Labour Conditions and the Counterculture of Dignity

This article explores the notion of “counterculture of dignity” that Honneth mentions in his The Working Sovereign: Labour and Democratic Citizenship as a way to obtain recognition in the context of work: what kinds of actions can be activated by such cultures? Some groups (e.g. minorities and women) can be in a position in which it is extremely difficult to make effective claims for recognition. It is suggested that the involvement of workers in the knowledge of the processes of work might be a strategy: usually, the management deliberately hides the real processes and procedures from workers and society. Furthermore, the point is raised that recent technologies, especially ICTs and AI, if used within the capitalist exclusive orientation to profit, tend to increase the level of segregation of workers from the processes, creating an even more oppressive environment.