Bio: (1924-2007) Austrian-French sociologist. He was born Gerhart Hirsch but is known by his pseudonym André Gorz. Gorz emigrated to Switzerland in 1939 to avoid being drafted into the Nazi army. He completed his studies in chemical engineering in Switzerland, and in 1949 he moved to Paris. In France, he mostly worked as a journalist, and he was also the founder of the left-wing weekly Le Nouvel Observateur. Gorz is known for his critique of capitalism, which is based on the study of ecology and the position of the working class. He hoped that in the future, increasing productivity would lead to an improvement in the quality of individual and social life, instead of leading to an intensification of the unscrupulous capitalist struggle.

With the publication of the book Ecology as Politics (1978, in French 1975), Gorz became one of the most important representatives of political ecology. He believed that political ecology must critically approach economic thought because the understanding of wealth must overcome the narrow notion of values ​​used by economists. In his book Farewell to the Working Class (1994, in French 1980), Gorz notes that organizational and technological changes have destroyed skilled labor. The product of this is that the working class, as a class that has the knowledge and ability to take control of the means and the production process, no longer exists, so we need to say farewell to it. Gorz also believed that the basic problem is not only the destruction of labor but that the system imposes the ideology of labor as a source of income rights. He advocates that instead of the right to work, the right to income should be advocated for everyone, regardless of whether they are employed or not. Gorz advocated socialism that would preserve individual autonomy.

Main works

Stratégie ouvrière et néocapitalisme (1964);

Le socialisme difficile (1967);

Critique du capitalisme quotidien (1973);

Écologie Misères du présent, richesse du possible et politique (1975);

Écologie et liberté (1977);

Adieux au prolétariat (1980);

Les Chemins du paradis (1983);

Métamorphoses du travail, quête du sens (1988);

Capitalisme, socialisme, écologie (1991);

Misères du présent, richesse du possible (1997);

L’Immatériel (2003);

Ecologica (2008).

Works translated into English:

Socialism and Revolution (1975, in French 1967);

Ecology as Politics (1978, in French 1975);

Paths to Paradise (1985, in French 1983);

Critique of Economic Reason (1989, in French 1988);

Farewell to the Working Class (1997, in French 1980);

Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology (1994, in French 1991);

Reclaiming Work: Beyond the Wage-Based Society (1999, in French 1997);

The Immaterial (2010, in French 2003).