Dignity of labour

The dignity of labour or the dignity of work is the philosophical holding that all types of jobs are respected equally, and no occupation is considered superior and none of the jobs should be discriminated on any basis. This view holds that all types of work (jobs) are necessary in a society and it is absolutely wrong to consider any work good or bad: the work itself is a dignity.

Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle has been cited as "the first to espouse the 'dignity of work'".^[1] In Past and Present (1843), he wrote:

Labour is Life: from the inmost heart of the Worker rises his god-given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness,—to all knowledge, 'self-knowledge' and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins.^[2]

Incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden made restoring "the dignity of work" a central tenet of his 2020 campaign and administration.^[3][4]

About

Social reformers such as Basava and his contemporary Sharanas, as well as Mahatma Gandhi, were prominent advocates of the dignity of labour.^[5]

The dignity of labour is one of the major themes in Christian ethics,^[6] and as such, it is upheld by the Anglican Communion,^[7] in Catholic social teaching, in Methodist principles,^[8] and in Reformed theology.^[9]

In Roman Catholicism, usually titled "The dignity of work and the rights of workers" the affirmation of the dignity of human labour is found in several papal encyclicals, most notably Pope John Paul II's Laborem Exercens, published 15 September 1981.^[10]

In his 2021 book The Tyranny of Merit, philosopher Michael Sandel says that a spiritual revolution that celebrates the dignity of labour rather than meritocracy is the way to rectify the loss of faith in institutions evidenced in populism.^[11]

See also

• Christianity portal

• Critique of work
• Decent work

References

1. Rowland, Tim. "'Labor is Life' or 'Workers of the world, unite'? Future of capitalism lies in the middle". Herald-Mail Media. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
2. "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Collected Works, Volume XIII. Past and Present, by Thomas Carlyle". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
3. House, The White (5 September 2022). "Remarks by President Biden Celebrating Labor Day and the Dignity of American Workers". The White House. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
4. House, The White (8 February 2023). "Remarks of President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address as Prepared for Delivery". The White House. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
5. Suryanarayanan, A. N. (2009). "Dignity of labour". The Deccan Herald.
6. Osborn, Andrew Rule (1940). Christian Ethics. Oxford University Press. p. 64. Retrieved 4 July 2016. This conception of the divine dignity of work is distinctive of Hebrew and Christian Ethics.
7. Norman, Edward (1 May 2003). An Anglican Catechism. A&C Black. p. 146. ISBN 9780826467003. The Church upholds the dignity of labour, whether it is in productive or service work, or whether it is in the rearing of children and the maintenance of the home.
8. Bundy, Colin (1979). The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry. University of California Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780520037540. Methodist teaching, especially, favoured the creation of wage-earners and stressed the dignity of labour and desirability of manual skills.
9. Ogier, Darryl Mark (1996). Reformation and Society in Guernsey. Boydell & Brewer. p. 173. ISBN 9780851156033. Work discipline was engendered through such measures, and through the general (Calvinist-inspired) emphasis on the dignity of labour in one's calling.
10. "The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers". United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
11. Sandel, Michael J. (2021). The tyranny of merit: what's become of the common good?. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-199117-7.

Further reading

Books

• Hodson, Randy (2001). Dignity at Work. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77812-1.
• Lamont, Michèle (2009). The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03988-9.
• Gomez, Napoleon (2013). Collapse of Dignity: The Story of a Mining Tragedy and the Fight Against Greed and Corruption in Mexico. BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-939529-26-8.
• Bal, Matthijs (2017). Dignity in the Workplace: New Theoretical Perspectives. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-55245-3.
• Willen, Sarah S. (2019). Fighting for Dignity: Migrant Lives at Israel's Margins. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-5134-0.

Journals

• Spencer, T (13 January 1844). "Dignity of Labour". Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (2) – via 32-32.
• Devas, C S (October 1887). "The Rights and Dignity of Labour". The Dublin Review. 18 (2): 467–469.
• Sarkar, Santanu (2007). "The Struggle to be a Part: Story of Dignity of Indian Labour". The Indian Journal of Labour Economics. 50 (2) – via ResearchGate.
• King, Barry (2010). "On the new dignity of labour". Ephemera Journal. 10 (3/4): 285–302.
• Nkosi, Lethiwe (2011). "Kenneth Kaunda : the dignity of labour". African Yearbook of Rhetoric. 2 (3): 61–66. hdl:10520/EJC168753.
• Ban, Wang (2019), Sorace, Christian; Franceschini, Ivan; Loubere, Nicholas (eds.), "Dignity of Labour", Afterlives of Chinese Communism, Political Concepts from Mao to Xi, ANU Press, pp. 73–76, ISBN 978-1-78873-476-9, JSTOR j.ctvk3gng9.14

Articles

• "The Dignity of Labor". Scientific American. 2 July 1853.
• Blackie, J S (January 1879). "The Dignity of Labour". Good Words. 20: 837–840.
• Somavia, Juan (31 March 2015). "Valuing the dignity of work". Human Development Reports UNDP.
• Jones, William P. (Summer 2020). "The Dignity of Labor". Dissent Magazine.