Barry -- Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability

338 Pages·2011·2.8 MB·English

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THE POLITICS OF ACTUALLY EXISTING
UNSUSTAINABILITY
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The Politics of
Actually Existing
Unsustainability
Human Flourishing in a Climate-Changed,
Carbon-Constrained World
JOHN BARRY
1
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3
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Preface and Acknowledgements
We are living in a time of great change and challenge. I feel that those of us
who have the privilege of having the time to learn, think, teach, and write
aboutthesechallenges—whetherinsocialscience,humanities,naturalscience,
engineering,thearts—haveanobligationtobothcommunicatetheseissuesto
the wider public, and to take action based on our empirically informed or
ethically/politicallyinformedjudgementsastothegreatquestionofourtime:
‘whatistobedone?’Thisshouldnotbereadassomehowindicatingacademics
should abandon their ‘internal’ practices of knowledge production and dis-
semination, pedagogy, peer-review, and so on. But it does bring to front and
centre the issue of whatisthe public dutyand responsibility of theacademic
(to use an idiom very much associated with the civic republican tradition
discussed later in thebook), that is, theacademic as citizen in relationto the
academicas‘knowledgeproducer’.
It is salutary in this case to note what Richard Rorty has identified as the
dereliction of this public duty on behalf of many academics (Rorty, 2000), a
pointechoedbyBrennaninarguingthatformanyacademics,‘atpreciselythe
historicalpointwhereweconfrontatotalizingprocessinpractice[neo-liberal
globalizedcapitalism],havechosentoopposeitbysayingwecannottotalizein
theory’ (Brennan, 2000: 14). This means that they abandon the intellectual
efforttoofferalternativestothe‘empire’ofcapitalism.Ibelieveweareliving
through extraordinary times, facing challenges and opportunities of such
magnitude, scale, and urgency that academics need, as this book indicates,
internalreformstocreateandencouragegreaterinterdisciplinarityinstudying
sustainability and unsustainability issues (something that is woefully lacking
within the UK and Irish university systems for example). But this internal
reformmustalsoaddressthefactthat,‘atpresentmostofouruniversitiesare
stillleadingthewayinadvancingthekindofthinking,teaching,andresearch
that...acceleratesunsustainability’(Wals,2008:31).
It seems to me that in reflecting on the issue of what ought the role of
universities andinstitutionsofhighereducationbe inthesetimeswehave to
takeacold,hardlookatwhetherthemodernuniversityis‘fitforpurpose’?As
David Orr asks, ‘Can organizations that purport to advance learning them-
selves learn to recalibrate their missions and operations to the larger facts of
globalecologicalchange?’(Orr,2004:160).What,inotherwords,istheroleof
universities in answering the twenty-first-century version of Lenin’s ever-
relevant question ‘What is to be done?’ We are living in turbulent times;
extraordinary times when we do need to rethink so much. Perhaps what is
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vi PrefaceandAcknowledgements
required is a revival of the tradition of the ‘public intellectual’ alongside a
greater acceptance and encouragement of ‘academic activism’, that is, aca-
demics(suchasmyself)whoseektobringtheirknowledgegainedwithinthe
academy to their fellow citizens, policymakers, politicians, the media, and so
on, through the medium of a specific political party (in my case the Green
Party) or social movement. We stand, I believe on a precipice and I am not
certainthatthetransitionwillbeeithersmoothornotinvolveaconsiderable
amount of human and non-human suffering, suffering that could be greatly
minimizedifdecisiveactionandleadershipweretakennow.Sadly,inlooking
aroundatgovernmentsaroundtheworld,dominantpoliticalparties,cultural
institutions, we find little evidence of the scale and urgency with which we
needtoact.Noranysenseofthegreatpotentialofthismoment,theopportu-
nity to create a better economic and social order, a point that will be made
constantly in this book. That it is not so much what we will lose in any
transition to less unsustainable societies, but rather what we are currently
‘losing’butdonotrecognizeorinsufficiencyrecognize,andalsowhatwehave
to‘gain’inmakingandmanagingthattransition.
Iwouldliketothankthefollowingwhoindifferentwayshavehelpedmein
writingandthinkingaboutthisbook.IparticularlywishtosingleoutMarius
deGeuswhonotonlyreadtheentiremanuscriptbutalsogavemehelpfuland
extremely detailed comments. In this there is continuity with my first book,
Rethinking Green Politics, which Marius also helped me to greatly improve.
