Michael Gurstein forwarded a message from Virpi Koykka
>If the "third system" is to maximise its economic potential and create
>more jobs, it will need to be defined unambiguously and have a clear
>legal status.
. . .
>As expectations concerning the employment potential of the third
>system grow, the organisations face many challenges, such as financing
>and the quality of the services provided. It can be difficult to
>reconcile the twin aims of integrating the disadvantaged into the
>labour market and providing high quality services. If the third system
>is to create jobs, someone has to be ready to pay for the services it
>provides.
It's too bad that these kinds of discussions continue to ignore the clear
and very useful definitions given by Andre Gorz in his book "Critique of
Economic Reason". Gorz argues that economic rationality properly applies
only to those activities that:
a. create use value;
b. for exchange as commodities;
c. in the public sphere;
d. in a measurable amount of time, at as high a level of productivity as
possible. (pp. 138-139)
So-called "third sector" employment would fall into a category of activities
that Gorz describes as "functions, care, assistance" and that meet
conditions a, b & c, but not condition d. Gorz also uses the term convivial
activities to describe these caring and assistance activities.
Gorz is wary of turning 'conviviality' into a low-grade occupation that
"those who had 'proper' jobs would be all the less obliged to engage in."
"The current conception of such activities is still based on the idea that
work for economic ends has to take up the most important part of our lives
and that, in consequence, the so-called 'convivial' activities such as the
provision of home help and home care (for the handicapped, the aged, the
sick and mothers with young children) constitute a 'sector' apart which can
serve to provide unemployed young people with low-paid, part-time jobs,
until something better comes along."
It is not that Gorz is demeaning such activities, rather he is saying that
the the current emphasis on economic rationality will inevitably demean the
activities and those who perform them (for want of a 'proper' job). In other
words, it is futile to look for labour market solutions from the so-called
third sector on the presumption that the first and second sectors can be
left pretty much as they are. Otherwise, the third sector jobs would be
better described as second class jobs and those who are forced to hold them
as second class citizens. One need look no further than the implementation
of "workfare" schemes in Ontario and New York City and the readiness of
governments to deny rights of union organizing to see where fuzzy,
pseudo-economic thinking about the third sector leads.
Regards,
Tom Walker
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