This story is an adaptation of a traditional, brought to us by guest blogger Carole Alderman. Lessons from a traditional story can be quite relevant to today’s emerging post growth world.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She didn’t have very much housework to do.
She enjoyed making jam,
With fresh fruit from the trees,
She had milk from the cow and honey from bees.

She was happy for a time until her cousin from the town visited her and showed her photographs of what seemed to the old woman, a fine, large residence. When her cousin went home, the old woman began thinking and comparing her shoe to her cousin’s home.

“Of course,” I wouldn’t want a big place like that she thought. “But I wouldn’t mind something a little bit bigger than this.”

The more she thought about it, the more she started becoming restless, until one day she began to look out for a bigger place to live. She wished she could have a box to live in, instead of the shoe. In time someone told her of some boxes nearby, one of which was empty, so she left her shoe and moved into the box.

The box was much bigger than the shoe, so there was more housework, and it was further to walk to the cow for her milk, but she still had plenty of time and reasoned that the exercise would do her good, so for a while she was happy with her new box. Until, one day, hearing she had more room, her cousin from the town came to visit bringing a friend along. The old woman enjoyed their company. She found them great fun with their bright clothes and laughter. She liked her cousin’s friend, although she was a little condescending. She was quite well off and had a big detached house.

After a week or so, her cousin and friend went home. Again the old woman became restless and was dissatisfied with the box.

“This is not much of a box for me to be living in,” she thought. “I felt quite ashamed of it, when my cousin’s friend showed me a picture of her lovely house. I don’t want much, but I wish I could just have a nice cupboard to live in. Then I would be happy.”

And so she worried and wished and wished and worried until eventually she got a cupboard.

At first, she was happy with the cupboard. She cleaned and painted it and made new curtains. It really was rather nice, although it was a lot of work. She had no time to make jam now. But she was quite proud of the cupboard.
She lived in the cupboard happily for a year or two and then she had a letter from her cousin saying she was moving into a big house near her friend. Suddenly her cupboard did not seem so big.

“This cupboard really is not big enough,” she thought to herself angrily. “I do not really like it in here. I would prefer something outside in the garden. A small shed perhaps. Yes! That would make me happy.”

Again she moved. This time into a lovely shed in a small garden with a pond, a beautiful lawn, flower beds, a herb garden and big, shady trees.

“Oh, this is heaven!” she thought. “This is what I’ve always wanted. I’ll train the red roses round the door. It’s so pretty, I’ll be happy for the rest of my life.”

And for a while she was. She trained the roses round the shed door and had to admit she was pleased with herself. It was a lot of work keeping the shed clean and with the extra gardening, she no longer had time to get honey. But she didn’t mind, as she was very pleased with the beautiful shed. She admired the garden with its pond, lovely lawn, flower beds, fragrant herbs and trees.

Then, one day, when she was taking tea on the lawn, her eyes began to look to the far end of the garden at the fine stone house and she became discontented with her shed.

“I want a house. I’m tired of this gloomy shed. Why shouldn’t I have a house like some others have?”

She again became restless and brooding. Time went by and she got a house. She was delighted with it and busied herself making it beautiful. She soon found that the leisurely life to which she had been used, was over, as she now had to go out to work to earn extra money for the upkeep and maintenance of her new home. Now she came home tired in the evenings. There was a lot of housework and with the extra expense of a bigger house, she could not afford to pay anyone to help her. But at least she had a house like her cousin.

Then one weekend, while she was out taking a walk, she saw in the distance a beautiful mansion. “I’d love to live in a mansion. Then my life would be complete. I’d want nothing more.”

Eventually she did live in a beautiful mansion.

“This is the life,” she cried with joy. “I’m so happy. I’ll never want more again.”

But the day-to-day business of running a mansion, with so many callers coming and going, so many people staying there, meant she never had a moment’s peace.

“Out of all the places I’ve lived in, I’m most unhappy here. It’s a beautiful place -to visit. But I don’t feel at home. I can’t afford the rent and I’m in debt. If only I’d been contented and stayed in the shoe, or even the box or cupboard. How foolish I have been. I’ve wasted my life worrying about what I hadn’t got, instead of enjoying what I had. How I wish I was back in the shoe. I used to love picking fruit and making jam. I had free milk and honey. I shall work to pay off my debts and I shall go back to the shoe.”

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She didn’t have very much housework to do.
She enjoyed making jam,
With fresh fruit from the trees,
She had milk from the cow and honey from bees.

Like us, the old woman who lived in a shoe
When plagued by desires, what could she do
But give them full rein, but the pleasure was short
And she never found the peace that she sought.

But then the old woman who lived in a shoe
Took up silent sitting and knew what to do!
Controlling her senses, and with inner view,
She found peace and contentment,
Perhaps you can, too!

‘The Old Woman who lived in a shoe’ appears in one of several hundred Lesson Plans which Carole Alderman has written for teaching children from ages 4 to 13 years. The ‘Sacred & Secular Education in Human Values’ programme draws on the great teachings and cultures throughout the ages who realised that happiness of both individuals and entire societies could only come from practicing ‘ceiling-on-desires’, and not by letting wants run unchecked.

No related posts.

“Pain is the price of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world. It is not only natural, it is an absolutely necessary component of our collective healing.”

-Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World

Living and writing the post growth story involves deeply sitting with and experiencing the psychological and spiritual pain associated with one’s own contributions and compliance towards the injustices and ecocidal practices of the industrial growth society. This process of addressing one’s relationship with the more than human natural world and the grief and despair that may accompany it, is one of the important areas being explored by the field of Ecopsychology and being addressed by concerned planetary citizens.

