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Getting Sustainability

Getting Sustainability. Professor Wayne Hayes December 1, 2011 V. 0.2 | Build #2. My original version , 2007, must be superceded . Why? My thinking on world sustainability was new. I had not done Ecology, Economics, and Ethics. The world has changed so much since then.

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Getting Sustainability

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  1. Getting Sustainability Professor Wayne Hayes December 1, 2011 V. 0.2 | Build #2

  2. My original version, 2007, must be superceded. Why? • My thinking on world sustainability was new. • I had not done Ecology, Economics, and Ethics. • The world has changed so much since then.

  3. The goal of Getting Sustainability is to harmonize ecology, economy, and society. This is the original mission of inverting the economy, discovering the alchemy of Ecology, Economics, and Ethics.

  4. My Statement of Concern indicated both urgency and pessimism. My outlook has not changed much, however. This is reflected in the next slide:

  5. Blank by design.

  6. Resolution: Situate the economy within society and ecology.

  7. The active zone is the social. • Expand civil society. • Enhance social learning.

  8. Neoclassical economics is sub-social. Pareto optimality states that in equilibrium within perfectly competitive markets, no individual can be better off without harming another. This is the desirable end state of the competitive market. However, the assumption is that the well-being of any individual is independent of the well being of all others. This admits no social interaction but only actions within the framework of the market.

  9. Which gave rise to a rebellion among economics students. The study of Post-Autistic Economics is a response to neoclassical reductionism.

  10. Expanded civil society shrinks the economy and restores nature. • The realm of nature flourishes as society restores and preserves natural systems and endowments. • The social world expands through the invigoration of civil society. Democratization of the public sphere thrives. • The relative role of the economy contracts as needs are met outside the market. The commons multiply and diversify.

  11. Dematerialization and sufficiency emerge. • Dematerialization gives way to the social and the spiritual. • Sufficiency restrains consumption and waste. • Quality of life supersedes the quantity of stuff. • Leisure expands. • The commons enlarges and diversifies.

  12. Sachs provides an exampleof embedding economics. Fairness in a Fragile World by Wolfgang Sachs exemplifies several principles: • How to invert and to embed the economy within nature and culture. • How sustainable development can occur within developing nations. • How to equitably harmonize technology, ecology, and society.

  13. We should not neglect our role as consumers andas citizens. Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff stresses our latent control as consumers and as citizens. Her sound advice should be examined closely. Markets will respond to consumers. So responsibility as consumers is basic. More will be needed, however.

  14. James O’Connor speculates that a sustainable capitalism is possible, if: • Civil society expands as an alliance of social movements: Polanyi’s Double Movement. • Economic and ecological alternatives emerge in the public sphere that expand the commons. • Democracy expands within labor and the state. Let’s explore these conditions.

  15. 1. Civil society expands as an alliance of social movements. This strategic alliance is synonymous with what Karl Polanyi calls a Double Movement. Such a movement: • Responds to the commodification of humanity and nature. • Promotes human potential and ecological vitality, expanding beyond greens to include feminists, labor, human rights, and others.

  16. 2. The public sphere and the commons expand. Through a vibrant and democratic public sphere economic and ecological alternatives protect and expand the commons: community supported agriculture, distributed energy, green cities, etc.

  17. 3. Democratize the workplace and the process of governance. O’Connor: progressive movements enliven the “shell of liberal democracy.”

  18. My vision of a sustainable world. This rosy scenario casts world sustainability as a three act play: • The Anthropocene • The Technosphere • The Noosphere.

  19. Frank Roteringsuggests Redirecting our Civilization. View his two short videos: • From the Biological to the Conscious Era • From Capitalism to a New Economy

  20. Embedding economics is thus critical. The substantive school of Karl Polanyi has been embraced by sustainability thinkers. The Double Movement aimed at social and ecological restoration provides its dynamism.

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