Paid work is absolutely central to the culture and politics of capitalist societies, yet today's work centered world is becoming increasingly hostile to the human need for autonomy, spontaneity and community. The grim reality of a society in which some are overworked, whilst others are condemned...

The paper reviews the progress of the sociology of work in Britain since 1945. It identifies two long-standing influences, Marxism and Weberian analysis, and a third more recent approach shaped by post-modernism. It disputes claims associated with the last, that the field suffers from...