Good Work and Nature

Renegotiating Nature Relations in Work Relationships

Abstract

Research on “good work” has rarely taken societal relations to nature – or, more broadly, “nature” itself – into account when defining the characteristics of good work. Against the background of contemporary crises in human–nature relations, this omission is problematic, as it obscures the conditions and possibilities of ecological forms of work. Drawing on interview material from the waste management and recycling sector, this article addresses this gap and develops a more holistic and nature-sensitive concept of good work that constitutively incorporates human–nature relations and thereby integrates sustainable forms of work. The interviews show that good work which contributes to the protection, maintenance, and renewal of nature is characterized by a blurring of boundaries, as it extends beyond the realm of firms and wage labour and includes practices of care. In this way, such work enables processes of politicization and new forms of solidarity. Moreover, it possesses a transformative and utopian potential insofar as it aims at the establishment of sustainable work–nature relations.