Bullshit Jobs: A Critical Pedagogy Provocation
Joyce Canaan
Professor of Sociology, Birmingham City University
For what and for whom do I study? And against what and against whom?...
To the extent that the future is not inexorably sealed and already decided,
there is another task that awaits us. Namely the task of the inherent
openness of the future . . . It is not by resignation but by the capacity for
indignation in the face of injustice that we are affirmed (Freire, 2001:73-
74).
I precede the ‘provocation’ —a word I first heard used by my colleagues Gordon
Asher and Leigh French—below with the following caveats. First, I produced this
provocation as part of a workshop on Critical Pedagogy that Gordon Asher, Leigh
French and I co-organised preceding a day conference on Critical Pedagogies.
Second, the provocation that follows, like those of Asher and French, sought to spark
off debate; it used David Graeber’s rhetorical argument about paid work today, with
its explicit use of the ‘b’ word, to encourage academics at the event to re-
contextualise regimes of accountability in the university that they are experiencing
and to consider how critical pedagogy could help them do so. Finally, I have been
lucky enough to leave full time employment when voluntary redundancy was on offer
(being already off work on stress-related sick leave, for the first and last time in my
full-time, paid working life). This allowed me to stop being a wage slave and become,
instead, as one of my colleagues put it, like Tony Benn who left Parliament to take up
politics; I was leaving the university to take up education.
off debate; it used David Graeber’s rhetorical argument about paid work today, with
its explicit use of the ‘b’ word, to encourage academics at the event to re-
contextualise regimes of accountability in the university that they are experiencing
and to consider how critical pedagogy could help them do so. Finally, I have been
lucky enough to leave full time employment when voluntary redundancy was on offer
(being already off work on stress-related sick leave, for the first and last time in my
full-time, paid working life). This allowed me to stop being a wage slave and become,
instead, as one of my colleagues put it, like Tony Benn who left Parliament to take up
politics; I was leaving the university to take up education.
David Graeber’s recent (2013) piece ‘On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs’ observes
that during the 20th century, the percentage of people in the US and UK performing
‘professional, managerial, clerical, sales and service’ sector jobs rose from 25% to
75% of the workforce, in part accounted for by ‘an unprecedented expansion of
sectors like corporate law, academic and health administration, human resources and
public relations’.
that during the 20th century, the percentage of people in the US and UK performing
‘professional, managerial, clerical, sales and service’ sector jobs rose from 25% to
75% of the workforce, in part accounted for by ‘an unprecedented expansion of
sectors like corporate law, academic and health administration, human resources and
public relations’.
Why has there been such a growth in these jobs? Graeber says first like many others, that de-industrialisation, coupled with technological, communicational and transportation advances, led to whole swathes of work being dramatically reduced and/or moved South (as was the case with industry).
Second, again, not an uncommon observation, there has been a significant increase in service, and, especially, administrative sector jobs. The latter rests on ‘the creation of new
industries like financial services or telemarketing, or on the unprecedented expansion
of jobs in areas such as ‘corporate law, academic and health administration, human
resources, and public relations’ (Graeber, 2013) and in sectors of work supporting the
needs of the above sets of workers. Graeber deems these service and administrative
sector jobs ‘bullshit jobs’—a concise term that emphasises their seeming
meaninglessness.
industries like financial services or telemarketing, or on the unprecedented expansion
of jobs in areas such as ‘corporate law, academic and health administration, human
resources, and public relations’ (Graeber, 2013) and in sectors of work supporting the
needs of the above sets of workers. Graeber deems these service and administrative
sector jobs ‘bullshit jobs’—a concise term that emphasises their seeming
meaninglessness.
'
He notes that the expansion of jobs in these two sectors occurred
alongside the elimination of productive jobs, in which workers interacted with the
world and made tangible (even if sometimes virtual) things. Most remaining workers
only spend a fraction of their time doing the work they believe they were originally
hired to do; more time is spent performing morally and politically dispiriting ‘bullshit’
tasks. Only a small fraction of this remainder still have the kinds of employment that
many of the latter group thought they were initially entering.
alongside the elimination of productive jobs, in which workers interacted with the
world and made tangible (even if sometimes virtual) things. Most remaining workers
only spend a fraction of their time doing the work they believe they were originally
hired to do; more time is spent performing morally and politically dispiriting ‘bullshit’
tasks. Only a small fraction of this remainder still have the kinds of employment that
many of the latter group thought they were initially entering.
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