Thursday 20 October 2011

Labour vs Work

Creek and Lawson-Porter (2007 p.99) define Labour as: “Mere activity characterised by necessity and futility. The goods produced by labour are consumed and have no enduring quality. A man is not free whose life is totally absorbed in labour. His energies are spent in response to necessity, under the aegis of forces outside himself, forces he cannot control. He is not master of himself as he is himself mastered”.

Creek and Lawson-Porter (2007 p.99) also define work as: an “activity producing an enduring object. Work requires self-investment, skill, craft and personal judgement. Work is purposeful and meaningful. Work is distinct from labour and often must be discovered independently from one’s job”.

Labour fits into my activity of cooking as at the end of the day it is needed for survival and fulfilment however, one can argue that there are components of my cooking that fit within work. When I am baking a friend’s birthday cake a lot of meaningful thought goes into both the preparation and creation of the cake. Baking a cake for my friend is not necessarily done for survival it is more done for pure enjoyment and as a purpose of a gift. Creek and Lawson-Porter (2007) refer to the idea of labours of love: “the difference love makes, the difference in seeing a task in one’s sensed community, as part of one’s creation, imagination and autobiography” (p.99). This concept relates well with my love towards baking birthday cakes for my friends and how in this case it is not necessarily done for necessity.

References:

Creek, J., & Lawson-Porter, A. (Eds.). (2007). Contemporary Issues in Occupational Therapy (p. 99). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.    

1 comment:

  1. Hi looey, I like how you have decided cooking is labour but you have also acknowledged aspect of work within your activity. I like also that you love cooking your friends birthday cakes, maybe next time you could cook me one?

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