Learning from degrowth ideas of work and income: empowering alternatives in the transition towards sustainability

Transcription

1 Learning from degrowth ideas of work and income: empowering alternatives in the transition towards sustainability Degrowth Conference, Budapest 2016 Tuuli Hirvilammi, Ingo Stamm, Aila-Leena Matthies & Kati Närhi University of Jyväskylä/Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius, Finland

2 Research project ECOSOS - Contribution of social work and systems of income security to the ecosocial transformation of society Funded by the Finnish Academy, Research team consists of two social work professors and two post-doc researchers General aims: To search for different understandings and more sustainable forms of work and wellbeing To understand how present social work and systems of income security either support or prevent these new forms and to see how they could contribute to a transition towards sustainability

3 Background: Unsustainable employment systems and welfare states Part of the ecological crisis Dependent on growth-driven economy Based on the idea of full-time work Activation policy humiliating human rights for minimum income and meaningful activities Alternatives needed

4 Research on transitions Transitions = fundamental system changes Focus on large-scale socio-technical transitions to sustainable society Many perspectives: multi-level perspective technological innovation systems transition management

5 See Geels & Schot 2007 Multi-level perspective on transitions Landscape Regime Niché

6 Research questions What changes in work and income systems would support sustainability transition? What alternatives can be found in the literature? (on ecosocial social policy & social work, sustainable development, sustainable work, degrowth) How are these alternatives related to the multi-level perspective of transition? To describe alternatives and changes presented in the literature and categorize them on the basis of the multilevel perspective To combine degrowth ideas with transition theory

7 Degrowth and new economy literature Suggestions mentioned Serge Latouche: Farewell to Growth Work time reduction and increase in leisure time, basic (2009) income, redefining what is work Tim Jackson: Prosperity without Growth (2009) Reorganising work time, redefining what is work Marko Ulvila & Jarna Pasanen: Vihreä Uusjako. Work time reduction, basic income or citizenship wage Fossiilikapitalismista vapauteen (2010) Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen: Subsistence: Perspective Broad understanding of income, subsistence based on for a Society Based on Commons (2010) commons New economics foundation: 21 hours. Why a shorter Work time reduction working week can help us all to flourish in the 21 st century? (2010) Rob Dietz & Dan O Neill: Enough is Enough. Building a Basic income, work time reduction, job guarantee Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources (2013) Miklós Antal: Green goals and full employment: Are they Systemic changes, work time reduction compatible? (2014) Johanna Perkiö ja Jouko Kajanoja: Perustulo ja uusi Basic income, job guarantee, work time reduction työllisyyspolitiikka (2015) Tuomo Alhojärvi ym.: Solidaarisuustalous (2015) Timebanks and other community currencies, local economies Giorgos Kallis, Michael Kalush, Hugh O. Flynn, Jack Work time reduction Rossiter & Nicholas Ashford: Friday off : Reducing Working Hours in Europe (2013) Samuel Alexander: Basic and maximum income (2015) Basic income, maximum income Kristofer Dittmer: Community currencies (2015) Community currencies B. J. Unti: Job guarantee (2015) Job guarantee Juliet B. Schor: Work Sharing (2015) Work sharing, work time reduction Paavo Järvensivu: Rajattomasti rahaa niukkuudessa Basic income, job guarantee (2016) Maria Joutsenvirta ym.: Talous kasvun jälkeen (2016) Redefining what is work, work time reduction, basic income, work guarantee, timebanks and local currencies

8 Landscape level: Broader definition of work work itself is one of the ways in which humans participate meaningfully in society (Jackson 2009, 133) De-growth implies the qualitative transformation of work (Latouche 2009, 83) Inspired by the discussion of mixed work E.g. Hildebrandt 2003: four segments of work Employment (gainful work) Care work Community work Self-related work

9 Regime level: Work time reduction/work sharing The degrowth movement aspires to expand work sharing in the Global North beyond its current status as a temporary policy. (Schor 2015, 195) To ensure everyone s right for work and decent income without growth (e.g. Latouche 2009) Work time reduction instead of boosting production (e.g. Jackson 2011: Dietz & O Neill 2013) Concrete policy proposals: Friday off?, less working days / week Reduced working hours / day Earlier retirement, longer family leaves

10 Regime level: Basic income Advocates typically argue that a Basic Income payment should be guaranteed by the state, unconditional on the performance of any labour, and universal. (Alexander 2015, 1476 Eliminating poverty and economic insecurity, more freedom to employees (e.g. Latouche 2009) Funded by environmental tax reform or public investment bank (Dietz & O Neill 2013) Linked to the ideas of citizen wage, participation income and job guarantee (see Jackson 2009; Anderson 2012; Unti 2015) Also maximum income has been proposed (e.g. Alexander 2015)

11 Niché level: Community currencies CCs are unconventional monies, i.e. monies not being declared by any national government to be a legal tender (Dittmer 2015, 149) Local currencies, LETS-groups, time banks Can help people to meet their needs in economic crisis and in a situation of monetary drought Support the democratic governance of economies Common motivations for community currencies Community-building Advanding alternative values Facilitation of alternative livelihoods Eco-localization (Dittmer 2013 & 2015)

12 Broader definition of work Work time reduction Basic income Community currencies

13 Discussion and questions How flexible work and digitalization will change work? Reducing working time: an extremely complicated question (Kallis et al. 2013) More free-time and environmental impacts? Increasing poverty? Less cheap energy and need to work more? The right level of basic income? (e.g. Jackson 2009) The potential of community currencies to escape from growth-driven economy? Empirical, local and/or national experiments needed More research on the interplay of different levels in the transition

14 Literature Alexander, Samuel (2015) Basic and maximum income. In Giacomo D Alisa, Federico Demaria & Giorgos Kallis (Eds.) Degrowth. A Vocabulary for a new Era. New York and London: Routledge, Andersson, Jan Otto (2012) Degrowth with basic income the radical combination. Essay written for the 14 BIEN congress, Munich September Dietz, Rob & Dan O Neill (2013) Enough is enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Dittmer, Kristofer (2013). Local currencies for purposive degrowth? A quality check of some proposals for changing money-as-usual. Journal of Cleaner Production 54, Dittmer, Kristofer (2015) Community currencies. In Giacomo D Alisa, Federico Demaria & Giorgos Kallis (Eds.) Degrowth. A Vocabulary for a new Era. New York and London: Routledge, Geels, Frank W. & Schot, Johan (2007) Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways. Research Policy 36, Hildebrandt, Eckart (2003) Arbeit und Nachhaltigkeit. Wie geht das zusammen? In Gudrun Linne & Michael Schwarz (Eds.). Handbuch Nachhaltige Entwicklung. Wie ist nachhaltiges Wirtschaften machbar? Opladen: Leske+Budrich. Jackson, Tim (2009) Prosperity without growth. Economics for a Finite Planet. London: Earthscan. Kallis, Giorgos & Kalush, Michael & Flynn, Hugh O. & Rossiter, Jack & Ashford, Nicholas (2013) Friday off : Reducing Working Hours in Europe. Sustainability 5, Latouche, Serge (2009) Farewell to growth. Polity Press. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard (2012) Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects. Research Policy 41 (6), Schor, Juliet B. (2015) Work sharing. In Giacomo D Alisa, Federico Demaria & Giorgos Kallis (Eds.) Degrowth. A Vocabulary for a new Era. New York and London: Routledge, Unti, B. J. (2015) Job guarantee. In Giacomo D Alisa, Federico Demaria & Giorgos Kallis (Eds.) Degrowth. A Vocabulary for a new Era. New York and London: Routledge,

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