Democracy, Justice & Sustainability

Is radical inequality consistent with sustainability? What's the role of human development in sustainability? What opportunities does green development hold for empowerment? What opportunities does empowerment hold for green development?

Principles of a Green Economy 1.The Primacy of Human Need, Service, Use-value, Intrinsic Value & Quality 2.Following Natural Flows 3.Waste Equals Food 4.Elegance and Multifunctionality 5.Appropriate Scale / Linked Scale 6.Diversity 7.Self-Reliance, Self-Organization, Self-Design 8.Participation & Direct Democracy 9.Human Creativity and Development 10.The Strategic role of the Built-environment, the Landscape & Spatial Design

Evolution & Democracy individual consciousness & civilization (class society) –individuation –king –nobility –Axial revolutions: individuation & democracy industrial capitalism: undermining landed class with economic growth –formal political democracy for working class Fordist state / socialism: transitional, concerns with welfare full economic democracy: individuation, creativity & commons from representative to direct democracy

Social Movements & Historical Potentials classical capitalist development –labour, socialist, populist concern with distribution of wealth post-WWII : new social movements concerns with quality, and the nature of wealth, not just its fair distribution. –peace, human rights, ecology, self- determination, human potential, etc. –elimination of all forms of domination: human over nature, nation over nation, class over class, men over women, etc. –growing emphasis on positive alternatives in all the new movements

A Green Economy 1.The Service Economy Hot Showers and Cold Beer Nutrition, Illumination, Entertainment, Access, Shelter, Community, etc. People production 2. The Lake Economy Flowing with nature, Every output an input, Closed-loop organization, Let nature do the work. Biomimicry: integrate with and imitate natural systems.

Human Development in the Green Economy Production: human creativity the key Consumption: end-use Direct targeting of human need = massive resource savings Regulation: participation at all levels.

Labour & Resource Relationship Industrial economy: resource-intensive. labour productivity: Substitutes resources for labour. Green Economy: people-intensive / resource-saving. Substitutes human creativity for resources

Industrialism: The Divided Economy Invisible Visible Use-value Exchange-value Consumption Production People Things Unpaid Paid Women Men Informal Formal Private Public

Scarcity, Class Power & Waste War production, suburbanization and effective demand. Waste of resources Waste of human potential

The Post WW II Waste Economy Permanent War Economy The Suburb Economy: Oil / Autos / Subdivisions Note gender and racial subtext of sprawl

Fordism & the Reinforcement of Industrial Wealth Matter Waste Fordism Suburbanization/ Consumer Economy War Industry Money Debt Keynesianism Paper Economy Planned Inflation New forms of credit- money

Post-1980 Casino Capitalism: Hijacking the Information Revolution Main strategy for reproducing scarcity shifts from waste to debt New info technologies supply new ways of creating money: Fantasy Finance Decline in real wages; increasing polarization of the rich and the rest. Benefits of productivity gains monopolized by the 1%. Great Risk Shift from organizations to individuals. Rise of McJobs, outsourcing. Shift in power from manufacturing to financial capital

Green Work all work that contributes to service- oriented closed-loop economy. –formal or informal sectors –issue: how do we remunerate informal sector work? green-collar jobs: blue-collar work with an environmental content. accessible, yet knowledge-based and a pathway to advancement, technically & financially.

Evolving Work early worker power: based on craft skills or key sectors like railroads in 19 th century. early/mid 20 th century: rise of industrial unionism: filling organizational space in new mass production. Power based in solidarity across whole industries. rise of intellectual and white-collar work: public education and rise of bureaucracy (hierarchies of white-collar work). –increasing dominance of big organizations: the corporation as industrial government (Bazelon) Fordism & women as domestic consumption managers. chronic problem of job-creation: technological unemployment, surplus populations,

Evolving Work-2 50s Industrial unionism: the peak of working class power within production –60s: emergence of new social movements for quality of life outside the factory gates: peace, feminism, ecology, human & civil rights, counterculture, human potential, etc. 1973: beginning of long decline in real wages for North American working class : economic growth now dependent on polarization of income and wealth. 1980s: empty financialization begins displacing mass material production and consumption as key capitalist driver of development.

Evolving Work-3 work polarization: growing sector of financial producer services, along with an even greater explosion of McJobs. intensifying evaporation of middle class in North America. economic bubbles accessible mainly to the rich or upper middle-class: tech boom of the 90s. Housing bubble of 2000s actively exploited the poor & disempowered. 70s through 90s: gradual evolution of green development movementfrom energy efficiency and appropriate technology movement of the 70s to breakthroughs in green building and local-sustainable food systems recently. 2000s: increasing connection of marginalized communities with green economic regeneration; growing interest of hard- pressed organized labour in people-intensive green development; rise of an anti-corporate community business movement.

Alternative Paradigms of Security based on a less competitive/individualistic view of human nature essential to fully unleashing the creative potential of mass collaboration. understand the negative relationship between fear and regeneration. major savings in welfare costs Main options: Basic Incomes, Community Currencies