Re-imagining and Re-organizing Economic Action for Degrowth

Session # 1166 | Sponsors: CMS, ONE, SIM
Re-imagining and Re-organizing
Economic Action for Degrowth
Welcome to our 6th Annual Degrowth Session @ AOM

Robert Perey
UTS Sydney
Paul Adler
USC Marshall
John Jermier
U South Florida
Hugh Willmott
City U London
André Reichel
Karlshochschule
Mark Starik
American U

Robert Perey
UTS Sydney

THE DEGROWTH PROJECT -
TRANSFORMING MORAL ORDER
AOM 2016

Re-organisation of work, well-being and
prosperity
5

Lethargy of Privilege
8
Story of Stuff – social pursuit of consumption
gives meaning to the economic system –
ecological interaction is externalised
Capitalism’s logic of surplus value is measured in
products and consumption – decoupling isn't
working
Culture of Narcissism is now widespread and this
feeds consumption and growth – crisis of identity

Social Impact
10
“Our brains and backs are tense and tired, our minds
shattered and nerves shot by increasing demands by
managers to do the impossible: increase our productivity,
when what is produced is less necessary and of worse
quality than before.”
(JD Taylor 2014. “Spent? Capitalism’s growing problem
with anxiety’. Roar Magazine)
In the DSM 5th ed we now have ”Generalised Anxiety
Disorder”

We’re here, because we’re here, because
we’re here, because we’re here…
11
• Growing unemployment and under employment.
• Ecological systems that have collapsed or are on the
verge of collapse.
• Socio-political systems that are incapable of responding
appropriately to these crises.
As in the trenches of Flanders there is wide-spread
recognition of being in the midst of crises and being
powerless to escape.

Seduction of Baubles
12
We have created a society that has improved the well-being of many and
is capable of extending this to all.
At the same time we have created a society that cannot support the well-
being of many let alone the well-being of all.
The trinkets of well-being are measured by growth of consumption and
ignores the growth of waste – social and environmental.
A measure of this tension is the increase in anxiety in developed
economies.
Attempts to resolve this anxiety creates further anxiety – until we abandon
our baubles we will remain caught in this self reinforcing loop.

Meaningful contribution to society needs
to change
13
Work has and will always be important but this is changing
and the alternatives emerging: provision of services, are
not valued contributions in society.
The services nature provides to support our societies are
currently externalised – emotionally we are incapable of
valuing these contributions.
Acquisition of possessions reach a peak of diminishing
return.
Need to redefine prosperity in terms that do not rely on
assumptions about consumption growth

Degrowth…
14
Downscaling of production and consumption to operate within the
ecological limits of the Earth. Degrowth is a call for a radical break from
traditional growth-based models.
• Increases human well-being
• Enhances ecological conditions and equity
• Open, localised economies
• New forms of democratic institutions
Degrowth is not an attempt to stimulate negative growth or static growth
but a move to replace growth both conceptually and materially with
different language and assumptions about what constitutes a good life,
business practices and societal measures of well-being and success.

…Degrowth
15
- Quality of life measured in human relationships immersed in a culture of
conviviality not life measured in the quantity of consumer capital.
- Prioritising the local in everything. This includes decision-making, the
provision of energy, food and the disposal/reuse/recycling of waste. The
aim is a high level of community self-sufficiency.
- Reducing working hours and implementing a social wage to guarantee
income to everyone. Associated with a guaranteed income is an
expansion of community defined volunteer work.
- Allocating resources democratically within and across communities.
- Revitalising political life by extending the practices of direct democracy
at the community level and extending this into the organisation.

Socio-political imperative
16
The conclusion of many, including the advocates of de-growth
(for example Swift 2014), is that capitalism is broken and at best
in need of repair, but more than likely will need to be replaced.
“..three key macro-economic interventions needed to achieve
ecological and economic stability in the new economy are quite
specific:
• Structural transition to service based activities
• Investment in ecological assets
• Working time policy as a stabilising mechanism”
The new economy will be less capitalistic because of the greater
role of government – because of the need to revitalise the notion
of public goods
Tim Jackson (2015) Prosperity Beyond Growth

Flourishing and the Academy
17
Flourishing – what it means to prosper needs “… a range of bounded
capabilities to live well – within certain clearly defined limits.
What is our role in shaping public debate and policy creation in
these key areas?
• Establishing the limits
• Fixing the economic model
• Changing the social logic

Paul Adler
USC Marshall
John Jermier
U South Florida

Degrowth means replacing markets with
democratic-socialist* planning
Paul S. Adler,
University of Southern California
&
John Jermier
University of South Florida
Contribution to AOM Symposium on “Re-Imagining and Re-
Organizing Economic Action for Degrowth”
* correcting a typo
19

