Episode 122: Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold discuss new work, new culture
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What is the “new work, new culture” movement and why does it matter?
Hey, Matt Tugman here from Elucidations. Guess what? We're gonna do a listener QA episode. Do you have a philosophical problem you've been stuck on? If so, you can send us a voice memo. And Agnes Callard, Ben Callard, and I? We'll do our best to try to resolve it. We'd like you to keep your question to under one minute in length, so that we have time to get around to a couple of them. And we'd like you to record it on your phone. So if you have an iPhone, please use Apple Voice Memo. And if you have an Android phone, we recommend the app called ASR. Then once you've recorded your question, you can email it to us at elucidations at ushicago.edu. If, as the day goes by, you forget everything I just said, no problem.
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Thanks, Matt. Hello, I'm Yud Jun Lee with the Elucidations Podcast. Work is an essential part of human life. For example, we are largely defined by the job that we each do for a living. However, work in modern life isn't always fulfilling. Instead, we often feel that work is exhausting as it takes it out of us. For our guest Fritjoff Bergman, this isn't a necessary feature of work. Instead, work is supposed to be fulfilling, engaging, vitalizing, and life strengthening. This gap between what work has been and what work can be points to a need for a new kind of work. To hear more, please join us for a discussion with Fritjoff Bergmann and David Hembald on New Work New Culture.
Hello and welcome to Elucidations. An unexpected philosophy podcast. I'm Matt Tykman. Yuajin Lee. With us today is Fritjof Bergmann, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Director of the Center for New Work. And David Helmbold, a retired public servant and close collaborator of Fritchov Berkman's Fritzhof Bergmann's new book. New work, New Culture, is out now from Zero Books, which is an imprint of John Hunt Press. And the Center for New Work is located in many different countries around the world. They are here to discuss new work, new culture. Fritzhof Bergman and David Helmbolt, welcome. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
For having us on this programme.
So one thing I think is really interesting about the topic of work is that when you talk to people about it in everyday conversations You kind of get two conflicting stories. Sometimes When you talk to people about work, they say Oh, work is such a slog. I hate it. Ah, Mondays, am I right? It's you know, such a drag. I wish I didn't have to go into work every day. But other times when you talk to people about work They sort of praise it as something honorable and venerable, like it's really important to do work and to work hard. That's part of what it is to live a great life. What are we to make of the fact that there are these sort of like two inconsistent pictures of whether work is good or bad?
I can make something of that fact in by mentioning right at the beginning of our conversation. That um I started too. Focus on the subject of work. Many years ago? And everybody told me that I was making a great mistake. That I had a very excellent career in philosophy? Princeton and Stanford and other places. And that's Work was a waste of my time. Th there was nothing interesting to be said about work. And I disagreed with that from the beginning. And said they're far from that. Work would soon Become a very interesting subject. And of course that. Among all the other things. This is one thing that I was Not wrong about it. that it has become much more of a subject than it was ten or twenty years ago.
How do Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold define the problem with modern work?
not just the way one usually thinks about work, but there have been many efforts recently To turn work into something. Were exciting. Well, interesting. More plausible. than work had been before. And that is one of the things That stimulated me into Writing a book called New work,
new culture. So would it be fair to say that the goal of the New Work Movement is to try to get meaningful and fulfilling jobs for everybody?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the “new work, new culture” movement and why does it matter?
0:00–4:33
2
How do Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold define the problem with modern work?
4:33–8:30
3
What examples of “new work” projects have been tried in different countries?
8:30–13:40
4
How does the idea of work you really want differ from traditional employment?
13:40–18:49
5
What role does psychological transformation play in creating fulfilling work?
18:49–23:40
6
How can societies build a safety net that lets people pursue the work they love?
23:40–29:00
7
How does the New Work movement relate to or differ from socialism?
29:00–33:50
8
What practical steps can listeners take to discover and pursue the work they truly want?
33:50–39:19
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Elucidations
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