Follow-up to class discussion

For the record, the thought that I had at the end of class about the priority of function to work to technological constraints was something that I struggled with when Greg offered the class for the first time in 2004. I could never figure out, in the various situations we read about, where the WORK was. In the case of the Calenberg fund, Dies's work is still recognizable as the descendant of social functions that were carried on by the Church or State, so that we can see it as an integrated whole, while at the same time his need for assistance shows the beginning of a division of labor.

The big problem for Dies, comprising the entire work force of this insurance fund, was his exclusion from the control function. I think we will find that this is a persistent problem even in open, networked workplaces, that the work can be made to resemble leisure, but the employees are vulnerable because financial and management systems are made offsite and thus are invisible to them.