Urban Transformation
The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group.
The document first presents a summary, including links to other working groups (in bold & italic), and then the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one.
Summary
Cities should be reshaped and reformed on the basis of smaller scale and distance (indicators), and building new (eco)cities and (eco)neighbourhoods limited. Reduce urban sprawl. Car-based infrastructure should be converted to walking, cycling and open common spaces.
Urban life should be relocalized keeping or developing its multifunctionality and its public spaces. Foster proximity relationships through urban redesign-re-organization (trade) and the use of regional materials and bio-climatic design (infrastructure). Make ecocities for all, rather than for a gentrified minority. Build local social and ecological resilience in cities, use zoning to bring back nature in the city and keep neighbourhoods compact.
Degrowth challenges centralized decisions for mono-functional use and the involvement of urban dwellers in transforming the social, political and economic relations in urban spaces. Ecological degrowth neighbourhood plans (what areas to remove, to recycle, preserve, etc) need to be decided and implemented through collective decision-making. (democracy)
Awareness on the need for a shift to degrowth cities is needed (education).
Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:
Cities and degrowth
Key research proposals
How does the decentralisation of political power in the city relate to bottom-up processes and the degrowth agenda? (address concerns of concentration of power and democracy)
How does the ‘right to the city’ (Henri Lefebvre) connect to the degrowth agenda? (the right of all urban dwellers to take part in the production of the city, transforming social, political and economic relations in urban spaces)
Key political proposals
Reshape and reform current cities instead of building (eco)cities and (eco)neighbourhoods from scratch.
Relocalise urban life with multifunctionality (public space as a commons) in mind
Other research proposals
Why isn’t there planning by people vs. planning for people? How do you get people to plan for themselves? Barriers, preconditions and counterforces to encourage planning by people (users) and not only for people (consumers)
How do we degrade the car as an urban transportation mode through taxes?
How / what is the relationship between ecological urban development and gentrification?
How to build local social and ecological resilience in cities / bioregions
Other political proposals
Raise awareness on the need for the shift to degrowth cities
Develop and implement an ecological degrowth neighbourhood plan using a bottom up process (collectively decide what areas to remove, to recycle to preserve…)
Scale and distance as planning parameters
Make initiatives in the city that are already working on paradigm change visible to understand potential of cities as social-political space
Reusing empty houses and co-housing
Research proposals
Encourage architectural research on alternative housing, such as collaborative design of reused / empty buildings into co-housing with residents, material reuse, etc.
What is the ‘overconsumption of space’? Is it better to talk about ecological footprint?
Political proposals
Impose a large tax on unoccupied housing
Stop urban sprawl
State purchases houses that would be repossessed and turns them into public co-housing, empowering people
Contested proposals
Find instruments to stimulate the reduction of living space for households that overconsume space
Strengthen squatter rights
Strengthen association
In rooted in social fabric with institutional backup to match empty houses with people living in poor conditions (i.e. homeless) who would care for the properties (i.e. self-management)
Climate and Energy
The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group.
The document first presents a summary, including links to other working groups (in bold & italic), and then the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one.
Summary
Some energy production has to degrow (fossil fuels), while others – disappear (nuclear) (infrastructure). Energy consumption in inputs should be reduced while switching to locally produced renewable energy.
Foster policies, incorporating a multi-criteria evaluation to have an energy system with the highest EROI and the lowest environmental impact and material throughput with least transport distance (trade, social metabolism, indicators)
The decision making process of planning for future policies should be done in a democratic and decentralized manner ensuring fair access to fossil fuel as their scarcity increases (democracy).
Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:
Energy degrowth and the transition to renewable energies
Political proposals
Foster policies, incorporating a multi-criteria evaluation to have an energy system with the highest EROI and the lowest environmental impact and lowest material throughput with lost transport distance…
The decision making process of planning for future policies should be in a democratic and decentralized manner but the decision could be to use and manage the energy either locally or centralized.
Research questions and proposals
How can we ensure fair access to fossil fuel as their scarcity increases
Research on the trade off and complementary points of locally vs centrally derived energy systems.
Further invest money (public) on alternative energy sources (apart from nuclear) to research on their fundamental principles and also strategies for implementation in a transparent (to everyone) and for the common use and good of everyone (bien común).
Points of disagreement:
Cap on the energy demand; prioritization of sectors for reduction of energy consumption.
Moratoria on new infrastructures
Proposals
Eliminate/nationalise mega-construction companies (due to their levels of debt) that drive the building of infrastructure projects as ends in themselves.
Some infrastructure projects must clearly be abandoned: Nuclear, ammonia production, incinerators, high speed train and large scale dams.
Some infrastructure must be limited: highways, long distance transportation and airports.
