Labour and recognition: an attempt of a redefinition

Abstract

The main question in this article is: how the category social work should be included in the framework of a social theory to open an inside perspective of qualitative improvement that is not utopian? To take account of this complex problem, the author suggests in a first more methodological step a distinction between foreign and immanent criticism for a critic of existing labour relations. In a second step, the author argues that social work can only assume his role as an legitim immanent criteria if it fulfills the conditions for recognition through the exchange achievements (Leistungen), typical for modern societies. Two conditions are reconstructed based on Hegel and Durkheim: a fair organisation of social work needs to provide a revenue suficient to provide socially decent conditions of life and has to be structured so that its tasks enable the individual worker to understand them as a contribution to the community and to relate them with the other socially necessary works.