Examining decades of German society's development, one can acknowledge the existence of positive attributes such as stable state institutions, a robust public education and school system, a functioning welfare state system, and a sufficiently stable labor market. However, one realizes that there is also a shortage of skilled workers, for example, in the field of geriatric care or teaching within schools. Concurrently, signs of dissolution exist in various areas of society, disintegration of families, an unconnected coexistence of different ethnic communities, or lives that sometimes take place in escapist, virtual worlds. A common narrative or a value-based framework that could hold society together from within is scarce. The functionalized world of work yields human experiences that often lack professional self-realization. Competition, indifference, and alienation frame the work–life experience (e.g., Sayers, 2011; Shantz et al., 2014, 2015; Kalekin-Fishman and Langman, 2015; Bousquet, 2023). Parents leave their children at crèches, daycare centers, and schools, often for the workday. They rush to their 9–5 job, then retrieve their children and try to have nominal family time together before repeating the process. A primary goal of the education system is to prepare youth to cope with such a working world of jagged, disconnected living arrangements. Responsible authorities and ministries attempt to make school lessons better and more effective, through increased management, control, performance measurement, and support. Youngsters learn in neon-lit classrooms, often reduced to sedentary and book-focused learning experiences, far away from forests, meadows, and fields. However, complex difficulties increasingly appear among youth. When adjoined with conditions of instability, including broken family relationships and complex migration backgrounds, unresolved trauma and uprooting experiences, educational careers, and successful work life are quickly at risk. Male students particularly have a high risk for low achievement, truancy, or delinquency (e.g., Hascher and Hagenauer, 2010). These often lead to a complete abandonment of school education (Harber, 2002; Hascher and Hadjar, 2018; e.g., Havik and Ingul, 2021).

Contemporary schools struggle to solve and remedy the difficulties caused by societal processes. The school-based teaching profession is increasingly less attractive to young people, with dwindling numbers choosing this demanding field of work. The first author, as a teacher and school principal for 20 years, had variable success in schools supporting and keeping vulnerable youngsters in the system. These youth were mostly male adolescents in the transition to violence, delinquency, or dropping out of school. Today, even after a decade and a half of scientific research and parallel school consulting, he concludes that now is the time for alternatives. Systems operating compulsory education need options, as do other current forms of society, which include work lives beset by these difficulties. Realizing that even a differentiated welfare state system can only absorb the consequences of a capitalist economic system up to a certain point is the core of the problem. Initiating transformative community projects with solid financial resources would provide an unconditional basic income for stakeholders, who along with their own strengths and high motivation can recharge society from within. These projects bring new dynamics with the promise to embrace and create a new quality of social cohesion. The impetus for this idea began when the first author and his family bought an abandoned farm in East Germany, in Anhalt, 1 h southwest of Berlin. Situated in an underdeveloped region, the farm included a barn, a workshop, a stable building, and land. The farm's origins date from 1884, i.e., the Wilhelmine German period, although additions and extensions are from the German Democratic Republic period.

A critical element of this model is gaining a new understanding of an active civil society and the social communities within that assume social responsibility. A second component is redefining the nature and quality of work, including the conceptual framework, with related ideas of income and work–life balance. A third aspect is the role of entrepreneurship and its embedded nature in the development of new social communities that concurrently take recursive responsibility and are based on principles of sustainability. Fourth are the concepts of self-directed and community-oriented learning, which are central components of these entrepreneurial thinking and socially responsible social units. Fifth is the binding element that holds all activities within the project framework together. This component is the idea of working on an overarching economic, social, cultural, and ecological transformation, and seeing oneself as part of such a transformation.

This study aims to connect the critical analysis of social structures with an outline of an alternative model for working, learning, and living, a model that aims at sustainable development for all, including nature, wildlife, and the whole planet (United Nations, 2016). Providing an unconditional basic income and converting state-controlled compulsory schooling into self-designed compulsory education are two central parameters for the change sought here. In short, we advocate the transformation of learning, growing up, working, and living, as areas narrowly intertwined. Significant support exists in German society for establishing unconditional basic income, but there is also opposition. In the United States, many deem this policy as too radical, although there are places open to discussion. Skeptical citizens distrust such a solution, fearing exploitation. Others reject basic income because they see it as a form of social redistribution which encourages passive and selfish behavior. But this project views the presence of a basic income as an incentive to act entrepreneurially and to take on social responsibility. Examining contemporary German society, the conversion of compulsory schooling into a self-designed compulsory education is divisive. Homeschooling and freer learning formats have existed in the United States over time. In Germany, however, opponents repeatedly express a fear that children and young people will resist learning on their own. Conversely, even under the current conditions, there is an emerging group of students who learn too little or who do not go to school regularly, causing a variety of problems, excessive costs, and subsequent problems. Therefore, despite everything, there is a need beyond school for alternative places of learning. This transformative community-project movement, like most reform movements, does not appear without its skeptics and critics. They question the idea of establishing transformative communities because they relate the idea to abuse of power, manipulation, and exploitation. For example, they make the connection with such abysmal projects as Colonia Dignidad. To be successful, government agencies must oversee them so that those involved have their human rights guaranteed, and democratic principles are a reality. Transparency and accessibility are paramount to the projects, as are clear philosophical explication and financial disclosure. These projects must prohibit the conditioning or indoctrination of youth in religious, political, and other respects. They must not subjugate ideologies, manipulate, or exploit them. Learning and age-appropriate work conditions should have voluntary participation. It is important to realize that in contemporary German society, there is still a great deal of mistrust of a concept like the commons. This mistrust recalls the socialism that existed, as was present in the GDR and other Eastern European countries. Human character flaws will remain a challenge when, for example, selfishness and egotism prevail in dealing with the resources that should be available to everyone (Hardin, 1968). We hope to stimulate discussion so that people question the fixation on the accumulation of material goods that is dominant in today's Western societies due to capitalism and the manipulation techniques that work within it (Marcuse, 2014), hoping to arrive more at a philosophy of being (Fromm, 2013).

Unconditional basic income would allow for the dismantling of the gigantic administrative apparatuses that distribute social transfer payments. Tax money released could be redirected to the projects, to the people themselves. Such a shift would allow civil society to assume maximum responsibility for itself. The state school system would continue to exist overall, but transformative community projects could reduce their capacity. Young people should never be left with no educational opportunities at all. This approach would provide options for a path to education in a traditional sense, and one to the transformative projects mentioned. Ideally, teacher education of the future could include the context of social, economic, and ecological transformation, including participatory and collaborative practices (Alsop et al., 2007). Thus, the teaching profession could be reinvigorated and charged with new attractiveness. Work would be more self-determined and therefore healthier, resulting in reduced medical expenses. Mobility on the roads could be reduced, with positive effects on the climate, as children and youngsters would no longer have to be shuttled as much, and the sedentary time during transport for adults would be less. This new pace would lead to a decelerated way of life that would benefit people currently living in stressed environments both locally and globally. However, a study from Japan (Klien, 2019) indicated that the mindset of people who long for more self-created work can be strongly influenced by the capitalist system. This study noted that people need to learn to release the mental pressure they carry from such a system. What a fascinating prospect for young people to grow into a healthier world right from the start, with solid social embedding, allowing them to develop their individual potential, always with a view to the overall context on this planet.

Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. There are two documentation volumes published by Books on Demand, Norderstedt, Germany, about the project with a total of around 700 photos and graphics. Both books are available in print and as e-books. For bibliographic information, see the reference list Broecher (2023a,b).

Both authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.