Transcript POST-GROWTH POLITICS AND GREEN POLITICAL ECONOMY: …

Dr. John Barry
School of Politics, International Studies and
Philosophy
Queens University Belfast
[email protected]
“questioning growth is deemed to be the act of
lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries” (Jackson,
2009: 14).
Criticising economic growth is tantamount to a
fundamental act of betrayal in modern
societies, a public act of disloyalty to the
modern political economic order.
Is it unpatriotic?
1.
2.
3.
Sustainability reasons – climate change,
energy, resources and pollution;
Equality reasons – economic growth under
capitalism manages and reproduces
inequality it does not eradicate it;
Human flourishing reasons – beyond a
threshold, economic growth does not add to
and can reduce human flourishing.
Low carbon/sustainability – does an economic
policy lower carbon and move us away from
actually existing unsustainability?
Equality – does an economic policy increase or
decrease extreme inequalities?
Human flourishing – does an economic policy
increase or decrease human flourishing?
So…if economic growth can be low carbon, lower
inequality and increase human flourishing it is
to be welcomed
1.
2.
3.
4.
Pro-poor economic growth
Pro-egalitarian economic growth
Low carbon economic growth – ‘ecological
modernisation’, ‘green growth’; ‘green
capitalism’
Economic and ‘uneconomic’ growth – growth
that does not add to reducing inequalities,
reducing resource/energy intensity or
increase opportunities for human flourishing
GDP does not differentiate between defensive and
non-defensive consumption and production ,
positive and negative economic activity in terms
of human flourishing, sustainability, or equality
Within an overall sustainable economy, which
sectors and activities do we want to grow and
which to shrink?
A post-growth economy – consistent with growth in
some sectors, so long as it does not transgress the
thresholds set by the three criteria above
Grow life-sustaining/enhancing sectors and
contract those that undermine/threaten life
Less weapons,
warships and bombs
and more schools,
playgrounds,
hospitals, kidney
dialysis machines?
The fact that an economy is growing tells you nothing about
the ‘quality’ of economic activity that is happening within
it.
“in times of recession, life expectancy can rise, even as
livelihoods are apparently harmed. This happens in rich
countries probably due to force of circumstances, as
people become healthier by consuming less and
exercising more, using cheaper, more active forms of
transport such as walking and cycling”.
new economics foundation. 2010, Growth isn't possible, p. 6
It is possible, in other words, to have both ‘economic’ and
‘uneconomic’ growth and we should not assume that
growth per se is a good thing, to be held onto at all costs.
Or as a permanent as opposed to a historically contingent
feature and objective of the human economy
New Scientist, 16 October 2008
“This is the logic of free-market
capitalism: the economy must
grow continuously or face an
unpalatable collapse. With the
environmental situation
reaching crisis point, however,
it is time to stop pretending that
mindlessly chasing economic
growth is compatible with
sustainability. Figuring out an
alternative to this doomed
model is now a priority.”
‘Why politicians dare not limit
economic growth’ by Tim
Jackson, pp. 42-3.
“Growth is a substitute for equality of income. So
long as there is growth there is hope, and that
makes large income differentials tolerable”
(Wallach, 1972).
“We are addicted to growth because we are
addicted to large inequalities in income and
wealth. What about the poor? Let them eat
growth! Better yet, let them feed on the hope of
eating growth in the future!”
(Herman Daly, 1991)
UK Cabinet Office’s Strategy Unit report,
“above a certain threshold of consumption, there is no clear
relationship between economic growth and quality of life.”
(Foley, 2005)
The Swedish EPA has called for strategies to target both
the supply (production) and demand (consumption)
sides through the propagation of eco-efficiency in
production and by embedding a notion of ‘sufficiency’
in consumption.
