Work and the Possibility of a Democratic Public Space

Abstract

On the basis of the distinction suggested by Dewey between “simply associative behaviour” and “truly social behaviour”, this article aims to show that work can be understood as the operator that allows us to pass from the former to the latter, i.e. to the community of action or to co-operation. The demonstration is based on highlighting the immanent and inherent democratic capacities of work, and it leads to a consideration of the work environment as being a potentially democratic public space able to provide a foundation for all other spaces of such kind.