In "Speed's Work", one of the most profound and radical confrontations with the modern concept of labour and its associated social values unfolds.
Timothy Speed - autistic artist, labour theorist, and human rights activist - has worked for over twenty years, almost entirely unpaid. For more than a decade, he has been engaged in a dramatic conflict with the German state - a struggle that goes far beyond the question of what labour is worth in a capitalist society.
In a time when creativity, care work, and cultural engagement are systematically devalued and replaced by economic criteria, Speed defends his work as a fundamentally valuable contribution to society - even though, like around 80% of autistic people and many cultural workers, he earns nothing from his actions. In doing so, his work brings to light the realities faced by many marginalised groups.
While the state drives him into poverty and persecutes him for refusing - and struggling, as an autistic person with ADHD - to submit to the false logic of the capitalist market, Speed uses his autistic pattern recognition to expose deep structural abuses within public authorities and corporate institutions. Through tireless effort and an unwavering commitment to self-determination and social justice, he reveals scandals in courts, public prosecutors' offices, and numerous bureaucracies and corporations.
With his concept of "work-integrated relational agency", Speed calls for a new definition of labour - one that is humane, creative, and socially engaged, placing social value above economic profit. In a world increasingly shaped by robotics and artificial intelligence, he shows that resistance to machine-like functioning in the workplace is not only necessary, but essential - if we are to preserve human potential and civic responsibility.