At the same time, transformation of some existing infrastructure must be promoted: smaller more compact cities, converting car based infrastructure to walking and cycling and open common space.
Research questions
Research the full life-cycle impacts and components of infrastructure materials.
Activities
Support social campaigns that change the imaginary of people regarding the need to travel, long distance travel, levels of consumption and production and dependence on infrastructure.
Support communities that fight large infrastructure projects.
Political strategies
Three comprehensive and complementary options:
Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives
Voice strategy: political movement and activist, a particular engagement
Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth
Further points
Need to learn from other local initiatives, some cases were discussed, and the need to be based more in the grassroots and history of movements, have relevance recognize diversity of socio-cultural and political history contexts
Need to learn to local initiatives to reply in other local contexts or to extract models that can be expanded at the global level. Degrowth is not an entirely new idea, to take root in the 1970´s, is important to learn about mistakes, need to highlight alternatives of the past and look at how they have worked.
The discussion have emphasis in understand social, technological, political and economics contexts that made differences between now and 70´s. The movements change from our current situation and position at local and global level should not be only one, but would have to be constructed from an understanding of the different cultures and political history context in determining the emphasis on particular political strategies.
Social Metabolism and transitions
Socio-Political aspects
Link environmental movements with social movements and focus on underlying root causes to form alliances.
Aim at the consumption level of the sustainable peoples/classes of the world though this consumption levels take place in an unsustainable systems and therefore cultural changes are necessary even among within these peoples.
Create autonomous and intentional communities (niches of sustainability), and connect them. Promote this way of living and intervene in the system.
We need to change the current narratives that focus on material wealth to shift the focus on values that acknowledge the sustainability principles.
Bio-physical sphere
Global level
Closing material cycles as much as possible
Reinforce the product design-reduce its material requirements-make it more re-usable and re-cyclable.
Reduce, eliminate toxic chemicals (industrial fertilizers)-
Return to the traditional, innovative way of agriculture-agro-ecology.
Reduce the global throughput of energy and materials adjusting it to the carrying capacity of the biosphere.
Put a limit to human appropriation of net primary production. Limit deforestation, change in industrial agriculture.
Internalize real costs.
Local and regional levels
Not exporting trash-
Reduce long-distance imports.
Less energy consumption in inputs.
Switching to locally produced renewable energy.
Construct with regional materials.
Bio-climatic architectural design.
Use seasonal, ecological and local food.
Re-ruralisation.
Foster proximity relationships through urban redesign-re-organization.
Reduce the transport infra-structure and make it more collective.
Promote sharing of electronic home equipment. Perceive them as commons.
Which social changes we expect with bio-physical decrease?
Demographic
Human time
Fool sovereignty
Immigration
Gender issues
Commons and Peer Economy
The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group.
The presents the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations to the current one.
Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:
Property rights
Non-regulation of resources is not a solution. Private property needs to be restricted. This implies further discussion on options and alternatives to private property and its regulation.
In this regard, there is a need to
Distinguish between manufactured and natural resources.
Identify indicators to determine the maximum level of property
Degrowth is about halting the commodification of nature. The term private property comprises various aspects. In terms of degrowth, some of these ambits could still remain in the context of private property and these should be defined.
Degrowing in a just way demands democratic management of natural resources (including our own bodies) so the resources should not be commodified.
Global commons: It is necessary to design jurisdiction according to each global common
Local commons: It is essential to recognize and integrate communal property rights under national law.
Degrowth in water consumption
“Reapropiation of commons”: returning to public ownership and management of superficial, groundwater and desalted water at municipal level (if possible) avoiding to consider it as a commodity
Domestic tariff systems with basic threshold for free lifeline and quota up to a ceiling threshold, established in physical blocks terms and per day per person. Heavy industrial tariff to physical parameters and thresholds
Labelling Virtual water content (full life cycle) on all products: water points credit card
Degrowth in water consumption is tightly related to land use planning: non-industrial agroecological approach to agrarian land and food soverignity; stop new irrigation plans and water transfer and big supply infrastructures; stop urban sprawl
Downscaling to local sources management which enable people's empowerment: public fountains of free drink water as a symbol against fetishism of bottled water; democratic control on economy; living the river and its ecosystems; building a new water culture starting from water as life
In conclusion, accelerate degrowth and downshift your lifestyle
Cities and degrowth
Key research proposals
How does the decentralisation of political power in the city relate to bottom-up processes and the degrowth agenda? (address concerns of concentration of power and democracy)
How does the ‘right to the city’ (Henri Lefebvre) connect to the degrowth agenda? (the right of all urban dwellers to take part in the production of the city, transforming social, political and economic relations in urban spaces)
Key political proposals
Reshape and reform current cities instead of building (eco)cities and (eco)neighbourhoods from scratch.
