Actual changes in the "world of work", which are also present beyond the factory's space, put some questions. The market value of work is one starting point but not the only one for the comprehension of issues as "centrality" or not of work, "work"-reduction or -share and uncertainties for the subjects' lives brought about by these changes. After all what is work? What is value constituted of? Taking into consideration the idea of work as a complicate reality, it will be possible to better comprehend the "dramatic uses of self" in the different social working situations which are also a universe of values, and to realize the existence of circulations and of barriers between market work and other forms of activity. This will make the political appear as an action and not as a submission, as there is not any canonical form which would represent the excellence, even the virtues of "work".
work; market values; not-market values; modernity; "dramatic uses of self"; barriers; circulations; political