Having stumbled across this exciting field through the work of deep ecologist, Buddhist and systems thinker Joanna Macy, I have come to recognize Ecopsychology’s important contributions towards what Macy terms the ‘Great Turning’, or the emergence of a life-sustaining civilization.  I hope to share my gratitude for the insights emerging from Ecopsychology, and in doing so render its contributions and connections to the post-growth movement more transparent.

Ecopsychology

The interdisciplinary field of Ecopsychology emerged largely in response to concerns over a lack of recognition for the inextricable connection between human health and the state of the natural world. Individualized and skin encapsulated notions of the self are replaced with notions of an Ecological Self, where nature is viewed as an extension of oneself and the cultivation of one’s Ecological Identity becomes a central feature.

Informed by systems thinking, a bear for example is thought of as only 5% fur, teeth, and claws, and 95% salmon streams, old growth forests, and alpine meadows. Considering the rapid urbanization associated with the industrial growth society (where just this year over 50% of the earth’s population now live in densely populated urban centers), Ecopsychologists ask the question, ‘how are people responding to concrete, cars and sprawling suburbia?’ They conclude that feelings of overwhelm, guilt, fear, and anger just may be signs of our collective humanity and a social response to the disconnection and destruction of planetary systems that are occurring at this time.

Thomas Doherty, acting editor for the newly released peer-reviewed journal Ecopsychology, describes the origins of this field as initially a “counterweight to the human-centric, reductionist, and primarily intellectual modes of academic psychology and mainstream clinical practice”.  He believes current iterations of Ecopsychology, which embraces scientific inquiry, can offer important contributions to both understanding the complexity of current human-nature relationships and strategies for bringing forth a more sustainable future.

Ecopsychology includes much more than tree hugging romantics and formal academic researchers and psychologists. It involves all those who are concerned for the well-being of life and who recognize the destructive role that current human-nature relationships are having on future prospects of a life serving world. Ecopsychology calls into question the problematic logic of an expansionist worldview, the naturalization of capitalist economies, and the rampant individualization and separation of humans from the non-human natural world. It demands alternatives and provides insights and practices regarding what they may look like.

Ecotherapy Practices

Painting by Mila Czemerys

Ecopsychology celebrates the deep interconnection among all living beings and holds that there is a mutual interest in reviving severed relationships between the human and nonhuman natural world. As a result, Ecotherapy practices have come to encompass a diversity of earth-based healing approaches, including indigenous healing rituals, nature reconnection practices, ecological despair work, animal assisted psychotherapy, horticulture therapy, wilderness adventure therapy, and nature therapy, to name a few of the popular approaches.

A common thread running through all these practices is that nature is regarded as a crucial co-facilitator and cultivating human-nature relationships is a central component of the healing required to bring about a sustainable world. It is thought that once one’s Ecological Identity is cultivated, the natural world can no longer be seen from an I-IT perspective, but rather is changed to an I-Thou relationship. People will go to the ends of the earth to protect their home and family. If what is considered home and family extends to the ecologies in which they live, they will potentially stop at nothing to protect the salmon streams, trees, and watersheds in which they reside. As the scope of what is considered “self’ expands outwards, it comes to envelop an increasing amount of the world, until all of Gaia is potentially contained in each of us.                                                      

The work of Richard Louv, and particularly his book Last Child in the Woods has contributed enormously to raising the profile of what he calls ‘nature-deficit disorder’, or a severance with nature, and particularly how this is contributing to the deterioration of the health and well-being of children, youth, and adults in industrial societies. He speaks of positive early childhood experiences in nature as being key determinants of creating lasting ecological identities and a subsequent increase in proenvironmental behaviour later in life. Further, he explains how unstructured playtime, free-range children, and cultivating a sense of wonder and curiosity for the natural world is being threatened by increasing screen time, fear-based parenting, and a complete lack of access to green spaces. Thankfully, movements such as his own Child & Nature Network and Canada’s Child and Nature Alliance are working tirelessly to raise the profile of the importance of spending time in nature and the mental, physical, and spiritual benefits that go along with it.

A Practical Example- The Work that Reconnects

The scale of industrial growth societies impacts on the natural world, to ecosystems, and to the ecological processes that sustain life on earth is staggering. For many, much life energy is trapped in feelings of overwhelm, fear, and uncertainty. In order to retain one’s ability for movement, this energy needs to be released, sat with, and transformed. This basic tenet of embracing sadness, despair and grief in order to see the world with new eyes and conjure positive movement are components of Macy’s activist inner journey or what she calls the ‘Work that Reconnects’. This spiraling process involves 4 successive stages that are bound to one another and include:

1)      Opening to gratitude

2)      Owning our pain for the world

3)      Seeing with new eyes

4)      Going forth

Following the sequence allows for the emergence of something much greater than the some of their parts. Macy explains how

“the spiral begins with gratitude, because that quiets the mind and brings us back to source. It reconnects us to be more fully present to our world. Grounded presence provides the psychic space for acknowledging the pain we carry for our world. In owning this pain, and daring to experience it, we learn that our capacity to ‘suffer with’ is the true meaning of compassion. We begin to know the immensity of our heart-mind, and how it helps us to move beyond fear. What has isolated us in private anguish now opens outward and delivers us into wider reaches of our world as love, world as self”

Cultivating experiential knowledge of Ecopsychological principals are critical for promoting understanding and change. Macy offers a simple exercise, which can be done with a friend or stranger and involves completing the following sentences:

“Things I love about our world include…”

“Concerns I have about our world include…”

“A perspective I find inspiring or refreshing is…”

“Steps I can take to participate in the Great Turning include…”

Many other simple yet powerful practices can be easily found on her website at www.joannamacy.net or by reading her books and those by others.

