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The Local Politics of Global Sustainability
The Social Science Journal 38 (2001) 337–352
Book reviews The Local Politics of Global Sustainability Thomas Prugh, Robert Costanza, and Herman Daly; Washington, D.C., Island Press, 2000, 173 pages In The Local Politics of Global Sustainability, Thomas Prugh, Robert Costanza, and Herman Daly make it very clear that if we, as a global society, ever wish to reach sustainability–the ability to sustain a society that works for us and our descendants ecologically, economically, morally, culturally, and politically–an urgent change of direction is needed in the way citizens engage in politics. Prugh, Costanza, and Daly contend that politics, as practiced in today’s world, simply fails to engage people in discussions about sustainability (or any other subject for that matter). They point out that “questions of sustainability are debated gingerly in the highest councils of government, but in the arena of everyday life, where ordinary people make billions of daily decisions that shape the common future, hardly a word is heard on the subject.” More to the point, bringing about this change will require citizens at the community level to embrace the tenets of true democracy, meaning that, in general terms, people govern themselves to the greatest extent possible. In their first chapter (“Introduction”), Prugh, Costanza, and Daly attempt to define the term “sustainability” by telling us what it is not (it is not about humans or life in general dying out) and then provide the reader with multiple definitions of differing technical and ideological bents. In the end, the authors agree that sustainability means “preserving and fairly allocating the ability of present and future generations to fashion societies that make life worth living.” Like many before them, the authors had to settle for a broad, complex, and ambiguous description of sustainability that emphasizes the idea of longevity. The second chapter (“Minimum Technical Requirements for Sustainability”) begins with the premise that the human presence on earth is probably not sustainable in its present size, habits, and tendencies, and then describes the minimum technical requirements for sustainability that the earth provides. In essence, the earth is said to provide resources (e.g., food, fiber, fuel, biological diversity, drugs, etc.), perform ecological services (e.g., photosynthesis, climate and water regulation, etc.), and absorb wastes. Because of these provisions, the authors offer three rules for running a sustainable economy: conserve resources; protect services; and conserve waste-absorption capacity. They also provide a list of ideas to refashion the present economic system more toward sustainability. These ideas (changes) include: (1) controlling the economy’s size so that it does not consume its host ecosystem; (2) acknowledging the inherent uncertainty of the economic system; (3) institutionalizing adaptability; (4) focusing on making the economy better, not bigger; and (5) being wary of the risks and costs of increasing complexity. 0362-3319/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
338
Book Reviews / The Social Science Journal 38 (2001) 337–352
The third chapter (“Aiming for Genotopia”)–written from the point of view that figuring out how to achieve a sustainable world must begin with a nonrational act of imagination– provides analyses of various Utopian experiences including Plato’s Republic, Thomas Moore’s Utopia, and B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two. This chapter ends with the vision for a genotopia (a place that is continually unfolding, being born and reborn) and a call for a shift in political consciousness, away from the long-held faith in economic growth to a vision of sustainability. In the fourth chapter (“Prelude to Politics”), Prugh, Costanza, and Daly examine two socioeconomic models that they believe deserve special attention: capitalism and huntinggathering. The authors are clearly critical of the capitalistic model, condemning it as marked by an “overarching ideology of growth, expansion, and fetishistic moneymaking for its own sake and at whatever social and environmental cost.” Sticking with one of the overarching themes of their book, the authors suggest that only a strong and robust public sphere (based on political self-determination) can counteract capitalism’s emphasis on money and power. The hunter-gathers are offered as an alternative to capitalism, illustrating that humans are malleable and highly social beings not necessarily tied to the tenets of a growth-at-all-costs economy. The concepts and interrelationships of science and democracy form the heart of chapter 5 (“Engaging Politics”). In this chapter, the authors downplay the importance of scientists to the environmental policy-making process and establish the tenets of a strong democracy that they believe will facilitate the move to a sustainable economy. Along these lines, science is viewed as no longer being a source of authoritative advice on how to extract and use resources, but is established as just one partner in a broad-based decision-making process. Strong democracy is characterized mostly within the framework established by Rutgers University professor Benjamin Barber, where emphasis is put on a public process maintained by active citizen participation that puts a premium on “talking, listening, and reasoning together.” More important, the authors describe how the characteristics of a strong democracy can be realistically applied to the modern world. They envision citizen assemblies at the neighborhood level, which could be networked into a community of communities, and thus a system that could inject citizen input directly into the policy-making process at the national level. Chapter six (“The Once and Future Democracy”) details examples of what the authors believe are both historical (Periclean Athens, the Italian medieval communes, the Republic of Raetia) and modern (Denmark’s technology consensus conferences, Oregon’s watershed councils, modern-day New England town meetings) direct democracy practices. The authors claim that, while none of these examples reveal a form of strong democracy, they do illustrate the practicality of implementing direct democracy practices in the real world. In this regard, the authors claim that these examples show very plainly that an engaged citizenry is strongly correlated with the effectiveness and responsiveness that is a prerequisite to addressing sustainability problems. In the final chapter (“Sustainability and Strong Democracy”), the authors ask the question, “What sort of politics would serve sustainability best?” and then answer it by recommending a strong democracy, which emphasizes communities served by wide popular engagement of citizens in the problems of governance.
