This document discusses sustainable development and the need to save the planet within 50 days. It addresses a divided world with issues around war, water, waste, and inequality. It examines whether capitalism or socialism could better address these problems and take control of sustainable development. It also discusses social relationships and interactions between people and organizations, and how these impact social and political structures.

1. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
A working hypothesis
by Clive Burgess October 2012
My global perspective
➔ One World ~ Many People with different cultures
Curious... looking beyond the obvious at the bigger
picture Clive Burgess ©2012

2. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
A World divided by Wars, Water, Waste & Want
➔ The Final Frontier
If Capit alist t ake cont r ol it will becom e an ext ension of
Aust er it y
If Socialist t ake cont r ol it will becom e inclusive and none
exploit at ive social j ust ice.
Clive Burgess 2012
What is to be done and Who's going to do it?
Harvey – book title
Clive Burgess ©2012

3. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
CONFLICT ~ dialectic relationships ~ Processes
Control & Resistance
Reproduction & Transformation
● 'Social' Activities
● 'Social' Relationships
Colin Burgess 1984 2001 2004
PBOG
● The sociology of organisational life
● A reflection of social reality
Clive Burgess 2007 2011
Clive Burgess ©2012

4. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
Society = the sum total of or an ensemble of social relationships...
How do you define 'social' relationships?
A 'relationship' is a quality which can be stated only of two or
more entities together where each refers to the other, not of
some single thing.
'Social' relationships are where some entity recognized as being 'social'
that is people, organisations or societies, are constantly in interaction with
each other at some level or another
Relationships may be physical, biological, social or cultural.
Example Physical: Cup and Saucer... Biological: Bird and an egg... Social:
Husband and Wife... or Home and Work... Cultural: A noun and a verb
Clive Burgess 2010 Clive Burgess ©2012

5. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
Relationships
Activities carried on in relationships
A relationship is an interaction between two people... a husband and a wife
is a home relationship … a boss and a worker is a work relationship an
interrelationship strictly speaking is a relationship between two relationships
A relationship between two relationships:...eg relationships in the home
between husband and wife and relationships at work between a boss and a
worker
Interrelationships are therefore relationships between relationships... a
woman as a worker at work and the woman as a wife at home
By extension intra-relationships is an activity carried on within a relationship
for example the wife having sex with the husband but not with her boss that
would be extra-relationships...
Clive Burgess 2010 Clive Burgess ©2012

6. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
CONFLICT ~ dialectic relationships ~ Aspects
● Collaboration The Class Struggle
● Transcendence ● Owners
● Historical overview ● Controllers
Colin Burgess 1984 2001 2004 2012 ● Producers
Reframing Organisations
➔ Symbols ~ what's going on symbolically?
➔ Politics ~ what's going on politically?
➔ Structure ~ what's going on structurally?
➔
Human Resources ~ what is going on from this perspective?
Clive Burgess ©2012

7. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
United Nations United Nations
● Rio 1992 ● Rio+ 20
● Agenda 21 ● Grassroots activism
Sustainable Communities
● Health & Well-being ~ Eduction & Employment
● Housing & Built Environment ~ Transport & Infrastructure
● Natural Environment ~ National Security ~ Taxation & Funding
● Energy Production, Distribution & Consumption
● Economy ~ Waste Management
BUSINESS CAPTURE ~ Self- Regulation ~ Neo-liberalism
Clive Burgess 2009 Clive Burgess ©2012

8. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
Global system theory - the three building blocks
1 - Transnational corporations
2 - The transnational capitalist class
3 - The culture-ideology of consumerism
The transnational capitalist class and its four fractions
1 - Owners and Controllers of Transnational Corporations and their local affiliates
2 - Globalizing bureaucrats and politicians
3 - Globalizing professionals
4 - Consumerist elites (merchants and media)
The transnational capitalist class and the discourse of globalization
1 - The discourses of national competitiveness
2 - Sustainable Development to further the interests of global capital.
3 - Globalization Sklair 2000
Clive Burgess ©2012

9. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
The Age of Austerity Diminishing Accountability
Attack on...
● Bail out of the banks
➔ Human Rights
● QE Fiscal stimulus ➔ Health & Safety legislation
Business Capture ➔ Employment rights
➔ Pensions & welfare benefits
● Personalisation ➔ Public Services
● Financialisation ➔ Quality Service Providers
● Privatisation ➔ National Health Service
● Marketisation ➔ Sustainable supply chain
Whitfield 2012
➔
Audits & Auditors
Clive Burgess ©2012

10. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
State-Monopoly Capitalism with a Liberal Democratic Ideology
Society = the sum total of or an ensemble of social relationships...
Intended or unintended consequences
The State ➔ Dispossession
National Democratic State
➔ Disinvestment
Interventionist State ➔ Destabilisation
Constitutional State ➔ De-politicisation
Territorial State ➔
Dis-empowerment
Unintended consequences
● REVOLUTION
Clive Burgess ©2012

11. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
“Information does not necessarily lead to
increased awareness, and increased
awareness does not necessarily lead to action.
Information provision, whether through
advertisements, leaflets or labelling, must be
backed up by other approaches” .”
Demos & Green Alliance, 2003
Clive Burgess ©2012

12. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
“Although thought maybe seen by some as
subjective, it is the actions one takes by using
ones own definition of the situation and the social
relationships between the interactions of the
participants and how others respond to the
actions taken, which create socially real
consequences”
Clive Burgess 13th July 2005
Clive Burgess ©2012

13. 50 Days to Save the Planet
Sustainable Development
A working hypothesis
by Clive Burgess October 2012
My global perspective
➔ One World ~ Many People with different cultures
Curious... looking beyond the obvious at the bigger
picture Clive Burgess ©2012 Thank You for your time & energy still more to do Clive Live...