“The ultimate question facing today’s society in developed
countries is whether consumerism actually contributes to
human welfare and happiness…” (EPA, Sweden, 2005)
“People in countries that provide citizens with a high level
of economic security have a higher level of happiness on
average, as measured by surveys of national levels of
life-satisfaction and happiness…The most important
determinant of national happiness is not income level –
there is a positive association, but rising income seems
to have little effect as wealthy countries grow more
wealthier. Rather the key factor is the extent of income
security, measured in terms of income protection and a
low degree of income inequality.” (Emphasis added)
International Labor Organisation, (2004), Security for a
Better World
Replacing economic growth with ‘economic security’
Imagine an economy not only designed by
a scientist (or with cognisance of the
basic biophysical laws of nature) but also
one aimed to enhance human
relationships and health not income,
wealth and the accumulation of more and
more possessions?
Or where societal ‘success’ is measured by
how we look after the most vulnerable
not the size of our economy or army?
“The necessity to reduce our
material impact on the
ecosystem is normally seen as a
threat to our ‘standard of living’.
However…it is existing patterns
of consumption that compromise
our prospects for ‘the good life’.
Re-visioning the way we satisfy
our needs is not the bitter pill of
eco-fascism; it is the most
obvious avenue for renewing
genuine human development”.
(Jackson and Marks, 1998: 38;
emphasis added)
“The Gross National Product counts air pollution and
cigarette advertising, and ... the destruction of the
redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in
chaotic sprawl ... Yet [it] does not allow for the
health of our children, the quality of their education,
or the joy of their play ... the beauty of our poetry
or the strength of our marriages ... it measures
everything, in short, except that which makes life
worthwhile”.
Robert Kennedy, 1968
”Towards what ultimate point is society tending by its
industrial progress? When the progress ceases, in what
condition are we to expect that it will leave mankind?
I cannot, therefore, regard the stationary state of capital
and wealth with the unaffected aversion so generally
manifested towards it by political economists of the old
school. I am inclined to believe that it would be, on the
whole, a very considerable improvement on our
present condition. I confess I am not charmed with the
ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal
state of human beings is that of struggling to get on;
that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on
each other's heels, ...
But the best state for human nature is that in which,
while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor
has any reason to fear being thrust back, by the
efforts of others to push themselves forward.”
Resilience – climate change
adaptation literature and
permaculture
Centrality of ‘in-built
redundancy’ and ‘slack’ to
withstand shocks ensure
long-term functioning
“Sufficiency thus aims at
excess. It is not sacrifice in
the negative sense of the
term, not second best. It is
first best when users
want to do well now and
into the indefinite future.
It lies at the heart of an
ecological order‘
(Princen, 2010: 74;
emphasis added).
“Thrift is not the opposite
of generosity, the closed
fist that holds one to what
you have, but the enabler
of generosity. A frugal
life that does not waste
and cares for what you
have is what enables you
to give away, to share, to
open your hands and
pour forth what you have
preserved” (Astyk, 2008:
208).
‘Biological time’: patterns of work/rest related to
human health and well-being –psychological and
bodily rest/recovery and the ‘unnaturalness’ or
objective illness (as opposed to ‘well-being’)
caused by ‘365/24/7’ work and life patterns
demanded by the rhythms and productive and
consumptive demands of the modern capitalist
economy and its associated cultures of work and
consumption
‘Ecological embeddedness’ and ‘biological
embodiedness’ of human beings – need for linear
time patterns to integrate with cyclical time rhythms
Humans not ‘brains on legs’ – need to attend to our
phenomenal/corporeal/physical characters
Human beings are not simply ‘just like animals’, we are
an animal species
Old, failed economic model based on:
Property speculation
Financialisation of the economy and life
Debt-based consumerism
All for economic growth
Beyond ‘business as usual’
Collectivisation of consumption (and
democratising production)
If we’re socialising risk (bank bailouts etc)
why not socialise other aspects of the
economy?
Transition to a sustainable, green economy
based on more shared forms of
consumption
“a redefinition of work to include the full diversity of what
is necessary for life. It requires we find new ways of
valuing parenting, caring and community building as
much as paid work” (Boyle and Simms, 2009: 89).
What would public policy and economic policy look like if
they were orientated towards supporting ‘work’ and not
just ‘employment’?
