Suchergebnisse

"In 1984 a comprehensive initiative was started in Nordrhein-Westfalen (FRG) aimed at the development and implementation of new technologies. Part of this initiative was a programme called "Mensch und Technik - Sozialverträgliche Technikgestaltung". This programme represents an innovative approach towards a socially oriented technology policy. The programme supports the industrial restructuring and modernization process which was enforced by the intensified international economic competition. The programme involves two strategies: a) developing alternative technological trajectories in the field of information and communication technology b) promoting joint efforts of a cooperative and participative design and implementation of new products and production processes. The article discusses the conceptual and organizational development of the programme and evaluates its outcome. Proposals are made as to how the efficiency of such a programme could be increased. Finally, the relevance of a socially oriented technology policy for Austria is assessed." [author's abstract]

Purpose
The thesis of our paper is that the industrial dispute articulates a counter-movement against the progressive capitalist Landnahme of care work. What is ostensibly a standard wage conflict proves, on closer scrutiny, to be a dispute that contains a transformative social dynamic. It cannot be conceived either as a traditional class struggle or as a movement against the market's unreasonable demands. The paper aims to discuss these issues.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on a qualitative survey in the social and childcare services (expert interviews, groups discussions, expert hearings) and two partial-studies on the renewal of trade unions in East and West Germany (54 expert and 46 employee interviews).


Findings
Professional pride along with confidence in their own professional skills collides with the market- and competition-driven devaluation of the work of entire groups of employees. Used correctly, a putative professional consciousness can transform into a source of resilience, protest and collective engagement, which the authors interpret as counter-Landnahme. A consciousness rooted in professionality develops into a subjective power resource, the activation of which simultaneously strengthens trade unions' power to effectuate change.


Originality/value
In the case of the childcare workers, this movement is rooted in a newly awakened consciousness as skilled labourers. What at first appears as a wage conflict is in fact, upon closer inspection, a conflict loaded with transformative potential. After all, any greater social recognition of this occupational group will naturally, at least by tendency, prompt a discussion concerning the modes of financing public reproductive activities.

Land Grabbing oder Landnahme bezeichnet eine Entwicklung, in der sich internationale Investoren von Agrarkonzernen über Banken und Pensionskassen bis hin zu nationalen Eliten (oft ein undurchdringbarer Mix dieser Akteure) die Kontrolle über riesige Landflächen sichern. In Kambodscha wurden so über 2 Millionen Hektar Land als sogenannte Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) an Investoren vergeben. Das entspricht der Hälfte der landwirtschaftlichen Nutzfläche. Laut kambodschanischen Menschenrechtsorganisationen sind mindestens 600.000 Menschen negativ von Landkonflikten betroffen. Oft wird ihnen regelrecht der Boden zum Leben unter den Füßen weggerissen und ihr Menschenrecht auf Nahrung verletzt.

Seit Jahren siedeln sich junge Rechtsextreme bewusst in ländlichen Regionen an, um dort generationsübergreifend "nationale Graswurzelarbeit" zu betreiben. Dieser unauffällige Aktionismus ist gegen die moderne und liberale Gesellschaft der Großstädte gerichtet, es herrschen alte Geschlechterbilder und autoritäre Erziehungsmuster vor. Die Aussteiger von rechts betreiben ökologische Landwirtschaft, pflegen altes Handwerk und nationales Brauchtum, organisieren Landkaufgruppen und eigene Wirtschaftsnetzwerke, die bundesweit agieren. Sie bringen sich in örtlichen Vereinen ein und gehen in die lokale Politik, um Umweltschutz mit "Volksschutz" zu verbinden und eine angebliche "Überfremdung " zu verhindern