Work society

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Work or unemployment is administered by the Federal Employment Agency . Computer screen in an employment agency

The concept of the working society goes back to Hannah Arendt and was taken up by Ralf Dahrendorf and Claus Offe in the early 1980s as a term in the context of a sociological discussion about the crisis in the working society . The 21st German Sociologists' Day, 1982 in Bamberg, had the general topic of the crisis in the working society . It was opened with plenary lectures by Dahrendorf ( When the work society runs out of work ) and Offe ( work as a key sociological category? ).

In her work Vita activa or From active life , Hannah Arendt distinguishes three basic human activities: work, manufacture, action. Beginning the 17th century to modern times have "begun to theoretically work to glorify and it ended at the beginning of this century in order to transform the society as a whole in a working society." Dahrendorf defines the working society as "a society that defines work in its own roles and assigns these roles a formative meaning in the lives of people and in the institutions of society".

Labor society crisis

Triggered by the during the first oil crisis is ascended unemployment reached Ralf Dahrendorf not only the concept on, he also formulated by Hannah Arendt "prospect of a labor society, which is run out of work," the relative shrinkage of the absorption capacity of the labor market in the to address advanced societies.

The work society was adopted as a crisis term by Claus Offe and Joachim Matthes and analyzed by them and other colleagues in numerous essays under quantitative and qualitative aspects. According to Offe, the key function of work for the structure and dynamics of society has led to the constitution of the work society , a “work-centered social model ”. The key function arises from the fact that "income, participation and life opportunities are linked to gainful employment either directly or through the mediation of private and public budgets ". Unemployment, which is increasing despite economic growth, and the decline in the importance of gainful employment in comparison to other livelihoods demanded “ to say goodbye for good to the fiction of the working society”.

Dahrendorf also states in view of the widespread and increasing unemployment, which is only "the visible expression of a much more extensive reduction in work in modern societies": "The way back to the working society is blocked for us".

André Gorz takes up the question of the alternatives to the working society formulated by Dahrendorf following his above dictum in his work Paths to Paradise (1983). He outlines a social scenario according to which every citizen is guaranteed a social income that is independent of the workplace with a lifetime of 20,000 hours of work.

literature

  • Hannah Arendt: Vita activa or From active life . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1960.
  • Ralf Dahrendorf: In the disappearance of the working society. Changes in the social construction of human life. In: Merkur , Heft 34 (1980): 740-760.
  • Ralf Dahrendorf: When the labor society runs out of work . In: German Society for Sociology / Joachim Matthes (Hrsg.): Crisis of the working society ? Negotiations of the 21st German Sociological Congress in Bamberg 1982 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1983, pp. 25–37.
  • German Society for Sociology / Joachim Matthes (Hrsg.): Crisis of the working society ? Negotiations of the 21st German Sociological Congress in Bamberg 1982 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1983
  • André Gorz: Paths to Paradise. Theses on the crisis, automation and the future of work . Rotbuch, Berlin 1983.
  • André Gorz: Critique of Economic Reason. Questions of meaning at the end of the working society . Rotbuch, Berlin 1989.
  • Claus Offe: Work as a key sociological category? In: German Society for Sociology / Joachim Matthes (Hrsg.): Crisis of the working society ? Negotiations of the 21st German Sociological Congress in Bamberg 1982 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1983, pp. 38-65.
  • Claus Offe: "Working Society". Structural problems and future prospects. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1984.
  • Johano Strasser : When the working society runs out of work. (1999)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Society for Sociology / Joachim Matthes (Ed.): Crisis of the working society ? Negotiations of the 21st German Sociological Congress in Bamberg 1982 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1983.
  2. ^ Hannah Arendt: Vita activa or From active life. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1960, p. 11.
  3. Ralf Dahrendorf: When the labor society runs out of work . In: German Society for Sociology / Joachim Matthes (Hrsg.): Crisis of the working society ? Negotiations of the 21st German Sociological Congress in Bamberg 1982 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1983, p. 32.
  4. ^ Hannah Arendt: Vita activa or From active life. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1960, p. 12.
  5. Claus Offe: "Working Society". Structural problems and future prospects. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1984.
  6. ^ Claus Offe: Work as a key sociological category? In: German Society for Sociology / Joachim Matthes (Hrsg.): Crisis of the working society ? Negotiations of the 21st German Sociological Congress in Bamberg 1982 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1983, p. 57.
  7. Quoted from Armin Pongs : In which society do we actually live? Comparison of social concepts. Volume 1. Dilemma Verlag, Munich 1999, p. 201.
  8. Quoted from Armin Pongs: In which society do we actually live? Comparison of social concepts. Volume 1. Dilemma Verlag, Munich 1999, p. 202.
  9. Ralf Dahrendorf: When the labor society runs out of work . In: German Society for Sociology / Joachim Matthes (Hrsg.): Crisis of the working society ? Negotiations of the 21st German Sociological Congress in Bamberg 1982 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1983, p. 30.
  10. André Gorz: Paths to Paradise. Theses on the crisis, automation and the future of work . Rotbuch, Berlin 1983, especially p. 66 ff.