Exam Flashcards
What is the anthropocene?
The age of humans. for the first time in history, the most immediate risks are human made and unfold at planetary scales.
Explain the theory of change based on materialistic factors
Marx as main thinker. Changes in production causes social change.
Technology creates change: increases alternatives in society, alters interaction patterns and creates new problems.
New intervention: computers
Alternatives: creates new jobs, some disappear.
Interaction patterns: quicker communication
Problems: more dependency
Explain the theory of change based on idealistic factors
Ideas, values and ideologies as causes of change.
Technological is not the only thing that causes change. Capitalism did not develop everywhere at the same time: values of protestantism fueled the spirit of capitalism (sanctified work and economic growth).
Feminism as other ideology that caused changed: women entering the labor market
What is the idea of linear social change?
Cumulative, non-repetitive, development, permamnent, no return possible. From one stage to another. We learn from history. Idealistic
What is the idea of cyclical social change?
Patterns of cyclical change: aspects are repetitive. Business cycles, political cycles, lev els of economic inequality. rise and fall of empires: pessimistic world view. From one super power to another.
What is the idea of dialectical social change?
Contradictions create change. If there is a bourgeoisie, there is also a working class –> contradictions always exists.
The change happen in the tension. FX: French revolution. leads to creation of social change.
How do we define sustainability?
A future-oriented model taking effect in the present.
Broadly covering social, economic and ecological interdependencies implicated in environmental change. About meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
What is social change?
change of structure in one or more societal subsystems on the macro level (social structure and culture), meso level (institutions, corporate actors and communities), micro levels (individuals and groups)
What does the elephant curve show?
It shows income GAIN for different income groups between 1988 and 2008. X-axis: percentiles of global income distribution. FX 50 is the median. Middle income group, with two equal sized groups over and under. Highest income growth is people from emerging global middle class in Asian countries (winners). but not at the point of western middle classes.
What is an important point about globalization when it comes to income inequality?
There will seldom be at a point where change is either wholly positive or negative. Globalization is a force for both good and bad, there will be winners and losers.
What was the aim of Pfeffer and Waitkus paper about income and wealth inequality from 2021?
To show differences between wealth and income inequality. International differences in income inequality tells us nothing about international differences in wealth inequality. FX Scandinavian countries: low income inequality, high wealth inequality.
Also be aware: high degree of housing debt does not equal wealth inequality. It can also just mean easier access to housing market. It is very difficult to compare countries in this sense, there are many nuances.
What is income? And how to we measure it
Salaries and government transfers. Household/income, before or after taxes
What is wealth?
Usually net wealth (all assets minus liabilities)
Real estate, stocks, bonds, private insurance and pensions, tangular assets (cars, paintings, jewellery), business assets (companies)
Liabilities: morgages, student debt, consumption debt.
What is the gini-coefficient?
Measures inequality. ranges from 0-1. at 0= everyone has the same income/wealth. at 1=one person has everything.
How do we define poverty? What is the issue of defining this term?
Lack of fundamental ressources. Lack of food, housing and health care. Not having enough to take part in society.
Extreme poverty: living on less than a $1 a day
It is crucial to define poverty with regards to political and academic debates all over the world. In NL it makes no sense to talk about $1 a day because no one would be poor with that definition
What kind of data can we use to measure income and wealth?
Survey data (but usually underestimates top and bottom, they don’t know and they don’t want to tell)
Registration data (good but limited where you can find good registration data)
What is earth overshoot day?
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
What are ‘the commons’?
Cultural and natural ressources accessible to all members of a society. Air, water and habitable earth. Held in common, even when owned privately or publicly.
Explain the model of designing sustainable institutions for the Commons
Green columns: general principles for robust governance of environmental sources (specific actions to be taken)
Yellow columns: the governance requirements that the principles help meet.
Each principle is relevant for meeting several requirements.
What is a social tipping point?
A social process that involves drastic changes in individual and institutional behavior.
A small change that leads to larger scale changes via positive feedback mechanisms.
A social tipping point could maybe be a new social movement, that then end up in policy changes that have big impact.
What is the low-cost hypothesis?
Environmental concern influences ecological behavior primarily in situations and under conditions connected with low costs and litlle inconvenience
Expectation: positive correlation between environmental concern and pro-environmental behavioral aspect under low cost scenarios
–> under low cost scenarios: low cost behvaior is recycling
–> High cost behavior is changing the entire heating system in your house, not going on vacation anymore etc
We would assume that people that are very environmentally very concerned would change behavior. But we see that people that are environmentally concerned do not necessarily change behavior.
Defense denial hypothesis: cognitive dissonans. People play down the impact: doesn’t make a difference if a go to Mallorca once a year, I don’t use my car that often.
What is a digital platform?
Digital platforms are digital systems that facilitate communications, interactions and innovations to support economic transactions and social activities
What defines the platform economy?
Something that connects supply and demand.
Platform work is a form of employment in which organisations or individuals use an online platform to access other organisations or individuals to solve specific problems or to provide specific services in exchange for payment