Who and what counts? Understanding work and workers that matter dialogically

In their essay ‘Indefinite Detention’, Judith Butler (p. 100) made the point that ‘the question of who will be treated humanely presupposes that we have first settled the question of who does and does not count ’ (Butler: 91, emphasis added ). This paper considers this vital issue in the format of a discussion between us as co-authors whose work speaks to the concerns of this special issue – precarity, mattering and marginalization. The paper formed in response to a series of questions put to us by the guest editors inviting us to share our respective insights from our different perspectives and backgrounds, drawing from critical management and organization studies, critical accounting, post-colonial and feminist thinking, which we provide below.