Shop class as soulcraft: an inquiry into the value of work

《摩托車修理店的未來工作哲學》 把過去一度相當普遍，如今似乎在社會上消聲匿跡的經驗——用我們的手去製作和修理東西的經驗——又帶回來了。我們這些坐辦公室的人，經常覺得和物質世界脫 節、一種失落感，而且發現，我們說不出這一整天到底做了些什麼。對於那些覺得自己被趕去上大學，然後被趕進辦公室，卻違背自己意向和天性的人，《摩托車修 理店的未來工作哲學》努力地去回復手工藝的榮耀，一個值得選擇的人生。

從經濟學和心理學的立場，柯勞佛質疑把每個人都轉變成「知識工作者」的教育命令，這個教育命令乃是根據一 個被誤導的做法，把思考和實做區隔，區隔勞心和勞力的工作。柯勞佛向我們說明，這樣的區分，是一個世紀之前從生產線開始的，對處在這區隔兩邊的人來說，他 們的工作都被降格了。

但柯勞佛也提供好消息：手工藝和生產線非常不同，也和低格調的白領工作非常不同。它們需要仔細的思考，中 間還不時穿插著真正的趣味。柯勞佛根據自己當過電工和修車技工的經驗，為手工工作的內在滿足感和認知挑戰性做辯護。建築工人和修車技工的工作很安穩，它不 能外包，也不會過時。這種工作讓我們和住家附近的社區產生連結，並在從事真正有用的工作中，一種驕傲感油然而生。完全原汁原味，《摩托車修理店的未來工作 哲學》散發熱情，喚起自助和動人的反省，思考在一個越來越抽象的世界裡，要如何實在地過生活。

作者 馬修．柯勞佛 Mathew B. Crawford

哲學家與技師。芝加哥大學政治哲學博士，該校社會思想委員會博士後研究員，也曾任華府智庫董事。現兼任維吉尼亞大學文化高等研究學院（Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture）研究員，並擁有一家叫Shockoe Moto的獨立摩托車工作室（http://shockoemoto.com/）

Shop class as soulcraft: an inquiry into the value of work

作者：Matthew B. Crawford

In this wise and often funny book, a philosopher/mechanic systematically destroys the pretensions of the high-prestige workplace and makes an irresistible case for working with ones hands

Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was once quite ordinary, but now seems to be receding over the cultural horizonthe experience of making and fixing things. Working with your hands, as Mathew B. Crawford describes it, connects us to the world around us. Those of us who sit in an office often have intuitions of something gone amiss, a sense of unreality accompanied by feelings of impotence. What, after all, do we do all day? In this wholly original debut, Crawford offers a brief for self-reliance and a sustained reflection on this problem: how to live concretely in an ever more abstract world. Shop Class as Soulcraft seeks to restore the honor of the manual trades as a life worth choosing for anyone who felt hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents. On both economic and psychological grounds, Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a knowledge worker. This imperative, he explains, is based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing, the work of the hand from that of the mind. Crawford shows in precise detail how such a partition, which began a century ago with the assembly line, degrades work for those on both sides of the divide.

But he offers good news as well: The manual trades are very different from factory work. They require a lot of thinking and may even give rise to moments of genuine pleasure. Based on his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford makes a case for the intrinsic satisfactions and cognitive challenges the soulcraftof manual work. The work of builders and mechanics cannot be outsourced. They tie us to the local communities in which we live and instill the pride that comes from doing work that is genuinely useful.

Speaking squarely to a culture that continues to grapple for a way to reconcile work and life and to find fulfilling work of all stripes, Shop Class as Soulcraft offers inspired social criticism and deep personal exploration. It will change your understanding of the value of work and the work of bringing value and meaning to your life, whatever you do now or hope to do one day.

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º Tom Hull, the manufacturing technology teacher at Marshfield High in Coos Bay, uses an ELMO to show students the differences between various types of welding rods.Displaying the rods on the visual presenter allows everyone in the shop to see clearly from their seats instead of the entire class huddling around him to get a good view.

Hull also uses the ELMO to demonstrate how to read a micrometer and other precision measuring tools.He even puts car parts on the camera, then points out exactly where a part is worn.In addition, he uses it for the class to analyze a student,s AutoCAD and board drawings in his drafting classes.