From capitalist accumulation to a solidarity

economy

Barbara Muraca Oregon State University

Budapest: 5th International Conference on Degrowth for for Social Equity and Ecological Sustainability

Sept 01 - 2016

1. Capitalist accumulation and the logic of growth

2. Logic of Growth & accumulation:

2.1. expansion

2.2. control over the margin(alized)

2.3. luring into hegemonic culture

3. From Growth to Growth-Societies

4. Crisis of Growth Societies:

4.1. Shrinking under BAU-conditions?

5. Degrowth beyond Capitalism: a project of radical social transformation

6. Transformation of institution and practices of liberation

0. Roadmap

1. Capitalist Accumulation & the Logic of Growth

➡ Monetary growth --> GDP ‣based on material flows in the economy —> impact on resources

and sinks increases

➡ Material growth --> material & energy flows ‣ (Over)exploitation of ecological & social resources

➡ Structural growth --> social, institutional, and mental infrastructure:

‣Growth ≠ byproduct

‣ structural role of growth for the constitution & reproduction of modern, capitalistic societies

‣Growth imperative of capitalism —> monetary production economy based on accumulation (Pinault)

➡Expansion in Space, Time, & Life Energ y

2.1 Logic of Growth & accumulation: expansion…

‣ Expansion towards new ‘territories’ (Landgrabbing; wild extractivism; monetization of ecosystem services, privatization)

‣ Expansion to risky areas - increasing willingness to take risks (Fracking, Geo-engineering; GMOs; deep-sea drilling…)

‣ Expansion of the the capacity to exploit: Investments in mega-infrastructures & Deregulation

‣ Intensification of the pace of life (competition; pressure to perform; privatization of responsibility, Wellness as class & status investment)

‣ Increasing debts (private indebtedness keeps demand going)

‣ Increasing commodification of basic services – education, health, (re)production (anti-depressing drugs, investment one’s own ‘career’…)

Increasing marketization of life processes (ecological & social)

➡ Indirect control of ‘peripheral’ territories:

‣ Reservoir for further expansion & crisis buffer (subsistence farming, social networks, creativity niches, fallow land…)

‣ Control over (re)productive activities and devaluation (wage gap; underpaid care sector; externalization of environmental damage & discounting)…

‣ … or shifting to other regions and social groups (international ‘care-chains’; hazardous waste recycling in the Global South…)

‣ Oppression and discrimination (precarization, exclusion, racism, xenophobia, …)

(Re)productivity - necessary condition for capitalistic accumulation —> ‘free gift’

2.2 …control over the margin(alized)…

➡Growth as a mental infrastructure:

2.3 …luring into hegemonic culture

‣ Neoliberal subjects: entrepreneur of ourselves ‣ our life as a investment portfolio --> risks & responsibilities privatized ‣ paradigm of 'better' not only of 'more': ‣ enhancement, self-fulfillment, improvement, 'development'

‣ Colonization of the Social Imaginary (shared & established values, basis for the collective self-understanding of a community/society that legitimizes practices, actions, & institutions) ‣ pervasive, dominant paradigm that shapes social expectations and

guarantees recognition and acceptability in the eyes of others

Emotional appeal of capitalism & growth —> use of creative desire

‣ we dream ready-made dreams!

Dynamic Stabilization by growth

➡ Modern, capitalistic societies need growth to keep going:

‣ to secure well being for us & our children ‣ to reduce poverty & create employment ‣ to generate revenue for the Welfare State ‣ to keep social conflicts down ‣ to save the face of democracy

3. From Growth to Growth-Societies

➡ Capitalistic growth imperative <--> constraints for further growth:

4. Crisis of Growth-Societies?

‣ Immanent Contradictions:

‣ Undermines its own conditions of reproduction

‣ Disparity between economic growth and prosperity: broken trust!