Moving Forward to a Post-Growth World

We all have a responsibility and role to play in bringing forth a post-growth world. Many are clear on what needs to change and strategies for doing so. I have proposed that recognition for our inextricable connection to all inhabitants of this planet, cultivation of ecological identities particularly in children, and addressing psychological and spiritual pain and grief are valuable pieces of this puzzle.

The question is this: do we have the courage necessary to confront our fears and take the necessary steps towards a life sustaining world? Thankfully, the thinking and practices emerging from Ecopsychology provide some valuable guidance.

Related posts:

1. Safe Operating Limits for Spaceship Earth
2. Limits Literacy
3. Change In The Rangelands

The Occupy movement has spread to 2,512 cities worldwide, and its support networks stretch far beyond physical occupations. That it has grown so quickly without specific demands or hierarchical leadership is testament to the creative genius of its organisers. They understand a key lesson from web platform development of the past 10 years: provide an overarching framework yet let users define how they engage; in an era of collective individualism disinterest often arises from over-engineered outcomes. For Occupy, this has meant a ‘horizontal’ approach to leadership and the provision of a largely blank canvas for people to air grievances within a framework of broader discontent with ‘the 1%’. Specific demands, from identified leaders, could have left the movement open to co-option, rejection, or character assassination, all recipes for fizzle.

Understandably though, a contemporary return to ‘big fix’ thinking compounded by media frustration with ‘supposedly leaderless structures’, has seen increasing calls for Occupiers to present alternatives. However, the broader truth is that the world is yet to uncover a genuinely brilliant alternative to growth-based economics and its inherent creation of greater inequality.

Could 2012 be the year real alternatives emerge? I think so. Keep an eye on the Solidarity Economy, the Blue Economy, and the Steady State Economy, amongst other proposals. Indeed our own work at the Post Growth Institute is encouraged by the attention being given to prosperity without growth, property beyond growth, innovation without growth, and managing without growth.

In the meantime, with winter having arrived in most of the Northern hemisphere, I have a suggestion for how the Occupy movements can create greater internal resilience whilst simultaneously building for a huge 2012; how to take the movement’s peer-to-peer nature one step further. It involves employing a simple technique called ‘asset mapping’. In the case below – appropriate for any number of participants – this involves mapping the passions, knowledge and skills that Occupy participants already possess. I have successfully trialled this method with face-to-face gatherings, but the template can be easily customised for an online process or expanded to explore campaign, organisational or team-specific resources. It is essentially a form of real-time crowdsourcing, except in this case every bit of data is of potential, perpetual value to all involved.

Facilitating Asset Mapping

First up, here is one example of an outcome from this process, so that you know what it is to which you might be working!

The 10 Steps

1.     Gather the following materials: nine colourful post-it notes for every participant (e.g. 225 for 25 people), a pack of colourful sticky dots for every 10 participants, three big sheets of butcher’s paper for every 25 participants, and enough marker pens/pens for the group.

Tips: To produce the most visually appealing of asset maps, go for a range of colours (of the lighter kind) when selecting post-it notes. For pens, note that there is an ideal tip thickness that allows for legible writing and reading from a distance. Also, if needed, you can substitute words or symbols for sticky dots.

2.     Assemble your group in a way that allows participants to partner-up and ensure each has a something with which to write, a total of nine post-it notes, and access to sticky dots for a little later on.

Tips: I have found this exercise works well around tables where people can write on the post-it notes most easily. Ideally, participants will have a mix of colours with their post-it notes, but as long as there is diversity amongst the group it does not really matter (i.e., it is o.k. for a participant to have all the same colour or groups of colour with their post-it notes, as long as there is diversity in the room and across the asset map categories – ‘Heart’, ‘Head’ and ‘Hand’).

3.     Explain to the group the asset mapping process (i.e. the remaining six steps)

Tips: If you would like to introduce asset-based thinking to the group, you can read a quick introduction here. In addition to outlining the process I would suggest explaining the desired outcomes to the group, as well as how long the process should take (I have found 90 minutes plenty for a group of up to 100). I suggest highlighting that participants need only share that with which they are comfortable, and that a gift shared with one’s partner does not have to be recorded on a post-it note (i.e. there is no obligation to place anything on the butcher’s paper later on, but that the final maps are accessible to all participants, irrespective of whether they contributed specific gifts). Perhaps also highlight that this is, in part, a trust building exercise undertaken on the basis that every person’s shared offerings are respected and not open to exploitation.

4.     Ask everyone to write the words ‘Heart’, ‘Head’ and ‘Hands’ in the top left of the post-it notes, using one term per post-it note, and three post-it notes for each category.

Tips: So that they can be most easily read from a distance, consider suggesting that participants print their words, rather than use running writing.

Participants should now have a range of post-it notes in front of them, resembling the following (three of each):

5.     Ask participants to first record up to nine gifts – ideally three each of the ‘heart’, ‘head’ and ‘hand’ – with each gift written clearly in the centre of the post-it note listing its relevant category (allow 15-20 minutes for this). Participants are then invited to share their gifts with a person next to them in whatever way they desire. Explain the gifts as follows:

-       Heart: ‘I am passionate about…’

-       Head: ‘I have some knowledge around…’

-       Hands: ‘I know how to…’

Model the practice yourself to the group, e.g. “I am passionate about caring for animals, I have some knowledge around how to cut a mango properly and I know how to build a shed using timber and rope”.