Relocalise urban life with multifunctionality (public space as a commons) in mind
Other research proposals
Why isn’t there planning by people vs. planning for people? How do you get people to plan for themselves? Barriers, preconditions and counterforces to encourage planning by people (users) and not only for people (consumers)
How do we degrade the car as an urban transportation mode through taxes?
How / what is the relationship between ecological urban development and gentrification?
How to build local social and ecological resilience in cities / bioregions
Other political proposals
Raise awareness on the need for the shift to degrowth cities
Develop and implement an ecological degrowth neighbourhood plan using a bottom up process (collectively decide what areas to remove, to recycle to preserve…)
Scale and distance as planning parameters
Make initiatives in the city that are already working on paradigm change visible to understand potential of cities as social-political space
Political strategies
Three comprehensive and complementary options:
Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives
Voice strategy: political movement and activist, a particular engagement
Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth
Further points:
Need to learn from other local initiatives, some cases were discussed, and the need to be based more in the grassroots and history of movements, have relevance recognize diversity of socio-cultural and political history contexts
Need to learn to local initiatives to reply in other local contexts or to extract models that can be expanded at the global level. Degrowth is not an entirely new idea, to take root in the 1970´s, is important to learn about mistakes, need to highlight alternatives of the past and look at how they have worked.
The discussion have emphasis in understand social, technological, political and economics contexts that made differences between now and 70´s. The movements change from our current situation and position at local and global level should not be only one, but would have to be constructed from an understanding of the different cultures and political history context in determining the emphasis on particular political strategies.
Consumption
The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group.
The presents the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one.
Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:
Reduction of natural resource exploitation
Political proposals
Global extractive moratoria on areas with high biodiversity and ethnographic value
Internalization and transparency of mining real (and long term) costs
Binding capacity for local communities in deciding about mining projects. Full information, a proper process and respecting national and international environmental protection norms
To create funds for financing independent researches on mining
To promote companies international accountability (campaining in countries of origin)
Research questions
How could we enforce a national cap on fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources while maintaining fair access?
How to tax advertising for discouraging resource consumption? With which criteria?
Which could be the results of an international found for compensating socio-environmental impacts?
Also disagreement points
Basic income and income ceiling
Basic income for all
Research Themes/Questions:
Comparisons between BI and a negative income tax plus a social welfare state to inform public opinion. That is, not only from a monetary-based approach, but also from a moral perspective.
Will economic degrowth provide sufficient means to finance a BI institution in the long-run?
Can a BI institution be a viable and fruitful alternative to development aid?
How has human psychology, values, and moral ideas played a role in preventing the application of a BI system in the past? What psychological insights can be derived from human populations where BI as an institution has been applied?
Issues needing further attention:
In order to finance BI sustainably a tax-based approach should be implemented progressively on income rate, rent or ownership, natural resource use, and consumption.
Is a basic income preferred to a guaranteed-job-offer? Should local currencies, or product-specific vouchers play an important role in the making-up of a basic income-rent?
How to implement BI at a political level; in particular taking into account voter participation in political processes.
What are the links between a society of employment and a society addicted to consumption?
Income Ceiling
IC is on the political agenda in Europe now.
Measures to redistribute income & wealth and measures to give equal access to environmental services are compatible and, in fact, they should go together.
Proposals on IC:
Minimum-maximum ratio
Ratio within companies
New ways on attaining social status (in the absence of high incomes) should be found
Social Metabolism and transitions
Socio-Political aspects
Link environmental movements with social movements and focus on underlying root causes to form alliances.
Aim at the consumption level of the sustainable peoples/classes of the world though this consumption levels take place in an unsustainable systems and therefore cultural changes are necessary even among within these peoples.
Create autonomous and intentional communities (niches of sustainability), and connect them. Promote this way of living and intervene in the system.
We need to change the current narratives that focus on material wealth to shift the focus on values that acknowledge the sustainability principles.
Bio-physical sphere
Global level
Closing material cycles as much as possible
Reinforce the product design-reduce its material requirements-make it more re-usable and re-cyclable.
Reduce, eliminate toxic chemicals (industrial fertilizers)
Return to the traditional, innovative way of agriculture-agro-ecology
Reduce the global throughput of energy and materials adjusting it to the carrying capacity of the biosphere
Put a limit to human appropriation of net primary production. Limit deforestation, change in industrial agriculture
Internalize real costs
Local and regional levels
Not exporting trash
Reduce long-distance imports
Less energy consumption in inputs
Switching to locally produced renewable energy
Construct with regional materials
Bio-climatic architectural design
Use seasonal, ecological and local food
Re-ruralisation
Foster proximity relationships through urban redesign-re-organization
Reduce the transport infra-structure and make it more collective
Promote sharing of electronic home equipment. Perceive them as commons
Which social changes we expect with bio-physical decrease?
