Example of a practical, hands-on exercise.
Democracy
The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group.
The document first presents a summary, including links to other working groups (in red & capital), and then the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one.
Summary:
We should de-commercialize / de-commodify politics (POLITICAL STRATEGIES).
We need to create new spaces and network where deliberation becomes possible and participation in politics and decision-making (e.g. citizen juries) is enhanced. Increase critical and deliberative capacity by creating holistic spaces of education. (EDUCATION)
Ideas and practices of direct / participatory democracy have to be applied to different scales and activities, including enterprises. (SOCIAL ECONOMY).
Question remain what kind of incentives can / should be set to motivate people to participate in political activity and decision-making. (POLITICAL STRATEGIES).
How can we ensure that existing participative decision-making arrangements are taken into account by existing institutional framework?
Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections
Participative/direct democracy
Research questions:
In a degrowth scenario, what ideas and practices of direct / participatory democracy are relevant for different scales of decision-making? Including with respect to different types of enterprises??
In a degrowth trajectory, what kind of incentives can / should be set to motivate people to participate in political activity and decision-making?
How can we ensure that existing participative decision-making arrangements are taken into account by existing institutional framework?
Proposals:
Create spaces and networks for enhanced participation in politics and decision-making (e.g. citizen juries)
We should de-commercialize / de-commodify politics
Increase critical and deliberative capacity by creating holistic spaces of education
Political strategies
Three comprehensive and complementary options:
Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives
Voice strategy: political movement and activist, a particular engagement
Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth
Further points:
Need to learn from other local initiatives, some cases were discussed, and the need to be based more in the grassroots and history of movements, have relevance recognize diversity of socio-cultural and political history contexts
Need to learn to local initiatives to reply in other local contexts or to extract models that can be expanded at the global level. Degrowth is not an entirely new idea, to take root in the 1970´s, is important to learn about mistakes, need to highlight alternatives of the past and look at how they have worked.
The discussion have emphasis in understand social, technological, political and economics contexts that made differences between now and 70´s. The movements change from our current situation and position at local and global level should not be only one, but would have to be constructed from an understanding of the different cultures and political history context in determining the emphasis on particular political strategies.
Property rights
Non-regulation of resources is not a solution. Private property needs to be restricted. This implies further discussion on options and alternatives to private property and its regulation.
In this regard, there is a need to
Distinguish between manufactured and natural resources.
Identify indicators to determine the maximum level of property
Degrowth is about halting the commodification of nature. The term private property comprises various aspects. In terms of degrowth, some of these ambits could still remain in the context of private property and these should be defined.
Degrowing in a just way demands democratic management of natural resources (including our own bodies) so the resources should not be commodified.
Global commons: It is necessary to design jurisdiction according to each global common
Local commons: It is essential to recognize and integrate communal property rights under national law.
Energy degrowth and the transition to renewable energies
Political proposals:
Foster policies, incorporating a multi-criteria evaluation to have an energy system with the highest EROI and the lowest environmental impact and lowest material throughput with lost transport distance…
The decision making process of planning for future policies should be in a democratic and decentralized manner but the decision could be to use and manage the energy either locally or centralized.
Research questions and proposals:
How can we ensure fair access to fossil fuel as their scarcity increases
Research on the trade off and complementary points of locally vs centrally derived energy systems.
Further invest money (public) on alternative energy sources (apart from nuclear) to research on their fundamental principles and also strategies for implementation in a transparent (to everyone) and for the common use and good of everyone (bien común).
Points of disagreement:
Cap on the energy demand; prioritization of sectors for reduction of energy consumption.
Reproduction and Work
The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group
The document first presents a summary, including links to other working groups (in red & capital), and then the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one
Summary:
Limits to paid working hours are needed, and their concrete level needs to be researched and established in a democratic debate. A progressive income tax is needed to reduce inequality (INCOME CEILING).
Incentives are needed to encourage companies to enable work sharing and part-time work (including provision of accessible childcare). Unpaid work needs to be shared (EDUCATION, SHARING/ COHOUSING).
