Imagining The Thought of Work

This article develops the idea of the interrelated complexity of work attested to in John Budd’s (2011) The Thought of Work. Drawing on material from oral history and other non-academic writing about work I argue that we need to be alive to the complex paradox of labor and the workplace. We have to be attuned to and more attentive of the realities of employment. This way of understanding work has a rich tradition and is exemplified in the writing of people like Studs Terkel or Humphrey Jennings.