Christine Ax

Christine Ax 1992

Christine Ax (* 1953 ) is a German philosopher , economist and author . It deals with the development of the craft , labor and productive forces and alternative growth theory.

Life

In 1983 she wrote the first environmental atlas of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg and u. a. volunteered at Neue Westfälische in Bielefeld. In the 1990s she headed the Institute for Product Endurance Research and the Future Workshop of the Hamburg Chamber of Crafts . She has been researching and writing about sustainability, craftsmanship and the future since the mid-1990s. She has lived and worked in Friedrichstadt since 2018. She is the author of numerous magazine articles, essays and books.

In her publications, Ax contrasts the highly specialized, dismantled, alienated and resource-intensive work in industry with a work and production method that is labor-intensive, resource-saving and based on practical knowledge and experience (“skill”). Such work, according to Ax, can also find its meaning in itself and thereby make self-realization possible - in contrast to a job for pure livelihood . Such forms of “good work for good products” can be lived not only but especially in the handicrafts. Ax speaks of a "new craft".

In her 1997 book, the "Craft of the Future", she outlines a vision of sustainable craft. She designs models such as B. Repair instead of throwing away, weekly market instead of world market, custom-made production instead of mass production, etc. a.

Ax is committed - also politically as part of the growth-critical movement - for an “ economy of proximity ” and sustainable entrepreneurship that brings individually adapted, regionally tied products to the market. Together with a decline in growth, a redistribution of work and a restructuring of the social system as well as an unconditional basic income , this is, in their opinion, the way out of today's crisis , which is destroying the ecological and social foundations of life.

In her book Die Könnensgesellschaft she advocates a society in which everyone has the opportunity to develop their own skills and talents and to experience the happiness associated with skill and mastery. For Christine Ax, good work, as a source of prosperity and happiness, is a sustainable alternative to consumption associated with resource and energy consumption. In the spirit of Hannah Arendt, the “able society” pleads for an active society in which all types of activity are equally important.

In the 1990s she was a member of the state board of the Greens and co-founded the Future Council Hamburg. From 2001 to 2003 Christine Ax was a member of the supervisory board of Greenpeace Germany. In 2015 she founded the Repair Round Table in Berlin. Today she is the spokeswoman for the Greens in Friedrichstadt.

Selected publications

• The craft of the future. Guiding principles for sustainable business. Birkhäuser, Basel 1997, ISBN 3-7643-5674-X
• The aging society. Challenge and opportunity for the craft. Schlueter, Hannover 2000, ISBN 3-87706-622-4
• The able society. With good work out of the crisis . Rhombos, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-938807-96-5
• Growth mania. What leads us into the crisis - and how we can get out of it Ludwig, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-453-28054-0
• Journey to the land of the setting sun. Japan's path to the post-growth society. edition date, Solothurn 2014, ISBN 978-3-9523955-1-6
• John Ruskin : This last one. With an introduction by Christine Ax. Westhafen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-942836-10-4

Web links

• Literature by and about Christine Ax in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gert Hasenhütl (2018) Interview with Christine Ax, The Journal of ModernCraft, 11: 1, 67-7
• Institute for Product Life Research
• Is it worth the effort? . Conversation with Jens Mittelsten Scheid and Johannes Heimrath in: Oya , 06/2011
• "Growth madness"
• Christine Ax