Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought
In Le Capitalisme cognitif (2007), Yann Moulier Boutang argues that, under Post-Fordism, workers are expected to invest ever more of their creative, affective, and cognitive powers in their labours. These eminently human qualities, he maintains, are inherently resistant to capture and exploitation b...
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| Format: | Article |
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Edinburgh University Press
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33920/ |
| _version_ | 1848794734860959744 |
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| author | Lane, Jeremy F. |
| author_facet | Lane, Jeremy F. |
| author_sort | Lane, Jeremy F. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In Le Capitalisme cognitif (2007), Yann Moulier Boutang argues that, under Post-Fordism, workers are expected to invest ever more of their creative, affective, and cognitive powers in their labours. These eminently human qualities, he maintains, are inherently resistant to capture and exploitation by capitalism. Hence, their integration into the capitalist system risks provoking that system’s downfall, heralding the emergence of an Aesthetic State in which work itself will be modelled on disinterested creative activity and genuine emancipation will follow. Moulier Boutang is a leading representative of the French brand of néo-opéraïste thought and his work typifies the manner in which néo-operaïstes understand the relationships between work, aesthetics, and political emancipation. This is an understanding that stands in stark contrast to the work of Jacques Rancière. For Rancière, emancipation can only come through an escape from work, in moments of idleness that are prefigured in the disinterested nature of aesthetic experience. This article will examine the nature and stakes of this striking contrast between Moulier Boutang’s ‘aesthetics of work’ and Rancière’s ‘aesthetics of idleness’, between the former’s belief in the possibility of emancipation through work and the latter’s focus on the possibilities of emancipation from work. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:20:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-33920 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:20:54Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Edinburgh University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-339202020-05-04T20:03:36Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33920/ Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought Lane, Jeremy F. In Le Capitalisme cognitif (2007), Yann Moulier Boutang argues that, under Post-Fordism, workers are expected to invest ever more of their creative, affective, and cognitive powers in their labours. These eminently human qualities, he maintains, are inherently resistant to capture and exploitation by capitalism. Hence, their integration into the capitalist system risks provoking that system’s downfall, heralding the emergence of an Aesthetic State in which work itself will be modelled on disinterested creative activity and genuine emancipation will follow. Moulier Boutang is a leading representative of the French brand of néo-opéraïste thought and his work typifies the manner in which néo-operaïstes understand the relationships between work, aesthetics, and political emancipation. This is an understanding that stands in stark contrast to the work of Jacques Rancière. For Rancière, emancipation can only come through an escape from work, in moments of idleness that are prefigured in the disinterested nature of aesthetic experience. This article will examine the nature and stakes of this striking contrast between Moulier Boutang’s ‘aesthetics of work’ and Rancière’s ‘aesthetics of idleness’, between the former’s belief in the possibility of emancipation through work and the latter’s focus on the possibilities of emancipation from work. Edinburgh University Press 2016-03 Article PeerReviewed Lane, Jeremy F. (2016) Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought. Nottingham French Studies, 55 (1). pp. 79-95. ISSN 2047-7236 neo-operaism Jacques Rancière aesthetics idleness Maurizio Lazzarato Friedrich Schiller http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/nfs.2016.0140 doi:10.3366/nfs.2016.0140 doi:10.3366/nfs.2016.0140 |
| spellingShingle | neo-operaism Jacques Rancière aesthetics idleness Maurizio Lazzarato Friedrich Schiller Lane, Jeremy F. Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought |
| title | Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought |
| title_full | Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought |
| title_fullStr | Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought |
| title_short | Emancipation from work or emancipation through work? Aesthetics of work and idleness in recent French thought |
| title_sort | emancipation from work or emancipation through work? aesthetics of work and idleness in recent french thought |
| topic | neo-operaism Jacques Rancière aesthetics idleness Maurizio Lazzarato Friedrich Schiller |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33920/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33920/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33920/ |