Download Socially sustainable degrowth as a social

Degrowth as a social-ecological
transformation
Viviana Asara, Institute for Multi-Level Governance &
Development, Vienna University of Economics & Business
With contributions from colleagues of:
The “magic wand” of growth
• Policy objective for austerity & neo-keynesianism (D’Alisa et al, 2015)
• “Sustainable development” (WCED, 1987) as “growth that is socially and environmentally sustainable”
• “green economy”: “to enable economic growth and investment
while increasing environmental quality and social inclusiveness’’, “the trade-off between environmental sustainability and economic
progress’’ is a “myth” (see Gómez-Baggethun & Naredo, 2015)
• Europe 2020’s growth strategy, “smart, sustainable &
inclusive growth”
• OECD (2011) green growth strategy
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The three pillars of sustainable
development in a crisis
• Environmental: Planetary boundaries (Steffen et al, 2015)
• Social: Rising inequalities (Piketty, 2014)
• Economic: Global economic crisis (Secular stagnation? Crisis
of democratic capitalism? Streeck, 2011)
Sustainable development
Ecological Economics
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Degrowth (DG)
• DG as repoliticization
• Resurging the debates from 1970s: born from two critiques of
economics, the ecologist and the culturalist currents, coming from the
1970s
• DG as an
- “interpretative frame for a social movement” (Demaria
et al. 2013),
-“a political slogan”, or “a performative fiction indicating
the necessity of a rupture with the growth society” - “both a banner associated with social &environmental
movements and an emergent concept in academic and
intellectual circles, they are interdependent and affect each
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other” (Martinez-Alier et al. 2010)
• 6 sources: ecology, critique to development & anti-utilitarianism,
meaning of life &wellbeing, democracy, justice (Flipo, 2007; Muraca,
2013; Demaria et al, 2013)
• Definition in ecological economics: a democratically led
redistributive downscaling of production and consumption in industrialised
countries and of the role of markets as a central organizing principle of
human life, as a means to achieve environmental sustainability, social justice
and well-being (Demaria et al, 2013; Sekulova et al. 2013; Schneider et al,
2010)
Source: D’Alisa et al., 2015
Latest activities in degrowth
• At least 5 international conferences:
Paris (2008), Barcelona (2010), Venice (2012), Montreal
(2012), Leipzig (2014) and Budapest (2016)
www.degrowth.org
call for special sessions is open!
http://budapest.degrowth.org/
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Latest degrowth activities
• At least 8 peer review special issues (Asara et al,
2015; Kosoy, 2013; Sekulova et al, 2013; Whitehead, 2013; Cattaneo
et al, 2012; Kallis et al, 2012; Saed, 2012; Schneider et al., 2010)
• A book with more than 50 contributions (D’Alisa et al., 2014)
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Ecologically unsustainable growth
Ecological economics:
The economy is biophysical
and entropic
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Can impact (or ecological intensity) be decoupled
from economic output?
• Relative decoupling: reduction in env. impact per unit of
GDP (reduction of ecological intensity per unit of GDP)
• Absolute decoupling: GDP grows and the absolute
amount of materials used declines (decoupling of ecological
intensity per unit of total economic output, is not occurring)
 dematerialization
 Environmental Kuznet Curve
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Environmental Kuznet Curve?
1) Improvements in efficiency/productivity versus
Jevons’ paradox (efficiency ≠ scale)
2) Service economies versus delocalization
3) Cleaner technologies/decarbonization versus EROI
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Carbon emissions & GDP follow similar trends
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Courtesy Shao Quinglong
The global economy becomes more materially
efficient, but it uses more materials
Figure from Giljum et al, (2014), Global patterns of material flows and their socio-economic and
environmental implications: a MFA study on all countries world-wide from 1980 to 2009.
Resources
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When taking into account trade, emissions have
been rising
Figure from Peters, G. P., et al (2012). A synthesis of carbon in international trade.
Biogeosciences.
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80
70
Carbon dioxide from fossil fuel & cement (GtCO2yr-1)
4°C to 6°C
60
50
40
GCP new data
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“likely” chance of 2°C
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10
0
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
YEAR
2030
2040
2050
Courtesy Kevin Anderson
Radical emissions reductions
Research by Kevin Anderson & Alice Bows:
Assuming poorer (non-Annex 1) nations:
1. Collectively peak their emissions by 2025
2. Reduce thereafter at 6-8% p.a.
then, for 2°C, wealthy (Annex 1) nations require:
At least 10% reduction in emissions year on year, i.e.
