Challenges for social and environmental justice in an increasingly vulnerable and unequal world

Janet McIntyre-Mills Recording at : http://vocaroo.com/i/s14IGmoPgPez

Definitions

The ‘global panopticon’ is associated with world government but the problem of unrestricted power of surveillance ‘from above’ could be averted through new architectures of cosmopolitan governance if individual and collective needs are guided by :

1.the principal of subsidiarity and

2. the axiom that democracy and sustainability need to be supported to the extent that they do not undermine the rights of others or future generations of life.

Not only quality of life but the very existence of some states (such as Tuvalu) are at risk. By closing our boundaries to refugees of social and environmental disaster or locating them on penal islands in the Pacific, Australia (along with other nations) is contributing to creating so-called ‘penal states’ and ‘disappearing states’

The approach

• Striving to reveal ‘in the small new ways of seeing the whole’ (Adelman, 2013, 9)

Worldly Praxis

Inspiration from•Albert Hirschman – three options – loyalty, voice and exit.•Hannah Arendt – Banality of evil need to consider the broad context and the structures that lead people to make unethical choices. •Stuart Hall – What is the social, cultural, economic and environmental context? Who gets what, when, why and so what?

Need to think critically about the ‘taken for granted’

• How should we live?

• What do we value and why? – human capacity and intellectual capital to

appreciate ecosystems

• What are the implications for human capital and wellbeing?

Wellbeing

• Hannah Arendt on implications for ‘banality of evil’ and so-called ‘operations research’- need to transform what we value

• Implications of building stocks for the future (Stiglitz, et al, 2010)

– re-framing not only economics but our relationships Using three scenarios – A. Sustainable Future; B. Small Changes; C. Business As Usual

A way forward?

• Stiglitz on ‘Wellbeing stocks’

• Max-Neef Human Sustainability Index applied to valuing, measuring and managing environmental and human assets

• Being the change – engaging in ‘cultural flows’

Theoretical underpinning

Max Neef 1991 McIntyre-Mills et al 2008,

Subsistence ProtectionAffectionUnderstanding Participation LeisureCreation Identity Freedom

1. Safety2. Physical and mental health3. Belonging and connection to

people and country 4. Purpose5. Respect

Statement of the ProblemConsumption and happiness

• Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) and Pretty (2013) argue that after a certain point, more consumption does not lead to more happiness. Thus, increased consumption based on increased growth does not make people happier .

Over consumption and the wrong kind of management

• Since April 2010 Ngarrindjeri Elder Major Sumner has brought people together annually to dance and heal the spirit of the river for the Ringbalin River Country Spirit Ceremony. It means the coming together of the tribes.

• http://www.mdba.gov.au/what-we-do/working-with-others/aboriginal-communities/ringbalin

Research Logic

• Personal stories based on addressing the question “how should we live in order to achieve wellbeing” reveal patterns

• Patterns provide residents and service providers the opportunity to explore pathways to wellbeing

• The software lets residents build on other people’s experiences

• The software summarises personal experiences and perceptions for service providers

Table : Architecture for cosmopolitan democracy in overlapping domains?

 

Structure Process Action

Micro-level Individuals

Aarhus convention (1998) Questions raised and posed to local government by individuals

Local government, NGOS and individuals

Meso States and regions

Aarhus convention Linked to Global Covenant

On line monitory democracy and governance to address state/market/civil society concern

Networking NGOs and INGOS to address representation and accountability

Macro Cosmopolitan governance

Legal structures to support the Global Covenant, Aarhus convention and Biospheres Convention

International Criminal CourtUnited Nations

Global action to pass laws to protect social and environmental justice in overlapping biospheres

Source: Adapted from Archibugi (in Wallace Brown and Held, 2010: 322 cited in McIntyre-Mills et al 2014&&&)

Program of research

• Complex health housing and social inclusion needs

• Complex social, economic and environmental decisions to mitigate the causes and respond to the effects of climate change

Background

This paper builds on the findings of two of my previous projects 1) a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project with Aboriginal Australians focused on wellbeing (LP0560406) and 2) a PAR project on decision-making to promote adaptation to climate change (Local Government Grant https://wellbeing.csem.flinders.edu.au/).

Explore possibilities of :

• Alternative architectures to enhance representation, accountability and sustainability – Aarhus Convention for scaling up

Principle of subsidiarity– Testing out Ashby’s rule of Requisite

Variety – Implications for complex decision making

A way forward: Governance to support social and environmental justice?