Key points
• Degrowth is urgent as a response to the confluence of many crisis
tendencies
• Let’s focus on degrowth as a solution to the global climate change
(GCC) crisis: what would degrowth need to look like?
• GCC has gone far further than we’d like to think
– Environmentalists have been under-stating things to avoid creating
paralyzing anxiety
– But let’s not fool ourselves: let’s talk honestly about the tasks and
options ahead
• For GCC mitigation: Green capitalism is far too slow and
incremental.
• For GCC adaptation: Green capitalism will not be an option
• Conclusion: Democratic-socialist planning is the only viable model
for GCC mitigation or adaptation
• We have a few ideas about how that might work, but a lot will need
to be developed through experimentation.
20

To avoid the 2o Celsius limit, cuts to GHGs
emissions need to be far more drastic than
commonly stated
Source:
Kevin Anderson

In the rich countries, we should have
already reduced GHG emission to zero
Source:
Kevin Anderson

Two scenarios for GCC
• Either we can get ahead of climate change (aka
mitigation):
– It may already be too late
– But if it’s not too late, the target for rich countries
would need to be to reduce GHGs by 90% in 5 years
max
• Or we don’t manage to mitigate sufficiently, and
we have to deal with chaos (aka adaptation):
– Hundreds of millions fleeing coastal zones
– Epidemics
– Food failures, water shortages
23

Mitigation:
Three possible paths forward
• Ethical capitalism
– Can the conscience of consumers, investors, executives lead companies to
prioritize people and planet over profits?
– Sure, let’s encourage conscience
– But no, the market for virtue is far too weak and too slow (Vogel)
• Regulated capitalism
– Can we overcome the political weight of business to enact regulation that is
rigorous enough?
– Sure, we can do better than now
– But no, so long as the primary wealth-generating mechanism is capitalist,
government’s power is severely limited – esp in a globalized economic and
financial system (Polanyi)
– So progress via this path will be too limited and too slow
• Democratic socialist planning
– For rapid and dramatic transformation and degrowth in rich countries
– For rapid transition in developing countries
– For international trade to facilitate global transition
24

Adaptation:
Two paths backward, one path forward
• Devolution
– At best: dispersed solidaristic survivalist communities
– At worst: war-lordism
• Despotism
– War-capitalism, national-socialism
• Democratic-socialism
– With all its uncertainties
• Conclusion: We have little choice but to find a
way to make the democratic-socialist option work
25

Some basic parameters of democratic-
socialist planning – and some handholds
• Socialize ownership of (major) firms and banks
– investors compensated with government bonds
– Greatly facilitated by increasing concentration of industry structures
• Implement a democratic economic planning system
– Create democratic economic planning boards at enterprise, local, national,
and international levels
– Adapt planning techniques from firms like Walmart; scale up techniques like
city-level participatory budgeting
• Assure employees a majority on enterprise boards
– Other stakeholders (local community, etc.) hold board positions too
– Experience to leverage: Mondragon
• Socialize investment
– Don’t break up the too-big-to-fail banks—socialize them!
– Create national and state banks alongside democratically governed
cooperative credit unions, insurance cooperatives
– Direct credit to high-performing firms and priority projects defined by
planning boards and socialist triple-bottom-line
– Here too can adapt investment planning techniques of TBL companies
26

Democratic-socialist planning can be
more centralized or more decentralized
-- but can and must be democratic
David Laibman, “Multilevel Democratic Iterative Coordination”
Centralized
Decentralized
New Socialism –
Cockshott and
Contrell
Early Soviet
(pre 1968)
Political command
– Keeran and Kenny
Market socialism –
Schweickhart
MDIC – Laibman
and late Soviet
Negotiated
coordination –
Devine
Market socialism –
Roemer
Participatory
economy – Albert
and Hahnel
Anarchist
communes
Quantified Qualitative
27

28
David Laibman,
“Multilevel Democratic
Iterative Coordination”
(2015)

Hasn’t this been tried before…with disastrous results?
Ulm 1592, B. Brecht
Said the Tailor to the Bishop:
Believe me, I can fly.
Watch me while I try.
And he stood with things
That looked like wings
On the great church roof
That is quite absurd
A wicked, foolish lie,
For man will never fly,
A man is not a bird,
Said the Bishop to the Tailor.
Said the People to the Bishop:
The Tailor is quite dead,
He was a stupid head.
His wings are rumpled
And he lies all crumpled
On the hard church square.
The bells ring out in praise
That man is not a bird
It was a wicked, foolish lie,
Mankind will never fly,
Said the Bishop to the People.

