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HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

• Any more reactions/ comments on the field trip to Nanaimo Foodshare?

• Today we will hear from Kala and Alexa on Chapter 6.

• Then, we will start the review for the mid-term early in response to a special request.

• Opportunities for Canadian senior undergraduate students to study to work at foreign universities in India, France and Tunisia exist. If interested in learning more, contact me for more details.

IF WE HAVE TIME TODAY OR TUESDAY, WE’LL WATCH AN EXCERPT OF “SAVING THE OCEAN” THAT’S RELEVANT TO THE NOTION OF THE COMMONS AND COMMUNAL MANAGEMENT

MID-TERM REVIEW (CONCEPTS COVERED IN WEEK 1)

• Definition of Geography: “it describes and seeks to explain spatial phenomena.”

• Economies are both a product of space and time and of the technologies and institutions that shape space and time (geographer David Harvey introduced the concept of “space-time compression”). What does this refer to?

• Economic activities and institutions shape people’s lives dramatically, as well as the fate of the settlements in which they live, but people need not be passive.

KEY CONCEPTS FROM WEEK 1

• externalities• “empty” vs. “full” world (linked to “limits to

growth” and notion of a “finite planet”)• growth, throughput, and development• marginal utility and law of diminishing utility• public vs. private goods• the six forms of capital: natural capital, social

capital, human capital, physical capital, financial capital, and cultural capital. [can you define and describe them?]

ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

• The ‘real economy’ (producing actual goods and services) is being eclipsed by the speculative financial economy. It doesn’t produce anything, makes some people fabulously wealthy, and potentially endangers the stability of the global economy, as it did in 2007-2008.

• Definition of resilience: • “the amount of change a system can absorb (its

capacity to absorb disturbance) and essentially retain the same functions, structure and feedbacks.” Examples?

ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS• The authors introduced seven principles of resilience

– what are they? Diversity (biological, landscape, social, cultural and

economic). This is a variant of the old axiom: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” What would be some examples?

Modularity- The ability of systems to function somewhat independently of others. Why would this be desirable?

Social Capital- Well-developed social networks, trust and leadership.

Innovation- Encouraging learning, experimentation, local models, and being open to change. Examples?

ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS

Overlap- Encouraging redundancy (i.e. some duplication of function). Why would this be desirable?

Tight feedback loops- to let us know when our production and consumptions activities are approaching dangerous thresholds so we can make course corrections.

Ecosystem services- Making sure a full-cost accounting occurs for such services and the economy does not disregard them. Efforts have been made to put dollar values on these.

ECOSYSTEM SERVICESSupporting services: ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services"

• nutrient dispersal and cycling• seed dispersal• primary production (role of plants in supporting food chains)

Provisioning services: "products obtained from ecosystems" • food (including seafood and game), crops, wild foods, and

spices• water• minerals (including diatomite)• pharmaceuticals, biochemicals, and industrial products• energy (hydropower, biomass fuels)

Regulating services: "benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes"

• carbon sequestration and climate regulation• waste decomposition and detoxification• purification of water and air• crop pollination• pest and disease control

Cultural services: "non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation

Source: Wikipedia

RECLAIMING THE COMMONS

• The authors argue that private property and commercial markets are quite recent in origin, or at least played a relatively marginal role in the past. Most strongly engrained in Euro-American culture. What is the link with settler-indigenous conflicts?

• When and why did private property and markets arise?

• Garrett Hardin, in his famous essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” argued that commons will always be overexploited because of personal greed. Ayn Rand thought greed was in the collective interest. This is similar to Adam Smith’s notion of “the invisible hand.”

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RECLAIMING THE COMMONS• Various mechanisms of distribution: free markets,

reciprocity, redistribution, and regulated markets (e.g. Keynesianism).

• Private property arose out of agriculture, but it wasn’t the only model.

• Markets arose as a by-product of peasants selling their surplus in town fairs and purchasing other things they needed; landlords using rents to pay for soldiers, tradespeople, and other retainers who contributed to urban settlements and marketplaces, and those who were willing to meet the demands of long distance markets and charge what the market would bear.

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RECLAIMING THE COMMONS

• The contemporary and historical commons is not the same as open access systems. What are some examples of each? Which one is related to the notion of externalities?

• What is “the enclosure of the commons” and what are some contemporary and historical examples?

• Are there any examples of reclaiming the commons?

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ADDITIONAL CONCEPTS AND ISSUES

• What does it mean to transition from the “cowboy economy” to “the “spaceman economy” (Kenneth Boulding)?

• From seeing the economy as autonomous to seeing it as embedded in the yolk of society and the white and shell of the biosphere? Be able to make arguments for both.

• What are major barriers to achieving ecological, social, and economic sustainability? Trade-offs?

• Capitalism has been dominant for 5-600 years. What are its strengths and weaknesses? What kind of future does it have? Are there any viable alternatives?

ATTEMPTS TO BUILD ALTERNATIVES

• “In economics, market failure is when the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not efficient. That is, there exists another conceivable outcome where a market participant may be made better-off without making someone else worse-off.” Alternatives are motivated by a desire to do better than the unfettered market.

• In finance – examples?

• In housing – examples?

• In energy – examples?

• In food – examples?