Where does the largely gendered labour within the
‘reproductive sphere’ get recognised as part of the
‘economy’?
Productivity gains translated into reduced formal working
hours, not increased output or income
Letters page, Wisconsin
State Journal,
February 4th 2014
Criticising Republican
sponsored Assembly
Bill 611 for a 7 day
workweek
Pleasure can be attained not just by working for or
getting into debt and then purchasing commodities.
But also by finding time for those ‘simple things’ in life
that are free or at least inexpensive –time with family
and friends, time to swim in the ocean or read, time to
be creative, to make love, to sit and think..or just to sit.
In other words, alternative hedonism does not see
material simplicity of life as impoverishing, but rather
the opposite as enriching life.
But key to this is economic security for all
One way of creating
economic security
Reducing inequality
and economic growth
– reduce irrational
status competition
and consumerism
A direct investment in
social capital. BI
would encourage
activities in the social
economy.
Finance through a
carbon tax, or tax on
luxury goods?
Shift from 40 hour (+) normal working week
20 hours – new economics foundation
Popular with workers where pay and conditions are good
“To meet the challenge, we must change the way we value paid and unpaid
work. For example, if the average time devoted to unpaid housework and
childcare in Britain in 2005 were valued in terms of the minimum wage, it
would be worth the equivalent of 21 per cent of the UK’s gross domestic
product.”
Shorter working week – productivity gains realised not as output increases
(or income increases) but more free time
Need greater work-time flexibility, gradual reduction of working hours over
time, reward businesses for taking on more workers etc. Wage stability
necessary, childcare and less unequal gender distribution of childcare
In 2008, in context of the banking
collapse, Utah introduced a 4
day working week for public
sector workers – saved money,
increased staff well-being,
public adapted...and the sky
didn’t fall
Ended in autumn 2011
Developing new norm of parttime working – France,
Holland good examples of this
Affordable Care Act
“the law would reduce hours worked
and full-time employment, but not
because of a crippling impact on
private-sector job creation. With
the expansion of insurance
coverage, the budget office
predicted, more people will
choose not to work, and others
will choose to work fewer hours
than they might have otherwise to
obtain employer-provided
insurance.”, New York Times, 4th
Feb. ‘Health care law projected to
cut the labor force’
‘Will Obamacare kill 2.3 mllion
jobs?’, MSM online
Why wasn’t the headline ‘Law
projected to increase
quality of life for
Americans?’
“Reducing work hours over the rest of the century by an annual average of
0.5 percent. ... such a change in work hours would eliminate about onequarter to one-half of the global warming that is not already locked in (i.e.
warming that would be caused by 1990 levels of greenhouse gas
concentrations already in the atmosphere).
However...back to inequality
“reduced work hours as a policy alternative would be much more difficult in
an economy where inequality is high and/or growing. In the United States,
for example, just under two-thirds of all income gains from 1973–2007
went to the top 1 percent of households. In this type of economy, the
majority of workers would have to take an absolute reduction in their
living standards in order to work less.” (Rosnick, 2013: 3)
So, for work hours reduction from productivity growth to be more broadly
shared by majority of people requires reducing inequality.
A new development model, new way of thinking about the
economy and economics
Sharing and public services , infrastructural investment
rather than personal disposal income and consumption
Meaningful free time (not unchosen unemployment) within
context of economic security and sufficiency
Shift from exclusive focus on the formal/cash economy
(conventional public and private) to
social/informal/convivial/solidarity economy
Replace economic growth with ‘economic security’ (or
equivalent
Challenge and opportunity for the 21st century – how to
improve the ecological efficiency of human flourishing NOT
the ecological efficiency of orthodox economic growth
Post-growth economy – enjoyable,
pleasurable, life-enhancing...just with
less stuff, less inequality, more free time
and with basic economic security for
all.....
What’s not to like?!
The end of the world as we know it....is not
the end of the world
Hard sell!
Can be viewed as anti-aspirational, backward,
regressive, defeatist, unattractive etc.