Demographic
Human time
Fool sovereignty
Immigration
Gender issues
Este é o texto da ICE (por favor não alterar)
"Somos uma coligação de organizações da sociedade civil que visa lançar uma Iniciativa de Cidadania Europeia (ICE) com o objectivo de deter o Acordo de Parceria Transatlântica de Comércio e Investimento (TTIP) e o Acordo Económico e Comercial Global (CETA) que a União Europeia está a negociar com os Estados Unidos da América e com o Canadá, respetivamente. O lançamento da Iniciativa está previsto para Setembro de 2014.
1. A nossa crítica
Criticamos a falta de transparência das negociações, a falta de participação democrática na elaboração do mandato de negociação e a falta de controle democrático sobre as negociações.
Receamos que os acordos de livre comércio previstos entre a UE e os EUA e o Canada sirvam os interesses das multinacionais e não os interesses dos cidadãos. Assim, os Acordos:
• Ameaçam seriamente a democracia e o estado de direito, por possibilitarem que multinacionais estrangeiras possam processar os Estados em processos de arbitragem “à porta fechada”, para exigir o pagamento de indemnizações punitivas, caso os Estados aprovem legislação que possa levar a uma redução dos lucros das mesmas.
• Abrem as portas às privatizações, pois facilitam às multinacionais a obtenção de lucros através da prestação de serviços sociais básicos como, por exemplo, fornecimento de água, saúde e educação.
• Constituem uma ameaça para a saúde e para o ambiente, estabelecendo que aquilo que é permitido nos EUA e no Canadá passe também a ser legal na UE – abrindo assim o caminho ao fracking (fractura hidráulica), à produção e importação de alimentos geneticamente manipulados e à carne com hormonas. Os Acordos enfraquecem as normas de bem-estar dos animais e a agricultura de pequena escala e reforçam o poder da agro-indústria.
• Comprometem a liberdade, abrindo o caminho para um controle e vigilância ainda maior dos usuários da Internet. Além disso, prevendo direitos de autor excessivos que restringem o acesso à cultura, educação e ciência.
• São praticamente irreversíveis, já que, uma vez aprovados, os acordos não podem ser alterados por políticos eleitos, pois cada alteração tem que ser aceite por todas as partes assinantes do acordo. Nenhum membro da UE poderia rescindir o Acordo unilateralmente, na medida em que é celebrado pela UE.
2. O texto da ICE
Objecto: Instamos a Comissão da UE a recomendar ao Conselho a revogação do mandato de negociação relativo ao Acordo de Parceria Transatlântica de Comércio e Investimento (TTIP) e a não conclusão do Acordo Económico e Comercial Global (CETA).
Principais objetivos: Queremos impedir o TTIP e o CETA tal como estão atualmente previstos porque incluem a resolução de litígios investidor-Estado e regras de cooperação em matéria de regulamentação que constituem uma ameaça para a democracia e o estado de direito. Queremos impedir que, em negociações não transparentes, sejam reduzidas as normas laborais, sociais, ambientais, normas de proteção da privacidade e dos consumidores e que sejam desregulamentados os serviços públicos (como, por exemplo, o abastecimento de água) e o património cultural. A ICE não recusa os acordos comerciais na sua generalidade.
Nota explicativa: Uma ICE tem de se enquadrar numa área de competência legislativa da Comissão Europeia. O texto final de reivindicação será redigido pela coligação.
3. Por que lançar uma ICE?
O sucesso da www.right2water.eu demonstrou que este instrumento pode, na prática, ser eficaz. Assim, a Iniciativa de Cidadania Europeia Right2Water conseguiu que o abastecimento de água fosse retirado da directiva da UE sobre concessões.
4. Como conseguir o número mínimo de assinaturas necessário?
Para que uma ICE tenha sucesso, é necessário obter, no prazo de um ano, pelo menos 1 milhão de assinaturas de cidadãos da UE, de acordo com quóruns específicos para cada país (número mínimo de assinaturas) em, pelo menos, 7 Estados-Membros da UE. Até meados de Maio de 2014, cerca de 60 organizações de 10 Estados Membros já anunciaram o seu apoio à ICE. Na Alemanha, Finlândia, Portugal, Luxemburgo e Grã-Bretanha o alcance dos quóruns está praticamente seguro, já que, nestes países, organizações com elevado potencial de mobilização já fazem parte da coligação (por exemplo, a Campact já recolheu ca. de meio milhão de assinaturas contra o TTIP, na Alemanha e na Áustria). Estamos agora a tentar criar estruturas poderosas e eficazes para realizar uma campanha no maior número possível de Estados-Membros da UE."
- 65011 Aufrufe