Skip to content
2018
Volume 76, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0010-096X
  • E-ISSN: 1939-9006
side by side viewer icon HTML

Abstract

Critiques of neoliberal capitalism have offered a rich vocabulary for the analysis of the political economy of literacy across professional, public, and classroom contexts. Since the Great Recession, commonplaces about work-readiness have been conditioned by economic precarity and changes to the social contract of work that blur the lines between professionalization and exploitation. Looking beyond the confines of the neoliberal present, the uncertain future of work for our undergraduate students will be shaped by what the World Economic Forum describes as the “double-disruption” of the pandemic and the rise of automation. Whereas neoliberal critique offers a vocabulary for describing many job seekers’ experience of the present, this article seeks to recover an element of “literacy hope” (Wan) by looking to speculative and utopian postcapitalist theory to inform and challenge career guidance conversations with students in writing studies. By framing the future as a resource in the rhetorical constitution of present-day workers, this article advances an inquiry-focused career-guidance pedagogy that asks: How do our assumptions about the future of work inform our relationships with employers and each other in the present?

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.58680/ccc2025763370
2025-02-01
2025-03-16
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/ccc/76/3/collegecompositionandcommunication763370.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.58680/ccc2025763370&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Abraham Matthew. “Rhetoric and Composition’s Conceptual Indeterminacy as Political-Economic Work.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 68, no. 1 2016, pp 68–97.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Adler-Kassner Linda. “The Companies We Keep or the Companies We Would Like to Try to Keep: Strategies and Tactics in Challenging Times.” WPA: Writing Program Administration – Journal of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, vol. 36, no. 1 2012, pp 119–40.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Agboka Godwin Y., and Matveeva Natalia editors Citizenship and Advocacy in Technical Communication: Scholarly and Pedagogical Perspectives. Routledge 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Anderson Elizabeth. Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It). Princeton UP 2017.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Autor David H., et al. The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines. MIT P 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Azmanova Albena. Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change without Crisis or Utopia. Columbia UP 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bay Jennifer. “Writing Beyond Borders: Rethinking the Relationship Between Composition Studies and Professional Writing.” Composition Studies, vol. 38, no. 2 2010, pp 29–46.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Berardi Franco. The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy Translated by Cadel Francesca and Mecchia Giuseppina, Semiotext(e) 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Berlin James A. Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies. National Council of Teachers of English 1996.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Boydell Kathryn (Kate), and Surianarain Sharmi. “Beyond Underpaid Women and Robots: Towards a Better Future of Care Work.” Feminist Futures of Work: Reimagining Labour in the Digital Economy edited by Arora Payal et al., Amsterdam UP 2023, pp 255–66.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Brandt Deborah. The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy. Cambridge UP 2015.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Brown Jayna. Black Utopias: Speculative Life and the Music of Other Worlds. Duke UP 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Carillo Ellen C. The Hidden Inequities in Labor-Based Contract Grading. Utah State UP 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Cascio Jamais. “Futures Thinking: The Basics.” Fast Company, 18 Sept 2009, https://www.fastcompany.com/1362037/futures-thinking-basics.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Chaput Catherine. Inside the Teaching Machine: Rhetoric and the Globalization of the U.S. Public Research University. U of Alabama P 2008.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Chavez Karma R. Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities. U of Illinois P 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Clark Krissy host “My Boss Is an App.” The Uncertain Hour, season 5, episode 8, Marketplace, 24 Mar 2021 https://www.marketplace.org/shows/the-uncertain-hour/my-boss-is-an-app/.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Daniel James Rushing. “Burning Out: Writing and the Self in the Era of Terminal Productivity.” enculturation: a journal of rhetoric, writing, and culture, no. 30 2020, http://enculturation.net/Burning_Out.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. DePalma Michael-John, et al. “Connecting Work-Integrated Learning and Writing Transfer: Possibilities and Promise for Writing Studies.” Composition Forum, vol. 48 2022, https://compositionforum.com/issue/48/work-integrated-learning.php.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Durack Katherine T. “Sweating Employment: Ethical and Legal Issues with Unpaid Student Internships.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 65, no. 2 2013, pp 245–72.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Ferguson Stephanie. “9 Innovative Benefits Businesses Can Offer to Attract and Retain Talent.” US Chamber of Commerce, 31 Oct 2022, https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/8-innovative-benefits-businesses-can-offer-to-attract-and-retain-talent.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Fisher Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Zero Books 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Glynn Sarah Jane, and DeWolf Mark. “Black Women’s Economic Recovery Continues to Lag.” U.S. Department of Labor Blog, 9 Feb 2022, https://blog.dol.gov/2022/02/09/black-womens-economic-recovery-continues-to-lag.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Gonzales Laura, et al. “Transdisciplinary Intra-Actions.” College English, vol. 82, no. 5 2020, pp 432–42.