Lecture 11: Sustainable living approach Flashcards
(12 cards)
Equal productivity
vs
Productivity increases for producer A
Equal productivity
* Every producer has the same income
Productivity increases for producer A
* Not works longer but just higher productivity due to changes in technology
* Producer A has higher income
* Improvements needed to not be the loser in het market
Sustainable living approach - steps
Step 1: Establish vulnerability
* Environmental, economic, political, social trends affecting livelihood
* Identify shocks in each of these
* Consider seasonality of environment and economy
Step 2: Analyse impact of this context on livelihood assets
Step 3: Analyse structures and processes through which people interact
* Determines access to assets and their transformation
Step 4: Analyse strategies (undertakings to achieve livelihood goals)
Step 5: Analyse outcomes (development indicators)
The sustainable living approach
The sustainable living approach
= understand how people live in a particular place
* Five capitals: Human, Social, Natural, Physical, Financial
* Vulnerability context: trends, seasonality, shocks
* Structures and processes: institutions, laws, policies, culture
* Strategies and outcomes: how assets are used to achieve well-being
Capitals interact and influence each other
* Example: ox = natural + financial → + physical, human, social capital
* Sequencing? Substitution?
Different capitals affect inequality in different ways
* Stratification = access to/control over resources
* Rank = authority over people
e.g. Effect high-speed train on rural migrants in South China
Households
coordination cells of consumption processes
= organization of life in the short term (“maintenance”)
and long term (“replacement”)
Economic integration
= exchange relations:
imply dependency of households from larger economic structures in which production and distribution of means of existence are organized
=> Economic integration = integration of households in economic structures
Three modes economic integration
- Market exchange: supply/demand, pricing, competition.
- Redistribution: centralized collection (e.g. taxes) and allocation by authorities.
- Reciprocity: mutual help based on trust, obligation, and social norms.
Reciprocity
- Access to means of existence: need and capacity to produce a service in return
- Regulation: moral obligation to respect long-term balance
- Institution: social network
- Social relations : trust and fidelity (long-term)
- Social structure : egalitarian and enduring
- Integration condition : affiliation
Redistribution
- Access to means of existence: taxes/contributions/collective ownership and benefits/collective consumption
- Regulation: political decisions (positive or negative redistributions)
- Institution: political institution
- Social relations : rights and duties
- Social structure : hierarchy
- Integration conditions : citizenship
Market exchange
- Access to means of existence: sale-income-buy
- Regulation: price fixed by confrontation of supply and demand
=> affecting production and consumption decisions - Institution: internalized in the “invisible hand”
- Social relations : autonomy and competition
- Social structure : stratification (winners and losers)
- Integration condition : social usefulness (of one’s labour capacity or product from labour)
Problem with market exchange
Criticised markets for “fictitious commodities”:
* Labour is not produced for sale → job insecurity
* Land is nature, not a commodity → land cannot be produced
* Money is a social convention → devaluations, destruction of equity
When governed only by markets, these systems become unstable and harmful.
Polanyi’s solution: re-embed economic systems in society and social relations.
* Disembedding: exchange separated from control by society
* Embedding: exchange is controlled by society
* Re-embedding: labour, land, money, knowledge, … = social innovation
Ostrom: common approach
- Managing key resources (labour, land, money, knowledge) as commons.
- Governance of commons should be by the community of users, not by markets or the state.
Eight principles for successful commons management: - Clearly defined boundaries
- Appropriation and provision rules matched to local needs
- Collective-choice arrangements
- Monitoring
- Graduated sanctions
- Conflict-resolution mechanisms
- Recognition of rights to organize
- Nested enterprises for complex systems
Making it rational: Actor-Network theory
- ANT is not a theory but a way of understanding (ontology).
- Actions are not only human — they result from networks involving humans and non-humans.
- Non-human actors can include seeds, roads, policies, technologies, and markets.
- Assemblages are networks of these actors acting together.
- Livelihood outcomes emerge from these actor-networks.
Example from Ethiopia: - Coffee: high income but volatile market and climate risks.
- Maize: provides food security and price stability, but low profit.
- Combination of crops: own network assets, needs and risks