Tips: Starting with the heart is the easiest way I have found for people to open up – everyone is passionate about something! Encourage participants to go beyond what they think people might expect them to say are their gifts – the more random the gift, the more likely it will be unique and therefore of even greater value to the group. That said, remind people that every gift is welcome in the space and that there is no obligation for people to share nine, or for that matter, any gifts. If participants seem lost, I encourage them to start with the exact sentences, i.e. “I am passionate about…”.

6.     Ask participants to add a coloured dot in the top right hand corner of each post-it note relevant to the amount they are willing to share. Distinguish between a ‘full-time’, ‘part-time’ and ‘casual’ offering.

Tips: I use the traffic light colours for dots. Here red means ‘casual’, orange or yellow means ‘part-time’ and green means ‘full-time’ – you can obviously improvise, as long as you make it clear to all involved. Consider modelling an example of each, e.g. casual might mean you can contact me once a year or every so often, part-time means I’m open to weekly/monthly engagement around this, full-time means contact me at any reasonable hour! It also helps to put up a super-sized example of a completed post-it note, somewhere clearly visible to the group.

7.     Ask participants to write their first name and best contact details along the bottom of the post-it note.

Tips: If relevant, remind people of the range of contacts from which they can select one to share, e.g. Twitter handle, email, phone number, Skype name or postal address. Let people know that they can write different contact details for different gifts.

8.     Ask participants to add a ‘$’ sign to the left of the sticky dot if they would like to charge for the use of their gift.

Tips: Encourage people to be honest about whether they would like to charge and remind people that it will be up to those involved to negotiate costs when each exchange occurs

Participants should now have a range of post-it notes in front of them, resembling the following:

9.     Ask participants to stick each post-it note on the relevant piece of butcher’s paper (each should be labelled either: ‘heart’, ‘head’ or ‘hands’) that will be on the ground or hanging vertically nearby. Offer people a good amount of time to review what goes up.

Tips: Best to have the butcher’s paper affixed to wall or pinboard in advance. Make sure the place where the assets will be displayed is accessible to a roving crowd. Trust that magic will now evolve. Encourage people to bathe in the beauty of their shared assets but also record immediately what offers they might like to follow-up!

Asset mapping at Gathering ’11

10.     Crowd-source someone from the group who is willing to put all the assets into a spreadsheet and distribute to the group electronically or through a printed version.

Tips: The new databasing volunteer should have everyone’s contact details from the bottom of the post-it notes, but if participants have not listed an email address (and for those who chose not to share their gifts publicly) you may want to facilitate a means of sourcing these at this point. Check also if anyone does not wish to be contacted with a copy of the maps. And do not forget to remind the new volunteer to put people’s addresses in ‘blind carbon copy’ if using email!

Asset mapping offers a simple, fast and inexpensive way to resource a movement. Because it focuses on what already exists, it’s positive in nature and is great at unearthing latent potential. Mapping assets provides a tangible seedbed of opportunity when campaigning needs to be put on hold. Once in a database, it’s easily updated by people themselves and also presents a medium through which people can maintain meaningful connections – it’s actually collaborative living in action! Perhaps most importantly, its informal nature facilitates the strengthening of connections and trust beyond casual acquaintances. But then again, that’s a common trait to most things that are free and fun!

Related posts:

1. Occupy – A Cultural Strike
2. Occupy Eyewitness – New York
3. Occupy Eyewitness – London

The problem is unemployment; only growth can create the jobs. Schools and hospitals are underfunded; the answer is faster growth. We can’t afford to protect the environment; the solution is more growth. Poverty is entrenched; growth will rescue the poor. Income distribution is unequal; the answer is more growth.

If the answer to the problem is always more growth then who dares ask the question: What if the problems are caused by economic growth?

Quote from ‘Growth Fetish’ by Clive Hamilton, sourced from postgrowth.org “Occupy – A Cultural Strike” by Amelia Byrne and Sharon Ede

As Hamilton and others are beginning to recognise, economic growth is not our only solution to life’s problems and the management of the economy is not our only purpose in life. We all have personal needs that can be satisfied by the economy but as social animals we also have communal needs.

I find it interesting that many traditional societies recognised this and revered gods of pleasure. For example, IxCacao, the Mayan goddess of chocolate was apparently married to EkChua, the god of commerce. Like many marriages it could be seen as a tug-o-war, the more commerce, the less time for chocolate. A happy and contented marriage struck a good balance between the two. This was further highlighted by the fact that the Mayans used cocoa seeds as their currency. Think about it – you can work hard to earn lots of cocoa seeds but if you don’t take a chocolate break your seeds will eventually lose their freshness and become worthless. Another way of looking at it is that the purpose of work was to have enough chocolate to share with others.

In any case, there was no point storing up riches. Money was used only to facilitate trade and a balanced life included spending time with loved ones.

The Ancient Greeks took a different approach to the same issue. In addition to pleasure as an opposing force to commerce, they regarded all communal functions as diametrically opposed to the economy. That is, as well as social functions, they included public functions related to building a community and a city in this category. Dionysos was their god of wine, ritual pleasure and theatre. I call him the god of the public domain.