Book Reviews / The Social Science Journal 38 (2001) 337–352
339
The strength of this book is its historical and descriptive analysis of real-world examples of how direct democracy at the community level can bring about a more engaged citizenry. The weakness of this book is two-fold. First, the authors stop short of making the connection between citizen engagement and sustainability. The underlying assumption is that if citizens do become more involved in the everyday politics of governing, then this will lead away from the seemingly inherent faith in economic growth and toward greater environmental protection. Yet, the authors never provide any convincing evidence that this has occurred or ever will occur. Second, the authors assume that citizens are going to take it upon themselves to first become educated and then actively engaged; that this will somehow just happen. To be fair, the authors acknowledge these weaknesses in their argument, and declare that future research must move past the anecdotal evidence used as the basis for their study. However, it would have been nice to see at least some substantiated evidence linking increased citizen activity to increased support for sustainability, and more than a cursory glance at exactly what it takes to motivate citizens to move beyond the political apathy that the authors contend is present in our world today. Having said all that, this is an excellent book. It is extremely well-written, easy to read, and would be an appropriate text for use in academia for both undergraduate and graduate classes in environmental policy or governance, or for anyone interested in improving citizen engagement in policy making. The authors bring together the concepts of democracy, community, science, and sustainability in a way that makes it possible to believe there is hope for improvements in both our political and ecological worlds. Leslie R. Alm Dept. of Political Science, Boise State University Boise, ID 83725-1935, USA PII S0362-3319(01)00119-7
Visions of Schooling: Conscience, Community, and Common Education Rosemary C. Salomone; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, 329 pages Visions of Schooling is both an historical and analytical view of one of today’s most controversial topics: parental choice in public education. This book has proven timely given the 2000 election cycle, a year in which political candidates claimed to have the ideal solution for the declining educational success of students. Nation-wide turmoil over the lack of competent and skilled graduates is causing people to ask what has gone wrong with our schools? Parents are faced with the ever-pressing issues of school safety, values conflicts, and curriculum censorship. The debate, however, goes deeper than the issues mentioned above. The question of what entity is better equipped to handle the decision of where to send children for their education is more a debate of who has the authority to make that decision. The author’s premise lies in returning that authority to the parent and releasing some of the governmental intervention, which has risen in the past few years.
Book reviews The Local Politics of Global Sustainability Thomas Prugh, Robert Costanza, and Herman Daly; Washington, D.C., Island Press, 2000, 173 pages In The Local Politics of Global Sustainability, Thomas Prugh, Robert Costanza, and Herman Daly make it very clear that if we, as a global society, ever wish to reach sustainability–the ability to sustain a society that works for us and our descendants ecologically, economically, morally, culturally, and politically–an urgent change of direction is needed in the way citizens engage in politics. Prugh, Costanza, and Daly contend that politics, as practiced in today’s world, simply fails to engage people in discussions about sustainability (or any other subject for that matter). They point out that “questions of sustainability are debated gingerly in the highest councils of government, but in the arena of everyday life, where ordinary people make billions of daily decisions that shape the common future, hardly a word is heard on the subject.” More to the point, bringing about this change will require citizens at the community level to embrace the tenets of true democracy, meaning that, in general terms, people govern themselves to the greatest extent possible. In their first chapter (“Introduction”), Prugh, Costanza, and Daly attempt to define the term “sustainability” by telling us what it is not (it is not about humans or life in general dying out) and then provide the reader with multiple definitions of differing technical and ideological bents. In the end, the authors agree that sustainability means “preserving and fairly allocating the ability of present and future generations to fashion societies that make life worth living.” Like many before them, the authors had to settle for a broad, complex, and ambiguous description of sustainability that emphasizes the idea of longevity. The second chapter (“Minimum Technical Requirements for Sustainability”) begins with the premise that the human presence on earth is probably not sustainable in its present size, habits, and tendencies, and then describes the minimum technical requirements for sustainability that the earth provides. In essence, the earth is said to provide resources (e.g., food, fiber, fuel, biological diversity, drugs, etc.), perform ecological services (e.g., photosynthesis, climate and water regulation, etc.), and absorb wastes. Because of these provisions, the authors offer three rules for running a sustainable economy: conserve resources; protect services; and conserve waste-absorption capacity. They also provide a list of ideas to refashion the present economic system more toward sustainability. These ideas (changes) include: (1) controlling the economy’s size so that it does not consume its host ecosystem; (2) acknowledging the inherent uncertainty of the economic system; (3) institutionalizing adaptability; (4) focusing on making the economy better, not bigger; and (5) being wary of the risks and costs of increasing complexity. 0362-3319/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
338
Book Reviews / The Social Science Journal 38 (2001) 337–352
