GERMANWATCH Symposium 1997: Social Sustainability:

Future of Work

For many people work gives meaning to life. The term "work" not only includes paid work - done under contract, but also all sorts of making a living. In the developing countries, for example, many people work on their own farms, in the informal sector or do different types of self-employed work. Apart from the income earned through paid work, people judge their work according to many criteria: Work not only embraces productive, paid work, but also the vast area of unpaid, reproductive work which is done mostly by women. Part of reproductive work is the commitment (existing in both sexes) to public welfare (i.e. voluntary work in charitable organisations). The UNDP-report estimates that work worth $16 trillion, out of a total of $23 trillion in world-wide production costs, was done as unpaid work in households and for social organisations in 1993. The invisible work of women was worth $11 trillion. In the industrialised countries about two thirds of the working time of women is not registered compared to only one third of the working time of men. During the fourth summit on women's rights in Beijing, the heads of the governments agreed that reproductive work should be included into the economic balance sheet and that it should be considered in special accounts.

The social importance of charitable and household work reaches far beyond its economic importance. This work "reproduces" society - not only the worker. In this sense it has its own value that cant be measured in terms of time or money. These activities enrich family and community life, conserve cultural traditions and foster human Development. It is "social reproduction" in the broadest sense. But this does not mean the nation-state should be relieved of its responsibility. We must discuss the definition of "solidarity" within this context.

In an age of economic globalisation, the connection between economic growth and new jobs seems to disappear. Proper research on whether the profits of companies are still used to create new jobs is badly needed. The question whether economic growth creates new jobs depends on many factors, e.g. on what is produced, by whom and how, on which technology is used for which product, on the organisation of production, on the distribution of the means of production (i.e. ground, capital), etc. On the one hand economic, growth in a certain area will create certain jobs. On the other hand - which type of economic growth is needed? The growth of the "registered labour market"? Will it not be necessary to come up with new ideas? Questions concerning the splitting of the labour market into the registered labour market and the so called "do-it-yourself" market needs further discussion in this context.

There are no ready made concepts. The number of life- and work styles will constantly increase. This great variety requires a new social consensus. New shades of social sustainability are necessary. Saving money at the expense of the future, because our social Security systems are overloaded, is proof of a lack of social farsightedness.

In order to learn for the "future of work" in the North and the South the following questions (divided into North and South) should be discussed during the symposium:

General aspects concerning North and South:

  1. Do the aforementioned functions of paid work (Security of income, creation of a meaningful life, social integration) necessarily have to be guaranteed as a unit? Or would it be preferable to change the organisation of society, so that these three functions are guaranteed through different aspects of life, and what should this newly organised society look like?
  2. Is it not unavoidable to forfeiture the idea of full employment, for the North as well as for the South, and how could regular income still be secured in such a case? Is the regionalisation of economic cycles a reaction to globalisation, or at least a possible aspect of it? Which other answers have to be found?
  3. What role will self-employed work play in the future, as changes in production (e.g. progressing rationalisation) decreases the need for paid labour?
  4. Which role will unpaid work play in the future? Are women the losers and will hard-won rights be sacrificed to pragmatism?

North

  1. Should volunteer work fulfil the functions "giving a meaning to life" and "social integration"? What are the inherent dangers in this (suggested by current gender analyses)? Will social work be relegated to the private realm? How can the connection between "social status" and "paid work" be dissolved and a two-class society be avoided? What kind of legal framework does this necessitate?
  2. Ought not the renunciation of the rare resource "work" be compensated through a guaranteed old age pension?
  3. What consequences will it have for political control if formalised work is further marginalised? Which global control systems and which, perhaps uncontrollable, powers will emerge (e.g. the legitimacy of G8)?
  4. What can rich countries learn from poorer societies with stronger social ties in terms of the Security of the three basic functions of paid work mentioned above? Market and state are no longer able to cope sufficiently with these problems; which role will the civil society play?

South:

  1. The hidden export orientation of the currently most common strategies for Development was neither able to prevent the proceeding "globalisation of poverty" nor could it help to secure the income/ability to make a living of a large part of the population. Which strategies could be applied to secure a fair distribution of income also for the poorer segment of the population?
  2. Is it possible to generalise concepts for the creation of income through self employment in a Grammeen-bank style, or would that only foster an unfair, non-sustainable economical and political system that is not human oriented
  3. What impact does globalisation have on jobs? Is it true that jobs are moving from the north to the south and what new impulses does this create for Development work?
  4. Which elements of the informal sector of the south can and should be copied; and could they also be used as a sustainable model in the north? In the south, people are often upgraded from the "subsistence" to the "informal" sector; in the north the direction is often reversed.
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