Sam Alexander also provided me with appropriate, detailed, and extremely
fast feedback on chapters 1–5. I wouldalsolike to acknowledge thehelp and
support from other colleagues who read and commented on the manuscript:
Tony Buckley, Sean Byrne, Phil Cafaro, Peter Cannavò, Molly Scott-Cato,
AndyDobson,PeterDoran,DanGreenwood,IseultHonahan,PhilipOrr,and
RupertRead. IwouldalsoliketoacknowledgemythankstoKimSmithwho
notonlyinvitedmetocometoCarletonCollegeinMinnesotain2007where
manyoftheideascontainedinthisbookwerefirstdevelopedandpresented,
butwhoalsoco-authoredsomepublications,whichhavebeenbuilduponand
canbefoundinchapters6and7.JohnDryzekandtheCentreforDeliberative
DemocracyattheAustralianNationalUniversityprovidedmewiththeperfect
intellectualspacetoenablemetocompletethebook,andIwouldliketothank
both him and his family for making me and my family so welcome in
Canberra.
ThethreeanonymousreviewerscommissionedbyOxfordUniversityPress
offeredsomeexcellentsuggestionsforimprovingthebook,andIhopetheysee
some of their suggestions reflected in the final product. My colleague at
Queen’s University Belfast, Geraint Ellis, has over the past years provided
mewithsomeofthematerialandargumentsyoufindinthisbook,andIhave
thoroughly enjoyed our research and publication relationship over the past
decade.IwouldalsoliketothankPeadarKirbywhoseworkandactivismasa
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PrefaceandAcknowledgements vii
public intellectual in Ireland has done so much to inspire me and give me
confidencethatthispublicaspectofacademicworkneedstobemorepromi-
nentatthispresentmomentintime.
Mypresentationoftheideascontainedinthisbookatvariousconferences
overthepastnumberofyearshasofferedmetheopportunitytosharpenand
shift my argument, receive some excellent feedback and lines of thought to
pursue. Some of these conferences have been of course academic ones, and
I would like to particularly thank the Environmental Political Theory (EPT)
specialistgroupoftheWesternPoliticalScienceAssociation.TheEPTsection
notonlyprovidedachallengingandintellectuallyrobustbutalsoconvivialspace,
topresentsomeoftheideasofthisbookinPortland(2005),Albuquerque(2006),
Las Vegas (2007), and Vancouver (2009). And in various settings, academic,
political, and civil society, in Ireland, the UK, North America, China, Japan,
India,andAustralia,Ihavehadtheopportunityofpresenting,discussing,and
developing many of the ideas contained in this book with a wide variety of
audiences.AndIwouldliketothankallofthosewhotookpartinthosevaluable
exchanges.
In Ireland I have greatly enjoyed my involvement in both the Holywood
Transition Town and the Holywood Steiner School, and the various discus-
sionsIhavehadwithMikeHarper,TimKerr,SachaWorkman,JohnWoods,
Martyn Rawson, Linda McKeown, Heidi Steffen, Judith Matthews, Patricia
McIlhone, Lindesay Dawe and Francis Murphy and the late Ollie Baker and
Ed Galloway. My friend, farmer and provider of most of my family’s vegeta-
bles, John McCormick, and I have had many intense conversations over the
past nine years or so, and I greatly appreciated his ‘earth-based’ wisdom and
reflectionsoneverythingfromtheglobalfinancialcrisistopeakoil,andwhata
‘just transition’ to a low-carbon, high quality of life might look like in our
community.Ihavefoundinspiration,perspiration(andsometimesfrustration!)
inmyinvolvementinmydaughters’school,theHolywoodSteinerSchool,and
am convinced that its character-building and child-centred philosophy and
practiceofeducationiswhathasgivenmehopeformychildrentoberesilient
and flourish as we embark on the transition to a climate-changed, carbon-
constrainedworld.Ithinkaboveallelse,Steinereducationhasgivenmychildren
theabilitytolearnhowtolearn,tobeadaptableandhasgiventhemasenseboth
ofthemselvesasuniqueindividualsbuthasalsocultivatedinthemarespectfor
people,planet,andtheplacewelivein.AndforthatIamtrulygrateful.
