Demotech, design for self reliance


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Description

Change homework from low wage left-over bits industrial work into a sustainable and self-reliant effective mode of production, Do so by offering Open Source production info. Where needed: offer tool sets and training.


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Copyright & Open Source

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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Home Work
<< Back to category Rethinking concepts

Introduced at users level Reduction till nill by replacing a product by a service Applicable within poverty Income Gender Rural as well as urban.



Why
There are many good reasons for promoting homework as a tool to get swift result re. Sustainability: Home Work can be changed for the present low image to a method of production that is fully Sustainable. At present it is an established part of the modern economy. Work done in Home Work has the charcteristics of low wage, ....
Earning income in Home Work has the charcteristics of low wage, ....
Not completed

How
Home Work can be changed into a method of production that is fully Sustainable, does not need capital investment, relies upon Open Source information for best practice



Additional information

Celebrating Home Work with the "Say it is Possible" Campaign

The Say It Is Possible Campaign is a media campaign inspired by Demotech, Design for Self-Reliance and their current field project in Guatemala. It is an interactive space for projects and initiatives around the world to speak up about what it is they are doing to make a better world possible.The Campaign now centers on a design initiative to celebrate the potential beauty of Home Work.

The design initiative is about Demotech's StorageStools concept. This is a highly innovative design for a stool built from bamboo, cloth, scrap metal and wood, which was developed in cooperation with the women's group in San Jose, Guatemala. By working together with local women, Demotech has designed an esthetic, comfortable, and useful stool for those women to build at home.
But the design goes further. By making the stool the way the local women want it, this stool is responding directly to their personal desires. The StorageStools design empowers those women to take charge of their own comfort, and gives them a valuable set of skills in the process. Building these stools and selling them at the local market, these women can earn an independent living and a steady income, on their own terms.

Say it is Possible Campaign



Planned progress



Internal links

Home-Workers, working their way into Sustainability

Homeworkers earn a living by performing production tasks, that factories find profitable to outsource. Though characterized by poor manual work unfit for "real workers", home work has the potential to produce useful high quality products with little or no investment.
Furthermore, due to the lack of capital input, it presents a possibility to do so sustainable, meaning with an acceptably small "footprint", and make an important and immediate step towards true sustainability. Demotech will provide assistance at the level of informing potential homeworkers, teaching them about producing some original high quality goods, and selling + distributing those goods in the market effectively.

Feasibility test Home Work

Feasibility test Home Work for students
Demotech asks intern(s) to do a test on "Home work" to find out about its feasibility in practice. Demotech enables them to do so with one of her designs, the StorageStool
The steps it takes to do it are listed in a 5-weeks scedule that is described in this paper.



External Links

  • Homework Worldwide
    Homework Worldwide is an organization which helps organize and coordinate activities for Homeworkers groups.
    http://www.homeworkersww.org.uk/
  • UN Year of Micro Credit
    http://www.oikocredit.org
  • e-Commerce in small enterprise in developing countries
    A generic set dealing with developing countries generally;
    A pair specifically related to e-commerce and small enterprise in India;
    A pair specifically related to Uganda.
    Source: Development Informatics Group, University of Manchester
    Handbooks available at: http://www.ecomm4dev.org/handbooks.htm
    More information: http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/dig
    Or: Richard Heeks, richard.heeks@man.ac.uk
  • Business in Development BiD
    Promotes poverty reduction through profit in developing countries. We do this by actively engaging Dutch companies and their employees in initiatives for market-oriented sustainable development. BiD is a programme funded and coordinated by the NCDO, The Netherlands.
    http://www.businessindevelopment.nl/index.php
  • Organizing home-based workers in the global economy: An action-research approach
    Source ID21, author Ruth Pearson
    This article describes an action-research project which has the multiple objectives of mapping the range of home-based work in different countries, investigating the ways in which such work is embodied in local or international production chains, and developing a methodology which will facilitate the establishment of sustainable organizations of home-based workers. The article focuses mainly on Latin America and in Eastern Europe, though the project is also active in India and has begun to explore the possibilities of working in China. http://www.developmentinpractice.org/index.shtml?apc=ae-v14n1x524918
  • Home workers paying the price of 'free' trade
    Source ID21, author Annie Delaney, date 26 July 2005
    Trade liberalization leads to declining working conditions and contributes to the expansion of informal labour with limited stability or regulation. The world's three hundred million women home workers are the most vulnerable. Can they organize collectively to improve their working lives?
    http://www.id21.org/zinter/id21zinter.exe?a=0&i=s7cad1g1&u=463a6861
  • ID21: Home-based workers: neglected by policy-makers and labour organisers?
    Lack of political and industrial will on the part of this isolated and neglected workforce can be overcome by providing homeworkers with the opportunity and skills to build their own organisations.
    http://www.id21.org/id21ext/s7crp1g1.html
  • Need for home work in the present situation in Ecuador
    http://www.id21.org/society/s7bam4g1.html


What other people say...

If you like you can add your own comment

by Stan. SWAN - Tue Dec 06 (2005)
Homework !
Much productive work was traditionally of course cottage/home based prior to the early 19th century Industrial Revolution. In this 21st century age of soaring fuel costs,wasted commuting time,clogged motorways & crowded cities it's tempting to reflect that modern seamless electronic commerce may again allow a traditional relaxed local workplace. Aside from the "10 second commute", most homes are more comfortable & you get better coffee than corporate offices! Naturally chores & child minding can better be attended to as well. One of the crazy aspects of modern living is that folks near kill themselves to purchase & equip a home in a lovely area, yet spend most of their time elsewhere - the home only serves as a remote "cave" to store morale boosting purchases in! Stan. in the far flung South Pacific (Wellington-New Zealand)

by Joel - Tue Dec 05 (2006)
Homework World Wide
Homework Worldwide is an organization which helps organize and coordinate activities for Homeworkers groups. Their website is, www.homeworkersww.org.uk/

If you like you can add your own comment



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