ABSTRACT
One could simplify things and refer to all human activities as work. It is uncontroversial that the rise of paid work and the correlated emergence of labor markets represent a central feature of modern economy. Underneath contemporary sociological analyses—such as those of work society, industrial society, service society or capitalist society—hides the thought that work is the central category needed to explain modern society. The chapter presents the three central debates in which Marxist theory delivered well-known templates with its understanding of work, and which are therefore well suited to work out the difference to systems theory. The initial focus is set on the reconstruction of whole societal developments. A second focus is given to the business as the place where, at least during a high phase of industrialization, the central production processes occur: the organization. The third focus is set on the experiences, behavioral reactions and ways of thinking of people characterized by the relations of production.