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Goodwin Phillip, et al. “Accountable to Whom? The Rhetorical Circulation of Neoliberal Discourse and Its Ambient Effects on Higher Education.” Rhetoric in Neoliberalism edited by Nguyen Kim Hong, Palgrave Macmillan 2017, pp 15–37.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Gregg Melissa. Counterproductive: Time Management in the Knowledge Economy. Duke UP 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Haas Angela M.>, and Eble Michelle F. editors Key Theoretical Frameworks: Teaching Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. Utah State UP 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Happe Kelly E. “Health Communication Method and Race.” Methodologies for the Rhetoric of Health & Medicine edited by Meloncon Lisa and Scott J. Blake, Routledge 2018, pp 79–95.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Inman Joyce Olewski, and Powell Rebecca A.. “In the Absence of Grades: Dissonance and Desire in Course-Contract Classrooms.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 70, no. 1 2018, pp 30–56.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Inoue Asao B. Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. 2nd ed. UP of Colorado 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Jaffe Sarah. Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone. Bold Type Books 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Jones Natasha N. “The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach in Technical Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, vol. 46, no. 3 2016, pp 342–61.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Krumboltz John D. “The Happenstance Learning Theory.” Journal of Career Assessment, vol. 17, no. 2 2009, pp 135–54.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Mason Paul. Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future. Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Massumi Brian. 99 Theses on the Revaluation of Value: A Postcapitalist Manifesto. U of Minnesota P 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Maurer Roy. “New DE&I Roles Spike After Racial Justice Protests.” SHRM, 6 Aug 2020, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/new-dei-roles-spike-after-racial-justice-protests.aspx.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Maxim Robert, et al. “Why the Pandemic’s Record-Breaking Quit Rates Are a Boon to Workers.” Brookings, 12 Jan 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2022/01/12/why-the-pandemics-record-breaking-quit-rates-are-a-boon-to-workers/.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Mirowski Philip. Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown. Verso 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Muñoz José Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York UP 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Muro Mark, et al. Automation and Artificial Intelligence: How Machines Are Affecting People and Places. Brookings Institution, 22 Jan 2019, https://www.brookings.edu/research/automation-and-artificial-intelligence-how-machines-affect-people-and-places/.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Newfield Christopher. Unmaking the Public University: The Forty-Year Assault on the Middle Class. Harvard UP 2008.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Odell Jenny. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Pecchi Lorenzo, and Piga Gustavo editors Revisiting Keynes: Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren. MIT P 2008.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Petersen Anne Helen. Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. Mariner Books 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Pinsker Joe. “‘Ugh, I’m So Busy’: A Status Symbol for Our Time.” The Atlantic, 1 Mar 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/busyness-status-symbol/518178/.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Quan H. L. T. “‘It’s Hard to Stop Rebels That Time Travel’: Democratic Living and the Radical Reimagining of Old Worlds.” Futures of Black Radicalism edited by Johnson Gaye Theresa and Lubin Alex, Verso 2017, pp 173–93.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Rifkin Jeremy. The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. Palgrave Macmillan 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Savickas Mark L. “Life Design: A Paradigm for Career Intervention in the 21st Century.” Journal of Counseling & Development, vol. 90 2012, pp 13–19.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Savickas Mark L., et al. “Life Designing: A Paradigm for Career Construction in the 21st Century.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, vol. 75 2009, pp 239–50.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Schlossberg Nancy K. “The Challenge of Change: The Transition Model and Its Applications.” Journal of Employment Counseling, vol. 48, no. 4 2011, pp 159–62.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Scott J. Blake, et al. editors Critical Power Tools: Technical Communication and Cultural Studies. SUNY P 2007.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Srnicek Nick, and Williams Alex. Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. Verso 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Tuchman Gaye. Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University. U of Chicago P 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. “22. Persons at work in nonagricultural industries by age, sex, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, marital status, and usual full- or part-time status.” Current Population Survey 2019, https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat22.htm. Accessed 2 June 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Wan Amy J. Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times. U of Pittsburgh P 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Weeks Kathi. The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries. Duke UP 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Williams Alex, and Srnicek Nick. “#Accelerate Manifesto.” #Accelerate: The Accelerationist Reader edited by Mackay Robin and Avanessian Armen, 3rd ed., Urbanomic 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. World Economic Forum. The Future of Jobs Report 2020. World Economic Forum 2020, https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020/.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.58680/ccc2025763370
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test