Modernizovano i dobrovoljno siromaštvo – usmerenost na supsistenciju, a ne ka ekskluziji
Modernized and Voluntary Poverty – Focus on Subsidence, not Inclusion

Summary/Abstract: The author has set for himself an unplugging task: view the possibilities of poverty utopia. All utopias relate to abundance, and poverty utopia simply does not exist. With the help of innovativeness and categorical analyticity of Ivan Ilič and comparative analysis of Majid Rahnema, the author successfully deals with this problem: the solution is in the poverty of pleasure or voluntary poverty. The author goes a long way for this utopia. First he points out to the difference between old and pre-modern poverty and new or modernized poverty. Modernized poverty, the category of Ivan Ilič, is a term which points to inclusion of poverty into worldwide capitalistic economy. The author thinks that the concept of new poverty was set by Michael Harington, and that modernized poverty got its dimensions in the concept of social exclusion. The author emphasizes the flak of the concept of social exclusion in the analysis of subsidence categories (survival) and Eigenarbeit (proper work), by pointing out to the fact that modernity has rooted out general mediocrity of subsidence and introduced modernized subsidence, which is chosen for pleasure. It is this moment that the author uses in order to create a way into utopian vision of voluntary poverty focused on dignified subsidence of all. The author finds the link that connects the battle of the poor for mere survival and supposed dignified subsidence of all in categories of vernacular production and proper work, which was launched by Ivan Ilič. Thus, closing the circle – modernized poverty, social exclusion, vernacular production and proper work – the author comes to the consistent theory of voluntary poverty.

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