ANTB33: The Future of Work

Fall 2023, University of Toronto Scarborough

Course: Thursday, 3:00-5:00pm; HW 216

Professor: Prof. Waqas H. Butt, waqas.butt@utoronto.ca
Office hours: Thursday, 1:00–2:00pm (HL 318 or Zoom), or by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Louis Plottel, louis.plottel@mail.utoronto.ca

Office hours: By appointment

Description : Every day, in conversations, both public and private, we are told something is happening
with work. Where have all the good paying jobs gone? Should migrants be let into the country? Are
supply chains secure in case of an emergency like COVID-19 strikes again? Will AI and ChatGPT
render us useless? As these questions suggest, we live in a world in which the status of work is being
upended, making it uncertain what will happen to work in the coming decades. This uncertainty
understandably causes us plenty of anxiety. Will humans be liberated from the drudgery of labouring,
finally given the time to leisure and realize their full potential? Or will they be dispossessed and put
out-of-work, coming to be dominated by their very own technologies? The changes in work we see
happening before us are not ones happening in a vacuum. Rather, these changes are historically bound
up with other changes in cultural, economic, political, social, and ecological life. They are the result of
complex, intricate processes, in which all kinds of things, bodies, lives, spaces, technologies, peoples,
and institutions have been involved. So, how can we study the future of work as it unfolds before us?

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This course explores the changing nature of work in the contemporary world. Work, being entangled
with all facets of life, is fraught by historical inequalities, which shapes how changes happening to
work are experienced by individuals and communities along the lines of class, race, and gender. In this
course, we will engage different types of materials to examine how all kinds of work have been
transformed in the past several decades as a result of automation, digital technologies, climate change,
pandemics, the retrenchment of the welfare state, deindustrialization, global supply chains, and
legacies of imperial and colonial rule. In doing so, this course demonstrates how these transformations
are not limited to work itself but also, reverberate across numerous domains of life. As we explore
these transformative processes, we will pay close attention to how work becomes a site for the
distribution of social inequalities, as well as political contestation and resistance. This will allow us to
imagine what is required to revalue our work, not to mention our lives, in more enriching and
potentially liberatory ways.

Course Engagement: You should come to class prepared and ready to engage with the material. This
means it is imperative you do the reading ahead of time and come with questions and be ready to
actively engage in the learning process. My role as an instructor is to facilitate your learning – a task I
cannot perform unless you fulfill your role. I realize that some talk more than others, but this class
will require everyone to be aware of the learning environment. Talk less if you talk a lot, try to talk
more if you are shy. If you find yourself unable to engage in class, find ways outside of the classroom
to engage (e.g., reaching out over email or coming to office hours). Importantly, listen to what others
say, try to understand where they are coming from. Many of the topics that we discuss in class are
difficult and challenging, touching upon our personal experiences and beliefs. This does not mean we
should try to avoid topics or possible conflict. Trust in yourself and others that we can work through
any potential disagreement with effort and honesty. Such engagement requires a willingness to change
and be affected by what others say or think.

Course Obligations:

1. Course Engagement (30%)

Engagement is a considerable component of your final grade. It will be evaluated based on the
following criteria.

• In Class Participation (10%): you are expected to attend every lecture, unless you have
a valid excuse. During attendance, you will be expected to engage in classroom discussions.
• Reading Responses (4% x 5 = 20%): Starting from the second week, you will need to
submit a critical summary of the readings before lecture (see rubric on Quercus). This
summary will be posted on Quercus, should be approximately 500 words, and should be
submitted by 3pm each Wednesday. These responses will form the basis of in-class
discussions each week. You are required to submit 5 of these—two will be from before
reading week and three will be from after reading week. These are not meant to be
summaries of the material or opinion pieces. They should critically unpack one or two
main ideas you found important and stimulating in the readings as a whole, meaning I
want you to analytically dig into them, draw out their significance, show how the author
persuades us of their importance, etc. These need not be perfectly polished pieces of

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 writing—I am more interested here in probing analysis and adventurous thought. You will
receive a grade for each of these.