Hugh Willmott
City U London

The ‘Spiritual’ Dimension of De-growth
Hugh Willmott
Cass Business School
and
Cardiff Business School

De-growth and Materialism
• Growth as a product of the practical
philosophy of materialism
– informed by the assumption that human
fulfillment, flourishing, etc. is realized by
generating and acquiring having more “stuff”
– capitalism is the exemplar of this materialism: the
systematic accumulation of personal wealth
• the device of the (limited liability) corporation as the
principle means of accelerating growth

Beyond Rational Calculation
• Mounting evidence of unsustainablility
– data on greenhouse gas emissions
– Anticipation of consequences – migration, food
failure, water shortage – global dislocation
• Nonetheless, despite the evidence, limited efforts
to reduce ‘growth’ as means of reducing
emissions and so ensuring sustainability
• What are the conditions of possibility of
increasing those efforts?

Anthropocentricism as Alienation
• Disconnectedness reflects anthropocentric
orientation
– manifest in anxiety and depression (meaninglessness;
deadness; narcissism); escape from ‘now’
• Conception of human beings as masters, rather than
stewards, of Nature. Exploiters, not guardians
• Shift to ecocentric orientation; radical relationality
– Pleasure / meaning from “simple” activities and carbon neutral
technologies
– Nature as co-enactor , not resource
– Logic of appreciation and conviviality rather than exploitation and
manipulation

Re-orientation of Economic Activity:
Refashioning Moral Order
• Promote a content and form of economic activity that
fosters appreciation and recognition
– facilitate increased participation / “industrial democracy”
• Requires development of (spiritual) capacities that make de-
growth relevant, appealing and practical; and impedes corruption
of collective ethos
• Invites different conception(s) of “the corporation” – reinvention
of cooperatives, development of social enterprises, etc. Collective
flourishing, not personal accumulation
– Increased spiritual maturity as a condition( and
consequence) of the practical realization of de-growth
• Re-orientation of business education towards ecocentrism
• Radical reformulation of the practice of “mindfulness”
– Meditation as praxis articulated as different “choices” – “right livelihood”

Conclusion :
The Nurturing of Quality not the Maxing-Out of Quantity
‘By choosing to do without the superfluous material wealth
we will be rewarded with more time, more freedom, more
community, more health, more connection with nature, more
meaning, and more justice.
In short, degrowth is predicated on a new form of flourishing,
where paradoxically we decrease our material standards of
living but actually increase our quality of life…We should
explore alternatives not because we are ecologically
compelled to live differently – although we are – but because
we are human and deserve the opportunity to flourish in
dignity, within sustainable bounds.’
Samuel Alexander (2015) ‘What is Degrowth? Envisioning a Prosperous
Descenthttp://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-11-02/what-is-degrowth-
envisioning-a-prosperous-decenst (emphasis added)

Mark Starik
American U

NEW MODELS OF
TRANSFORMATIVE
ACTION:THE CASE OF
THE ILFI
Mark Starik,American University,Washington, D.C.
Re-Imagining and Re-Organizing EconomicAction for
Degrowth
Academy of Management Symposium,August 8, 2016

What NeedsTo “DeGrow” or “Re-
Balance”? • Environmentally: Human consumption
impacts of energy, water, and eco-system
habitat appear to need to be slowed,
neutralized, and even reversed as soon as
possible (211,000 more of us every day to
nearly a 7.5 billion total today/10 billion
soon).
• Soci0-economically: Reductions in human
wealth and income inequality, debilitating
poverty and disease, and human conflict
appear to need to be matched by increases
in social justice, human satisfaction, and
psycho-emotional benefits (Only 1 in 3
Americans are “very happy”; 1 billion in
world live on less than $1/day, are
illiterate, and do not have access to clean
drinking water.)

Several InterestingApparentlyTransformative
Movements• Permaculture (28 “Diplomats” at the
Permaculture Inst.)
• TransitionTowns (At least 480 worldwide)
• CommunityTime Banks (At least 300 just in U.S.)
• Community Solar Gardens (8-12 U.S. States)
• The “Slow” Movement (83K members in 30
nations)
• Future Earth (5 Global Hubs, 5 Regional Centres)
• 350.org (At least 269 GroupsWorldwide)
• Gross National Happiness (At leat 5 GDP
Alternatives)
• U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (17 goals,
169 targets, and 304 Indicators)
• Treehugger.com (Tiny Houses/LOHAS 40 million)
• Circular Economy/Blue Economy/Waste Is Food

