Work, Definitional

Defining Work

In practice, cultural norms in specific places and eras define what is valued as work or who is deemed a worker. Conceptually, however, it is important to use a broad definition of work so that some forms of work are not excluded and devalued. However, if work is defined too broadly, then it can lose conceptual meaning. A robust definition of work, therefore, should be broader than a narrow focus on paid employment and formal jobs, yet narrower than a broad inclusion of all human activity. Here is an example of such a definition: purposeful human activity involving physical or mental exertion that is not undertaken solely for pleasure and that has economic or symbolic value. This broad definition separates work from leisure (not undertaken solely for pleasure) but also allows work to be pleasurable and recognizes that there can be blurred boundaries between work and leisure. This definition also encompasses more than paid employment by including activities that generate economic value even if they are unpaid, such as caring for others, volunteering, and subsistence farming, and this definition also recognizes that work can achieve noneconomic ends such as identity creation.

Some writers distinguish between “work” as an uplifting, creative activity and “labor” as burdensome toil. This is similar to words meaning work in many European languages. For example, in French one word for work, travail, is rooted in a Latin word for a torture device, whereas another word for work, œuvre, is derived from Latin roots pertaining to accomplishment and creativity. These contrasts are useful reminders that [Page 986]work is multifaceted. But a simple dichotomy is not sufficient for capturing the diverse meanings of work or for understanding the multiple ways in which scholars and others conceptualize work.

Conceptualizing Work

For thousands of years, work has been seen as painful toil necessary for survival that conflicts with life's more virtuous or pleasurable pursuits. When it is assumed that God or nature requires all or some to engage in arduous or dirty work, then work is conceptualized as a curse. Elite segments of societies also tend to see the lower classes as occupying their natural place in the social and occupational hierarchy. Perhaps most famously, Aristotle reasoned that nature creates humans of varying intellectual abilities, and the intellectually inferior are naturally suited to be slaves. In this way, less desirable forms of work are conceptualized as a curse of the lower classes.

A view of work as not very pleasurable is also enshrined in mainstream economic theorizing. This theorizing assumes that individuals work in order to directly produce or earn income to buy goods, services, and leisure that provide utility and pleasure. The actual physical and mental activity of working is seen as reducing one's utility, either because working is a painful or stressful activity or because working is less pleasurable than leisure. In either case, mainstream economics conceptualizes work as a nonpreferred activity tolerated only to obtain goods, services, and leisure that provide utility.

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