2. Midterm Essay (22.5%)

Your midterm assignment will be to complete a short essay (3-4 double-space pages words
with 1 in. margins, and 12 pt. Times New Roman font) addressing the material covered up to
reading week. It is due on Oct. 23 (WEEK 7) by 11:59pm and will be submitted through
Quercus. More information will shared closer to the due date.

3. Ethnographic Vignettes (10% x 2 = 20%)

You will write two ethnographic vignettes (3 double-space pages words with 1 in. margins,
and 12 pt. Times New Roman font). The first will be an auto-ethnographic piece due 11/6
(Week 9) at 11:59pm, and the second will be an ethnographic observation due 11/27 (Week
12) at 11:59pm. There will be an in-class exercise on ethnographic writing, and more details
about this assignment will be posted on Quercus and discussed in class. The assignment will
be submitted through Quercus.

4. Final Essay (27.5% of final grade)

Your final assignment is to write a 5 - 6-page essay reflecting on how working and living are
changing in ways the rework our expectations of what it looks like to live in the coming years.
Throughout the course, we will reflect how changes in work are tied to wider transformations
in life, which will be explored through readings and ethnographic vignettes. I will provide
prompts for you to respond to, and in writing your response to one of them, you will be
expected to utilize themes and readings from the second half of the course. We will discuss
the details of this essay toward the end of class. The due date will be set by UTSC.

Extra Credit

Critical lecture summary: This can be submitted at any point in the semester. The summary should
cover the lecture and discussion for a particular week and should be at least 1000 words in length
(approximately 2 pages single-spaced). It will summarize the lecture, pose its own questions, and draw
connections to other parts of the course and/or Anthropology more generally. The summary will be
submitted through Quercus within two weeks after the chosen lecture.

Course Policies:

Academic integrity is essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarship in a university, and to
ensuring that a degree from the University of Toronto is a strong signal of each student’s
individual academic achievement. As a result, the University treats cases of cheating and
plagiarism very seriously. The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters
(http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm) outlines the behaviours that
constitute academic dishonesty and the processes for addressing academic offences. Potential
offences include, but are not limited to:

In papers and assignments:

> Using someone else’s ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement.
> Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the instructor.

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 > Making up sources or facts.
> Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment.

On tests and exams:

> Using or possessing unauthorized aids.
> Looking at someone else’s answers during an exam or test.
> Misrepresenting your identity.

In academic work:
> Falsifying institutional documents or grades.
> Falsifying or altering any documentation required by the University, including (but not limited
to) doctor’s notes.
All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated following procedures outlined in
the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have questions or concerns about what
constitutes appropriate academic behaviour or appropriate research and citation methods, you
are expected to seek out additional information on academic integrity from your instructor or
from other institutional resources (see http://www.utoronto.ca/academicintegrity/).
Lecture Slides: Slides will be uploaded before the lecture each week.

Special Needs: An important part of your responsibilities as a student is to inform your

instructors in a timely manner of any special needs, scheduling conflicts, medical problems, or
other emergencies that may affect your ability to complete your coursework. If you are sick, have
a family emergency, or observe a religious holiday that requires you to be absent, please let me
know prior to class.

Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In particular, if you
have a disability/health consideration that may require accommodations, please feel free to
approach me and/or the AccessAbility Services Office as soon as possible. I will work with you
and AccessAbility Services to ensure you can achieve your learning goals in this course. Enquiries
are confidential. The UTSC AccessAbility Services staff (located in S302) are available by
appointment to assess specific needs, provide referrals and arrange appropriate accommodations
(416) 287-7560 or ability@utsc.utoronto.ca.

Religious Holidays: Students who miss work for the purpose of religious observance are
permitted to make up this work. Students should submit in writing to me by the end of the
second full week of classes their documented religious holiday schedule for the semester.