‣ Crisis of output-legitimation of modern democracies

‣ External Thresholds:

‣ Ecological ‘Limits’ (resources & sinks)

‣ Social & personal thresholds:

‣ Satiation —> planned obsolescence & globalization to trigger expansion

‣ Acceleration —> competition, treadmills, intensification, conflicts, …

➡ Economic shrinking and the end of ‘easy growth’: ‣ If growth-based societies stop growing --> crisis, destabilization

3.1 Shrinking under BAU conditions?

➡ Capitalism without growth? ‣ From growth-capitalism to stagnation economy:

‣more inequality & less social mobility

‣more social conflicts & social control/repression

‣less (re)distribution & welfare-based services

‣investment in luxury goods: accumulation of wealth (≠capital)

➡ Shrinking under BAU-conditions: adaptation & coping ‣ reduction of working hours without redistribution --> multiple jobs

‣ privatization of services & care --> traditional family structure!

‣ Cultural adaptation --> happy poverty, immaterial & spiritual values

‣ Philanthropy instead of solidarity & (re)distribution

➡ Happiness behind the wall?

Solidarity economy is a necessary struggle, not a wishful ideal!!

‣ conservative idyll in isolation

‣ideology of self-sufficiency (autarchy) & life-boat privilege

‣ Good life for whom, at which conditions & whose costs?

‣ Radical Bioregionalism, closed localism

‣ Cultural homogeneity & population control

‣ Leisure and happiness for those who can afford them!

‣Exclusive solidarity —> conflicts & competition among communities

3.2 Shrinking under BAU conditions?

4. Degrowth beyond capitalism!➡ Degrowth as a project for a radical transformation of society's

basic institutions ‣ paid work, (re)distribution, debt politics, education, production, urban

planning, time politics...

‣ 'Your recession is not our degrowth!'

Creative & collective, alternative path for a democratic, just, & solidary stabilization of society beyond growth

➡ Structural & Institutional Level: ‣Economic Relations (Modes of production, Scale, Power) ‣Institutions —> sedimented practices ‣Time; Space, & Relations; Work; Innovation & technologies;

infrastructures; education; (re)production; …

➡ Social Imaginary: ‣Set of shared & established values ‣Collective self-understanding by which societal settings make sense ‣Legitimation & justification background for practices, actions, & institutions

➡ Practices & Social Experiments ‣individual, collective, & communal actions with long-term impact ‣Laboratories of liberation ‣experimenting & stabilizing novelty --> subversive potential

4. Degrowth as a project for social transformation

5. Transforming Institutions➡ Reappropriating democracy & self-determination: ‣ formal conditions for participation

‣ securing substantial & material conditions for participation (reducing inequality)

‣ access to basic services

‣ collective self-determination

➡ Reorganizing production: ‣ Cooperation ≠ competition —> new commons movement ‣ Economic democracy --> democratic participation in shaping modes of

production and consumption

‣ Support to & coordination of local production structures (cooperatives; solidarity economy, CSA, GAS) —> ≠ grow or perish

‣ Qualitative diversification of production on a local scale (≠ allocation through markets) + solidarity based exchange

‣ Interventions against in-built-obsolescence: regulations, recycling & repair workshops, waste management, new technologies

5. Transforming Institutions

➡ Reorganizing innovation & infrastructures: ‣ Convivial technologies & innovations (for the common good - viable - small

scale - low-risk - empowering ≠ reenforcing dependencies

‣ Alternative infrastructures ≠ growth expansion strategies (reducing capacity to exploit) --> maintenance, conviviality, sharing

➡ Reorganizing education & knowledge: ‣ Inter- & Transdisciplinarity beyond operationalization

‣ Whose knowledge? Indigenous knowledge, people’s science & Co.

‣ Knowledge how? Commons, P2P, cooperation instead of competition

‣ Focus on value-oriented & value-orienting knowledge +

‣ practical skills --> self-production & solidarity

‣ Self-determination, diversification, autonomy, solidarity

“Pipelines for the people rather than for fossile fuels” ( Winona La Duke)

5. Transforming Institutions

➡ Reorganizing Work & Politics of Time: ‣ Beyond the separation between time for work & time for life ‣ Decoupling revenue & access to services from income & work (UBE; DIA) ‣ Renegotiating the gender division of labour & the distinction between so-

called productive and (re)productive activities

Paid work

Cultural (Self)realization

Reproductive Work (Care)

Bottom up political & social work

➡ Four-in-one-Model: (Frigga Haug): 6x4 = 24 Hours:

Sleep: 8 Hrs.

