New Work
I’ve mentioned Frithjof Bergmann several times in September. Here is a bit of where he’s leading with what he calls New Work:
…increasing levels of non-standard employment signal the end of an age of big corporations and governments acting as employers who provide health and pension benefits for millions of people…This from Elaine O’Reilly of Algonquin College and Diane Alfred of Human Resources Development Canada. More on self-providing, on self-reliance skills and on labor news.Bergmann, a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan and Director of the Centre of New Work, says our current crisis is a result of job shortages and polarization. He is convinced that the growing elimination of secure, long-term employment (for practically everybody) is not a temporary phenomenon and will even extend into service jobs. He says we are witnessing the collapse of the entire employer-based job system and that it must be changed if we are to avoid the inevitable violence that results from a growing disparity between rich and poor.
Among Bergmann’s strategies (1994) to augment the current employer-based job system is the notion of high-tech self-providing (HTSP). Because unemployment and underemployment are becoming a way of life for more and more people, HTSP can be taught as a strategy for reducing dependence on the job system and for achieving a fulfilling and meaningful life despite the decline in traditional jobs and job security.