Follow UTSC Anthropology on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utscanthropology

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UTSCAnthroDept

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTSC-Anthropology-597865890873895

Reading List:

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Readings are available through library reserves. If you have trouble accessing a reading, please let me
know immediately. Please bring copies of the required reading to class, along with your notes.

Schedule:

1. 9.7: Introduction

2. 9.14: What does work do to us?

• Marx, Karl. "Estranged Labour" In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Economic-
Philosophic-Manuscripts-1844.pdf
• hooks, bell. 2015. Feminism for Everybody. New York: Routledge. Ch. 9 (“Women at Work”)
• hooks, bell. 2004. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Washington
Square Press. Ch. 6 (“Work: What’s Love Got to Do with It?)

Further Reading

• Graeber, David. 2013. “On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs: A work rant.” Strike
Magazine 3: 1-5.

3. 9.21: Are we living in a post-work world?

• Ferguson, James and Li, Tania. 2018. “Beyond the ‘Proper Job:’ Political-Economic
Analysis after the Century of Labouring Man.” Working Paper 51 Cape Town: PLAAS,
UWC.
• Crawford, K., 2021. The atlas of AI: Power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence.
New Haven: Yale University Press. Ch. 2 ("Labor")
• Livingston. James. 2016. “Fuck work” Aeon https://aeon.co/essays/what-if-jobs-are-
not-the-solution-but-the-problem

Further Readings

• Benanav, Aaron. “Automation and the Future of Work, Part 1” New Left Review 119
• Benanav, Aaron. “Automation and the Future of Work, Part 2” New Left Review 120

4. 9.28: What are we working for?

• Denning, Michael. 2010. “Wageless Life” New Left Review 66

• I will assign one of the following readings to each of you:
o Millar, Kathleen. 2014. “The Precarious Present: Wageless Labor and Disrupted
Life in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.” Cultural Anthropology 29 (1):32-53
o Berg, Heather. 2021. Porn work: Sex, labor, and Late Capitalism. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press Ch. 3 (“A scene is just a marketing tool:
Hustling in porn’s gig economy”)

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 • Raventós, Daniel and Wark, Julie. 2021. “Basic Income and the Future of Work” Roar 11
(2) https://roarmag.org/magazine/basic-income-and-the-future-of-work/

Further Readings

• Sargent, Adam. and Morton, Gregory. 2019. “What Happened to the Wage?”
Anthropological Quarterly 92 (3): 635-662.
• Widerquist, Karl, Noguera, José, Vanderborght, Yannick, and De Wispelaere, Jurgen.
2013. Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research. Chichester. West Sussex: Wiley
Blackwell.

5. 10.5: What is a working body?

• Vora, Kalindi. 2023. Reimagining Reproduction Essays on Surrogacy, Labor, and Technologies of
Human Reproduction. Oxford and New York: Routledge. Ch. 3 (“Indian Transnational
Surrogacy and the Commodification of Vital Energy”)
• Blanchette, Alex. 2015. “Herding species: Biosecurity, posthuman labor, and the
American industrial pig.” Cultural Anthropology 30 (4): 640-669
• Petersen, M.A., Nørgaard, L.S. and Traulsen, J.M., 2015. “Pursuing pleasures of
productivity: university students’ use of prescription stimulants for enhancement and the
moral uncertainty of making work fun.” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 39: 665-679.

Further Readings

• ILO Report. 2019. Working on a Warmer planet: The impact of heat stress on labour productivity
and decent work
• ILO Report. 2019. Making the Future of Work Inclusive of People with Disabilities

***

Reading Week Break: October 7th – 13th

***

6. 10.19: Is work essential?

