Skip to Main Content

The Laziness Myth: Narratives of Work and the Good Life in South Africa

Online ISBN:
9781501752537
Print ISBN:
9781501752506
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

The Laziness Myth: Narratives of Work and the Good Life in South Africa

Christine Jeske
Christine Jeske
Wheaton College
Find on
Published online:
20 May 2021
Published in print:
15 December 2020
Online ISBN:
9781501752537
Print ISBN:
9781501752506
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

When people cannot find good work, can they still find good lives? By investigating this question in the context of South Africa, where only 43 percent of adults are employed, this book invites readers to examine their own assumptions about how work and the good life do or do not coincide. The book challenges the widespread premise that hard-work determines success by tracing the titular “laziness myth,” a persistent narrative that disguises the systems and structures that produce inequalities while blaming unemployment and other social ills on the so-called laziness of particular class, racial, and ethnic groups. The book offers evidence of the laziness myth's harsh consequences, as well as insights into how to challenge it with other South African narratives of a good life. In contexts as diverse as rapping in a library, manufacturing leather shoes, weed-whacking neighbors' yards, negotiating marriage plans, and sharing water taps, the people described in the book will stimulate discussion on creative possibilities for seeking the good life in and out of employment, in South Africa and elsewhere.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close