{"product_id":"the-double-shift-isbn-9781839767623","title":"The Double Shift","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"This book is a must read for students of contemporary capitalism.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Kathi Weeks, Duke University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Why do people fight for their exploitation as if it was liberation?\" How Marx and Spinoza can explain our perverse attachment to the indignities of work\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a world of declining wages, working conditions, and instability, the response for many has been to work harder, increasing hours and finding various ways to hustle in a gig economy. What drives our attachment to work? To paraphrase a question from Spinoza, \"Why do people fight for their exploitation as if it was liberation?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Double Shift \u003c\/i\u003eturns towards the intersection of Marx and Spinoza in order to examine the nature of our affective, ideological, and strategic attachment to work. Through an examination of contemporary capitalism and popular culture it argues that the current moment can be defined as one of \"negative solidarity.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe hardship and difficulty of work is seen not as the basis for alienation and calls for its transformation but rather an identification with the difficulties and hardships of work. This distortion of the work ethic leads to a celebration of capitalists as job creators and suspicion towards anyone who is not seen as a \"real worker.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book is grounded in philosophy, specifically Marx and Spinoza, and is in dialogue with Plato, Smith, Hegel, and Arendt, but, at the same time, in examining contemporary ideologies and ideas about work it discusses motivational meetings at Apple Stores, the culture of Silicon Valley, and films and television from \u003ci\u003eOffice Space \u003c\/i\u003eto \u003ci\u003eBetter Call Saul\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Double Shift \u003c\/i\u003eargues for a transformation of our collective imagination and attachment to work.\"With \u003ci\u003eThe Double Shift\u003c\/i\u003e, Jason Read cuts trenchantly into the knot of entangled alienations that attach us to outdated perceptions of economics, ethics and politics. This impressive synthesis of the reinvention of a Spinozan Marx by current French and Italian theorists joyfully enrolls recent films and TV series into a critical analysis of the \"negative solidarity\" which fuels the rise of right-wing politics. As late-capitalist societies are eaten away, from the inside, by widely shared but deeply misleading perceptions of work and waged labor, this is indeed a most urgent Read!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Yves Citton; author of \u003ci\u003eMediarchy\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Ecology of Attention\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Drawing on Marx, Spinoza, and popular film, Jason Read builds an illuminating analysis that not only astutely captures, but also helps to make sense of, our double experience of wage work as a locus of freedom and compulsion, hope and fear, self-actualization and self-impoverishment, love and hate. This book is a must read for students of contemporary capitalism.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kathi Weeks, Duke University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jason Read's wonderful book constructs an engaging dialogue between Marx and Spinoza that shines a new light on pressing contemporary issues of politics and work.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Michael Hardt, Duke University, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Subversive Seventies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eJason Read\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Production of Subjectivity: Marx and Philosophy, The Micro-Politics of Capital: Marx and the Prehistory of the Present \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e The Politics of Transindividuality.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Verso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300304146661,"sku":"NP9781839767623","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781839767623.jpg?v=1767739066","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-double-shift-isbn-9781839767623","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}