SPIDERS in the Doughnut Seoul Institute

In this talk, Jacques Richard and Sebastian Berger introduce us to models of accounting, rooted in scientific knowledge regarding conditions for sustainability and satisfaction of basic human needs within specific social and natural environments and with available resources. Based on such knowledge, calculations in kind serve the purposes of normative collective decision-making for social reproduction (substantive rationality). The latter embeds and constrains firms’ calculations in exchange for decision-making via capitalist double-entry book-keeping (formal rationality).
Biographies
Sebastian Berger is Senior Lecturer of Economics at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK. He received his PhD in political economy from the University of Bremen in Germany. He specializes in social and ecological economics and was awarded the 2020 Kapp Prize of the Association for Ecological Economics in Germany (Verein für Ökologische Ökonomie) for his book “The Social Costs of Neoliberalism” (2017). He also received the 2009 Helen Potter Award from the Association for Social Economics for most promising young scholar. He has published and edited six books in English and German, and published over 50 articles in international journals and edited volumes.
Jacques Richard is Chartered Accountant and professor emeritus at Paris Dauphine University. He founded the “Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility” Master’s and Research Master’s program in 2004. He is a founding member of the French Accounting Association (AFC) and he is a member of the Accounting Standards Authority (ANC).
Links
Nitzan, Jonathan and Bichler, Shimshon (2009). Capital as Power. A Study of Order and Creorder. RIPE Series in Global Political Economy. Routledge. (Book in English language)
https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/CARE_Tri-Capital_Accounting_System
https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Coop_des_Communs
About the SPIDERS Platform
This series of talks is organized on behalf of SPIDERS, the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on Equitable and Resilient Society, and funded by the Seoul Institute. The talks complement a series of original papers published on the SPIDERS platform, dedicated to outlining the building blocks of post-capitalist political economies and societies, not oriented around growth and profit, but rather good lives and a flourishing web of life in times of profound planetary change. Hosting these talks are founder of the P2P Foundation, Michel Bauwens, and Rok Kranjc, researcher, designer and translator in the fields of political ecology, alternative economies and participatory futures.
Link to the paper series:
http://seoulhumanities.or.kr/sub03/e_result.html

In this talk, Thomas and Marjorie walk us through the history, basic principles and theory of change behind Community Wealth Building (CWB) institutions and strategies. Further down the line, we discuss several related topics, including the generative economy, platform cooperatives and the UBI versus Universal Basic Services debate.
Excerpt from the paper:
"A key strategy of building [the] next economy is Community Wealth Building (CWB), a term
coined by The Democracy Collaborative in the mid-2000s to describe a new approach to community economic development. Community Wealth Building, which is now proliferating in the UK, the US, and elsewhere around the world, works to produce broadly shared economic prosperity, racial equity, and ecological sustainability through the reconfiguration of local institutions and economic strategies on the basis of greater democratic ownership, participation, and control. CWB includes institutions such as cooperative and public enterprises and banks, community land trusts and social housing, and community-based non-profit corporations, among many others – all of which have service to the public good at their core, rather than profit maximization. It also includes supportive strategies such as linking these new institutions to the procurement power of large public and non-profit “anchor” institutions (such as hospitals, universities, and governments); redirecting public subsidies, incentives, and tax breaks away from large capitalist corporations that can block or hinder their proliferation; and experimenting with hybrid forms and approaches."
Biographies
Thomas M. Hanna is Research Director at The Democracy Collaborative and Co-Director of the organization’s Theory, Policy, and Research Division. He joined TDC in 2010 as a research assistant to Gar Alperovitz. Thomas’ areas of expertise include democratic models of ownership and governance, particularly public and cooperative ownership. He has as published dozens of articles in popular and academic journals, and his recent publications include Our Common Wealth: The Return of Public Ownership in the United States (Manchester University Press, 2018), The Crisis Next Time: Planning for Public Ownership as an Alternative to Corporate Bank Bailouts (Next System Project, 2018) and, with Andrew Cumbers, Constructing the Democratic Public Enterprise (Democracy Collaborative, 2019).
Marjorie Kelly is a Senior Fellow and Executive Vice President at the Democracy Collaborative and an Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute. She oversees a variety of research and consulting projects in inclusive economic development, employee ownership, and place-based impact investing, working with groups that include city economic development, foundations, and anchor institutions. She was co-founder and for twenty years president of Business Ethics magazine. Kelly is coauthor of The Making of a Democratic Economy: Building Prosperity for the Many, Not Just the Few (2019, Berrett-Koehler Publishers), among other books.
Links
Democracy Collaborative
https://democracycollaborative.org/
New Economy Coalition
https://neweconomy.net/
California Public Banking Alliance
https://californiapublicbankingalliance.org/
Centre for Local Economic Strategies (UK)
https://cles.org.uk/
Transnational Institute
https://www.tni.org/en
About the SPIDERS Platform
This series of talks is organized on behalf of SPIDERS, the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on Equitable and Resilient Society, and funded by the Seoul Institute. The talks complement a series of original papers published on the SPIDERS platform, dedicated to outlining the building blocks of post-capitalist political economies and societies, not oriented around growth and profit, but rather good lives and a flourishing web of life in times of profound planetary change. Hosting these talks are founder of the P2P Foundation, Michel Bauwens, and Rok Kranjc, researcher, designer and translator in the...

