Human in labor. Social and anthropological aspects

The article is an attempt to research the present situation of human labor in social and anthropological aspects. The author demonstrates that the human position in labor is undergoing fundamental changes associated with the transition of the socio-cultural reality in the postmodern condition. During the research, the author formulated a number of important conclusions and generalizations. In the first part of the article the prospects of development of labor in terms of the classical conceptions of Marxism and positivism are discussed and conclusions are made that the predictions offered by these conceptions have not been realized. Further, possible explanations for the changes occurring in labor from the point of view of a number of modern conceptions are given. It is concluded that a number of considered conceptions have insufficient explanatory power, and it is offered to explore the question of the fundamental changes in the anthropological and social components of labor through the author's approach based on post-modern and post-structuralist conceptions. In the second part of the article, the basic transformations of labor in the socio-cultural context of the postmodern era are studied. Attention is fixed on the process of immobilization of labor, which is expressed in three forms: simulation, inflation and loss of meaning. Next, the questions of blurred specificity of labor through its association with other types of practices and dissemination of non-standard forms of labor are discussed. The question of the transformation of temporal parameters of labor is considered. Time of labor becomes fragmented. Labor today is a system of indefinite duration. Labor in the postmodern era is built on the principle of uncertainty and short-term basis. Permanent stable labor becomes the destiny of a bounded layer. In the third part of the article, basing on the analysis of empirical material of the human condition in labor, generalization of the main parameters of the new model of labor typical of the postmodern era is made. Seven parameters of this model are identified, such as flexibilization, individualization, deformalization, self-organization, and others. Further, the issues of dual displacements in labor nature are stated: on the one hand, there is "laborization" of the human being and the nature of labor becomes a self-sufficient totalitarian force against the human, on the other hand, the nature of labor becomes simulating and illusionary. In the last part of the article, the changes in human existence, which are caused by changes in the nature, social and anthropological status of labor, are captured. Eight components of the process of "laborization" of human existence are identified, including individualization, self-control, the regulation of everyday life, and others. At the end of the article, it is stated that labor is now acquiring negative and contradictory features; at the same time it takes the position of a frontal anthropological phenomenon accumulating transgressive trends of the postmodern era.

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