Here's a beginning on NewWork. Seems to have much in common with Voluntary Simplicity, yet Bermgann's work will also include looking into the macro shifts that need to occur as productivity and lifespan increases erode the concept of full-time, lifelong employment. There will be much to do and many not "working" in jobs will be doing it... self-providing, in community...

"Self-Providing" Basic Concepts

A good salary is not the sole determinant of economic success. There are many things people can do for themselves and their families which reduce their income needs.

At a time when secure full-time jobs are being replaced by part-time and temporary employment, it is important for young people to learn how to become intelligent self-providers.

Self-providing denotes direct involvement in providing for individual and family needs: food, clothing, shelter, home furnishings, appliances, transportation, recreation, education, health care, etc.

Self-providing also includes household management and consumer skills: being disciplined and intelligent consumers, acquiring consumer goods wholesale, bulk, generic and second hand, budgeting for purchases, savings and investments, operating as CEO of our financial lives.

Self-providers often band together to assist one another: in transportation pools, buying co-operatives, child-care associations, bartering and tool sharing arrangements, community gardens and joint entrepreneurial enterprises.

Self-providing harks back to the lifestyles of our pre-industrial ancestors, but takes advantage of modern technologies, information resources and support systems.

SOURCE: New Work for A New Generation, Detroit Educational Television Foundation (Bergmann, 1994).

More in the [weblog archives] ...see October, 2003.