In this talk, Pavlina R. Tcherneva helped us understand the Job Guarantee (JG) and associated policy proposals, diving into modern monetary theory, critiques of status quo arguments for continued unemployment, and the macroeconomic implications of the job guarantee system. She also helped us understand the timeliness of the job guarantee in light of the ecological crisis and recent discussions around the Green New Deal, as well as in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion includes reflections on the redefinition of work, including reproductive and regenerative activities, the future of project-based work, and the placement of the job guarantee within discussions on status quo growth and green growth versus degrowth or post-growth societal and political economic scenarios.
Biography
Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at Bard College and a Research Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute, NY. She specializes in Modern Monetary Theory and public policy. Her recent book The Case for a Job Guarantee (2020) was selected as one of the Financial Times best economics books of 2020. It is a timely guide to the benefits of one of the most transformative public policies being discussed today. Tcherneva has collaborated with policy makers from the US and abroad on designing and evaluating employment programs. Her early work assessed Argentina’s adoption of a large-scale job creation proposal she had developed with colleagues in the United States. She also worked with the Sanders 2016 Presidential campaign after her research on inequality had garnered national attention. Tcherneva frequently speaks at Central Banks on Modern Monetary Theory and macro-economic stabilization policies. Her current research evaluates the impact of unemployment on growth, income inequality, and public health. Tcherneva’s first book Full Employment and Price Stability (2004) is a rare collection of writings on employment and inflation by Nobel Prize winning economist William Vickrey, adapted for the modern day.
Links
https://jobguaranteenow.org/
https://democratizingwork.org/
https://global-summit.ilo.org/en/programme
About the SPIDERS Platform
This series of talks is organized on behalf of SPIDERS, the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on Equitable and Resilient Society, and funded by the Seoul Institute. The talks complement a series of original papers published on the SPIDERS platform, dedicated to outlining the building blocks of post-capitalist political economies and societies, not oriented around growth and profit, but rather good lives and a flourishing web of life in times of profound planetary change. Hosting these talks are founder of the P2P Foundation, Michel Bauwens, and Rok Kranjc, researcher, designer and translator in the fields of political ecology, alternative economies and participatory futures.
Link to the paper series:
http://seoulhumanities.or.kr/sub03/e_result.html

Cosmolocalism represents an emerging body of theory and practice. At its heart it envisions a planetary mutualization of knowledge, in which localities benefit from and contribute to all other localities through open design, open hardware, open medicine and open knowledge, all of which supports and accelerates human wellbeing and a transition to low eco-footprints / carbon economies, empowers communities as producers of what they need and generates livelihoods.
Biography
Jose M. Ramos is director of Action Foresight, a Melbourne-based business that focuses on bridging transformational futures with present-day action. He has taught foresight, public policy and social innovation at a number of universities, including at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Swinburne University of Technology, and the University of Sunshine Coast. He is senior consulting editor for the Journal of Future Studies, and has over 50 publications spanning economic, cultural and political change. He is the editor of the book The City as Commons: a Policy Reader (2016, Commons Transition Coalition) and editor of the upcoming book Planetary Cities.
Links
Commons Transition Coalition
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1106718069348108
The City as Commons: a Policy Reader
https://cdn1-blog.p2pfoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/city-as-commons.pdf
Planetary Cities: Future Hacking the Urban
https://our-better-selves.medium.com/planetary-cities-future-hacking-the-urban-61eb45867751
About the SPIDERS Platform
This series of talks is organized on behalf of SPIDERS, the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on Equitable and Resilient Society, and funded by the Seoul Institute. The talks complement a series of original papers published on the SPIDERS platform, dedicated to outlining the building blocks of post-capitalist political economies and societies, not oriented around growth and profit, but rather good lives and a flourishing web of life in times of profound planetary change. Hosting these talks are founder of the P2P Foundation, Michel Bauwens, and Rok Kranjc, researcher, designer and translator in the fields of political ecology, alternative economies and participatory futures.
Link to the paper series:
http://seoulhumanities.or.kr/sub03/e_result.html

