The New Book. An Overview
The „job system“ for organizing work has existed for only about 200 years – since the Industrial Revolution. Always problematic, it is now approaching collapse, and what follows, for better or worse, depends on the decisions made and carried out in the present. Many people are dismayed and turn to political opportunists for help. Faced with the looming catastrophe, Frithjof Bergmann began developing alternatives to the work system in the 1970s. In Flint, Michigan, he began fostering dialogue among auto workers and the community about mitigating the effects of layoffs during recessions. What developed over the years is his proposed alternative to the job system. New Work, New Culture tells the development of his ideas and describes a path humanity could take so that everyone can lead a better life.
Work We Want, and a Culture That Strengthens Us
The German edition of the book
was published by Arbor Verlag in 2004.
New Work is an ascent
New Work is an ascent, an emergence through the intelligent and imaginative use of a series of astonishingly innovative technologies, some extremely simple while others go far beyond the state of computers. What these technologies have in common is that they are small and small-scale. They no longer require giant factories with long rows of huge machines demanding shiploads of capital. Instead, they can be gathered in a neighborhood, a village, or a community center. In short, one of the spaces of New Work is the transformation from industrial to communal production in small spaces. The result is the founding of new enterprises, but gradually also the increasing local production of food, housing, and energy, as well as furniture, devices, and clothing.
Basic Economy
The foundation of this new economy is a new work system, on which a new lifestyle and a new culture can be developed. One may continue working 10 hours per week in the old wage system or in one’s own classic enterprise, which is only gradually converted to the strategies of New Work. Another 10 hours are used with radically innovative small-space technologies that can replace industrial technologies in many things. Third, one does what one really, really wants, and that is what truly gives vitality and strength.
The goals of New Work are:
The alleviation and eventually the elimination of poverty in all countries everywhere. This cannot be achieved through increasingly desperate efforts to create more jobs. But it can be achieved through the further development and slow global spread of the new economy of community production.
A decisive reduction of physically and mentally paralyzing work;
The destruction of the „Four Tsunamis“;
The tsunamis:
a) the „butcher split“ between incredible wealth and terrible poverty;
b) the waste of our natural resources;
c) the destruction of our climate;
d) the destruction of our culture.
All four tsunamis were caused by the decimation, degradation, and devaluation of work, essentially brought about by three monster-sized causes: (a) automation, (b) globalization, and (c) worldwide migration from rural areas into the slums. Until now, the only answer to the ever-growing shortage of jobs has been the frantic escalation of economic growth. New Work brings more and more work to work: the work of community production for New Work prevents the compulsive gallop race for economic growth. For once, we have an abundance of work, and with these two additions this would also be the case, so that economic growth would no longer be a deadly race.
The fourth goal of New Work is the ascent to a new culture. This is the kindergarten in which we learn how to develop a new kind of school, based on these new forms of social relationships and an entirely new politics. The New Culture therefore wants to be more intelligent (far less wasteful), more humane (with less poverty than we have now), and therefore more joyful (for many who are ready to do their calling). At its peak, this culture wants to be more extravagant, which means more Shakespeare.
What could the work of the future look like?
After decades of practice, Frithjof Bergmann now presents the English-language foundational work on these new perspectives for the working society.
We suffer not only from disappearing jobs, but above all from the „poverty of desire.“ This means the inability to express wishes and realize one’s own projects. Not least for this reason, we cling to jobs that secure not only our livelihood but also our place in society – even when they are unsatisfying. And we despair excessively when we lose them.
To remedy this, we must focus more on what we „really, really want“ and find diverse and creative strategies for implementation. Frithjof Bergmann describes how this can succeed for the first time in the book presented here.
