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Introduction:

During most of our history people have been working. They have been working hard. 
 
Many have been worked to death either as slaves or as prisoners of war. 
Work is seemingly very important. 
We need to work to get things done. 
We need to work to earn money. 
We need to work to be able to live a decent living. 
We identify ourselves with our work. 
We often ask people, especially people we haven&rsquo;t seen for a long time what they are doing 
instead of how they are doing. 
 
This is just an expression of how important we regard work. 
 
In many people&rsquo;s eyes, but not in all, it is not really important what you do, if you are a 
professor or a truck driver. The important thing is that you have a decent job able to 
support a family and make a satisfactory living. 
Yet many people, especially young people in Europe today a 
re out of work. They have no 
work. They have no money. They cannot afford an education. They cannot afford to buy a 
house. They are jobless and have seemingly no future. For some young people the only 
option is to stay with their parents. They stay with their parents at an age where they ought 
to live on their own, or raise a family. 
 
This is a very bad situation for the young people affected by unemployment. There seems 
to be no opportunities. 
What a waste of human resources! 
 
The situation of the companies hiring young people is not much better. There are very few 
jobs. If there is a job, there are too many applicants for the job. Too many people are 
becoming frustrated. I higher education or a University degree is in many cases no 
guarantee for a job. 
 
The present crisis started in 2008. We can blame outsourcing of industrial production. We 
can blame the financial institutions; the investors, the banks. But that does not solve the 
problem for the young person looking for a job. 
 
What is needed is a redefinition of the concept of work. 
Giving a young person a lump of money regarding she has a job or not will not solve the 
problem. It will help the person receiving money to live a decent life, however, a decent 
life as we know it in our society is closely connected to your education and the job you 
have. 
 
Giving money is not a redefinition of the concept of work. 
We will need to broaden what is considered work, and then paying people an adequate sum 
of money so a decent living is secured even if they don&amp;#39;t have a full time job in the 
traditional sense of the word. 
 
Go to the directive to see what you have to do in order to study various ideas on how to 
redefine work.

Directive:

Read the introduction and the questions and make clear the overall aim of the task. 
Read the files. Use additional sources if you find it beneficial. The origin of additional 
sources must be noted for control. 
 
Product: 
Work in a group of two. Discuss the directives together. Make a poster with your 
arguments towards the wording of the task and including the directives. Leave place to 
public commenting. Present it at a morning assembly and hang it at the school or place 
alike. 
 
&bull; Read File 1 &ldquo;New forms of employment and work&rdquo;.
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">In the olden days when you got a job, the job was a full-time job. Nowadays your 
employment may be part time or temporary. Describe the different sort of 
employments and the reasons given for these types of employment.</div>
 
&bull; Read file 2 about voluntary work in Denmark.
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">Watch the film clips in the article. In the olden days voluntary work was not 
considered work. Now things are changing. It is fully accepted to work as a 
volunteer doing community work. Describe some of the voluntary work being done 
in Denmark and how it affects the young people doing it as well as the community at 
large.</div>
 
&bull; Read file 3 about free bicycle repair and watch the film clip.
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">Describe the usefulness of free bike repair in a city like Copenhagen both for the 
people running the workshop and for the people getting their bicycles repaired.</div>
 
&bull; Read File 4 &ldquo;Towards an independent life&rdquo;,
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">About how young people can help handicapped people and acquire a richer and more 
fulfilling life themselves. In the article there are a couple of small film clips. 
Look at this clip about voluntary work among young people in London: 
http://build-itlambeth.org/about/watch-the-pilot/ 
Let this clip inspire you to come up with ideas about what can be done to help 
young people that are often helpless in relation to the complicated affairs in a 
modern society. Who are working? Is it the volunteers? Is it the young people 
learning a variety of skills? How can activities like these help redefining the concept 
of work?</div>
 
&bull; Read file 5 about voluntary work exchange in Spain.
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">Discuss how voluntary work exchange can help young people develop their 
work abilities and at the same time to redefine how we in our society define 
what work is.</div>

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