Francois Dubet

This 1983 book records a fascinating analysis of the Solidarity movement in Poland. Alain Touraine here proposes an understanding of the place of social movements in contemporary society, and a fresh means of analysing them through 'sociological intervention'. In 1981 he and a team of researchers applied these research methods to the Solidarity movements. Groups of Solidarity activists were involved in a discourse over the nature and aims of their political and economic struggle. What emerges is a record of exceptional value in understanding the movement which transformed Polish society, placed firmly in the terms of the Solidarity activists' own understanding of their role, but equally relating this role to a broad analysis of the social structures of eastern Europe. This reflection on forty years of Communist regimes in Europe will appeal to a wide readership interested in Solidarity and Poland.

Though it is difficult to describe what a just world should be, everyone is able to denounce injustice when he/she is a victim or a witness of it. Based on a long-term study of workers, this new book tests and expands upon prevailing theories of justice by Rawls, Nozick, Taylor, Walzer, and other important philosophers. Injustice at Work describes the way workers perceive social injustice. It reveals why they so often feel unequal, scorned, dominated, and alienated at work. The book develops three principles of justice-equality, merit, and autonomy-showing how individuals combine them in singular moral and social experiences that constitute people's relation to society. Dubet also shows, in a liberal and globalized society, why it has become more and more difficult to denounce the social causes of injustice and fight them.

Though it is difficult to describe what a just world should be, everyone is able to denounce injustice when he/she is a victim or a witness of it. Based on a long-term study of workers, this new book tests and expands upon prevailing theories of justice by Rawls, Nozick, Taylor, Walzer, and other important philosophers. Injustice at Work describes the way workers perceive social injustice. It reveals why they so often feel unequal, scorned, dominated, and alienated at work. The book develops three principles of justice-equality, merit, and autonomy-showing how individuals combine them in singular moral and social experiences that constitute people's relation to society. Dubet also shows, in a liberal and globalized society, why it has become more and more difficult to denounce the social causes of injustice and fight them.

De flesta vuxna ägnar runt hälften av sin vakna tid under vardagarna åt att lönearbeta. Trots detta handlar det offentliga samtalet och den politiska debatten inte mycket om vad folk faktiskt gör på jobbet och hur de ser på sitt arbete. Och trots att allt fler oroar sig för demokratins alltmer pressade situation i världen, tycks få bekymra sig över att medborgarna har minimalt demokratiskt inflytande över sina arbetsaktiviteter. Tvärtemot denna tidsanda handlar Fronesis nr 88–89 om vad som händer på jobbet. Det handlar om vilket värde det dagliga arbetet har för den som jobbar, om innebörden av rättvisa och demokrati i arbetslivet och om hur kollektiv organisering på arbetsplatsen kan öka både meningsfullheten och rättvisan i lönearbetet. Den tyske socialfilosofen Axel Honneth gör en idéhistorisk exposé över de olika tankeströmningar som har påverkat vänsterns och arbetarrörelsens syn på arbetets värde och organisering. Den amerikanska politiska filosofen Elizabeth S. Anderson diskuterar det rimliga i att liberaldemokratiska stater tillåter auktoritära styrelseformer över det lönearbete som upptar en så stor del av de flestas dagliga liv. I en rad texter undersöks det svenska arbetslivet. Det handlar om hur klimatförändringarna påverkar skogsarbetares arbetsvillkor och fackliga strategier, om kommunalarbetares krav på samhälleligt erkännande, om tjänstemännens allt vanligare distansarbete och om hur svenskarnas syn på olika yrkens status har förändrats. I numret återaktualiseras även Sverre Lysgaard och Walter Korpi, två centrala forskare inom nordisk arbetslivsforskning vilkas analyser av lönearbetarnas kollektiva makt än i dag är högst relevanta.