Work in a degrowth society

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).

The course is organised by: ATTAC Austria