• Davis, Angela. 1981. Women, Race, and Class. New York: Random House. Ch. 13 (“The
Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective”)
• Williams, Fiona. 2018. “A Global Crisis in Care?” https://globaldialogue.isa-
sociology.org/articles/a-global-crisis-in-care
• Acevedo, Deepa. 2020. “Essentializing labor before, during, and after COVID-19.” Society
for the Anthropology of Work.
• Collins, Jane. 2023. Revaluing work after COVID‐19. Anthropology of Work Review

Further Reading:

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 • ILO. 2018. Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work. International Labour
Organisation (ILO).
https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_633135/lang--en/index.htm
• Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild. 2002. “Introduction” In Global Women:
Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie
Russell Hochschild. New York: Henry Holt, pp. 1–10

7. 10.26: Work and Workers on the Move I

MIDTERM ESSAY DUE 10/23, 5PM

• Walia, Harsha. 2021. Border Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist
Nationalism. Chicago: Haymarket Books. Ch. 4 (“Bordering Regimes”) and Ch. 9
(“Permanently Temporary”)
• Henaway, Mostafa. 2023. Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism and Class.
Fernwood Publishing. Ch. 4 (“Managing Migration, only section titled “Globalizing
Canada’s Kafala System,” Pp. 58-61) and Ch. 9 (“New Forms of Organizing”)

8. 11.2: Work and Workers on the Move II

• Henaway, Mostafa. 2023. Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism and Class.
Fernwood Publishing. Ch. 6 (“From Farm to Table”) and Ch. 7 (Just-in-Time for Just-in-
Time Distribution)
• Levy, Karen. 2015. “The contexts of control: Information, power, and truck-driving
work.” The Information Society 31 (2): 160-174.

Further Reading
• Baldwin, Richard. 2012. “Global Supply Chains: Why They Emerged, Why They Matter,
and Where They are Going” CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP9103

9. 11.9: Working Anywhere, Anytime

FIRST ETHNOGRAPHIC VIGNETTE DUE 11/6, 5PM

• Iyer, Deepa. 2023. “Digital Nomad.” Society for the Anthropology of Work.
https://saw.americananthro.org/pub/keyword-digitalnomad/release/1
• Sharma, Sarah. 2017. “Speed traps and the temporal: of taxis, truck stops, and
taskrabbits.” In The sociology of speed: digital, organizational, and social temporalities, edited by
Judy Wajcman. pp.131-151. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Woodsock, Jamie. 2022. “Fighting workplace surveillance” Red Pepper
https://www.redpepper.org.uk/fighting-workplace-surveillance/
• “The Future of Workspace” Wired Magazine
https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2018/11/the-future-of-workspace/
• The Nowhere Office. “New Realities in Corporate Real Estate” 2023.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nowhere-
office/id1559059883?i=1000599225591

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10. 11.16: Digitizing and Platforming Work

• Irani, Lily. 2015. “Difference and dependence among digital workers: The case of Amazon
Mechanical Turk.” South Atlantic Quarterly 114 (1): 225-234
• Calvão, Filipe and Thara, Kaveri. 2019. “Working futures: The ILO, automation and
digital work in India.” In The ILO @ 100 Brill Nijhoff 223-247.
• Perrigo, Billy. 2023. “OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make
ChatGPT Less Toxic” https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/
• Deck, Andrew. 2023. “The workers at the frontlines of the AI revolution”
https://restofworld.org/2023/ai-revolution-outsourced-workers/

Further Reading

• Gershon, Ilana and Cefkin, Melissa. 2020. “Click for work: Rethinking work through
online work distribution platforms.” Ephemera: theory & politics in organization 20 (4): 103-
29.

11. 11.23: Mining Work

• Calvão, Filipe. 2019. “Crypto‐miners: Digital labor and the power of blockchain
technology.” Economic Anthropology 6 (1): 123-134.
• Smith, James. 2011. “Tantalus in the Digital Age: Coltan ore, temporal dispossession, and
“movement” in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.” American Ethnologist 38
(1): 17-35.

12. 11/30: Are we living in the future?

• Malik, Usman T. 2020. “Beyond These Stars Other Tribulations of Love” Wired
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-beyond-these-stars-other-tribulations-of-
love-usman-t-malik/
• Wijeratne, Yudhanjaya. 2020. ‘Work Ethics” Wired
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-work-ethics-yudhanjaya-wijeratne/

SECOND ETHNOGRAPHIC EXERCISE DUE 11/27, 5PM