Science, Technology, and Society: Midterms
Human Flourishing in Progress and De-development
Jason Hickel’s Development Framework – As a
departure from traditional frameworks of growth and
development, Hickel's concept of de-development is
discussed as an alternative to narrowing the gap
between rich and poor countries.
- Argues that perhaps developing and growing
poor countries is not the answer but rather to
slow down the growth of the rich countries
- not about giving anything up nor about living a
life of voluntary misery or imposing harsh limits
on human potential; about reaching a higher
level of consciousness about what we’re doing
here and why.
Jason Hickel – Professor at the Institute for
Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; Forget 'developing'
poor countries, it's time to 'de-develop' rich
countries
Growth – main strategy promoted by orthodox
economists for eradicating poverty; main object of
development for the past 70 years, despite the fact that
it’s not working
Overconsumption – main contributor to the global crisis
of overshooting our planet’s bio-capacity by more than
50% each year; 70% of people in middle- and high-
income countries believe it is putting our planet and
society at risk
1.8 Global Hectares – a standardized unit that
measures resource use and waste; allowable resources
for each person to consume annually; roughly what the
average person in Ghana or Guatemala consumes.
8 Global Hectares – consumption of people in US and
Canada annually
4.7 Global Hectares – consumption of Europeans
annually
Economist Peter Edward – argues that instead of
pushing poorer countries to “catch up” with rich ones, we
should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to “catch
down” to more appropriate levels of development. We
should look at societies where people live long and
happy lives at relatively low levels of income and
consumption as exemplars of efficient living; may regard
such countries not as underdeveloped, but rather as
appropriately developed.
US – life expectancy is 79 years and GDP per capita is
$53,000
Cuba – has a comparable life expectancy to the US and
one of the highest literacy rates in the world with GDP
per capita of only $6,000 and consumption of only 1.9
hectares – right at the threshold of ecological
sustainability; similar claims can be made of Peru,
Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Tunisia.
Costa Rica – manages to sustain one of the highest
happiness indicators and life expectancies in the world
with a per capita income one-fourth that of the US.
Latin Americans – who are organizing alternative
visions around the indigenous concept of buen vivir, or
good living
Robert and Edward Skidelsky – authors of “How Much
is Enough?” where they lay out the possibility of
interventions such as banning advertising, a shorter
working week, and a basic income, all of which would
improve our lives while reducing consumption.
De-development – or de-growth or zero growth;
technically accurate but off-putting for anyone who’s not
already on board. Such terms are repulsive because
they run against the deepest frames we use to think
about human progress, and, indeed, the purpose of life
itself.
“Steady-State” Economics – is a step in the right
direction and is growing in popularity, but it still doesn’t
get the framing right.
