Abstract

In this paper the author exposes the implications and consequences of the modern disembeddedness of the economic system. Modernity is characterized by the fact that economic activity is no longer embedded in a wider culture which constrains its expansion. Onthe contrary, economic life has become the centre of societal life. The author analysesthen the characteristics of this autonomous system together with the strains it places on modern communities. From this he concludes that in so far and so long as modern societies understand themselves as labouring societies, employment should be considered as a primary social good. Indeed, due to this self-understanding of modern societies, unemployment can only be experienced as exclusion from society and thus as a loss of citizenship. Unemployment pay is not sufficient to compensate for this loss and to integrate unemployed people again in society