Contributive Justice and Meaningful Work

Abstract

The dominant focus of thinking about economic justice is overwhelmingly distributive, that is, concerned with what people get in terms of resources and opportunities. It views work mainly negatively, as a burden or cost, or else is neutral about it, rather than seeing it as a source of meaning and fulfilment-a good in its own right. However, what we do in life has at least as much, if not more, influence on whom we become, as does what we get. Thus we have good reason also to be concerned with what Paul Gomberg has termed contributive justice, that is, justice as regards what people are expected and able to contribute in terms of work. Complex, interesting work allows workers not only to develop and exercise their capacities, and gain the satisfaction from achieving the internal goods of a practice, but to gain the external goods of recognition and esteem. As Gomberg's analysis of the concept of contributive justice in relation to equality of opportunity shows, as long as the more satisfying kinds of work are concentrated into a subset of jobs, rather than shared out among all jobs, then many workers will be denied the chance to have meaningful work and the recognition that goes with it. In this paper I examine the contributive justice argument, suggest how it can be further strengthened, arguing, inter alia, that ignoring contributive injustice tends to support legitimations of distributive inequality.

The dance goes on forever? Art schools, class and UK higher education

“…Research has shown consistently that the best guarantee of success in the creative industries is not to be possessed of a personal artistic 'talent', that one has been able to develop at art school, and then express naturally under the meritocratic affordances of the free market, but to draw benefit from the intergenerational transmission of advantage -to have wealthy parents, attended a 'good' school and been to a 'decent' university (Allen, et al, 2013;Creative and Cultural Skills, 2014;Sayer, 2009;Sutton Trust, 2006). In industries well-known for their informal and individualised recruitment processes, to have the right 'face', 'image' and social background is to be regarded as being the right 'type'.…”

Developing an understanding of meaningful work in economics: the case for a heterodox economics of work

“…By meaningful work, we mean work that offers people the opportunity for self-development and personal fulfilment and the external recognition that accompanies it (see Schwartz, 1982;Murphy, 1993;Sayer, 2009). Meaningful work is work that not only meets our consumption wants but also meets our needs for freedom and creativity -it is work that enables us to develop and realise our potential.…”

“…The problem with this line of argument is that work has importance beyond its impact on peoples' subjective feelings. Work matters to the status of people -work is how people measure their contribution to society and conditions their social position (Sayer, 2009). It also matters to their ability to develop valued skills and competenceswork is or can be a means for people to affirm and realise their creative potential.…”

Cultural Work and Transformative Arts

“…Although they were proud of their individual craft identities, Amber was committed to cross-grade working ('researcher one day, sound recordist the next, editor the day after' (Stoneman 1992, p. 135)) as a philosophical choice in opposition to economic compulsion or archaic union demarcations. Their oft-repeated aphorism Á 'the clapper loader can have as many ideas as the director' Á encapsulated their normative commitment to cultural work as a domain of autonomy and equality (Sayer 2009). …”

“…This is not to say that Amber was successful in every one of these initiatives or that it was able to avoid the normal insecurities and fragilities of other cultural workers. But as we argue, their case demonstrates that cultural work and production can be fused with ethical and political values and embedded within wider social networks and communities (Keat 2000;Sayer 2009). As such, we hope our discussion of the Amber collective can make a modest contribution to the literature on cultural work where, heretofore, 'the political and social motivations of cultural workers has generated limited interest' (Banks 2006, p. 457).…”