INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH, AND REDUCED LEISURE: REVISITING "END OF HISTORY"

In: Working USA: the journal of labor & society, Band 9, Heft 2, S. 199-213

Abstract

The highly productive Information and Communications Technology industry has sharply divided the opinions between those who believe that it represents a radical transformation of the capitalist order and those who believe that it is just more of the same. This study draws attention to a critical indicator: The balance of work and leisure in the daily life of a worker that has gradually evolved in the course of capitalist development is now tilting significantly against leisure despite productivity growth. Here, this paradox is explained by the quality composition of knowledge workers as well as—in contrast to what neoliberalism makes us believe—the growing hegemony of business organizations over that of market.