Notes towards a Weberian Thesis on Work.

Work is defined as a process that alters one's environment or manipulates resources to fulfill a particular need. To work is a cultural practice, and culture, being paramount to human livelihood, must be made and reproduced. However, there is more than one immediate, material environment. Being human, we are immersed in several overlapping and intersecting environments that are not visible but coerce individuals and groups nonetheless. Other animals, and I am thinking of mammals in particular, do not share these environments with us. Political, social, economic, cultural and even aesthetic spheres have environmental features. They have an effect on us, either physiological (we experience stress and joy) or socially (we become isolated or connected). My focus is on social environments.

We build social networks or maintain those we have already established. This is work; we actively transform our social environment. Even the verbs used in describing the processes have connotations related to work: build, maintain, establish. We work on our relationships, we work out problems we have with others, we work to build trust.

There is a Weberian term to describe this phenomena, but I don't remember it at the moment.