One step forward, two steps back: On the politics of sustainability in the United States

1. One step forward, two steps back: On the politics of sustainability in the United States Sandy Rikoon University of Missouri RikoonSandy@missouri.edu

10. Three Dimensions of Power • Protection of subjective interests during direct conflicts over selected issues in public decision-making • Confining the scope of decision-making to only those issues that do not seriously challenge one’s subjective interests • Avoiding potential conflict by shaping people’s perceptions, beliefs and subjective interests via ideology and propaganda

12. The Modernization Project (1950-1980) • Dominant political economy • Primacy of the state and state-regulated markets (Keynesianism) • Public Spending • Social goals • Social contract and redistribution • National citizenship • Chief Mechanisms • Public investment • Import substitution industrialization • Education • Land reform

14. Strategies of manipulation • Misrepresenting and manipulating the results of scientific research • Intimidating or threatening individual scientists • Invoking existing rules or creating new procedures in the political system • invoking an existing bias of bias in the media

18. Kuznets curve - An inverted U curve that shows increases in pollution during early phases of development, peaks at middle stages, and then declines as affluence continues to increase. Kuznets Curve Industrialization

19. Does development cure pollution?

24. 10 Deep Sustainability Principles • Seeks the well-being and flourishing of the biological and physical environment (including all species), human livelihoods, and the access to adequate physical resources necessary for all human beings to live healthy lives. • Recognizes the diversity of cultural and social lives and the ability of all humans to choose the cultural and social norms relevant to their lives. • Requires humans to recognize systems of rights and responsibilities for all peoples.

25. Three market-based solutions

27. 10 Deep Sustainability Principles • Promotes the principle of equality and the centrality of social justice • Promotes mitigation over adaptation, recognizing as well that human behavior is dynamic over time and space. • Recognizes solutions must continuously be reviewed and adjusted; adaptive co-management in a key. • Promotes a cradle to cradle approach based on the premise that it is the value of natural and human capital that makes a sustainable process.

28. 10 Deep Sustainability Principles • Values the democratic process and supports democratic governance • Recognizes that complex, self-organizing, and living systems depend on their very complexity and internal variety for long term viability. • Believes in appreciating quality of life rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living.

35. The social constructions of environmental problems: a “political ecological” approach

36. The Modernization Project (1940-1980?) • Mobilizing tool • Nationalism (postcolonialism) • Institutional developments • World Bank, IMF

37. From Development to Globalization • The Globalization Project (1990-present) • Dominant political economy • Self-regulating markets (monetarism) • Public/state downsizing • Chief Mechanisms • Export-orientation • Privatization • Entrepreneurialism • Public austerity

38. The Globalization Project (1990-present) • Mobilizing tool • Markets and credit • Social goals • Private initiatives and global consumerism • Multi-layered citizenship and recognition • Institutional developments • NAFTA, WTO • SAP (Structural Adjustment Policies)

39. Presenting claims • How an issue is “framed” is very important. What/who caused this situation? Is it serious? What are the harms, to humans or other species? Is the problem framed by its symptoms or underlying causes? Who stands to benefit or lose by attention • In many cases, what’s as important as the validity of the claim is it’s viability to an audience

40. Four roles of science (Ozawa) • Discoverer – uncovers conditions worthy of public attention; pre-conflict • Mechanism of authority – providing the basis of public policy decisions • Shield – providing a buffer for unpopular decisions • Tool of persuasion – justifying or legitimizing a particular argument/decision

41. Success factors • Framed as novel and important in the media • Symbolic and visual dramatization • Economic incentives and health outcomes for action • Institutional sponsor

43. Ecological footprints suggest we are in a situation of overshoot

44. Ecological footprints, worldwide, 1961-2008