At the end of each work-day Greeks would gather in a symposium to drink with fellow citizens. The word ‘symposium’ is a compound Greek word, from ‘sym-‘, which means ‘together’ and ‘potein’, which means ‘to drink’. So a symposium was a forum where people drank wine together, a place where citizens interacted, debated, partied, a place of communion. The symposium was central to the Classical Greek understanding of ‘city’, of ‘household’, of ‘economics’ and of the distinction between the ‘public domain’ and the ‘private domain’. The symposium was held in a room, which was a part of the home but usually connected to the public square. It provided both a bridge, and a clear separation, between the public domain of the city, or the polis, and the private domain of the household.

The role of the host was crucial to the symposium because before the guests arrived he was responsible for diluting the wine. Diluting wine you say?!! Well Greeks considered that diluting wine showed that, as a civilized society, they were able to control, or manage, the use of alcohol. You see, when the host added water to the wine it was an indicator that he wanted a serious conversation, the symposium would be a ‘public’ event. When he chose not to add water, the symposium would be a ‘social’ event, he was happy for his guests to get drunk. So the Greeks had a clear and practical way of distinguishing the ‘social’ from the ‘public’.

Now, we generally understand what is meant by a ‘social’ event, let’s call it a party; but to fully understand what they meant by ‘public’, we must appreciate why Greeks offered diluted wine and didn’t instead offer, say, orange juice.

To the Greeks, wine was symbolic. The Greek god Dionysos was the god of wine, theatre and of resurrection after death. You might say, what do these godly duties have in common? Well, when you drank wine, you became different, you were no longer your usual or natural self. An actor at the theatre pretended to be someone other than his usual self and of course, the resurrected self was not the natural self. The Greeks used the word ‘ecstasy’, literally from ‘ec-‘, meaning outside and ‘stasis’, meaning ‘state’, your natural state or present situation and so Dionysos was the god of ecstasy. When you were ‘ecstatic’ you were outside or beyond your natural state and this was important to their idea of the public domain. To enter the public domain you had to drink wine in the symposium, specifically diluted wine, so that you could step outside your usual state. You had to step outside the private domain to enter the public. They were mutually exclusive. The private domain was governed by necessity and the responsibility to provide food, clothing and housing. To enter the public domain you had to firstly conquer the private domain. To be a free citizen you had to be free of necessity.

This is reinforced by the word Greeks used for managing the household. The ‘ikea’ or ‘ekos’, from which we derive the prefix ‘eco-‘, means household and ‘economia’ or ‘economy’ was the management of the household. The Greeks believed that the economy is the burden of our existence in the natural world. A responsible citizen would satisfy his economic obligations before participating in public affairs, which he could then do voluntarily and as afree citizen. Citizens would strive to complete these responsibilities as efficiently as possible so they could attend public events together with other free citizens. Freedom was freedom from economy, freedom from work, freedom from private responsibility. Only citizens who were free of economic responsibilities could offer the city a just government. The ecstasy of the free citizen standing in the public domain was an early expression of our idea of man conquering nature; but he conquered nature with the aim of being free to debate with his fellow citizens about how to build a good city.

This clear and deliberate separation of the public and the private domains is not unique to Classical Greece. In the Americas, tobacco, hemp, chocolate and coffee were variously used and served the same purpose as wine in Athens and so they were venerated in the same way. I wonder to what extent our drug addictions relate to our addiction to, or desire for, freedom?

Closer to home, we theoretically divide our week to separate the public from the private through the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. These were both adopted as a day of rest and as a holy day. We once left behind the demands of work and the economy for one day in seven so as to focus on personal and community development. Today, we no longer have holy-days, we have a break, an escape or a vacation. We aim to separate or vacate ourselves from the daily grind, from the economy, but rarely with the conscious intention of finding a space for growth and development. We speak of recreation and do not appreciate that the word is re-creation, a time and place where we re-discover or re-invent ourselves through our interaction with others.

When these ideas were rediscovered during the Renaissance, the separation of the public realm from the private was expressed through clothing. People wore fine quality, clean, colourful, elaborate and impractical clothing to differentiate themselves from the laborers, to show that they were free. Hence the Italian love for fine clothes and your mother’s insistence that you wear your Sunday best to church where you received diluted wine so as to commune with the divine.

Today we, white-collar workers, have adopted the Renaissance idea of distinguishing ourselves from laborers through the clothing that we wear. We claim to show that we are free by ironing our shirts and wearing a tie. I like to call it the irony of the iron. We also purchase expensive material goods to show that we have the financial freedom to do so but ironically we fund these purchases by increasing our debt, a burden that limits our freedom. In Australia at least, average household debt is three times higher than it was in 1990 both when compared to income and when compared to the value of assets. The need to show that we are free has become the burden that steals our freedom.

So is there a simple summary of the distinction between private and public? The private domain is the domain that focuses on private interests, on the economy, on self-interest and this should not be over-looked. We need to provide for our personal necessities. The public sphere, on the other hand, is the place for focusing on public interests, on the interests of others who are not necessarily connected to us; it is the domain of selflessness. Where we come together with our neighbours to deal with our common interests and to create a common culture; it is the place of compromise, where we forfeit a little of our own interests so as to build common assets and a common understanding of our collective selves; the place where we willingly and freely help others, where everyone benefits through the free contributions of others. It is not possible to be selfish and selfless at the same time. You must choose to be selfless. You must choose to create a public domain.