The third chapter (“Aiming for Genotopia”)–written from the point of view that figuring out how to achieve a sustainable world must begin with a nonrational act of imagination– provides analyses of various Utopian experiences including Plato’s Republic, Thomas Moore’s Utopia, and B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two. This chapter ends with the vision for a genotopia (a place that is continually unfolding, being born and reborn) and a call for a shift in political consciousness, away from the long-held faith in economic growth to a vision of sustainability. In the fourth chapter (“Prelude to Politics”), Prugh, Costanza, and Daly examine two socioeconomic models that they believe deserve special attention: capitalism and huntinggathering. The authors are clearly critical of the capitalistic model, condemning it as marked by an “overarching ideology of growth, expansion, and fetishistic moneymaking for its own sake and at whatever social and environmental cost.” Sticking with one of the overarching themes of their book, the authors suggest that only a strong and robust public sphere (based on political self-determination) can counteract capitalism’s emphasis on money and power. The hunter-gathers are offered as an alternative to capitalism, illustrating that humans are malleable and highly social beings not necessarily tied to the tenets of a growth-at-all-costs economy. The concepts and interrelationships of science and democracy form the heart of chapter 5 (“Engaging Politics”). In this chapter, the authors downplay the importance of scientists to the environmental policy-making process and establish the tenets of a strong democracy that they believe will facilitate the move to a sustainable economy. Along these lines, science is viewed as no longer being a source of authoritative advice on how to extract and use resources, but is established as just one partner in a broad-based decision-making process. Strong democracy is characterized mostly within the framework established by Rutgers University professor Benjamin Barber, where emphasis is put on a public process maintained by active citizen participation that puts a premium on “talking, listening, and reasoning together.” More important, the authors describe how the characteristics of a strong democracy can be realistically applied to the modern world. They envision citizen assemblies at the neighborhood level, which could be networked into a community of communities, and thus a system that could inject citizen input directly into the policy-making process at the national level. Chapter six (“The Once and Future Democracy”) details examples of what the authors believe are both historical (Periclean Athens, the Italian medieval communes, the Republic of Raetia) and modern (Denmark’s technology consensus conferences, Oregon’s watershed councils, modern-day New England town meetings) direct democracy practices. The authors claim that, while none of these examples reveal a form of strong democracy, they do illustrate the practicality of implementing direct democracy practices in the real world. In this regard, the authors claim that these examples show very plainly that an engaged citizenry is strongly correlated with the effectiveness and responsiveness that is a prerequisite to addressing sustainability problems. In the final chapter (“Sustainability and Strong Democracy”), the authors ask the question, “What sort of politics would serve sustainability best?” and then answer it by recommending a strong democracy, which emphasizes communities served by wide popular engagement of citizens in the problems of governance.
Book Reviews / The Social Science Journal 38 (2001) 337–352
339
The strength of this book is its historical and descriptive analysis of real-world examples of how direct democracy at the community level can bring about a more engaged citizenry. The weakness of this book is two-fold. First, the authors stop short of making the connection between citizen engagement and sustainability. The underlying assumption is that if citizens do become more involved in the everyday politics of governing, then this will lead away from the seemingly inherent faith in economic growth and toward greater environmental protection. Yet, the authors never provide any convincing evidence that this has occurred or ever will occur. Second, the authors assume that citizens are going to take it upon themselves to first become educated and then actively engaged; that this will somehow just happen. To be fair, the authors acknowledge these weaknesses in their argument, and declare that future research must move past the anecdotal evidence used as the basis for their study. However, it would have been nice to see at least some substantiated evidence linking increased citizen activity to increased support for sustainability, and more than a cursory glance at exactly what it takes to motivate citizens to move beyond the political apathy that the authors contend is present in our world today. Having said all that, this is an excellent book. It is extremely well-written, easy to read, and would be an appropriate text for use in academia for both undergraduate and graduate classes in environmental policy or governance, or for anyone interested in improving citizen engagement in policy making. The authors bring together the concepts of democracy, community, science, and sustainability in a way that makes it possible to believe there is hope for improvements in both our political and ecological worlds. Leslie R. Alm Dept. of Political Science, Boise State University Boise, ID 83725-1935, USA PII S0362-3319(01)00119-7
Visions of Schooling: Conscience, Community, and Common Education Rosemary C. Salomone; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, 329 pages Visions of Schooling is both an historical and analytical view of one of today’s most controversial topics: parental choice in public education. This book has proven timely given the 2000 election cycle, a year in which political candidates claimed to have the ideal solution for the declining educational success of students. Nation-wide turmoil over the lack of competent and skilled graduates is causing people to ask what has gone wrong with our schools? Parents are faced with the ever-pressing issues of school safety, values conflicts, and curriculum censorship. The debate, however, goes deeper than the issues mentioned above. The question of what entity is better equipped to handle the decision of where to send children for their education is more a debate of who has the authority to make that decision. The author’s premise lies in returning that authority to the parent and releasing some of the governmental intervention, which has risen in the past few years.