Publish at November 13 2017 Updated August 07 2024
Manual work seems to be of little interest compared to mental work. Repetitive, routine and devoid of reflection on its aims, it would even lead to an impoverishment of the intelligence.
On the contrary, authors such as R. Sennett and M. Crawford demonstrate the richness and interest of working directly with objects! Repairing objects, or making our own, can even give us greater freedom.
Matthew CRAWFORD holds degrees in physics and political philosophy. He worked for a few months in a think tank, before making a radical change and opening a two-wheel motorcycle repair shop. Since 2010, the year of publication of L'éloge du carburateur, he has been telling this story on a regular basis. Think-tanks aim to project an image of rationality, but they're not about thinking! On the contrary, Matthew CRAWFORD had to produce reasoning in line with the think-tank's positioning.
The author is highly critical of work environments where nothing meaningful is produced. He also looks with concern at the objects of this century that give the illusion of freedom by regularly asking us to make choices. This liberal conception of freedom, which would be all the stronger the more choices we have, stems from marketing. It mobilizes our attention and prevents us from concentrating or questioning our meaning.
Like Y. CITTON, Matthew CRAWFORD calls for an ecology of attention that would enable everyone to focus their minds on an activity.
Finally, everyday objects have become foreign to us. Nobody knows how they work any more, and nobody checks the oil level in their car. A light tells us it's low. Soon, says Matthew CRAWFORD, the car will send us an e-mail to alert us...
Matthew CRAWFORD is not opposed to technology or digital technology. In fact, he's rather pleased that we've invented the motorcycle! And the path he proposes to help us build ourselves as individuals is quite original. As we have seen, he rejects the liberal idea that freedom is measured by the number of choices. Quite the contrary. They have to be restricted. If my cell phone is on, I have a constant choice of whether or not to look at the messages I receive. If I turn it off, I restrict my choices, but I'm freer!
On the other hand, making or repairing objects forces you to concentrate, to wrestle with a problem. It sometimes makes you want to bang your head against the wall. But it's this opposition that reinforces the feeling of existing as an individual. The craftsman and the repairman have retained a sense of concentration, while the digital world constantly distracts our attention.
Matthew CRAWFORD is also interested in organ builders, whose work is rooted in tradition, but who are also capable of innovation and improvement. They design for the centuries to come and situate themselves in a history, unlike many contemporary workers, who are unable to give meaning and temporality to their activity.
Richard SENNETT is the author of "Ce que sait la main", published in French in 2010. In it, he defends an idea of craftsmanship in the broadest sense. Essentially, it's "the desire to do one's own work well". This could be a computer developer, a home help, etc. This bias does not seem revolutionary. It does, however, stand in opposition to Hannah Arendt, who claimed that those who are completely absorbed by their task no longer think about the ends, and can become the executors of the most inhuman projects.
In our society, strategists who comment on slide shows and analysts who multiply excel spreadsheets are more valued than those who produce in a routine. Artisans are opposed to artists, who are the only ones who create! Sennett shows us that this is not the case. He even rehabilitates routine as a necessary step towards developing skills and innovating. The craftsman reintroduces us to the art of slowness, essential for mobilizing the imagination. This is what Sennett observed in his encounters with Erin O' Connor, a glassblower.
These two authors warn against overly abstract, digitally-mediated thinking. Their analysis coincides with the experience of hundreds of people who have suffered browning out (loss of meaning), and who have restored meaning to their lives by taking up cooking, woodworking or sewing.
This is also one of the aims of Repair cafés, which offer a new relationship with objects, in a spirit of sustainable development.
Illustrations: Frédéric Duriez
Resources
Matthew B. CRAWFORD Éloge du carburateur: Essai sur le sens et la valeur du travail - La Découverte Poche / Essays translated by Marc SAINT-UPÉRY La Découverte, 2016 - 218 pages.
Matthew B. CRAWFORD Contact: Why we lost the world, and how to find it again - Cahiers libres - translated by Christophe JAQUET, Marc SAINT-UPÉRY - La Découverte, 2016- 352 pages
Richard SENNETT Ce que sait la main : La culture de l'artisanat - Albin Michel, 2010 - 416 pages
Anne JOURDAIN, " Ce que sait la main ", Sociologie [En ligne], Comptes rendus, 2011, online February 08, 2011, accessed November 11, 2017. URL : http://sociologie.revues.org/685
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