International Living Futures Institute
http://www.living-futures.org
• Standalone non-profit organization
based in Portland, OR, USA (with
offices in Seattle &Vancouver, BC)
• Several dozen staff members in a
handful of departments and programs
• Network of members and volunteers
• Mission: “Work toward a future that is
socially just, culturally rich, and
ecologically restorative.”
• Reducing (negative) footprints and
increasing (positive) handprints in
both environmental and socio-
economic sustainability

First (ofThree) Major Advocacy and
Certification Programs of the ILFI – the
Living Building Challenge
• Founded in 2006 and now on version 3.1 with
dozens of “Ambassadors” and more than 100
registered projects.
• Certification program for builders, architects,
and other professionals and building and
property owners
• Interested in the best, most resource-efficient
approach to residential, commercial,
institutional and industrial buildings to attain
“net positive” levels of energy/water
• Rigorous building performance standard
including Place, Water, Energy, Health &
Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty
• Must meet all performance standards after 12
months of operation to advance goals of
resilience, equity, community, and a “living
future”.

Second Major Advocacy and Certification
Programs of the ILFI – the Living
Community Challenge
• Launched in 2014 to bring LBC to the community
scale to promote net positive energy/water,
biophilia, and community health values.
• Same 7 major areas as the LBC above, but with an
orientation to transition suburban areas to new
urban areas with greater density or to be
dismantled and repurposed as new rural zones for
food production, habitat, and ecosystem
services.
• Generating their own energy, processing their
own waste, operating on a human/local scale
• Currently, 3 Registered Communities (including
Normal, IL, shown on this slide), plus 6
additional Pilot Projects

Third Major Advocacy and Certification
Program of ILFI – the Living Product
Challenge 1.0 (2015)
• Living Products are informed by biomimicry and
biophilia; manufactured by processes powered only
by renewable energy and within the water balance
of the places they are made.
• Living Products improve our quality of life and
bring joy through their beauty and functionality.
Imagine a Living Product whose very existence
builds soil; creates habitat; nourishes the human
spirit; and provides inspiration for personal,
political and economic change
• Pending example: Sirewall, which is a rammed-
earth building construction process using sandstone
to maximize the super-insulation of building walls
for many types of buildings/climates

“DeGrowth”/Rebalance Lessons
of the ILFI• Society, businesses, communities, and individuals
can realize a wide range of vital, human values and
goals both irrespective of and as multi-level
antidotes to traditional economic growth with
efforts such as those of the ILFI (and others)
• Cognizance of both human and environmental
requirements (and their interaction), developing
strategies, implementing action plans, and
certifying progress toward meeting those
requirements flow throughout these and other ILFI
programs
• Such programs need more academic and
practitioner attention, and, where warranted,
support in the form of funding, marketing,
research, and voluntary action by as many of us as
possible as soon as possible

André Reichel
Karlshochschule

CONVIVIALITY
…autonomous and creative intercourse
among persons,
and the intercourse of persons with their environment;
and this in contrast with the conditioned response of persons to
the demands made upon them by others, and by a man-made
environment.
I consider conviviality to be individual freedom realized in
personal interdependence and, as such, an intrinsic ethical value.
(Tools for Conviviality, p. 11)

CONVIVIALITY
The criterion for the stopping point in the accumulation of relationships—and
this is what will prevent the advent of a new, relational form of “capitalism”—
will be similar to the one which, in the logic of Gandhi, puts a halt to the
accumulation of goods and services:
When the extension of relationships becomes a factor of heteronomy in a
person’s life, i.e., when he or she starts to become an instrument “in the
service” of his or her relationships or that others become a substitute for his or
her own inner strength, then abundance mutates into scarcity for that
person—a scarcity of “self,” a scarcity of vital space, a scarcity of AUTONOMY.
https://www.academia.edu/2283900/The_economics_of_counterproductivity_and_the_anthropology_of_conviviality_Ivan_Illich_a
nd_our_current_sustainability_crisis p. 6-7

CONVIVIALITY
... and the purpose of economic activity and business
| providing tools, products and services for convival living
| tools for self-production & self-empowerment including the ability to
repair and re-use products (and/or create them in the first place)
| design products so that they can be used self-reliantly and without
over-dependence on large-scale infrastructures
| critical question: does this product increase interdependent
autonomy with others and the natural environment?

CONVIVIALITY
... and leadership in organizations
| maximize autonomy of organizational members in mutual
interdependence
| open up decision processes to value creators (including active
prosumers)
| empower all value creators to actually take decisions that pay
attention to all of our interdependencies
| critical question: is our organization increasing interdependent
autonomy with others and the natural environment?

CONVIVIALITY
... and CONVIVIAL MODERNITY
| convivial modes of production: convivial capitalism?
| convivial modes of decision making: convivial democracy?
| convivial modes of living: convivial humanity?

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