper inspects William Morris’ understanding of work and the basic dynamics of work organization in his vision of the society of the future. This article has chosen to perform an in-depth analysis of his utopian novel News from Nowhere due to the transformation of work laying at the core of the book. By tracing the key patterns of work in Morris’ future utopia which he called Nowhere, this paper proposes the concept of work that articulated in Morris’thought as a means of gaining an alternative model regarding the recent debates about the future of work. In particular, the paper scans Morris’ arguments on labor to demonstrate how Morris’ view presents an inspiring approach for our era. This hopefully opens up the prospect of thinking about the ideal work of the future one wants to achieve.

Keywords

Utopia, William Morris, News from Nowhere, concept of work, pleasurable work, attractive labor, meaning of work, future of work.

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