THE STRUCTURAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE ‘CREATIVE IDLENESS’ UNDER THE FLEXIBLE CAPITAL ACCUMULATION: CRITICAL STUDY OF DOMENICO DE MASI’S WORK

Abstract

The present essay has a theoretical-bibliographical character, where it is visited and reviewed part of the work of the Italian sociologist Domenico De Masi. His concept of creative idleness allies three activities in the same time: work, education and leisure. The author considers that the creative idleness will be the dominant form of daily living for those who will be successful in the post-industrial societies, which have as center the production of services, with focus on creativity, emotionalism and it is sought a new education, for the spare time, instead of being in a hegemonic way for work. To this idea arise diverse critical questions, that makes us realize that society might not be yet living this new form of work proposed by the Italian author. Would it be possible to live the creative idleness facing the current changes in the world of work that make it more and more flexible, precarious and uncertain? The new forms of work show that the number of unemployed people is increasing, generating, thus, the susceptibility for kinds of flexible, stressful work, with precarious conditions. Considering this reality of the flexible capital accumulation’s world of work, the creative idleness of De Masi becomes structurally an unattainable promise. Here is the central axis of this essay.