The Work We Need: 'The humane revolutionary our turbulent century needs’ Jonathan Freedland
Hilary Cottam
May 2025 · Little, Brown Book Group · Narrated by Hilary Cottam
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8 hr 6 min
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'Highly recommend - practical and full of human wisdom' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Brimming with ideas to transform the future' KATE RAWORTH, author of DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS
'An act of radical hope, radical listening and radical humility . . . I loved it' RORY STEWART
Work, for decades, has been debated and discussed as a narrow economic category. Instead, Hilary Cottam identifies work as a cultural force at the heart of good lives, strong communities and a sense of a shared national destiny. Crucially, in these dramatic times, she shows how we can shape this force to meet technological change, our ecological crisis and the challenges of the world's deep injustices. We can create a work revolution.
Ambitious but rooted in the ideas of everyday experts - real workers from all walks of life - this is a realistic and hopeful book. Hilary Cottam has crossed the UK and the USA; she's spent time in communities considered by outsiders as 'left behind' and in places at the centre of financial and technological power. Drawing on a fascinating range of sources - historians, trade unionists, business leaders, philosophers and most originally, hours of her imaginative workshops with workers - Hilary Cottam boldly asks: how can we redesign work?
Our challenges - political, social, economic and environmental - are tangled and growing. But so are the imaginative solutions. In this exciting, inspiring and optimistic book, Hilary shows us how we could work differently and live better.
'So valuable . . . Hilary Cottam proposes a bold new vision of what the principles underlying 'good work' might be' MARIANA MAZZUCATO, UCL professor and author of MISSION ECONOMY
'Timely . . . guides the changes needed' CARLOTA PEREZ
'Exposes what motivates workers today - not the things most business leaders think - and shows how new thinking would benefit us all. Compelling' MARTHA LANE FOX
'Urgent, compelling and ultimately hopeful . . . Necessary and Inspiring' CAROLINE LUCAS, Green Party MP and author of ANOTHER ENGLAND
'Cottam is the humane revolutionary our turbulent century needs - and this book our roadmap to a better future' JONATHAN FREEDLAND, author of THE ESCAPE ARTIST
'Brimming with ideas to transform the future' KATE RAWORTH, author of DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS
'An act of radical hope, radical listening and radical humility . . . I loved it' RORY STEWART
Work, for decades, has been debated and discussed as a narrow economic category. Instead, Hilary Cottam identifies work as a cultural force at the heart of good lives, strong communities and a sense of a shared national destiny. Crucially, in these dramatic times, she shows how we can shape this force to meet technological change, our ecological crisis and the challenges of the world's deep injustices. We can create a work revolution.
Ambitious but rooted in the ideas of everyday experts - real workers from all walks of life - this is a realistic and hopeful book. Hilary Cottam has crossed the UK and the USA; she's spent time in communities considered by outsiders as 'left behind' and in places at the centre of financial and technological power. Drawing on a fascinating range of sources - historians, trade unionists, business leaders, philosophers and most originally, hours of her imaginative workshops with workers - Hilary Cottam boldly asks: how can we redesign work?
Our challenges - political, social, economic and environmental - are tangled and growing. But so are the imaginative solutions. In this exciting, inspiring and optimistic book, Hilary shows us how we could work differently and live better.
'So valuable . . . Hilary Cottam proposes a bold new vision of what the principles underlying 'good work' might be' MARIANA MAZZUCATO, UCL professor and author of MISSION ECONOMY
'Timely . . . guides the changes needed' CARLOTA PEREZ
'Exposes what motivates workers today - not the things most business leaders think - and shows how new thinking would benefit us all. Compelling' MARTHA LANE FOX
'Urgent, compelling and ultimately hopeful . . . Necessary and Inspiring' CAROLINE LUCAS, Green Party MP and author of ANOTHER ENGLAND
'Cottam is the humane revolutionary our turbulent century needs - and this book our roadmap to a better future' JONATHAN FREEDLAND, author of THE ESCAPE ARTIST
About the author
Hilary Cottam is an internationally acclaimed social activist whose work in Britain and with communities around the world has focused on collaborative and affordable solutions to some of the greatest social challenges of our time. Her first book Radical Help was hailed as 'mind-shifting' by David Brooks in the New York Times and has been translated internationally. Awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the welfare state, Hilary has been recognised by Fast Company in the US for her pioneering creativity and by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. Hilary's TED talk has had close to a million views. www.hilarycottam.com
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