No Way To Make A Living is a sociological space about work, generating discussion and exchange on what work, paid or unpaid, is like in today’s world

In 1982, Miriam Glucks­mann pub­lished a book about the exper­i­ence of women work­ing ‘on the line’ at a fact­ory in West Lon­don which pro­duced speedo­met­ers for cars. She had left her higher edu­ca­tion teach­ing job to work in this fact­ory, not with the inten­tion of pro­du­cing an eth­no­graphy, nor with any illu­sions of ‘join­ing the…

Richard Alcock in The Guard­ian writes today about the ever-increasing pay gap in the UK between rich and poor. I do like his idea that pro­fes­sional hater Melanie Phil­lips be nom­in­ated for a nice big pay cut to see the effect on her work motiv­a­tion (though if Alcock’s eco­nom­istic account of what drives people to…

Dawn and I recently watched Mes­rine: Killer Instinct and Mes­rine: Pub­lic Enemy Num­ber 1, a semi-fictionalised account of the life of Jacques Mes­rine, France’s most fam­ous bank rob­ber. Apart from a brief period work­ing in an architect’s prac­tice, Mes­rine (played by Vin­cent Cas­sel) made a liv­ing from illegal activ­it­ies. A pro­fes­sional crim­inal has to do…