Michel Foucault e il lavoro. Tra assoggettamento e soggettivazione

The article gives an overview of the use of the concept “work (travail)” made in Michel Foucault’s writings, drawing a comparison between Truth and Juridical Forms and Discipline and Punish, and The Use of Pleasure. To this end, it discusses the author’s interpretation of socially organized work, and his criticism of the assumption that work defines human beings’ concrete essence, showing to what extent a set of techniques is necessary to convert people’s bodies into labour power. It then compares this notion of work with that of a subjectivating “work on oneself” used in his last writings, thus helping to shed light on some inner tensions of the polyphonic concept of work.