Green Work, Wealth & Community Development Work: how can we be of service? Wealth: whats the purpose of work?

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.