>Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 14:18:21 +0100 >From: Manuel Franzmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >X-Accept-Language: de,en >MIME-Version: 1.0 >To: Basic Income Forum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: BI: from a sociological perspective >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Precedence: bulk > > Dear colleagues, > >those of you, who can read German texts, I would like to inform about an >interesting paper concerning Basic Income from a sociological perspective. >The (translated) title of the paper written by Ulrich Oevermann is: "The >crisis of the 'society of work' and the 'probation'-problem of the modern >individual". > >A central thesis of the paper is that the much discussed crisis of 'work' >is in the core a crisis of the traditional 'work ethics', which goes back >to Max Weber's "Protestant ethics" and has determined our social life >since then. A basic premise of the traditional work ethics is as well >known that 'work' has to be 'income gaining work'. That the traditional >work ethics actually has entered the state of epochal crisis as >orientation framework for the individual, one can read off from the fact >that most of the politico-economic concepts in present politics hurt a >very simple criterion of reasonableness: the criterion that each >politico-economic concept must reasonably be aligned to carry both: the >realization of a maximum of the present technological rationalization >potential and a fair distribution of the national economic income. This >simple criterion of reasonableness is hurt, obviously because the target >of 'job creation' has become (before the background of holding to the >traditional work ethics) an end in itself. Whether the "neoliberal" >promotion of low wage jobs through a "negative income tax" or the social >democratic redistribution of work (e.g. through a reduction in working >hours) or some other concepts: In most cases the main target is to create >jobs for all. In such cases the job creation is placed into the foreground >(debited to the realization of the present rationalization potential!), >because the distribution of the societal prosperity is organized >exclusively through "income gaining work" (notice that unemployment >benefits etc. are defined as 'exceptions' and exceptions prove the rule!). >What was decades ago still reasonable, today becomes increasingly a chain >of productivity and a workhouse like requirement to work. The holding to >the traditional work ethics is obviously connected with the difficulties >people presently have to imagine a society in which fundamental principles >like justice, reciprocity, autonomy can be realized without the societal >norm of "income gaining work". Oevermanns Paper analyses this subject very >clearly. The paper is accessible under the URL-address: > http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~hermeneu/Arbeit-Bewdhrung-1999.rtf I hope you can get the text! If not, try to resolve the charset-problem with the word "Bewaehrung" in the URL-address on your own. >An older paper (1983) of Oevermann with the same subject is: > ><http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~hermeneu/Arbeitsleistung.rtf>http://www.rz.uni >-frankfurt.de/~hermeneu/Arbeitsleistung.rtf > > >Yours sincerely > >Manuel Franzmann > > >___________________________________ > >Manuel Franzmann (M.A.) >Universität Leipzig >Abteilung Religions- und Kirchensoziologie >Emil-Fuchs-Straße 1 >D-04105 Leipzig >Germany >Tel.: 0049 - 69 - 95 62 23 21 >Fax: 0049 - 341 - 97 35 499 >Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >___________________________________ > > > >
