Won’t Get Fooled Again? Theorizing Discursive Constructions of Novelty in the ‘New’ World of Work

Abstract

This article outlines how notions of novelty define today’s work practices and debates what the discursive construction of work as ‘new’ means. On the one hand, we highlight a misplaced emphasis on change and novelty that can lead to unnecessary dichotomization in the characterization and discursive construction of work practices and organizational phenomena. On the other, we specify substantive continuities in a range of strategic, organizational and employment arrangements. As such, we contend that a critical evaluation of key characteristics of contemporary work reveals that they are often not unique. Instead, these characteristics reflect the extending, rebranding or reshaping of measures and processes fashioned in earlier forms of value production. Ultimately, we theorize how the promotion of the ‘new’ world of work reflects structures and practices somehow altered in appearance, yet still analogous in substance, to those found in the traditional employment and production fabric of organizations.