Research is needed to define work and its aim in a degrowth society, as well as the contribution of unpaid, household/community work to current economy.
Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:
Work-sharing
Research questions:
Relationship between labor productivity and reduced resource use?
How can we achieve changing recognition of different kinds of paid work and unpaid work?
What is the definition of work in a degrowth society?
Reflections on barriers to lower working hours from other elements of degrowth
Debt Consumerism Low incomes
Access to the conditions for a good life
What is the aim of work in a degrowth society?
Relationship between a basic income and reduced working hours
Research that can recognize the value and contribution of the core economy (unpaid, household work) in our current economy
Political proposals:
Tax reform / Tax on resources, not labor / A more progressive income tax, with a larger tax-free threshold
Incentives to encourage companies to enable work sharing and part-time work
Other uses of taxes
Need to provide accessible childcare, including at conferences like these!
Legislation that supports co-housing
Need to reduce the power of financial capital
Focus on gender issues, including the equality of pay for genders
New (macro)economic models for degrowth
Need to pull together degrowther economist modellers to do specifically modelling about degrowth.
How to incorporate some critical issues:
Fating productivity analysis in macro models to investigate labour income and employment benefits of worktime reduction
Explicit representation of: constraints of resources, incorporate absolute scarcity in physical flows, and consider strong sustainability (critical resources)
Stability of the system when contracting (is it predictable?)
Research questions:
How to represent in the models the financial system and interest rates?
Which scale do we need degrowth models (regional and local)?
Changing the definition of work, how to incorporate unpaid work?
Complexity in modelling macro-micro relationship: How to deal from macro degrowth with the micro level?
Investigate how to take into account in the degrowth models the increase in the marginal utility redistribution
Take into account non-community goods
Degrowth models are important to see what happens to welfare state and social services
Not so much disagreement between participants
Organizing collective action for degrowth
The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group
The document first presents a summary, including links to other working groups (in red & capital), and then the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one
Summary
Three comprehensive and complementary options are proposed:
Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives. Establish autonomous communities and connect them. Promote this way of living and intervene in the system.
Voice strategy: political movement and activist, a particular engagement. Link environmental movements with social movements and focus on underlying root causes to form alliances.
Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth.
The movement and change from our current situation and position at local and global level should not be only one, and would be based on understanding different cultures and political history contexts and local successful niches of sustainability. (EDUCATION)
Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:
Political strategies
Three comprehensive and complementary options:
Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives
Voice strategy: political movement and activist, a particular engagement
Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth
Further points:
Need to learn from other local initiatives, some cases were discussed, and the need to be based more in the grassroots and history of movements, have relevance recognize diversity of socio-cultural and political history contexts
Need to learn to local initiatives to reply in other local contexts or to extract models that can be expanded at the global level. Degrowth is not an entirely new idea, to take root in the 1970´s, is important to learn about mistakes, need to highlight alternatives of the past and look at how they have worked.
The discussion have emphasis in understand social, technological, political and economics contexts that made differences between now and 70´s. The movements change from our current situation and position at local and global level should not be only one, but would have to be constructed from an understanding of the different cultures and political history context in determining the emphasis on particular political strategies.
Economic degrowth and the Steady state
StSt and Joint Research:
How much larger than optimal scale is the natural sustainable scale, and at which one politicking should be directed.
Study the optimal slope / feasible range of degrowth slopes, for North as opposed to South
Collaborate to advance international diplomacy for North/South convergence in global ecological footprint / carrying capacity
Look at How StSt deals with interventions/shocks/group struggles that cause shifts off a StSt path.
Unite macroeconomic modelling of StSt and ecological economics, endorsing key publications
Joint investigation of existing international cases of economies that are not growing, ie: Japan, Cuba
Joint StSt / D publications in journals, for policy briefs, conferences
Policy:
D and StSt could jointly campaign to Green parties, international forums/orgs, with shared slogans, such as “less is more”
Initiate a degrowth initiative at CASSE
Disagreement:
Whether any new terminology: Agrowth; Earth economics; Degrowth plus???; Decroissance…