Unemployment, deindustrialization, and ‘community economy’ in eastern Germany

Abstract

Drawing from an evening of fieldwork at an eastern German Protestant churchin the rapidly deindustrialized city of Leipzig, this article finalyzes a discussion among church leaders, former ‘dissidents,’ and unemployed workers on the subject of ‘community economy’ (Gemeinschaftsökonomie), a concept people interpret to represent a potential solution to the crisis of mass unemployment. Such local debates on unemployment offer a frame for understanding the re-negotiation of labor and social welfare in eastern Germany following socialism's end. finalyzing this discussion within the context of theoretical debates on ‘civil society,’ I follow Burawoy's and Gramsci's lead in fillustrating that the imagined economic sphere of ‘community economy’ is an ideological battle ground, where hegemonic discourse supporting economic neoliberalism may be either reinforced or subverted.

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