Meaningful Labour, Employee Ownership, and Workplace Democracy: A Comment on Weidel (2018)

Timothy Weidel has argued that Martha Nussbaum's list of central capabilities should be amended to include a capability for meaningful labour. This paper extends Weidel's ideas, arguing that meaningfulness in the workplace cannot be addressed without critically examining the formal ownership and management structure of businesses. Through specific examples, I argue that capabilities scholars and practitioners ought to encourage the proliferation of employee-owned and democratic businesses as a part of their human development strategy.