How to promote a new paradigm in thinking
about the economy and society
Very difficult (but not impossible) in context of
austerity, and general desire to return to growth
What is the narrative/storyline of post-growth?
Need for civic conversations as well as academic,
policy-related scholarship
“Economic growth, for so long
the great engine of progress,
has, in the rich countries, largely
finished its work. Not only have
measures of well-being and
happiness ceased to rise with
economic growth but, as affluent
societies have grown richer,
there have been long-term rises
in rates of anxiety, depression,
and numerous other social
problems. The populations of
rich countries have got to the
end of a long historical
journey”.
(Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009
pp.5–6).
And while there are material
‘limits to growth’, there are
many other dimensions of
human flourishing that not
subject to limits
“True growth is the ability of a
society to transfer increasing
amounts of energy and
attention from the material
side of life to the non-material
side and thereby to advance
its culture, capacity for
compassion, sense of
community, and strength of
democracy.”
Arnold Toynbee
“The key mechanism, reflected in a rapid growth in the
size of the financial sector, is the recycling of part of
the additional income gained by high income
households back to the rest of the population by way of
loans, thereby allowing the latter to sustain
consumption levels, at least for a while” (p.30)
Thus, lowering socio-economic inequality is a prudent
‘risk management’ policy
“redistribution policies that give workers the means to
repay their obligations over time, and that therefore
reduce crisis-risk ex-ante, can be more desirable
from a macroeconomic stabilization point of view than
ex-post policies such as bailouts or debt
restructurings” (ibid.: 1)
The fact that questioning economic growth is
largely viewed as unthinkable, crazy etc. does
seem to point in the direction either…
That it’s some ‘force of nature’ like the laws of
gravity; therefore to question it is to be not just
‘wrong’ but profoundly (and dangerously) in
error as to the nature of the world
Or… it’s a profoundly ideological construct, such
that merely questioning it evokes such powerful
and defensive reactions
“Relations of domination are sustained by a
mobilisation of meaning which legitimates,
dissimulates or reifies an existing state of affairs and
meaning can be mobilised because it is an
essentially open, shifting, indeterminate
phenomenon” (Thompson, 1985: 132).
The reification, legitimation and dissimilation of
economic growth as ideology , from public debate,
education and formal training in neoclassical
economics (which dominates economics as a
discipline)
All with the purpose of obscuring and reproducing
relations of domination and control
How do we explain the continuing popular and political support for
orthodox economic growth in face of growing evidence that
a)its ecologically impossible;
b)manages but does not tackle inequality;
c)after a threshold does not add to average well-being?
Amongst the general population and not just economic or political
elites?
Economic growth (and orthodox economics) as ideological (as well
as a structural imperative of capitalism)
“the idea of ‘economic growth’ as a permanent feature of an
economy serves the interests of a minority not a majority” (Barry,
2012: 151)
“assertions about economics are used as a kind of
veto to rule out new ideas and proposals without
further discussion… veto economics rejects
ideas and proposals with just one word, offering
no further explanation. Favourite veto words
include ‘inefficient’, ‘irrational’ and ‘anticompetitive…as a last resort there is always the
plain but vacuous condemnation ‘uneconomic’”
(Aldred, 2008: 3-4).
The energy cost of the Western lifestyle. .
Cato M S Camb. J. Econ. 2012;cje.bes022
© The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political
Economy Society. All rights reserved.
The natural world – a source of beauty, wonder and inspiration
which ever renews itself and ever refreshes the heart and mind
Collective struggles – groups in the past and present who have
fought to achieve the equality and justice that is rightfully theirs
Visionaries – those who offer visions of an earth transformed and
who work to help bring this about in different ways
Relationships – being loved by partners, friends and family, which
nourishes and sustains us in our lives
Humour - seeing the funny side of things, being able to laugh in
adversity, having fun, celebrating together
Roots – links with the past, history, previous generations, ancestors,
the need to honour continuity
Hicks, D. (2006) ‘Stories of hope’, in: Lessons for the Future, Trafford