From Productive Work to Capability-Enhancing Work: Implications for Labour Law and Policy

What makes work useful, on what grounds and for whom? Classical economists distinguished between productive and unproductive labour. They focused primarily on productive labour and its ability to generate wealth for the economy as a whole, which influences why economic policies currently prioritize economically productive work over other forms of work. After reviewing the relationships between work and capabilities in the capability approach, this article addresses the individual and collective impacts of work on capabilities. It introduces a more complex and human-centred distinction between capability-enhancing and capability-reducing work. Finally, it proposes a capability-informed labour policy and designs new rights to assist in better aligning individually and socially capability-enhancing work. It shows how this policy has the potential to free from the economic need to work.