Books:
output of their efforts, getting a salary in return.
In his much-praised research into happiness,
The former Financial Times journalist and
Flow (1990), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that
Department of Trade and Industry advisor Charles
though people got most satisfaction at work,
Leadbeater turns futurologist in his latest book,
work was the last place they wanted to be. It’s
We-Think, arguing that Wikipedia-style Internet
because people do not have control over their
collaboration is the future of social organisation
work that they feed the Web 2.0 applications
and work. Some of Leadbeater’s examples are
that excite Leadbeater. Facebook pages, wikis,
well known, like computer programmer Linus
blogs and YouTube films are just twenty-first-
Torvalds’ open-source Linux operating system
century hobbies – the things people do to make
and the thousands of volunteers who have
up for the fact that their own creativity is what
developed it in an open collaboration. Others,
they give up when they go to work.
like the eighteenth-century Cornish tin industry’s
But as Leadbeater admits, egotism, not
anti-copyright engineering collaboration are a
cooperation, drives the blogosphere – a point
treat.
reinforced by Stanford researcher B.J. Fogg’s
But Leadbeater’s thesis rests on a
finding that self-affirmation was the psychological
misunderstanding: that work is largely an individual
need Facebook met above communication.
activity that could become collaborative if it
Sims creator Will Wright explains the investment
followed the model of Web 2.0. It’s a very odd
people make in his virtual world: ‘The currency
view of work. Most work is not a private activity,
is exposure and recognition for their ideas.’
but collaborative. Very few people indeed work
Pointedly, most of Leadbeater’s examples are of
on their own – just 3.8 million out of a workforce
people working for free, in their own time.
of 29.4 million in Britain. Leadbeater thinks that
That emblem of Fordism, the conveyor
creative workers are especially given to ‘we-think’
belt, said Trotsky, ‘clashes most sharply with
collaboration, which is good news, because by
the partitions erected by private property’.
his count there are 1.9 million of them (in fact the
How much more so does the Internet – with its
best estimates come in at 1.2 million – and even
immediate and free reproduction of electronic
that is probably an exaggeration).
files – show us that private property is an
More to the point, creative industries are
outmoded way of organising production? But
peculiarly bad at collaboration, and for good
it would be daft to think that the Internet could
reasons. Creative work demands the singular
abolish private property on its own. As long as
attention of a craftsman, losing himself in the act.
work is first and foremost a means for growing
Loneliness drives them to collaborate, but few
private wealth, the ‘we-think’ on the Internet will
put their egos away when they do. Leadbeater’s
remain a hobby – a compensatory realm where
unique view of work says more about him than it
people play at being creative to make up for the
does about work. Because his policy-wonking is
fact they are not.
lonely work at the keyboard, he longs to be part
So Leadbeater is torn, wanting to
of a cool gang of open-source collaborators.
announce a new era, knowing that the last time
Real collaborative work, though, is a long
he did, in his book Living on Thin Air (2000; ‘we
way from Leadbeater’s hippy/craft/techno/arty
are all in the thin-air business these days’), he
utopia. The price of taking part in collective
was mocked for overstating the case. So We-
work for most people is that they give up their
Think, despite its grand claims, is littered with
control over the process, and their right to the
caveats: ‘ridiculous to imagine most work could
be like this… foolish to suggest the investor-
owned company could be replaced… commune
capitalism will not replace the shareholder owned
We-THink
company…’ Quite so. James Heartfield
By Charles Leadbeater
Profile Books, £12.99 (paperback)
Artreview 146
April_Books.indd 146 6/3/08 15:56:35
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