Earlier, I deliberately used the expression ‘man conquering nature’ because Athenians, unlike other Greeks of the time who mostly lived communally, were so enamored by the idea of the public domain, that in their minds, it was justifiable to use any means necessary to conquer the private domain. This allowed them to justify slavery and the oppression of women in the household. Tyranny was justified in the household, because it allowed the head of the household to become a free citizen. But, of course, the maxim always holds that ‘the ends never justify the means’.  It is not possible to cultivate tyranny in the household and expect that the free citizen will enter the public domain as a just man. It is not just about putting boundaries on economics, but how you establish those boundaries.

According to the philosopher Hannah Arendt, “Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity.” I would argue that revolutions invariably begin because one segment of society is doing all the labor while another segment has all the power. This is the substance of the #occupy movement. The Athenians justified slavery because their rhetoric suggested that somehow slaves would benefit by living in the greatest city or the biggest or most powerful city; but a great city is different to a good city. The Sabbath allows everyone to be free once a week. We need to create a time and a space in our cities that allows all people to be free. Not bound by another set of oppressive rules, as required by organized religion, but free. We need to build a free public domain; and this should be the aim of housing theory. How do we build homes that assist us and free us rather than being a burden, both in terms of maintenance and in terms of the mortgage debt?

Surely a more beautiful society would be one where the citizens freed themselves, not by conquering nature but by mastering it, by being stewards of nature, by working in harmony with nature to satisfy their needs. Surely we can build our households based on this interdependence and harmony so that all can be freed some of the time. We have learnt so much in recent years about water cycle management, about permaculture, food cycle and waste management and about passive architectural design and energy cycle management. Surely we are in a position to build a self-sufficient household for a clan of say, 10 or 20 people. Not just any 10 or 20 people as the ‘free-market’ will throw us together, but intentionally grouped by the people themselves because of common interests and, most importantly, because of complementary skills. I imagine a household where all the residents are equal shareholders so that the burdens do not fall on one or two in the household; and where there is a gathering place for holding a symposium.

This self-sufficient household for a small clan is my dream for our future and for the future of housing.

If anyone is interested in developing a collaboration/social networking site that facilitates the collection of people into clans and providing homes, converting social networking sites into ‘public networking’, maybe converting facebook to placebook, then please comment below or read my other papers at www.polisplan.com.au and contact me with your ideas.

There is one catch, this is not an economic project, it is a public project. There is no money in this, it’s a labour of love!

True fellowship among men must be based upon goals that are universal. It is not the private interests of the individual that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals of humanity…”

I Ching, foundation text of Chinese society

Cross-posted from Polis Plan, 18 November 2011

Related posts:

1. Freedom from money
2. Book Review: Not For Profit by Martha C. Nussbaum

Related posts:

1. Occupy Eyewitness – New York
2. Asset Mapping For The Long Haul: A Strategy For Occupy Movements
3. Occupy Eyewitness – London

This is the second in a series of articles from the Post Growth Institute reporting on-the-ground impressions of Occupy events around the world. The London account includes observations by Post Growth’s Sharon Ede – who happened to be visiting her friend, documentary film maker Mike Freedman - in London on the day Occupy London commenced, and footage and reflections by Mike, including an interesting insight into Occupy from the perspective of the police. 

What was the feeling like at the Occupy you visited?

Occupy London Stock Exchange (LSX) happened to kick off right at the end of a visit I had with a friend of mine in London. Mike was keen to see what was going on too, so we both headed off to the London Stock Exchange on 15 October.

The original plan for Occupy LSX had been for people to gather in the area outside the stock exchange, however I discovered a police line blocking access and claiming that area was ‘private property’. I was pointed in the direction of St Paul’s Cathedral by a man sitting nearby the police line, who also told me that if I went inside the cordon at the cathedral, I may not be able to get out. I later discovered that this meant you could come and go as you wished, but if events did turn violent, the police would  ‘kettle’ (contain) those within the cordon - people would not be allowed leave, and could be effectively detained there for many hours.

Within the inner police cordon, several hundred people were gathered on the steps and immediate surrounds of St Paul’s Cathedral. There was a space of about ten feet between the two police lines of the inner cordon, and the outer cordon, beyond which many more hundreds of people had gathered to be part of the demonstration and to hear speeches that were made on the steps of the cathedral. There was a helicopter overhead, police dogs on hand and a large police presence – the authorities are still skittish after the London riots earlier this year.

But aside from a minor a scuffle that occurred briefly outside a Starbucks, it seemed to me there was no energy in the air that hinted at violence. The crowd was a wide cross-section of ages and appearances, banners, drums, signs and included various media crews, independent and mainstream, local and international. They were orderly and peaceful. There were a lot of people in conversation with each other.

What kinds of conversations did you have with people, or did you overhear?

The man who warned me about going inside the inner cordon told me that he would never normally have gone to a protest like this, a year or two ago. His words to me were ‘I was asleep then, I’m awake now’. I talked to him a little about what we are doing with Post Growth, and gave him a card. There were a few people who were questioning the police, asking them why they were even there, as it was a peaceful protest.

Mike’s short documentary of the day gives an interesting insight into the psyche of the police, and the conflict they bear in having to carry out their duty despite any personal views they may hold – the police force is one of many public services experiencing cuts, and such austerity measures are one thing the ‘Occupiers’ are speaking out against. Mike struck up a conversation with one senior officer who would not shake hands, but said he wanted it all over so he could go home and have his dinner. Maybe there was a sense, or hope on the part of the police on that first day, that Occupy LSX was a flash in the pan. Nearly four weeks on, it’s clearly not.

