Kanttekeningen

De beschermde werkplaatsen in Vlaanderen: een poging tot probleemverkenning

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Abstract

The sheltered workshops in Flanders. An exploration - One of the most important problems confronting the handicapped, is that of finding a suitable job. The handicapped person seeks to earn independence and fulfillment through his job. Sheltered workshops have been established as an instrument for realizing these aims. In this context, two values take a dominant position: emancipation, integration of the handicapped into our community as full-fledged members has to be achieved through their labour; justice, which requires that the handicapped receives a fair share of general prosperity. However, the sheltered workshop seems to be unable to achieve its purposes. There remains a large gap between the field of consciousness on the one hand, which suggests that in a sheltered workshop the handicapped finds not only the desired labour, but also indispensable social relations, and reality on the other hand, which shows that the handicapped is grossly underpaid, that his intercommunication is characterized by the contrast between inferiority (handicapped) and superiority (“,normal person”) and that moreover the formal structure of a sheltered workshop hampers emancipating tendencies. In a sheltered workshop the handicapped individual has only to adapt himself to what exists, that means to industrial labour, to the existing social-economic constellation, which implicitly implies confirmation of the starting-point: fact = norm. “Sein” and “sollen” become equalized for “to be” is considered as “to have to”. The morally indispensable tension between fact and norm fails. In the field of consciousness the actual equalization of fact and norm is not taken into account! One still talks about equal chances, justice, the importance of the human being, and so on. The sheltered workshop does not harm the authoritative basis of the industrial concern. One does not fight against submission or dependence; one only replaces them by a kind of toleration in order to camouflage the contrasts. The ideology remains authoritative but adapts itself to the present needs. The sense of justice, which is used in the field of consciousness requires that adjustment. The sheltered workshop thus maintains the existing ideology. Quoting Herbert MARCUSE, we may talk about a form of repressive toleration.

How to Cite:

D'Hauwe, R., (1979) “De beschermde werkplaatsen in Vlaanderen: een poging tot probleemverkenning”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 24(3), 281–289. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.96121