Just Work

by Russell Muirhead

This elegant essay on the justice of work focuses on the fit between who we are and the kind of work we do. Russell Muirhead shows how the common hope for work that fulfills us involves more than personal interest; it also points to larger understandings of a just society. We are defined in part by the jobs we hold, and Muirhead has something important to say about the partial satisfactions of the working life, and the increasingly urgent need to balance the claims of work against those of family and community.

Against the tendency to think of work exclusively in contractual terms, Muirhead focuses on the importance of work to our sense of a life well lived. Our notions of freedom and fairness are incomplete, he argues, without due consideration of how we fit the work we do.

Muirhead weaves his argument out of sociological, economic, and philosophical analysis. He shows, among other things, how modern feminism's effort to reform domestic work and extend the promise of careers has contributed to more democratic understandings of what it means to have work that fits. His account of individual and social fit as twin standards of assessment is original and convincing--it points both to the unavoidable problem of distributing bad work in society and to the personal importance of finding fulfilling work. These themes are pursued through a wide-ranging discussion that engages thinkers from Plato to John Stuart Mill to Betty Friedan. Just Work shows what it would mean for work to make good on the high promise so often invested in it and suggests what we--both as a society and as individuals--might do when it falls short.

Genres: Sociology, Philosophy

220 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2004

About the author

Russell Muirhead is the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College and the author of The Promise of Party in a Polarized Age and Just Work. He lives in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Emily Goodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muirhead’s book argues a great point of what “just” work is. Utilizing old philosopher’s beliefs on the subject, Muirhead explains why society views work the way we do today. Muirhead also tries to distinguish for his readers the need for one to contribute to society versus their need for self fulfillment.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thought this book was an excellent critique of critiques of work, particularly Friedan's the Femimine Mystique. I liked the double meaning of the title- Just Work- as in work that is just, and Just Work, as in, it is just my crappy job. i don't think Muirhead refers to the second meaning.

I really liked this quote. I think it says so much and sums up the book beautifully.

"Work does not “give” dignity to our lives through the excellence or happiness it fosters. The dignity of work comes less from its ideal promise than from the way we show, through it, a determination to endure what is difficult for the sake of discharging our responsibilities and contributing to society. It is less the source of our happiness than the illustration that we deserve happiness. Through work we reveal our tough minded commitment in the face of conditions that cannot bend exactly to our will. When this commitment brings a partial triumph over an unaccommodating world, work illuminates something of the dignity that resides in us independent of the character of our work. It expresses a kind of defiance, for we willfully ignore the ultimate resistance of a world we yet try to shape. Thus work reveals, though it cannot produce, the dignity of those who take their condition to be at least partly of their own making."

this quote is very inspiring and hopeful for everyoone who has to get up and go to work tomorrow.

[Margaret Muirhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written book! Just some lite academic reading for when you're in the mood for some political philosophizing!

[Lori Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

An optional-read book on work-life balance as you manage your career.