Radical Worker: Autonomous Labour as Reality-Maintaining Practice
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| Formato: | Recurso digital |
| Lenguaje: | inglés |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866902137223512064 |
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| author | Speed, Timothy |
| author_facet | Speed, Timothy |
| contents | <p>This paper develops the theoretical foundations of Radical Worker (first published 2019, new<br>edition 2025), arguing that self-determined work is not merely a political right but a structural<br>requirement for preventing societies from collapsing into simulation. Autonomous labour is defined<br>here as work that arises from internal resonance rather than external command, organised around<br>long-term responsibility to reality rather than short-term deliverables.<br>Building on the books Speeds Arbeit / Speed's Work and Radical Worker, the paper distinguishes<br>three dimensions of labour: output-production, reality-maintenance, and simulation. It argues that<br>only self-determined work can perform reality-maintaining labour in complex societies, because<br>only autonomous workers have the structural freedom to correct institutions, preserve diversity, and<br>generate new forms of meaning that are not pre-formatted by market or algorithmic expectations.<br>By contrast, wage labour under contemporary capitalism is increasingly organised as<br>simulation-management: the production and maintenance of appearances that satisfy metrics,<br>dashboards and bureaucratic expectations without necessarily improving social or ecological<br>reality. Automation and AI intensify this tendency by rewarding behaviours that imitate machine<br>logic and punishing forms of work that cannot be simulated.<br>Through a combination of theoretical analysis and long-term field research, the paper shows that<br>self-determined workers are structurally targeted by labour markets, welfare bureaucracies and<br>algorithmic governance precisely when their work increases reality-contact. The conclusion is that<br>autonomous labour is not a luxury, hobby, or exception, but civilizational infrastructure. Societies<br>that suppress self-determined work will progressively lose the capacity for correction, democratic<br>reflexivity and ecological survival.</p> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_17801563 |
| institution | Zenodo |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | Radical Worker: Autonomous Labour as Reality-Maintaining Practice Speed, Timothy autonomous labour self-determined work simulation labour labour ontology relational agency neurodivergent labour autistic research structural violence welfare conditionality post-work theory Universal Care Income AI and labour Artistic Research critical labour studies <p>This paper develops the theoretical foundations of Radical Worker (first published 2019, new<br>edition 2025), arguing that self-determined work is not merely a political right but a structural<br>requirement for preventing societies from collapsing into simulation. Autonomous labour is defined<br>here as work that arises from internal resonance rather than external command, organised around<br>long-term responsibility to reality rather than short-term deliverables.<br>Building on the books Speeds Arbeit / Speed's Work and Radical Worker, the paper distinguishes<br>three dimensions of labour: output-production, reality-maintenance, and simulation. It argues that<br>only self-determined work can perform reality-maintaining labour in complex societies, because<br>only autonomous workers have the structural freedom to correct institutions, preserve diversity, and<br>generate new forms of meaning that are not pre-formatted by market or algorithmic expectations.<br>By contrast, wage labour under contemporary capitalism is increasingly organised as<br>simulation-management: the production and maintenance of appearances that satisfy metrics,<br>dashboards and bureaucratic expectations without necessarily improving social or ecological<br>reality. Automation and AI intensify this tendency by rewarding behaviours that imitate machine<br>logic and punishing forms of work that cannot be simulated.<br>Through a combination of theoretical analysis and long-term field research, the paper shows that<br>self-determined workers are structurally targeted by labour markets, welfare bureaucracies and<br>algorithmic governance precisely when their work increases reality-contact. The conclusion is that<br>autonomous labour is not a luxury, hobby, or exception, but civilizational infrastructure. Societies<br>that suppress self-determined work will progressively lose the capacity for correction, democratic<br>reflexivity and ecological survival.</p> |
| title | Radical Worker: Autonomous Labour as Reality-Maintaining Practice |
| topic | autonomous labour self-determined work simulation labour labour ontology relational agency neurodivergent labour autistic research structural violence welfare conditionality post-work theory Universal Care Income AI and labour Artistic Research critical labour studies |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17801563 |