The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads to (Self‐)Exploitation By HeejungChung, Bristol: Policy Press. 2022, ISBN: 978‐1447354789, Price GBP 26.99.
本书探讨灵活工作如何在实际中加剧工人自我剥削和性别分工，基于丰富数据揭示灵活性悖论，对关注工作方式变革的研究者、政策制定者及管理者有重要参考价值。
The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads to (Self-)Exploitation by Heejung Chung is, at its core, a book about time and space, autonomy and control.It is a well-written and accessible, data-rich contribution that reflects upon the transformation of work and working experiences.It does so by focusing on flexible working, a concept taken to signify a multitude of changes in the political and social regulation of work as well as in its centrality and role in people's lives, used as a lens through which to analyse the contemporary state of work.These changes include the possibility to alter three fundamental variables in workers' lives: when they work (shifting around starting and ending times or having full control over one's schedule altogether); where they carry out their working activities (such as at home or in other spaces outside the office or work premises); and how much they work-the most common example is part-time work, but it may include several other arrangements.The book tackles a timely topic, which in light of the Covid-19 pandemic has received not only close review by researchers, but it has also frequently featured in the media and the public sphere.As Chung recalls, the lockdowns enforced by governments in order to foster social distancing and limit the spread of the pandemic led firms and public administrations to systematically introduce working-from-home arrangements.Crucially, she argues that while the data show a stall in the increase in flexible working since 2000, Covid-19 marked a new upsurge in its implementation.This in turn suggests that the arrangements introduced during the emergency were sometimes left in place-at least partially-even after the end of lockdowns, making this topic particularly significant in the current debate on work.The author makes it clear from the outset that she supports flexible working: anything that affords workers more control and autonomy over their (working) lives should be seen as a welcome development.However, under the existing socioeconomic system and capital-labour power relations, flexible working is shown to consistently exacerbate negative trends such as workers' (self-)exploitation and the gendered division of labour.This is exactly the 'flexibility paradox' that Chung illustrates: what in theory could allow greater freedom and autonomy to workers-namely,