The day before the protest began, I began following the Occupy London Facebook page. There were a couple of hundred followers. 48 hours later when I left London, there were over 10,000. There are now over 30,000. Anyone who tries to tell you that social media is only keeping us isolated, or is ‘clicktivism’, doesn’t understand the power of social media for organising real-world action and conversations that can and do create momentum for change. Occupy began in Wall Street on 17 September, yet it was a good week or two before the mainstream media would report on it – but the news was being posted to Facebook and Twitter.

Did you notice anything or encounter anything that signalled post-growth thinking?

There was one hand scrawled sign that asked why we were creating money as debt, which is a key driver of growth. Since then, Positive Money (based in London, and whose Executive Director I met with earlier that week) have been down to the site to talk to people there on this issue. Other than that, nothing specifically, except a general sense that things are very broken and unfair, and need fixing.

But is it sufficient to patch up the old system so it works a little more fairly for a little longer? Or is it time for a broader conversation about reinventing not only the economy, but the social contract?

Between Two Mirrors – Urban Anthropology

A short documentary shot by Mike Freedman on the first day of Occupy London, 15 October 2011

‘It’s like being caught between two mirrors…’

Excerpts from Mike’s ‘Open Letter to the Occupiers’

On the role of the police:

The law is such that the police will enforce it as ordered regardless of its substance.  In instances when the police have used heavy-handed tactics, they have done so because they are upholding the law as it has been explained to them and along the lines by which they have been instructed to do so.  This is not a semantic point, but a very important key to our future as social beings on this beautiful planet of ours.  A change in the law will change the behaviour of the police.

The police force is exactly that – it is a force, a tool which does the bidding of the hand which wields it.  I may personally disagree with a great deal of the laws currently on the books, and I may wholeheartedly disagree with the manner in which those laws are sometimes enforced, but the police are not the enemy…

When the laws are changed to better suit the idea of justice and governance that befits us as an intelligent life form, the police will be on the front line of keeping those laws intact.  The neutrality of the police may be a most incomprehensible thing to those witnessing violence as a result of it, but that neutrality is also to our advantage.

Police men and women who will use baton and pepper spray to subdue those allegedly violating public order will steadfastly turn those weapons on whomever is designated an opponent to public order, no matter how it is defined.  If this is the case, as I believe it to be, then we have no enemy in the police.  They are human beings, just like us, and the structure which they are a part of has convinced them that we must be watched and subdued.

The police in Britain and across Europe have undergone some of the most stringent cutbacks in wages, man-hours and employment numbers.  These protests stand, among other things, for equitable wages in return for fulfilling work.  These police men and women are the people we are fighting for.  They just don’t know it yet, and if they do, they have pressures of their own to account for their silence as they wait patiently for the law to allow them to act in accordance with their beliefs.

Whether or not people should follow orders they disagree with is by the by.  It is both dishonest and unfair to expect them to behave differently to how we think we would in their place, because we are not in their place.  They are not our enemy.  There is no “they”.  There is only “us”….

On change:

True revolution begins in the mind.  If we learn the ways of the oppressors only to replicate those ways when we have replaced them, then we have achieved nothing.  The only true revolution begins with the realisation that we are all one.  Beneath political and social definitions and dynamics, there is no oppressor and oppressed.  There are only vulnerable, fearful people manipulated by deeply rooted buttons which those who wish to retain power know how to push…

Any threat to power can be very frightening.  This is why ideas are the commodity most tightly regulated in our cultures.  Our modern global system is built on piles of abstractions and unquestioned assumptions.  To maintain the structure of this ideology, built as it is on quicksand, only a superficial amount of idea variation is tolerated before the protectors of the structure crack down…

The deeply extractive, materially fixated, morally bankrupt, ecologically and socially destructive number games which are played world wide right now are simply a washed-out perversion of an underlying economic truth which has been lost over time, namely that people require access to goods and services in complex societies and the easiest manner in which to distribute those goods and services is by the use of a common means of exchange which frees the labourer from needing to find a supplier who wants the thing he produces…

It can no longer be a social norm that goods arrive before us with no provenance and no moral association other than our desire for them.  It can no longer be morally (let alone intellectually) justifiable to bang on about economic growth in the OECD nations when the major purpose of growth is to support the growing debts we accumulate through a persistence in allowing money to be created as a debt-bearing thing rather than circulated as a debt-free service.

The strict extractive system which is currently in place in the OECD nations, centred on taxing the people in order to service debt generated wilfully, will never resolve inequity either at home or abroad…

Asking for what the wealthy have is irrelevant.  We should have something far greater in our sights: a real birthright for every living thing on this planet, in balance, understanding and peace.

Related posts:

1. Occupy Eyewitness – New York
2. Occupy – A Cultural Strike
3. Asset Mapping For The Long Haul: A Strategy For Occupy Movements

This is the first in a series of articles from the Post Growth Institute reporting on-the-ground impressions of Occupy events around the world.

How did you first hear about Occupy?

I live part of the year in New York and part in Sweden. The first news I heard of Occupy were whisperings in emails from friends in New York about the upcoming event – many not quite sure what to make of it. It was not something that I had consciously chosen to pay attention to. But, as we were harvesting the last carrots and busy putting layers of hay on our gardens for the winter in Sweden, news of it crept in. I began to see Facebook postings from people I know who were at Wall Street, and cell phone snapshots of well-known artists and cultural theorists who where there, such as (theorist) Cornell West and (filmmaker) Jonas Mekas.

