Political ecologism Flashcards
The libertarian tradition in political ecology
A. 1968s: European students protested → birth of political ecology
B. Libertarian tradition: left-libertarian tradition
1. Look at France at the beginning of the 19th century → emergence of several socialist/anarchist utopias presenting a better socio-economic model than the one that was in place at the time -> proposed alternate communities where people would share goods and have important relationships with nature
a) Reactions to the industrial revolution and accelerated development of societies and destructions that the industrial revolution provoked
2. Phalanstery: areas where you would find gardens and places to have a better relationship with nature, limiting your will to better fit within the ecosystem and cycles of nature
Anarchism
C. anarchism and the protection of the environment: opposed any form of domination of nature by economic elites
1. Believed the industrial revolution was destroying nature and the cycles of the earth
2. Élisée Reclus: one of the strongest opponents to the governance of Napoleon the third; was forced to leave France for a while or be imprisoned, had to travel a lot → went to South America, encountered the Amazon and other places where nature was untouched
a) Nature was a place of rebuilding, and rejuvenation, a place where you can learn to truly be free → also critiqued farming and agricultural practices that destroy that anarchical/pure nature: this is a process of domestication nature
b) Despised capitalist elites that used nature for profits
c) Wrote the history of the mountain, the history of a river → histories of natural elements that he believed were threatened by industrialization and the capitalist system
d) Considered himself a misologist because he didn’t want to present nature as an organized space → doesn’t mean anything to classify nature, it’s something uncontrollable that we cannot classify
Social ecology - Murray Bookchin
D. Murray Bookchin: founder of social ecology → argues the contemporary ecological crisis comes from the hierarchical social organization of capitalism
1. The establishment of the hierarchy in our societies was presented as a stabilizing principle that would lead to more order in our societies, but it actually brought about a denaturation of the democratic ideal and a disregard for nature
2. He wants to treat the social question and the ecological question together → can’t think about social inequalities without thinking about ecological inequalities → have to treat them at the same time too
a) Only a deep transformation of our societies will fix them
3. He proposes that we can fix things through associations and collaboration between citizens, not by breaking away from societies
a) The development of social ecology requires the establishment of a new political system → shouldn’t be based on a hierarchy, should be based on empowerment of the people and the establishment of a confederation of political communities →
(1) Puts an end to three modern systems of servitude:
(a) political servitude because the system is based on direct democracy so it abolishes the system of representative democracy → you decide for yourself
(i) All political decisions are taken on the basis of the free consent of the whole community
(b) Economic and social servitude: the previous capitalist system had a logic of profit and growth, so there was the creation of a social hierarchy between individuals
(i) His model gets rid of that
(c) Ecological servitude: in order to reinstate a relationship with nature that’s not motivated by profit or accumulation of goods → communalism motivated by mutual aid
(i) Goal is to gather citizens to ask their opinion, all decisions will come from the bottom
(ii) We should also have some kind of scientific agenda to improve the knowledge of the communities and allow them to grow in a more sustainable way → we need scientists to guide us in the better relationship to nature that we’ll build
Castoriadis + Self-determination
- Offers an analysis of the economic system in general → shows that the human world/the economic world is a human invention → we must believe in the values it promotes for it to exist -
a) Values are what legitimate the capitalist system → in order to oppose what capitalism means, we need to think about creating more autonomous citizens and communities
(1) Autonomy is a movement of empowerment → by gathering, talking, and thinking together about a different political system, we empower ourselves and limit what we need from the environment → we can understand that the capitalist system is not sustainable, we must limit our needs to coexist with nature and ecosystems
(a) The solution to the ecological crisis is to create autonomous, self governed communities and escape the logic of growth in a capitalist society → must be completely free to understand what we want from an ecological perspective
(2) The best way to fight capitalism and its values is to gather and think about politics/what we want from the political system
The birth and the construction of the ecologist movement
A. End of the 1970s and beginning of 1980s → birth of the ecological movement
B. Some political ecologists chose not to be a political party because they believed it was not the best way to create change, but others that were more pragmatic did do so as they realized that was the way to change society
1. No hierarchy, very horizontal
2. Anti-nuclear and pacifist movements all began to merge together and work together → this is where the problems began
a) You have a huge conglomeration of movements → now you need to organize protests to win elections and gain power
b) Failure: took around 20 years for the ecologists to agree on a form of verticality for a political party
(1) The strong libertarian tradition of ecologism → against hierarchy, the state as an organizational body
C. Sustainable development: the idea was created at the end of the 80s, the key idea is to still produce and create, but in an eco-friendly way
D. Our Common Future: We can still continue to produce and consume as long as what we do is sustainable
1. The concept of sustainable development was economic growth/capitalism is not a bad thing in and of itself, it can be managed and corrected → differs from the ecologist perspective
E. Ecologist alternative to sustainable development: eco-development
1. We should put limits on economic growth when the environment is threatened
Degrowth
A. Two concepts that are at the core of the ecologist vibe today
B. Degrowth: presented as new, but is actually 50 years old → started after the release of The Limits to Growth (1972)
1. Stated that if we continue to believe in economic growth and support economic growth, we will face some kind of collapse fairly quickly (at some point in the 21st century)
a) In a business as usual scenario, the economic capitalist system is unsustainable
b) Very Malthusian in their approach, say the demographics play a role, resources will get more scarce and we need to think about an alternative to growth
c) Not about degrowth but limitations we should give to growth → the term “degrowth” was created by a french author, Andre Gaut
(1) Used that to present a collection of essays written by Nicolas Gorgescu Rogen → talked about depletion of resources and global economic decline, talks about degrowth as an alternative to the productivist paradigm, if we want stable economic system, we shouldn’t think about growth at all
Degrowth as a political project
C. Degrowth as a political project → about self limitation of our needs (ecologist concept), limtiing the needs of our collective community
1. sustainable development and green growth are impossible → growth is not compatible with protection of the environment, only the limitation of our economic needs will potentially protect the environment in the long run, degrowth began to be a mainstream movement after the 2008 economic crisis
a) Economic system based on growth could elad to crisis and we should probably think of an alternative way to consume and produce
b) Establish a level of development that would rely on sobriety and the limitation of our needs -> cna limit them in many ways, but the idea would be to impose a limitation of production and consumption to better meet the requirements of sustainability
2. Degrowth is a huge critique of globalization → its against globalization because it believes in solidarity more than productivity or development, solutions over global development
3. We won’t necessarily lose any quality of life, just abundance and that idea of abundance that was at the core of the capitalist system → fineee because this was a shitty idea either way
Sobriety
D. Sobriety: about you as an individual limiting your needs for your local ecosystem or because you think its a good thing to do from an ethical perspective
1. Main aspect is that it’s an individual perspective
E. Supporters of sobreity and degrowth clashed for a while over what should be done → seize power and change things at the collective level (degrowth) vs. have a personal revolution before we begin thinking about the collective one (sobriety)
1. Now we’re starting to recognize them as compatible objectives
F. Not really mentioned in their pure form in any political discussions or by political leaders today
Sobriety
D. Sobriety: about you as an individual limiting your needs for your local ecosystem or because you think its a good thing to do from an ethical perspective
1. Main aspect is that it’s an individual perspective
E. Supporters of sobreity and degrowth clashed for a while over what should be done → seize power and change things at the collective level (degrowth) vs. have a personal revolution before we begin thinking about the collective one (sobriety)
1. Now we’re starting to recognize them as compatible objectives
F. Not really mentioned in their pure form in any political discussions or by political leaders today
