Dirk H. Axmacher

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Dirk Axmacher (* 1944 ; † January 18, 1992 ) was a German political scientist and worked as a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Osnabrück .

Life and career

Dirk Axmacher received his doctorate in 1973 from the Department of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin . His dissertation is entitled “On the political economy of adult education” and was reviewed by Elmar Altvater and Urs Jaeggi . This dissertation was published in 1974, as a revised version, under the title "Adult Education in Capitalism".

In the mid-1980s, Axmacher took up the professorship for sociology and economics at the University of Osnabrück. His main research interests were the sociology of education , economics of education , vocational and adult education and historical educational research . He was a member of the commissions for "Vocational and Business Education" and "Adult Education" of the German Society for Educational Science . His academic career was marked by partiality for those who had been forced into the loser role by the capitalist system .

Axmacher died surprisingly at the age of 47 immediately after an EB committee meeting of the German Society for Educational Science of a pulmonary embolism .

Works / major works

Adult Education in Capitalism (1974)

The book "Adult Education in Capitalism", which was published by Dirk Axmacher in March 1974, represents an attempt to formulate a criticism primarily of the socio-economic character of adult education and to demonstrate the function of adult education for the necessary reproduction of labor . This work is based on the "Critique of Political Economy" as developed by Karl Marx . At the time of the creation of Marx's works, however, the development of the productive power was at a level at which the distinction between the training sector and the productive sector was still ruled out. The aim of the book is above all to understand and problematize the path of adult education from a marginal phenomenon to an integral part of the public training sector.

Axmacher first describes that in the 20th century adult education was increasingly instrumentalized economically and became part of the training sector. The economic context consists in the fact that the production conditions are changing due to a development towards automation and machinization , which is also accompanied by an increase in effectiveness and efficiency. These changes now also affect the skill level of the workforce. The result is a polarization of work and increasingly alienated work . This means that the process of division of labor is escalating. The workforce is now largely viewed as a link in the production process that operates the machinery. On this basis, new requirements for the level of qualifications arose. Here adult education should take hold as part of the training sector and encourage workers to engage in lifelong learning . Axmacher describes that it is the intention of capital to reshape the competitive conditions in the workforce and thus to stimulate a kind of competition for work. Adult education is increasingly aimed at generating new attitudes and attitudes towards work, in other words something like an “entrepreneurial self” that wants to develop further throughout life. This new qualification, which is mainly necessary because of the machine, also requires a certain amount of training. However, this causes costs: the shorter the training, the lower the costs. Ideally, the costs incurred should be socialized, i.e. the state bears the training costs, while the profits should remain private, so that capital can draw greater added value from the commodity labor. After Axmacher presents the connections between the development of adult education and examines it critically, he also criticizes middle-class adult education. He criticizes here that lifelong learning has an affirmative function and criticism remains indefinite. People are ready to retrain if they are promised a higher salary or career advancement in their new job. Learning is thus used as a means to an end and adult education would only realize a function that implements its goals of a pedagogical logic of foreign purposes.

Axmacher ends his work with the conclusion that the realization of the critical potential of adult education depends above all on the strength and determination of the trade unions, with the struggle for better reproductive conditions for the working class in the education sector being combined with the abolition of the wage labor system.

Resistance to Education (1990)

In the book is a critique of capitalism , unlike his dissertation published (revised) "Adult Education in capitalism", only in hints discussed. It is about a critical examination of the promises and the constraints of modern knowledge societies , the endangerment of subjectivity, experience and “obstinacy” through scientific modernization and the winners and losers of scientification. Axmacher points to a dark side of the educational expansion, to the “other side of education”, its “backside”, to the paradox of obliging the “people” to participate in education in the interests of reason and enlightenment. Axmacher's thesis is that modernization gains are inevitably associated with losses, that modern knowledge displaces traditional knowledge and lets it fall into oblivion, because "in spite of various irretrievably lost masterpieces, the new science-generated type of knowledge was vastly superior to the old craftsmanship". Despite his criticism, Axmacher does not plead for the abolition of the continuing education system, but for resistance to the unlimited production of knowledge, for knowledge as a value in itself in the interest of a human, socially and environmentally compatible future.

Obituaries

Axmacher was a "radical critic of the logic of the market, but now relies on individually different acts of resistance to the destructive power of the market." (Kipp et al., 1992)

Dirk Axmacher was known for his critical attitude towards his colleagues. "Often uncomfortable in his statements, he was never offensive, but always extremely cheerful." Erhard Meueler on Dirk Axmacher (Kipp et al., 1992)

Axmacher himself commented shortly before his death, reflecting on his book "Resistance to Education":

"What knowledge is useful - useful in a broad sense, that it develops and strengthens the practical abilities of people to deal with themselves, others and nature? (...) The book would have to be started again at this point, and I lack the imagination and skills to write it. But somehow the memory of the educational resistance of the Osnabrück, Stader and Hildesheim craftsmen [of the 19th century] does not let go of me ". (Kipp et al., 1992)

Publications (selection)

  • Adult education in capitalism: On the political economy of the training sector in the FRG. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1974
  • Critique of Vocational Training, Offenbach 1975
  • With Wolfgang Huge, materials on further training for craftsmen in the 19th century: reports from a project. Department of Social Sciences at the University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück 1986
  • Resistance to Education: To Reconstruct a Displaced World of Knowledge. Deutscher Studien Verlag, Weinheim 1990

