WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? A response with embedded benefits Raymond De Young Re-Imaging Our Economic System 2013 MSU CCED Institute 26 March 2013 Raymond De Young Re-Imagining our Economic System 2013 MSU CCED Institute 26 March 2013 Source: Joel Pett, Cartoonist Group Image Number 41786

Embedded benefits SimplificationContext Pre-familiarization Overview  Premise: End of cheap energy Rising defensive expenditures  Result:Business-as-usual disrupted  Response:Localization » Psychological aspects: 1.Simplifies behavior change 2.Pre-familiarization will ease the change 3.Embedded benefits within the change

Adapted from Holmgren (2009) Future Scenarios Scenarios Embedded benefits SimplificationContext Pre-familiarization Scenario analysis

Do we pick which scenario to pursue? not  The scenario we end up on is not primarily based on our choices biophysical realities  Largely due to biophysical realities driven by geology, biology and climate  Our choices are in crafting responses

Sudden localism One response: Sudden localism Random House, 2009 Jeff RubinJeff Rubin Canadian economist, author and former chief economist at CIBC World Markets Other authors, darker visions: The Long Descent The Revenge of GaiaThe Revenge of Gaia The Long EmergencyThe Long Emergency The Collapse of Complex SocietiesThe Collapse of Complex Societies

Another response: Localization  A process of  Transitioning to place-based communities  Adapting goals, expectations and daily patterns to biophysical limits  Shifting our attention from  Centrifugal forces of industrialization toward (cheap and plentiful raw materials and energy, displaced wastes, consumerism, concentrated governance)  Centripetal forces of localization (sustainable use of local energy and materials, local production and provisioning, discursive governance )

A process of rebuilding  With more focus on  Personal proficiency  Community self-reliance  Place-based social interactions  Locally provisioned goods & services

Embedded benefits SimplificationContext Pre-familiarization Behavior change is simplified  No choice  No choice but to live simpler lives  Less need to persuade or motivate people will change  People will change behavior Without awaiting our interventions Without seeking permission

Embedded benefits SimplificationContext Pre-familiarization Gaining experience beforehand not status quo  People not limited by status quo pre-familiarize  But they need to pre-familiarize

Embedded benefits SimplificationContext Pre-familiarization Benefits from process of localization  Intrinsic satisfactions  Intrinsic satisfactions derived from CompetenceCompetence – learning skills FrugalityFrugality – being resourceful ParticipationParticipation – helping others  Behavioral aesthetics

Raymond De Young Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology and Planning School of Natural Resources and Environment www-personal.umich.edu/~rdeyoung Drawing source: Agricultural urbanism by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, LLC at De Young & Princen (2012) The Localization Reader: Adapting to the Coming Downshift. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press