New Books in Critical Theory

Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek, "After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time" (Verso, 2023)

Sep 6, 2023

Dr. Helen Hester and Dr. Nick Srnicek discuss the history of unpaid work in our homes and the fight for free time. They explore the increasing burden of domestic tasks and the barriers to reducing this work. Additionally, they examine the gendered differences in free time and the influence of societal norms and policies. The podcast offers potential solutions, including empowering workers to create their own technologies and exploring alternative living spaces. They also discuss principles for action, such as communal care and temporal sovereignty. The episode concludes with a mention of their future projects.

46:17

Episode guests

Nick Srnicek

Helen Hester

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Unpaid work in our homes has increasingly taken up our free time, requiring a political project to prioritize reclaiming that time.

The rise of the nuclear family model, reinforced by capitalism and gender roles, limits alternative forms of living and caregiving.

Deep dives

Unpaid work in the home and the fight for free time

The book explores how unpaid work in our homes has taken up an increasing portion of our lives. It discusses the history and reasons behind this phenomenon and proposes ways to reclaim free time. The authors highlight the importance of reducing work time to maximize free time, emphasizing the need for a political project that prioritizes free time for individuals to live their lives as they choose.

Introduction

2min

Maximizing Free Time through Reducing Work

17min

Gendered Imbalance of Free Time

18min

Exploring Solutions and Principles for Action

2min

Principles of Communal Care, Public Luxury, and Temporal Sovereignty

5min

Future Projects and Book Mention

2min

Does it ever feel like you have no free time? You come home after work and instead of finding a space of rest and relaxation, you're confronted by a pile of new tasks to complete – cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids, and so on.

In After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time (Verso, 2023), Dr. Helen Hester and Dr. Nick Srnicek lay out how unpaid work in our homes has come to take up an ever-increasing portion of our lives – how the vacuum of free time has been taken up by vacuuming. Examining the history of the home over the past century – from running water to white goods to smart homes – they show how repeated efforts to reduce the burden of this work have faced a variety of barriers, challenges, and reversals.

Charting the trajectory of our domestic spaces over the past century, Dr. Hester and Dr. Srnicek consider new possibilities for the future, uncovering the abandoned ideas of anti-housework visionaries and sketching out a path towards real free time for all, where everyone is at liberty to pursue their passions, or do nothing at all. It will require rethinking our living arrangements, our expectations and our cities.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.

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