Rethinking the Work Ethic in Premode Europe

by: Gábor Almási (Editor),Giorgio Lizzul(Editor)

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 15 Nov. 2023

Language: English

Print Length: 346 pages

ISBN-10: 3031380916

ISBN-13: 9783031380914

Book Description

This book investigates how work ethics in Europe were conceptualised from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Through analysis of a range of discourses, it focuses on the roles played by intellectuals in formulating, communicating, and contesting ideas about work and its ethical value. The book moves away from the idea of a singular Weberian work ethic as fundamental to mode notions of work and instead emphasises how different languages of work were haessed for a variety of social, intellectual, religious, economic, political, and ideological objectives. Rather than a singular work ethic that left a decisive mark on the development of Weste culture and economy, the volume stresses plurality. The essays draw on approaches from intellectual, social, and cultural history. They explore how, why, and in what contexts labour became an important and openly promoted value; who promoted or opposed hard work and for what reasons; and whether there was an early mode break with ancient and medieval discourses on work. These historicized visions of work ethics help enrich our understanding of present-day changing attitudes to work.