40% reduction by ~2018 (c.f. 1990)
70%
~2024
90%
~2030
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No decoupling when taking into account the total
materials used for consumption
(including higher upstream materials extraction)
Figure from Wiedmann, T. O., et al (2015). The material footprint of nations. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences
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Growth is unjust: neo-extractivism, land grabs &
environmental conflicts
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Environmental Justice Atlas
‘imperial mode of living’ (Brand & Wissen) A rising global
social metabolism (Muradian et al, 2012), resource
extractivism (Gudynas)
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No correlation between growth & happiness
Easterlin Paradox
Income and happiness in the United States, 1945-2000. Source: Layard (2005)
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Growth & quality of life:
Threshold hypothesis
Finland, 1945-2010 (source: Finland Statistics)
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Culturalist critique
• ‘Uneconomic growth’ (Daly, 1999) & social limits to
growth (Hirsch, 1976; Kasser, 2002)
• Growth versus equality (Pickett & Wilkinson, 2009)
• Ideological role of growth (Gale, 2012)
• Post-development critique (Rist, 1996; Latouche, 2004)
• Unlimited growth of consumption and production
forces and the thrust toward the unlimited extension
of rational mastery : social imaginary signification
(Castoriadis, 1985)
• Critique of commodification, decolonization of the
imaginary, escaping the economy (Latouche)
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Degrowth as a social ecological transformation
• Degrowth is not tantamount to negative growth, it is a
concrete utopia
• Degrowth aims to open up the democratic discussion of
selective downscaling and of the institutions needed
(collective & individual self-limitation movement, see Castoriadis’ work)
• What forms of ‘deep’ democracy for a society that degrows?
(Johanisova & Wolf, 2012)
• Multi scalar transformation beyond capitalism
Transformations aim at altering the fundamental attribute of a system
• Two routes (Olin Wright):
1) interstitial transformation, e.g. grassroots economic practices,
commons, nowutopians (Kallis et al,2015)
2) symbiotic transformation, e.g. non reformist reforms
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1) Interstitial transformation: The Indignados
movement - during the square
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Indignados: alternatives in the neighborhoods
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2) Barcelona en Comú?
New movement-party aimed “at a real change in the processes of making politics (…) creating new modalities that would allow us to reappropriate
institutions in a way that they would be conducive to public good” (Colau)
June 2014: emerged ‘Guanyem Barcelona’
February: transformed into Barcelona en Comú
May 2015: city election
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2) Symbiotic transformation: 10 policy proposals
1. Citizen debt audit:
to eliminate part of the debt with a people’s debt audit, part of a new, really democratic
culture. The debt of those that have considerable income and assets should not be
pardoned. Once the debt is reduced, caps on carbon and resources
2. Work-sharing.
Reduce the working week to at least 32 hours and develop programmes that support firms
and organisations that want to facilitate job-sharing.
3. Basic and maximum income.
Establish a minimum income for all of Spain’s residents of between 400 and 600 Euros per
month. The max/ income capital—shouldn’t be more than 30 times the basic income
(12,000—18,000 Euros monthly).
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4. Green tax reform.
Establish a 90% tax rate on the highest incomes. High income and capital taxes will halt
positional consumption ( eliminate incentives for excessive earnings, which feed financial
speculation
5. Stop subsidizing and investing on activities that are highly polluting:
private transport infrastructure (new roads and airport expansion), military technology, fossil
fuels, mining projects. Use funds for public spaces: squares, traffic free pedestrian streets,
public transport. Support for small scale decentralised renewable energy with democratic
(local) control.
6. Support the alternative, solidarity society. Subsidies and tax exemptions for not-for-profit
co-operative economic sector, alternative food networks, cooperatives and networks for basic
health care, co-operatives shared housing, -credit, -teaching
7. Optimise the use of buildings.
Stop the construction of new houses, rehabilitate existing housing stock and facilitate the full
occupation of houses, through social expropriation of empty housing from private investors.
8. Reduce advertising
Restrictive criteria for advertising in public spaces (see the city of Grenoble).
9. Establish environmental limits.
Establish absolute and diminishing caps on the total of CO2 Spain can emit and the total
quantity of material resources that it uses, incl. these embedded in imported products. Cuts
in total built-up area and the number of licenses for tourist enterprises in saturated zones.
10. Abolish the use of GDP as indicator of economic progress.
Economic policy shouldn’t be expressed in terms of GDP objectives.
Thank you!
[email protected]
Thanks to my colleagues from: