In today's society there is a strong tie between labor (employment) and growth. Constant growth is needed to outbalance the increase of economic productivity and to keep the „redundant“ laborforce occupied. In public discourse workplace is one of the strongest agruments to keep dirty economies, such as the coal industry, running. But why keep this wheel of destruction turning?
In a society which is not dedicated to growth also the concept of work has to be reassessed. Althought full employment cannot be the goal anymore there will be tasks in society that have to be taken care of, such as food production, care work, construction work, logistics etc. In a degrowth society this will have to be organized differently. It will have to be discussed which work is needed in society, what should be produced and how, if specialists are wanted or all-rounders or both, what is seen as important and meaningful work and how this is valued...
In this course we want to have a critival look at contemporary working conditions (precarity, gender roles, migration) and learn about social struggles aginst them. We aim to understand and question the connection between employment and growth. For that we want to deconstruct the common concept of labor and review alternative concepts and ideas of how work could be organized.
Finally, we want to develop our own and a collective vision of what and how we want to work in the future.
The course will end at the 1st of May - laborday – on which we will take part at the Mayday Vienna, a pan-European grassroot demonstration that broaches the issue of precarity, right to the city and a good life for all (http://mayday-wien.org).
April 26th – May 1st 2015, Vienna, Austria - see program on the event page.
Language: English · Organised by: ATTAC Austria
In this area you can view all participants, background information, materials, discussions and outcomes related to the Work in a degrowth society course. Participants are welcome to comment on readings, collaborate on note taking and provide feedback on the courses attended, therefore contributing to the growing open knowledge bank of the GROWL network.
Course materials
Target Group: anyone who is passing by
Short description: A short perfrormance that takes place on the 1st of May at the place where people are gathering to march or any other day and at any other place. The target is to induce people into thinking about the different things that constitute work apart from formalised work which is what we usually refer to when we use the term. After the performance there can be a talk with the participants and the passengers about work in general or more specifically (how we would like it to be, on which parts and notions of work we would like to put…
more… Human-Nature relationship and degrowth – Method description
Short description: Sensual/practical experience to feel the relationship between nature and humans in a city with all your senses as a starting for reflection on how humans are trying to master nature in our current system and what kind of relationship we want to have with nature in a degrowth society. E.g. as an introduction to the topic you deal with a whole day.
For whom: anyone from kids to adults
time: 30-90 minutes
Introduce briefly what will…
more…
Dear participants,
we were discussing about the different form of economics. I think that we can found some helpful material (book, posters, video, etc) in the following link: http://kickitover.org/
Have fun with that!
Giorgos
growl_vienna.docx 
Topics
Friday, May 1 2015
subcoma
Thursday, April 30 2015
TTT - Group Work - Interactive Method (Opinion Barometer)
Wednesday, April 29 2015
Free school and kindergarten "Storchennest"
Readings on social metabolism and socio-ecological transformations
Monday, April 27 2015
Ken Robinson video "Changing Education Paradigms"