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Green Work, Wealth & Community Development
• Work: how can we be of service?
• Wealth: what’s the purpose of work?
Related Questions
• What is “green”—what is “sustainability”?
• What is money, finance, democracy?
• “Markets”? “Regulation”?
• etc.
Context
• Structural crisis of the economic system.
• Long-held assumptions challenged.
• Issue of the POTENTIALS of economic development
Key Theme: Redefining WealthPhantom/Casino vs. Real Economy
Quantitative: Money & Material
Accumulation
Qualitative: Well-being
Regeneration
Work & the ‘Real Economy’
What is work & its trajectory of
evolution?
What is Green Work?
What’s a “Job”?
How are jobs and work remunerated?
The Purpose of Social & Economic Change
• Reform?– mainstream view of sustainability as limiting
excess– redistribution of (quantitative) wealth
• Restructuring / Revisioning?– reshaping the purpose of the economy– redefining as well as redistributing wealth
What is Green Work?
• Cleanup? • Efficiency?
• Blue-collar? White-collar?
• Should all work be ‘green’?
Issues Raised
• the nature of work & green work
• the purpose & structure of economic life
• the role of money
• the role of human & environmental need
• the role of “labour”
• the role of “business”
• cutting-edge alternative perspectives
What’s the ‘Real Economy’?
• simply material production?
• Complicated by the rise of cultural production/consumption
• Raises questions about the purpose of production
My Perspective
• Green as Postindustrial– authentic knowledge-based development– key role of culture in the economy
• Strategic importance of positive alternatives in making change
• Holistic definition of a Green Economy
• Importance of “work” not simply “jobs”
The Economy in Loops
A Green Economy-1
1. From products to services: culture-based production as People Production; focus on end-use & human need.
2. Ecosystem-based economy: decentralization, distribution, participation
A Green Economy-2
• Substitutes human creativity for resources & energy: shift in labour/resources balance.– Human development should be the primary
strategy for sustainability
• Eco-production: high “eyes to acres” ratio. Efficiency depends on participation.
Industrialism: The Divided Economy
Invisible Visible Use-value Exchange-value “Consumption” “Production” People Things Unpaid Paid Women Men Informal Formal Private Public
Invisible Economy (1) Total Productive System of an Industrial
Society(layer cake with icing)
GNP-Monetized
½ of CakeTop two layers
Non-Monetized
Productive ½ of Cake
Lower two layers
GNP “Private” SectorRests on
GNP “Public” SectorRests on
Social Cooperative
Love EconomyRests on
Nature’s Layer
“Private” Sector
“Public”Sector
“underground economy
“Love Economy”
Mother Nature
All rights reserved. Copyright© 1982 Hazel Henderson
2
Issues
• Automation of blue-collar work.• Degradation & outsourcing of blue-
collar work: globalization.• Undervaluing of Resources: labour-
vs. resource-productivity• ‘Automation’ of white-collar work• De-marketization of production & the
Commons.• A crisis of “jobs” or a Crisis of
Remuneration?• Is Fordist-era manufacturing the
solution?
Remuneration & Qualitative Wealth
• Sever work and income?
• Wages: tied to certain kinds of production & markets. Public goods not so well served by markets.
• Economic insecurity: closely related to environmental destruction.