IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v16y2009i1p97-122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Work in utopia: Pro-work sentiments in the writings of four critics of classical economics

Author

Listed:
  • David Spencer

Abstract

The paper examines the pro-work doctrines of four writers who were connected with the 'utopian' and 'romantic' critique of classical economics in the nineteenth century. These authors are Charles Fourier, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and William Morris. All four argued that the problem of work aversion stemmed from the existing institutions of capitalist society, and could be overcome by the creation of an alternative system of production. Their aim was to create a future society in which work could be experienced as a positive activity. The paper argues that the views of the aforementioned authors provided an important counterchallenge to the classical economists' conception of work as a disutility.

Suggested Citation

  • David Spencer, 2009. "Work in utopia: Pro-work sentiments in the writings of four critics of classical economics," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 97-122.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:16:y:2009:i:1:p:97-122
    DOI: 10.1080/09672560802707449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672560802707449
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09672560802707449?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Levy, David M., 2001. "How the Dismal Science Got its Name: Debating Racial Quackery," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 5-35, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhen Wang & Haoying Xu, 2019. "When and for Whom Ethical Leadership is More Effective in Eliciting Work Meaningfulness and Positive Attitudes: The Moderating Roles of Core Self-Evaluation and Perceived Organizational Support," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 919-940, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wohlgemuth, Michael, 2008. "A European social model of state-market relations: the ethics of competition from a neo-liberal perspective," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 08/9, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    2. Levy, David M. & Peart, Sandra J. & Farrant, Andrew, 2005. "The spatial politics of F.A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 982-999, December.
    3. David Levy & Sandra J. Peart, 2010. "Richard Whately and the Gospel of Transparency," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 166-187, January.
    4. Robert Dixon, 2006. "Carlyle, Malthus and Sismondi: The Origins of Carlyle’s Dismal View of Political Economy," History of Economics Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 32-38, January.
    5. Kevin D. Hoover, 2008. "The Vanity of the Economist: A Comment on Peart and Levy's The “Vanity of the Philosopher”," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 445-453, July.
    6. Ramya Vijaya, 2006. "Book Reviews," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 65(3), pages 349-385.
    7. Groß Steffen W., 2010. "Warum sich Ökonomen (wieder) mit Philosophie beschäftigen sollten – und Philosophen (wieder) mit Ökonomie / Why Economists should be more interested in Philosophy (again) – and why Philosophers should," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 61(1), pages 75-94, January.
    8. Robert W. Dimand, 2005. "Economists and the Shadow of “The Other” Before 1914," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 827-850, July.
    9. A. M. C. Waterman, 2002. "The 'Sussex School' and the history of economic thought: British Intellectual History, 1750-1950," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 452-463.
    10. James M. Buchanan, 2005. "Natural Equality, Increasing Returns, And Economic Progress: A Reinterpretation Of Adam Smith'S System," Division of Labor & Transaction Costs (DLTC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 1(01), pages 57-66.
    11. Levy, David M. & Peart, Sandra J., 2004. "Statistical prejudice: from eugenics to immigrants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 5-22, March.
    12. Roger Koppl & E. James Cowan, 2010. "A Battle of Forensic Experts is not a Race to the Bottom," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 235-262.
    13. Khalil, Elias, 2007. "The Mirror-Neuron Paradox: How Far is Sympathy from Compassion, Indulgence, and Adulation?," MPRA Paper 3509, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Juan Pablo Couyoumdjian, 2008. "An Expert at Work: Revisiting Jeremy Bentham's Proposals on Codification," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 503-519, November.
    15. Miller, S.M., 2004. "New classical versus neoclassical frameworks: a review of Yang," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 175-185, October.
    16. Andrew Farrant, 2008. "The “Vanity of the Philosopher”: Analytical Egalitarianism, Associationist Psychology, and Eugenic Remaking?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 415-428, July.
    17. McCloskey, Deirdre Nansen, 2009. "Britain, China, and the Irrelevance of Stage Theories," MPRA Paper 18291, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Medema, Steven G, 2024. ""I Get by With a Little Help From My Friends ...": An Editor’s Retrospective," SocArXiv nujcm, Center for Open Science.
    19. Munger, Michael C., 2011. "Persuasion, psychology and public choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 290-300.
    20. Leonard Thomas C., 2004. "The Price is Wrong: Causes and Consequences of Ethical Restraint of Trade," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-20, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:16:y:2009:i:1:p:97-122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.