NEW LEADS FOR INVESTIGATING THE CONCEPTUA LIZATION OF WORK

On the basis of recent developments in the study of work, an overall p icture is drawn, and issues for future research are pointed out. Work is defined as a contextualized, informed, normative, evaluated action performed under constraint. An activity becomes ''work'' not due to it s nature but because of the characteristics of the social relations su rrounding it. By examining responses to the incomplete, nonneutral nat ure of the wage-earning contract, an explanation is given about how th is social relation has become dominant in the history of our societies so as to outweigh and subordinate other social relations.