Local community

Local community

Local community

Local community

Regional stewards within federalist structures

Regional stewards within federalist structures

Post National Regional partners and networks under the auspices of regional parliaments and courts

Data Collection

The software collects people’s responses and perceptions to the following:•I have the following things in my life•I need in my life•I will add to my life•I will discard from my life

Plus, self-reflection on:•The turning points – for better or worse•Consideration of the barriers – for self and society

Outcomes

• For service users a pathway to well- being that can be further developed after reflection

• For service providers a spread sheet, listings and cross tabulations of the inputs from residents providing unbiased information to assist in developing strategies to deal with climate change

SWOT Analysis of Pilot

• Strengths – Software works as a prototype; residents can work through the process logically and can return to issues to improve their responses; service providers get unbiased data

• Weaknesses – Software not intuitive enough; some people won’t engage online

• Opportunities – Extend engagement through multiple forms of engagement linked with the software into national and international arenas

• Threats – Takes time and people are time poor, denial

Policy findings

Business asUsual

Small Adjustmentsfor the long haul

Sustainable Futures

T H I N K I N G a n d A C T I O N S

To sustainablewell-being

To unsustainableliving Pathways

Future Directions

• Initial policy implications – Respect for self, others and the environment; work life balance; social and economic support for renewable energy

• Scaling up the research locally, nationally and internationally

Scenarios for wellbeing and sustainable futures

• Details can be found at: https://wellbeing.csem.flinders.edu.au/

• The log in is user name = test, code = test.

User name = testPassword = test

Overlapping Areas

Questions

• I hypothesise that participation through awareness and consciousness-raising (McIntyre-Mills, 2010, J. of Consciousness Studies) will influence the way in which people value the environment and engage in healthy relationships with the land. This hypothesis is based on the notion of neural plasticity in that the brain shapes the environment and, in turn, is shaped by the environment (Bateson, 1972, Beer, 1994, Greenfield, 2000).

Wall Street to Wellbeing Joining up the dots through participatory democracy and governance to mitigate the

causes and adapt to the effects of climate change Janet McIntyre-Mills with De Vries and Binchai, N.

Tests a pilot project to develop raft of systemic wellbeing indicators to address the notion of wellbeing stocks and being the change glocally.

It tests the principal of subsidiarity and ashby’s rule and strives to implement Murrays’s notion of a Tuvalu test for decision making.

This book has two main objectives. The first is to make the case for social change through exploring post disciplinary and post materialist frameworks to address greed, zero sum competition for resources, the commodification of the powerless and the environment. Secondly, it develops a reframed approach to measuring wellbeing – not productivity – as a sign of economic success. Thus the book considers the challenge posed by Stiglitz (2010) to the Australian Productivity Commission, namely to foster an understanding that the wellbeing of humanity is dependent on the global commons. •Forthcoming Springer Matthew Arbon forthcoming 253pp

Transformation from Wall Street to Wellbeing cont

• Examines whether a change in the architecture of democracy and governance could balance individual and collective needs more effectively through participation, guided by the axiom that people ought to be encouraged to be free and diverse; but only to the extent that freedom and diversity does not undermine the rights of others. What does this mean for constructing and re-constructing the way in which we live? This volume makes a case for cosmopolitan approaches that scale up local engagement and that enable monitory democracy from below. Instead of Big Brother controlling the people who are unable to think critically, people are encouraged to monitor the use of resources locally. The process of monitoring needs to be supported by means of the principle of subsidiarity and buttressed by international law spanning post national regions. It discusses participatory action research to prefigure a means to hold the market to account – to ensure that the use of resources that are necessary for the common good are accessible and equitable.

•  This is the companion book to Systemic Ethics and Non-Anthropocentric Stewardship: Implications for Transdisciplinarity and Cosmopolitan Politics, also by the author. The two volumes comprise a series of essays that can be read separately and in any order or as chapters on a common theme, namely, “How should we live?”

Systemic ethics and non-anthropocentric stewardship:Implications for transdisciplinarity and cosmopolitan politics

Develops an argument for developing awareness that personal wellbeing is linked with the wellbeing of a biologically diverse environment. The global commons needs to be placed at the centre of decisions.  

Discusses the ethical implications of monitory democracy and governance based on the Aarhus Convention and Local Agenda 21