Results from Barcelona 2010 on the topic

Reproduction and Work

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 red & capital), and then the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one

Summary:

Limits to paid working hours are needed, and their concrete level needs to be researched and established in a democratic debate. A progressive income tax is needed to reduce inequality (INCOME CEILING).

Incentives are needed to encourage companies to enable work sharing and part-time work (including provision of accessible childcare). Unpaid work needs to be shared (EDUCATION, SHARING/ COHOUSING).

Research is needed to define work and its aim in a degrowth society, as well as the contribution of unpaid, household/community work to current economy.

Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:

Work-sharing

Research questions:

• Relationship between labor productivity and reduced resource use?

• How can we achieve changing recognition of different kinds of paid work and unpaid work?

• What is the definition of work in a degrowth society?

• Reflections on barriers to lower working hours from other elements of degrowth

• Debt Consumerism Low incomes

• Access to the conditions for a good life

• What is the aim of work in a degrowth society?

• Relationship between a basic income and reduced working hours

• Research that can recognize the value and contribution of the core economy (unpaid, household work) in our current economy

Political proposals:

• Tax reform / Tax on resources, not labor / A more progressive income tax, with a larger tax-free threshold

• Incentives to encourage companies to enable work sharing and part-time work

• Other uses of taxes

• Need to provide accessible childcare, including at conferences like these!

• Legislation that supports co-housing

• Need to reduce the power of financial capital

• Focus on gender issues, including the equality of pay for genders

New (macro)economic models for degrowth

Need to pull together degrowther economist modellers to do specifically modelling about degrowth.

How to incorporate some critical issues:

• Fating productivity analysis in macro models to investigate labour income and employment benefits of worktime reduction

• Explicit representation of: constraints of resources, incorporate absolute scarcity in physical flows, and consider strong sustainability (critical resources)

• Stability of the system when contracting (is it predictable?)

Research questions:

• How to represent in the models the financial system and interest rates?

• Which scale do we need degrowth models (regional and local)?

• Changing the definition of work, how to incorporate unpaid work?

• Complexity in modelling macro-micro relationship: How to deal from macro degrowth with the micro level?

• Investigate how to take into account in the degrowth models the increase in the marginal utility redistribution

• Take into account non-community goods

• Degrowth models are important to see what happens to welfare state and social services

Not so much disagreement between participants