Humanity’s most pressing need is to learn how to live within our planet’s boundaries — something that likely means doing without economic growth. How, then, can we create a non-growth society that is both just and equitable? Blair Fix attempts to address this question by looking at an aspect of sustainability (and equity) that is not often discussed: the growth of hierarchy. As societies consume more energy, they tend to become more hierarchical. At the same time, the growth of hierarchy also seems to be a key driver of income/resource inequality. In his essay, Blair Fix reviews the evidence for the joint relation between energy, hierarchy and inequality. He then speculates about what it implies for achieving a sustainable and equitable future.
To see the slide presentation which comprises the first half of this talk, see https://youtu.be/xOiH0itoJcE
Biography
Blair Fix is a political economist based in Toronto who is focused on the future of humanity, and how we can create economic theory that’s relevant to real-world problems. He is a multidisciplinary social scientist with a varied educational background, including engineering and jazz music. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from York University in Toronto, with the thesis “Economics from the Top Down: Does Hierarchy Unify Economic Theory?” His first book, Rethinking Economic Growth Theory From a Biophysical Perspective, was published in 2015. Economists who have influenced Blair include Steve Keen, Herman Daly, E.K. Hunt, and David Korten. Biologists of influence include David Sloan Wilson. Blair is continuing his research independently (outside of academia) and welcomes support via Patreon. His Twitter handle is @blair_fix.
Links
Blair Fix
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/
https://www.patreon.com/blairfix
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOHECa12PdRfkREaZvcHo2g
Capital as Power
https://capitalaspower.com/
Real-World Economics Review
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/
Degrowth
https://degrowth.org/ (International)
https://www.degrowth.info/en/ (International)
https://degrowthuk.org/ (UK)
https://www.postwachstum.de/ (Germany)
http://www.projet-decroissance.net/ (France)
https://ontgroei.degrowth.net/ (Netherlands)
8th International Degrowth Conference: Caring Communities for Radical Change, 24 – 28 August 2021
https://www.degrowth.info/en/the-hague-2021/
About the SPIDERS Platform
This series of talks is organized on behalf of SPIDERS, the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on Equitable and Resilient Society, and funded by the Seoul Institute. The talks complement a series of original papers published on the SPIDERS platform, dedicated to outlining the building blocks of post-capitalist political economies and societies, not oriented around growth and profit, but rather good lives and a flourishing web of life in times of profound planetary change. Hosting these talks are founder of the P2P Foundation, Michel Bauwens, and Rok Kranjc, researcher, designer and translator in the fields of political ecology, alternative economies and participatory futures.
Link to the paper series:
http://seoulhumanities.or.kr/sub03/e_result.html

In this talk, Mary Mellor helped us understand critiques of neoliberal theories of money, as well as radical alternative thinking on the subject, making the case for the democratisation of money as a route to socially just and ecologically sustainable systems of human provisioning, oriented around sufficiency. In the discussion, we delved deeper into seeming cooptations of modern monetary theory by incumbent elites and hegemonic discourses, and on the concept, the model or indicator of Gross Domestic Provisioning, and universal basic services.
Note: In the talk, it is stated that Elon Musk has invested 150 billion into Bitcoin - the correct figure is 1.5 billion.
Biography
Mary Mellor is Emeritus Professor at Northumbria University, where she was founding Chair of the University’s Sustainable Cities Research Institute. She has published extensively on alternative economics integrating socialist, feminist, and green perspectives. She is a founding member of the newly formed World Economics Association and is on the editorial board of several journals. Her books include Feminism and Ecology, The Future of Money: From Financial Crisis to Public Resource, and Debt or Democracy? Public Money for Sustainability and Social Justice. She holds a PhD from Newcastle University.
Links
Conference on central banks in Berlin in October 2021 (link pending)
About the SPIDERS Platform
This series of talks is organized on behalf of SPIDERS, the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on Equitable and Resilient Society, and funded by the Seoul Institute. The talks complement a series of original papers published on the SPIDERS platform, dedicated to outlining the building blocks of post-capitalist political economies and societies, not oriented around growth and profit, but rather good lives and a flourishing web of life in times of profound planetary change. Hosting these talks are founder of the P2P Foundation, Michel Bauwens, and Rok Kranjc, researcher, designer and translator in the fields of political ecology, alternative economies and participatory futures.
Link to the paper series:
http://seoulhumanities.or.kr/sub03/e_result.html