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Shifting the global economy towards sustainability Making Money Our Servant Rather Than Our Master Right Livelihood Social enterprise Legal and Financial Issues
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Economic Design | |
IntroductionThis is a course on living well within our means. The pun here is intentional. For, what we are exploring in this course is not just ways of reducing our consumption to levels that enable natural systems to self-regenerate, but that we do so in ways that permit a high quality of life - that we live within our means and that we live well. Since the advent of the Scientific Era in the sixteenth century, humans have stood apart from the rest of nature, seeking to manipulate it for their benefit. Thus, we have learned to refer to the natural world as ‘the environment’ and to see it, in economic terms, as little more than a bank of resources to be transformed into products for human use and pleasure. This has brought us to the brink of collapse, with natural systems straining under the weight imposed by the sheer weight of our numbers and the levels at which we are consuming. We are, however, on the threshold of a new paradigm shift – into a new way of seeing and understanding the world and our place within it – that is as large and significant as the transition from the Mediaeval to the Scientific Era. The new age into which we are moving has been called the Ecological Age. It will be characterised by a new understanding of our place as a thread in the Web of Life, of our inter-connectedness with all other living things. Given the pivotal role of economics in defining the nature of the Industrial Age – characterised by consumerism, unsustainable exploitation of the natural world and ever-widening wealth disparities within the human family – it is here perhaps more than in any other field that we need urgently to find new ways of thinking and being in the world. The course begins by looking at how the global economy currently works, at the extent to which we are currently living beyond our means and at how the global economy can be turned towards sustainability. Specific attention is paid, in Module 2, to the role of money, and how it is currently created through debt, in shaping the global economy as we know it today. We explore different possible ways in which money systems could be designed, including the creation by communities of complementary currencies, so that money can, once again, become our servant rather than our master. Module 3, Right Livelihood, examines values and the ethical dimensions to our economic life, exploring how the way we live, consume and invest can be brought into greater alignment with our values. This module includes a re-examination of what constitutes true wealth, looking beyond financial capital to include social capital and natural capital. In Module 4, we look at the concept of Social Enterprise and ask to what degree can we use small-scale, locally-based enterprises to provide the kinds of social and ecological goods and services that would enrich our communities while contributing to the accumulation of real wealth. The final module explores the legal and financial dimensions of creating social enterprises and other bodies to enrich our communities. This includes how we can raise money to finance our projects and the legal forms that will be most conducive towards this end. While the course draws upon the experience of ecovillages in developing their own economies, it also refers to many other community-based initiatives from around the world that have developed tools and models that are of relevance to local economic revitalisation. Similarly, we hope that the course will be of value to all those interested in the theory and practice of community economic development, whether or not they live in ecovillages. |
WWF’s
Living Planet Report
Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature |
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