My PhD journey 2. What’s the rub?
“Economy” (oikos-habitat; nomos-negotiation of order)
Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” (Friedman 1982: xiii-xiv). Preface to the 1982 edition of Capitalism and Freedom.
I am a month in now and slowly finding some focus. I’ve had my first supervisory meeting and now feel a lot more confident as I move forward. I have gained my initial ethics approval and have begun reading in earnest. Solidarity economies is such a broad sweep. Where do I begin?
I’m delineating. I am aware that there are other beginnings that are worthy of the title “where did it all go wrong”. You could make the cut 5000 years ago with the birth of credit and debt, a system of power that relies on violent coercion (See Graeber). You could jump back 500 years to Elizabeth I. She, essentially, birthed the Trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans. It was Elizabeth’s personal advisor / occultist John Dee, also accredited with coining the term “British Empire”, who advised her to establish colonies in the New World. This, with a little help from domestic land enclosures, fuelled the Industrial Revolution and the birth of Capitalism (for a more in depth analysis see Federici — Caliban and The Witch).
But, for now, I am going to jump back 50 years to a fringe economist whose theories no-one took seriously at the time…
My first real assignment is to write a 2000 word critique of at least four papers. I need to go back to basics and ask what is my argument? What’s the rub? I created a Toulmin diagram to help me focus.
This lead me to re visit one of the architects of neoliberalism — Milton Friedman, influential economist of the Chicago School of Economics. I began with his article The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its profits; first published in the New York Times in 1970. In all honesty it sounds like the ramblings of a cult leader with his liberal use of the term ‘free society’. What does he even mean?
The political principle that under lies the market mechanism is unanimity. In an ideal free market resting on private property, no individual can coerce any other, all cooperation is voluntary, all parties to such cooperation benefit or they need not participate. There are no “social” values, no “social” responsibilities in any sense other than the shared values and responsibilities of individuals. Society is a collection of individuals and of the various groups they voluntarily form.
So many unfounded assumptions, and so full of holes you definitely wouldn’t want to rely on it to hold any water!
But, despite its precarious perception of reality , this ideology became an inspiration to Thatcher and Reagan (Thatcher famously stating there is no society) ; and when the Berlin Wall fell it was this idea that was lying around. Friedman’s ideology has become entrenched. Tempered a little by Gordon Brown’s economic policies in the first part of the 2000s but once again fully embraced by the Clegg and Cameron’s coalition government of 2010. ‘Big society’ code for fuck you and prepare for the harshest austerity imaginable (I can imagine them all reading Friedman on their PPE courses at Oxford and feeling god like in their quest). And where has it led us? To multiple genocides in the never ending quest for resources.
Whilst there are some capitalists who are still on their knees praying at Friedman’s alter, many are running scared, critical of Friedman’s laissez-faire economics. Perhaps because Schumpeter’s prophecy that capitalism will devour itself is coming to fruition.
Because of this, Capitalism is trying to fix itself as it sees its demise in neoliberal doctrine. Oxymoronic ideas such as Conscious Capitalism, with people like Adam Goodman making more wild assumptions — It creates value, it’s based on voluntary exchange, it gives people purpose and meaning … and the ultimate goto it lifts people out of poverty … can we go tell that to the children digging up Cobalt in the DR Congo. Unbelievable!
Other notable rebrands include the idea from monocapitalism to multicapitalism… essentially, just capitalism then!
And the one that has really peaked my interest— Green capitalism and the Green Economy .
The Green economy — is it just more of same except with an emphasis on the market solving environmental issues?
And still I keep thinking about wellbeing. Wellbeing can only really come from free time, the capacity to have space, both mental and physical. Today as I write this only a small percentage of human beings have the privilege of time autonomy, the most precious commodity, and be in a comfortable socio-economic position to choose how to spend that commodity ( I know even calling it a commodity is uncomfortable). More often than not it is spent in ways to improve mental and physical health — leisure time to pursue arts, sports, creativity, whatever you desire.
Now as multiple shits are hitting multiple fans let’s return to probably one of the only coherent things muttered by Friedman, what ideas are lying around? Diverse and Solidarity economies seem like the obvious choice to me.
Below are listed the texts read so far. I have yet to decide which, if any, will form my 2000 word lit. critique.
Texts read
Bauhardt, C. (2014). “Solutions to the crisis? The Green New Deal, Degrowth, and the Solidarity Economy: Alternatives to the capitalist growth economy from an ecofeminist economics perspective.” Ecological Economics 102: 60–68.
Fox, N. J. (2023). “Green capitalism, climate change and the technological fix: A more-than-human assessment.” The Sociological Review 71(5): 1115–1134.
Friedman, M. (2007 (1970).). The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits. Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance. W. C. Zimmerli, Holzinger, M., Richter, K. Berlin, Heidelberg, Springer.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2008). “Diverse economies: performative practices for ‘other worlds’.” Progress in Human Geography 32(5): 613–632.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2014). “Rethinking the Economy with Thick Description and Weak Theory.” Current Anthropology 55.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. a. M., E (2015). Economy as Ecological Livelihood. Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene. In, Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene. D. B. R. Katherine Gibson, Ruth Fincher (eds.) Brooklyn, NY., Punctum Books: 7–16.
Gonzalez, S. (2023). “Taking back the food system through the Social and Solidarity Economy in Barcelona.” Global Foods Leeds [Online].
Laville, J.-L. (2010). “The Solidarity Economy: An International Movement.” RCCS Annual Review [Online] 2.
Pinheiro dos Santos, E. O. S., J,C. (2020). “Use of Medicinal Plants of Brazilian Caatinga in a Perspective of Solidarity Economy.” International Journal of Environmental & Agriculture Research (IJOEAR) 6(7 July).
