Why, Instead of Doing Nothing, do we Work? A Cultural-Psychological Essay on the Foundations of the Purpose of...

This essay aims to discuss the meaning and purpose of work by adopting an approach in cultural psychology that emphasizes the centrality of the meaning-making process. The central thesis of the paper is to demonstrate that the meaning and purpose of work is a paradox. On the one hand, work represents a set of actions of the human agent for producing things. That is to say, the purpose of work is located outside of it. On the other hand, work is an activity in itself, carried out as a way of developing human potentialities. In this case, the purpose of the actions performed at work coincides with the result of working (developing human potentialities). The paradox arises because, in current work conditions, the unity of human agency represented by these two dimensions of work is fragmented, meaning that not all forms of work permit the convergence among purposes, actions, and the results of these actions. We analyze how some cultural markers, which are products of the process of meaning-making of the human agent in culture, suggest dealing with this paradox. We explore its limits and propose the need for new cultural markers capable of reaffirming the integrality of the human agent at work.