Contributions to compilations, articles

  • Vocational Education Reform: An Obituary. In: Information service work field school. No. 26, Offenbach 1967, pp. 81-104
  • Qualification and imaginary form of education. In-company advanced training for workers and managers. In: K. Bergmann / G. Frank (ed.), Educational work with adults. Reinbek near Hamburg 1977, pp. 86–116
  • Sociological Aspects of the Economics of Education. In: G. Hartfiel / L. Kissler (ed.), Sociology of Education. Freiburg, Basel, Vienna 1977, pp. 229–247
  • Working class in the company. Social-historical basics of in-company vocational training in German industrialization. In: Contributions to the social science justification of educational theory, series of publications by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Osnabrück. Vol. 4, Osnabrück 1982, pp. 155-252
  • Integration of political and vocational education. In: E. Nuissl (ed.), Taschenbuch der Adultbildung. Baltmannsweiler 1982, pp. 168-194
  • Adult education - a regional historical investigation in the Osnabrück area (project sketch). In: Sociology of Education between Science, Politics and Everyday Life Social-historical, scientific and cultural theoretical contributions to educational theory, social sciences and society. 6, Osnabrück 1983, pp. 61-102
  • The working group "Further training for teachers in health care schools" (LGW): Report d. Chair of d. 1st term of office 1983–1985. In: Osnabrück contributions to the theory and practice of the health system. No. 1, Osnabrück 1983
  • Vocational education. In: H. Eyferth / U. Otto / H. Thiersch (ed.), Handbook on social work / social pedagogy. Neuwied and Darmstadt 1984, pp. 205-218
  • Political Economy of the Education Sector. The fate and legacy of a theory. In: contradictions 4 H. 10, 1984, pp. 17-29
  • Youth Sociology. In: H. Kerber / A Schmieder (ed.), Lexicon of Sociology. Reinbek 1984, pp. 274-277
  • Enlightenment as a craftsman's education in the 19th century: enforcement and resistance. In: Information on educational and historical research (IZEBF). H. 23, Wolfenbüttel 1984, pp. 7-20
  • Resistance and resistance: The implementation of organized advanced training for craftsmen in Osnabrück in the first half of the 19th century. In: E. Schlutz / H. Siebert (ed.), Historical Approaches to Adult Education. 1984 annual meeting of the Adult Education Commission of the DGfE. University of Bremen, Conference Reports No. 13, Bremen 1985, pp. 110-138
  • Study work and university culture in crisis. In: contradictions 5 H. 15, 1985, pp. 55-61
  • Political economy of the education sector: A theory without consequences or a starting point for a new university political culture? In: AZ-Magazin. University Policy Series H. 4, Berlin 1985
  • The variety of further training and the variety of demands on the employees from the point of view of the new social movements and the qualification campaign. In: E. Schlutz / H. Siebert (ed.), End of Professionalization? The work situation in adult education as a challenge for studies, advanced training and research. Bremen 1988, pp. 45-59
  • Conservative university policy and counter-movement. In: M. Gorholdt / G. Seitel (ed.), Hochschule 2000. Marburg 1988, pp. 36–52
  • The adult participant as a school child: on the problem of school structures and the role of teachers in adult education. In: New collection: Quarterly magazine for education and society, issue 1, 1989, pp. 76–88
  • Education of the stubborn. Statutory training obligation or adult education as resistance. In: Paed. Extra and Democratic Education H.3, 1989, pp. 11-14
  • In discussion: compulsory training. In: Informations further education in North Rhine-Westphalia H. 1, 1989, S. 22–24
  • Do not learn more than you absolutely need. Plea against a (lifelong) obligation to continue training. In: Intelligence Service: Information, Opinions, Personalia, Literature, Working Material, Documentation H. 1, 1989, pp. 48–49
  • "Resistance to Adult Education" as a historical and theoretical category. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialisierungforschung und Erziehungssoziologie H. 1, 1989, pp. 23–40
  • Religion, professional asceticism and employee development. From the spirit of capitalism to corporate culture. In: Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik H. 2, 1990, pp. 116–125
  • Contribution to corporate culture - "remythologization" of corporate governance or "perception of a whole"? Reply to Dirk Axmacher: Religion, professional task and employee development. In: ZBW, 1990, pp. 116–125 In: Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik H. 6, 1990, pp. 526–535
  • Further education between market and discourse. In: New Collection: Quarterly Journal for Education and Society. H. 2, 1990, pp. 285-292
  • Doctrine or function. About some necessary adjustments to the corporate culture discussion. In: Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik H. 1, 1991, pp. 68–73
  • In-company training between criticism of ideology and holism: theses on Rolf Arnold. In: Supplement to REPORT: Empirical research on adult education. 1992, pp. 16-18

literature

  • Axmacher: Adult education in capitalism: a contribution to political economy of the education sector in the FRG . Fischer Verlag 1974. ISBN 978-3-436-01837-5 .
  • Axmacher: Resistance to Education . Deutscher Studien Verlag, Weinheim 1990. ISBN 978-3-89271-205-3 .
  • Faulstich-Wieland, Siebert & Weinberg: The future of adult education: visions, utopias, scenarios . Literature and research report further education, 1998.
  • Kipp, Czycholl, Dikau & Meuler: Paradoxes in Vocational Education and Training. To criticize their modernity crises. Dirk Axmacher in memory. Publishing house of the Society for the Promotion of Work-Oriented Research and Education, Frankfurt am Main 1992.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kipp, Czycholl, Dikau & Meueler: Paradoxes in vocational education and training. To criticize their modernity crises. Dirk Axmacher in memory. Publishing house of the Society for the Promotion of Work-Oriented Research and Education, Frankfurt am Main 1992.
  2. ↑ Axmacher: Resistance to Education . Deutscher Studien Verlag, Weinheim 1990. ISBN 978-3-89271-205-3
  3. ^ Faulstich-Wieland, Siebert & Weinberg: The future of adult education: visions, utopias, scenarios . Literature and research report further education, 1998.
personal data
SURNAME Axmacher, Dirk H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Axmacher, Dirk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 1944
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1992