4 Hrs. 4 Hrs.

4 Hrs.4 Hrs.

5. Transforming Institutions

➡ Degrowth as Platform & Bridge:

‣ Strong potential for strategic & substantial alliances: ‣ antagonistic & prefigurative movements, projects, social experiments

‣ Global North & Global South (Antiextractivism, Buen Vivir, peasants' movements, autonomy movements, ...)

‣ Antiproductivists; Ecofeminists (alliance with meta-industrial labour)

‣ Indignados & Environmentalists ‣ Squatting & urban bottom-up

reappropriation projects ‣ Anti-austerity & new forms of self-

organized production ‣ Climate Justice & Transition Towns ‣ Environmental Justice & Commons

6. Subjects of transformation

➡Decolonization through subversive practices & laboratories for liberation:

‣ learning from feminism: the 'enemy' is in ourselves --> protected zones for experimenting and experiencing alternatives as possible!

‣ social experiments as laboratories where to reappropriate and liberate desire

‣ New Social Movements --> care for relations, bodies, emotions ‣ Niches of resistance --> spaces for autonomy

➡Undoing Growth/ Undoing Capitalism? ‣ prefigurative & performative practices --> envision &

embody alternative modes of living together ‣ shifting, twisting, re-signifying dominant 'norms' and

meanings ‣ like queer practices

‣ ‘useless’ play against utility maximization (whose utility? gamification!): subversive idleness, room for commoning

6. Transform-able subjects & practices

6. From sufficiency to autonomy

➡ Sufficient life-styles: ‣ Frugality - voluntary simplicity ‣ Individual choice - moral duty ‣ Consumer's role ‣ How much is enough?

➡ Right to sufficiency - political & societal frame: ‣ Right to have less, to be slower, without having to suffer a significant impairment

of the possibilities to lead a good human life

‣ How much is too much? --> Solidarity, Equity, Equality!

‣ Challenging systemic drivers & social constraints for recklessness, destructive squandering, & limitless accumulation, acceleration

‣ Challenging overall framework: vegetarian diet & US/EU increasing meat export

‣ Social struggle for new collective models of welfare & a good life

‣ Collective Autonomy and self-determination

‣ solidarity with other partners instead of competition

‣ Culture of use, consumption, and reciprocal relations

➡ Solidarity: ‣ oriented towards needs, abilities, concrete life conditions

‣ ≠ profit accumulation, performance, success

6. From competition to solidarity➡ Global Network of Solidarity Economy

‣ collective self-management & self-determination of production

‣ solidary & democratic decision making by the workers

➡ Catalan Integral Cooperative ‣ Grassroots counterpower departing from self-management, self-

organization and direct democracy ‣ Constructive proposal for disobedience and self-managment to

rebuild society bottom-up & recover the affective human relationships of proximity based on trust

http://cooperativa.cat/en/4390-2/

‣ Integral = brings together all the basic elements of an economy (production, consumption, funding & local currency) & integrates all the activity sectors necessary to survive: food, housing, health, education, energy, transport… ‣ Civil & economic disobedience (--> Occupy Banking, Eric Duran)

http://health.gnu.org/index.html

6. From competition to solidarity

➡ From destructive waste and luxury to creative squandering ‣ Capitalistic squandering: waste as creative destruction & driver of growth &

accumulation

‣ Feudal squandering —> capital stuck in luxury projects for the few

‣ Degrowth squandering —> surplus collectively used for: reducing inequality, enhancing social relations & solidarity

‣ feasts, plays, art, dance, crafts —> creative construction

‣ unconditional solidarity across borders

➡ Which and whose debt?

‣ driver of growth & oppression (stimulating demand, reinforcing dependence & inequality) —> visible debt

‣ relational symbol of reciprocal dependence (often denied!): ecological debt, colonial debt, (re)production debt —> invisibilized debt

‣ periodic cancellation of debt —> jubilees, collective feasting, reconciliation

6. Rethinking debt

barbara.muraca/at/oregonstate.edu

Thank you for your attention