Good Work for Animals

What work does the naturalization of work do? What are its politicaleconomic implications? Trajectories of bringing nature into the ambit of capitalist accumulation have been a longstanding concern in the social sciences. Yet how might one explain capitalist logics of accumulation without placing nature’s forces and potentials squarely on the side of capital—as political-economic straightjackets tend to do? After all, these are potentials that capital presupposes but does not itself produce. I address these questions by focusing on concepts of animal work and nonhuman labor (Barua 2017; see also Blanchette 2015; Porcher 2015) that offer crucial insights into how nature is constitutive of political-economic organization.

Capital & Class, 2023

Human–animal scholars have repeatedly accused Marx of standing in the tradition of a Cartesian human–animal dualism. One central piece of evidence brought forward to substantiate the attack is Marx’s concept of labour. The present article, however, argues that Marx’s conceptualisation of labour is actually non-speciesist and recognises non-waged and other than human forms of labour as well without renouncing qualitative distinctions between them. For Marx, both useful labour and the historically specific capitalist form of social labour cannot be reduced to something peculiar to man. Useful labour encompasses a wide range of ways to transform nature. Due to the bourgeois social relations, capitalist social labour is instead limited to human productive wage labour, excluding numerous types of human labour as well as animal labour. Thus, his concept of labour proves that Marx is not just another ‘speciesist’ scholar in the long Western tradition of philosophy.

"Consciousness, Individuality, Mortality: Basic Thoughts about Work and the Animal/Human Boundary." Cultural Logic (2008). http://clogic.eserver.org/2008/2008.html

In Chapter 10 of Capital Vol. 1 – “The Working Day” – Karl Marx reveals at least one central concern within Marx’s project: namely the relationship between labour time and free time as a site of antagonism under capitalism. In this paper I offer a perspective on the politics of animal labour that takes the working day as a main site of problematisation and contestation. I argue that while a concept of a “working day” is applicable to some animal labourers, a defining characteristic of most animals labour under capitalism – particularly that of animals in intensive forms of agriculture – is the reality that that the working day never stops: all time is labour time for these animals. I further argue that a focus on labour time offers a different and productive base for pro animal politics, and for alliance building. At least one curious set of resonances here are the strong demands being made by other social movements – such as environmental justice movements – to “slow down capitalism” through reduced work, reduced production and reduced consumption. Working Draft: Please do not quote without Author Permission. For publication in forthcoming volume Blattner, Coulter and Kymlicka Eds. Animal Labour: A New Frontier of Interspecies Justice? Oxford University Press.

2021

Karl Marx and his complex socio-political and economic theory has been one of the most reference theory in the contemporary capitalist society of the 21st century but is also often a victim of biased reading because of the widely shared misinterpretations about his work, especially on his unique concept of man as "species-being." In response, this paper will tackle the Marxist version of man's essence (as well as the inherent inadequacies of both idealist philosophical systems and economic rationality theories with their formulations of absolute specificities of man) and a well lived communal life, to be able to accurately ground his criticisms towards capitalist system and analyze the reasons why he posited the communist society as the best alternative offering the conditions for man to acquire true fulfillment.

"Animal Labor: Steps towards the Recognition of Animals Rights in Labor?", 2022

'A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.' -Karl Marx 1 An indispensable category, perhaps most overwhelming too, of Marx´s edifice is his fight for human emancipation. Karl Marx's philosophy preaches the unity of humans with nature; humans with work; humans with other humans; and, humans with themselves. The amalgamation of all four facets of human involvement is what he calls the ‗species-being.' 2 So what precisely does species-being mean?

We argue that human-animal studies (HAS) literature is essential for theorizing work because it fosters a reflexive questioning of humanist power and a more sophisticated understanding of the co-dependency and co-creativity between the species. We highlight that the neglect of nonhuman animals in organization studies stems from a preoccupation with contemporary industrialization, human forms of rationality, and the mechanisms of capital exchange. Drawing upon the example of sheep and shepherding, we illustrate how a flexible approach to studying the value and worth of work is made possible by attending to other-than-human activity and value co-creation. We conclude by suggesting that the concept of work and its value needs a more species-inclusive approach to foster a less reductively anthropocentric canon of interdisciplinary scholarship in the field.

An essay about deconstruction and ecology, featuring a reading of Tarkovsky's Solaris.