Ownwork is a concept that James Robertson creates in his book, "Future
Work." This concept is simply becoming self-sufficient.
Individuals,
households, and local
communities work together for their own survival and advancement.
The basis for this is the oppresive nature of capitalism. Since medieval times, man has been subject to superior men. Serfs under Lords, slavesunder masters, and more recently, employees under the harsh control of employers. He proposes equality not of opportunity, much like America, but equality of resourses, much like the former Soviet Union.
Mr. Robertson cites examples of today's working conditions. In modern times, people leave their homes to go to work in the work force at work places. Traditionally, this is the husband that goes out to do this high-status, paid, and specialized work.
There they do impersonal work that is unrelated to their homelife and family interests. However, the traditional housewife does unpaid yet important work around the house, work that has a direct impact on the lives of the family.
I'm not going to discuss the idea of communism in the essay. Instead, I would like to mention the fact that Ownwork is not specialized. Instead of going out and getting specialized jobs that allow people to have a high standard of living and leisure time, Robertson is sending men back home to fend for themselves. The whole reason we started gathering together spliting up work, like farming, hunting, sewing, making CD players, designing cars, building houses, etc, is so that one person wouldn't have to provide all of them for himself. That is the flaw I see in Robertson's idea of Ownwork.