Ihavealsoparticipatedandbenefitedfromtalkingtopeopleandanumber
ofnon-academicworkshopsandeventsassociatedwiththeTransitionmove-
mentontheislandofIreland.DaviePhillipfromtheCultivateCentreandthe
Cloughjordan ecovillage in Co. Tipperary in Ireland has provided me with
manyopportunitiesforpresentingandthinkingthroughsomeofthepractical
issues of creating more resilient communities. I have also benefited from
professional and personal friendship with James Orr now at Friends of the
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viii PrefaceandAcknowledgements
Earth Northern Ireland and formerly of Castle Espie Wetland and Wildfowl
Trust; Bonnie Horsman of Friends of the Earth and Transition towns; Jim
Kitchen (Northern Ireland Sustainable Development Commission); Sharon
Turner,SchoolofLaw,Queen’sUniversityBelfast.
MyinvolvementwiththeGreenPartyinIreland(NorthandSouth)hasalso
tobeacknowledgedasanimportantcontextandexperienceinformingsome
oftheideasdevelopedinthisbook.Itwasandisthroughmyparticipationin
theGreenParty,standingforelectionsanddealingwiththemediaandsoon,
that some of the ideas here were ‘applied’ and ‘road tested’ as it were. My
involvementinpromotingGreenpoliticsintheextremely‘tough’politicalsoil
ofapost-conflictsocietysuchasNorthernIrelandhasonlyservedtostrength-
en not diminish both my belief in Green politics, and also more importantly
the‘good’ofpoliticsandpoliticalactivism.Itwasmyprivilegeandhonourto
lead the Green Party in Northern Ireland during its ‘re-launch’ in 2003 until
2009, and to have played a small part in some of its most significant recent
achievements: its securing of its first elected representative in Councillor
Raymond Blaney in 2003; its evolution to being an ‘all island’ party in 2006;
and its electoral breakthrough in 2007 in securing its first Member of the
Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Brian Wilson; and the election of Steven
Agnewin2011totheNorthernIrelandAssembly.Butsuccessinsuchpolitical
venturesshouldnotbeonlymeasuredbythesestandardelectoralororganisa-
tionalachievements,importantthoughtheyare.Forme,Icountmyinvolve-
ment in Green Party politics as worthwhile in giving me the opportunity in
public meetings, door to door canvassing, in print, radio, or television, in
electionmaterials,newsletters,casualconversationsinthestreet,andsoon,to
explain, defend, and try and persuade my fellow citizens (and opponents in
other political parties), of why I am convinced of the rightness of Green
politics. And why one way we can help ensure a ‘just transition’ is through
theelectionofGreenPartypoliticiansandtheimplementationofGreenParty
policies.
AndtomywifeYvonneandtwochildren,SaoirseandDearbhla,Iowenot
justthanksforsupportingmeinwritingthisbookintermsofputtingupwith
mymanyabsences,butalsogratitudeforbeingtheinspirationbehindmuchof
whatthisbookisabout.
At times, and fully aware of the negative interpretations of this, I have felt
likethephilosopher/prisonerreleased fromPlato’scave, whoreturns, having
seentheworldoutsidethecave,totellfellowcavedwellersthatwhattheytake
to be real (the shadows on the wall cast by a fire behind them which they
cannot see) are not real. That one is convinced—absolutely convinced—and
hasempiricalandethicalargumentsandevidencetobackitup,thattheways
oflifewelive,thecurrentcapitaliststructureandorganizationoftheeconomy,
theculturalnarrativesbywhichwemakemeaningofourlives,areallunder-
mininghumanflourishing,perpetuatinginjusticeandinequalitieswithinand
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PrefaceandAcknowledgements ix
between societies, and are systematically unpicking the web of life on the
planet, is no guarantee of electoral or other success. In fact having ‘the facts’
and ‘the evidence’ is not even a guarantee that fellow citizens will even
understand what it is you are saying or trying to say to them. And one of
the things my political experience has taught me is that people will listen to
positivenotnegativestories,and‘facts’alone(evenpositivefactsnitratedinto
a coherent argument) will not persuade people to your point of view. I have
foundoutthehardwaythat(regrettablyperhaps?) politicallifeisnotlikean
academicseminar,doesnotcomeevenclosetoan‘idealspeechsituation’,and
its‘roughandtumble’isfilledwithstrategic,irrational,anddeceitfuldiscourse
andmanipulation.Butforallthat,politicsandpoliticalactivismarenotonly
necessarybut alsogood,andgiventhereis,asthis booksuggests,notechno-
logicalornon-politicaltransitiontoalessunsustainableeconomicandsocial
order and more resilient communities, what is needed is considerably more,
notless,democraticpoliticalengagementandactivism.Itistothoseengaged
insuchpoliticalworkthatIdedicatethisbook.
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