1. Scenarios of a Quality of Life Society Summer Symposium The Hardanger Academy for Peace, Development and Environment
Professor Ove Jakobsen
Centre for Ecological Economics and Ethics/
Business school/Nord university

2. THE OVERARCHING PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
To improve the understanding of how the Norwegian post-2050 society might look like
Identify global framework conditions that can be expected to become most influential, both as restrictions and enablers, in the development of the future society
Identify the relationship between strategic national political choices today and the different societal states of the future

3. Key dimensions of the scenarios
Resource base
Social factors
Individual factors
Technology
Economic system
It is wrong to treat nature and human beings as objects whose price will be determined entirely by the market (Polanyi)

4. What is rational depends on the context
Rationality is relational; rational is rational only in order to reach human ultimate ends
Ex. Is it most rational to drink;
Water
Wine
Poison
It depends on your intention;
Are you thirsty
Do you want to get drunk
Do you want to die
One´s choices will depend very much upon what kind of philosophy one espouses (Næss)

5. Two different contexts – Green or ecological
Greening the society – Standard of living
Changes within the existing system (ideology - negative peace – shallow ecology)
Saving the system
The ecological society – Quality of life
Fundamental system changes (utopia – positive peace – deep ecology)
Changing the system
Neither freedom nor peace could be institutionalized under market economy, since its purpose was to create profits and welfare, not peace and freedom (Polanyi)

6. “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see”

7. Thomas More (1477 - 1535) wrote the first formal utopia
Thomas More ( ) wrote the first formal utopia. He imagined a complex, self-contained world set on an island, in which communities shared a common culture and way of life.
1516

8. life in utopia
Local production of food, wine, herbs, flowers
6 hours work
As much time as possible to improve the mind, precondition for the good life
Every street has a hall for meetings and conversations
Always fruit after meat
Virtue is living in accordance with nature
There are several sorts of religion in every town
The (…) utopias draw pictures of societies and ways of life expressing how people (…) would like to see the future (Næss)

9. IDEOLOGY
Describes the present from the inside:
Is important to create identity - individually and collectively
Is rooted in the ideas of dominant social groups
Refers to accepted common norms and values
Justifies authorities
Without utopia ideology becomes static, without ideology utopia becomes a mirage (Ricoeur)

10. UTOPIA
Understands the present from outside:
Is somewhere else - is geared towards the future
Should not be realized, we can only approach them, to work in that direction
Contributes to change, society is unfinished, dynamic, it is always underway
Challenges authorities
Utopia is not about the impossible, what is really impossible is to carry on as we are (Levitas 2013)

11. Shallow and Deep ecology
Shallow Ecology
Solutions for particular environmental problems
Deep Ecology
Eco-centric - All life has inherent value – and equal value
Diversity of life are inherently good
We need to change our economic, technical and industrial systems, philosophical world view, and materialistic consumerist lifestyle
We can have a better life if we choose a life that is closer to nature and less materialistic
There will be a profound awareness of the difference between bigness and greatness
The aim is a substantial reorientation of our whole civilization (Næss)

12. Negative and Positive Peace
Negative peace
Reducing the negative symptoms such as direct and indirect violence, aggression.
Positive peace
Presence of harmony, well-being and social systems that serves values such as equity and fairness
A shift from negative to positive peace requires changes on systems level
The more pronounced I-culture at individual and collective level, the less likely positive peace, the more likely direct and structural violence (Galtung)

13. GREEN ECONOMY
Green economy is focused on reducing the negative symptoms within the existing neo-classical economic system characterized by;
Rationalism, industrialization, globalization, individualism and technological mastery of nature
Green economy is an attempt to rescue the existing system by curbing the negative symptoms of the established ideology
We have the economy and the economist we deserve given our social and global structures, our culture and history (Galtung)

14. ECONOMIC INTERNALIZATION
Economy
Ecology
One goal is to find ways to get protection of nature into the framework of quantitative economic analysis (Næss)

15. ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS
Instead of seeing the universe as a machine composed of elementary building blocks, the material world is more like an organism;
A network of inseparable patterns of relationships,
The planet as a whole is a living self-regulating system
Evolution is no longer seen as a comparative struggle for existence, but rather a cooperative dance in which creativity and the constant emergence of novelty are the driving forces
Diversity of organisms is good, ecological complexity is good, evolution is good, biotic diversity has intrinsic value (Næss)

16. ECOLOGICAL INTERNALIZATION
Ecology
Economy
The term embeddedness expresses the idea that the economy is not autonomous, as it must be in economic theory, but subordinated to nature, politics, religion and social relations (Polanyi)

17. Change on different levels
Worldview
Individual consciousness
Economic system
Business practice
The intention of a utopia is to change – to shatter – the present order (Ricoeur)

18. WORLDVIEW
From a mechanical to an organic worldview
The world as alive, self-developing, an integrated whole, constantly changing
Human beings are integrated parts of the ecosystems
To understand the world we are living in we need a holistic research model
The story of ecological economics enlighten the path that leads to harmony between economic activities and the dynamic patterns and rhythms in nature

19. ECONOMIC SYSTEM
From neo-classical economics to ecological economics
The market is a cooperative network of actors
The economy is dynamic and assumes continued development without increased consumption of natural resources
The purpose of economy is enjoyment of life
The direction is revolutionary, the steps are reformatory (Næss)

20. BUSINESS PRACTICE
From a competitive business model to a partnership model
Work has intrinsic value, personal development, reducing egocentrism
Business trough self-organizing local markets
Network of small businesses
The true criticism of market society is not that it is based on economics, (…) but that its economy was based on self- interest (Polanyi)

21. INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS
From the economic man to the ecological man
Instead of dominating nature we learn from nature
Change the mindset from I to we
We are aware of our mutual responsibility
The less mental change (…) the more regulations (Næss)

22. THE DEVELOPMENT OF WORLD MAPS
1700 century
2100 century

23. Visions of the future quality of life community
Some examples;
Material consumption is minimized, maximize quality of life; "To be – rather than to have"
Organization that promotes cooperation for the common good; "Self organized locally based, dynamic networks"
Food System that safeguards soil, plants, animals and humans; "Local food for local markets"
Decentralized circuit solutions for all materials; "Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle"
Small-scale technology; "Technology should be in the service of people - not people in the service of technology '
Communities characterized by diversity; "Cultural diversity and biodiversity ensure resilience"
The problem is not poverty – it is social injustice, human exploitation, conspicuous consumption and the loot of the natural world (Kumar)

24. PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
The present exists where experiences from the past meets visions of the future
Meaning occurs when the present is stretched out in time and space
The future depends on our choices today
(A.N. Whitehead)
What is made by humans- can be changes by humans (Kumar)