Post-Growth Work

Employment and Meaningful Activities within Planetary Boundaries
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-032-03457-7
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 234 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 303 g

This book argues that society must rethink the notion of formal employment and instead introduce and spread the notion of "meaningful work" so that societies can become independent of economic growth.

The excessive consumption of natural resources and the immense emissions resulting from our growth-oriented economic system surpass the planetary boundaries. Despite this, society and the economy still strive for economic growth in order to generate jobs, to finance the social security system and to assure tax income. However, these expectations are increasingly unrealistic, not least because technological developments such as digitalisation and robotisation will change and limit formal employment opportunities as well. Against this backdrop, the book introduces the notion of meaningful activities that embrace various kinds of work, paid and unpaid, sequential or in parallel, which are meaningful for the worker as well as society as a whole. At the same time, the authors argue in favour of reduced working time in formal employment. Furthermore, the book also describes the necessary transformations in companies and for consumers, for social and tax systems, for social services and agriculture.

Innovative and timely, this book will be a key resource for professionals and scholars interested in sustainability, economics, work, transformation and post-growth studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional, and Professional Practice & Development

Autoren/Hrsg.

Seidl, Irmi

Zahrnt, Angelika

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften, Biologie: Sachbuch, Naturführer
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Geographie: Sachbuch, Reise
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Ökologie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Nachhaltigkeit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword by Tim Jackson Introduction 1. Employment, Meaningful Activity and the Post-Growth Society Part 1: The Basics 2. On the Historical Development of Work 3. Value-Orientation and Meaningful Activity in the Post-Growth Society 4. Revaluations of Work: Enabling and Combining a Diversity of Activities Part 2: Employment and Meaningful Activities: Actors 5. The Role of Consumers: Social Participation Beyond Work and the Market 6. The Role of Businesses in the Creation of Sustainable Work 7. Employment in the Tension between Ecology and Distributive Justice: The Role of Trade Unions 8. Voluntary Charitable Activity: Motivation, Prerequisites, Accomplishments Part 3: Employment and Meaningful Activities: Sectors 9. Formal and Informal Care Work 10. Meaningful Activities in Agriculture: Agro-Culture as a Guiding Principle 11. Digitalisation and Concepts of Extended Work Part 4: The Socio-Economic Context 12. Social Security in the Post-Growth Society 13. An Employment-Friendly Tax System 14. Work in Developing and Newly Industrialised Countries Conclusion 15. The Prospects for Practical Action

Über Autor(innen)

Irmi Seidl is Head of the Research Unit Economics and Social Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.

Angelika Zahrnt is Honorary Chair of Friends of the Earth Germany and Fellow at the IÖW – Institute for Ecological Economy Research, Berlin.