The next I heard of Occupy was a series of articles printed in the Stockholm commuter newspaper, Metro, that many people read on the way to work and school (see image below).  This made it feel real to me: the news of the demonstrations in New York reaching across the world to become a part of the rhythm of daily life in Sweden.

What was the feeling like at the Occupy you visited?

Returning to New York last week I visited Occupy Wall Street for the first time. Zuccotti Park, the heart of the occupation, is a place that I’d never particularly noticed before, though I have walked by and through it. It lies just up the street from Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, and on the other side is Ground Zero, and the September 11 memorial. The first evening I visited there were a couple of hundred people gathered in the concise rectangular park, which has a footprint the size of the large buildings in the area. I was struck by the organization of the space: paths were clear, tents were neatly covered in tarps, folks were singing in one corner dedicated to song and spirit, delicious looking pizzas were being served for dinner, there were people staffing a media relations tent, and a library with books for loan and reference organized in rows inside water-proof containers.

In the evening darkness, most people were gathered at one end of the park, and a meeting was underway. When a person spoke they would stand in the middle of a thick circle of people. As they spoke, the crowd repeated their words, amplifying them for others to hear. It was a beautiful, slow dance: people chose their words carefully and spoke in short, clear sentences, that could be then carried out further on the crowd’s voices. Ripples of agreement or disagreement with the speakers and ideas being discussed moved through the crowd: not in voices, but through hands. Among other things, the demonstrators were considering how to spend some of the $100,000+ raised in recent weeks. A sea of approving hands moved up from the crowd as a proposal was made to buy tents to send to fellow protesters in Oakland, CA – a sign that consensus was being neared. And, the meeting continued making space for further debate…

Any other thoughts?

Being there physically, at Occupy Wall Street, the symbolism of the occupation hit me. That is: the occupation as a symbolic gesture. In the midst of the surrounding highly charged buildings – the sites of the 2001 attacks on New York and the epicenter of the financial world and its crisis, it seem that a new kind of power had arrived. A perhaps tenuous, but fierce and measured power holding a space, its own space, a space for another way of being in the world – for that possibility – for many people’s desires of what that possibility could be. A power occasionally drawing its energy from opposition to the status quo, but also from within itself. Asserting itself as an equal, as a way of walking forward with or without the approval and acceptance of the powers that be. Even more beautifully of course, this power has been spreading across the country and the world. I hope that it continues to develop it – resisting the pressures to collapse or temptations to extremes (and there are certainly many contradictory and challenging energies in the mix) – evolving a space for the 99%.

Any particular readings or resources you would recommend?

If you get a chance take a look at Ethan Miller’s OCCUPY * CONNECT * CREATE series, at www.geo.coop, for a thoughtful perspective on Occupy. For a post growth related perspective, take a look at filmmaker Ben Zolno’s work for the Post Carbon Institute on talking about the “end of growth” at Occupy.

Related posts:

1. Occupy Eyewitness – London
2. Occupy – A Cultural Strike
3. Asset Mapping For The Long Haul: A Strategy For Occupy Movements

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been struck by a series of good news stories that have accidentally been reported as bad news stories.  Here they are:

1. Fewer new cars were registered on Britain’s roads this year.
2. The supermarket chain Tesco has posted its lowest growth figures for 20 years.
3. The British arms company BAE Systems is facing a wave of redundancies.

All of these were reported in the business section, in sombre journalism full of words like ‘disappointing numbers’, ‘weakness’, ‘lacklustre performance’. Why? Because things are supposed to grow. Companies are supposed to get bigger every year. Sales can only ever go up. Market share can only ever expand.

This is a problem, because if we actually follow through on that, it takes us to places we don’t want to go. “Healthy” end of year growth figures are celebrated, and we don’t stop to ask what happens if those figures continue unquestioned, year after year.

So, more new cars sold every year is considered a good thing – British car companies make profits and create jobs. But do we actually want more cars on the roads every year? The roads are pretty congested as it is, so every new car being registered makes things worse for the drivers already out there. With more cars comes higher CO2 emissions and greater oil dependency.

There were 332,476 new cars registered in September, in what is considered a bad month. Even if you’re sceptical of peak oil and climate change, is it really possible to add hundreds of thousands of cars to the roads every month, forever?  Taken to its logical conclusion, the result is a Britain which is nothing but roads, and so full of cars that they can’t actually drive anywhere. Cars, bumper to bumper, coast to coast. And then more cars just stacked on top of them, presumably, if we have to have more the following year.

Likewise, Tesco is one of Britain’s biggest companies. It already controls 30% of the grocery market, and it has voraciously devoured independent shops up and down the land. Obviously growth in Tesco’s market share is a good thing for its shareholders, but it really isn’t for anyone else.

For Tesco to grow, it has to persuade people to buy more food in a country where we throw away a third of the food we buy, and a quarter of us are obese. It has to take over smaller stores and other supermarket chains, crushing local diversity, annihilating competition and reducing choice. And it has to diversify into insurance, banking, mobile phones, holidays, until everything you ever buy is from Tesco. Do we actually want to live in a country where one corporation does everything? If not, then modest profits for this quarter are a good news story.

Finally, BAE Systems. In what was generally described as a “black day for British business”, BAE announced the closure of one of their factories. Now, this is obviously a big loss to the 3,000 people directly affected, and the community that is losing the employer, so I don’t want to be dismissive. However, when an arms manufacturer reports a decline in demand for their fighter jets, that’s good news.

Consider the opposite if you’re not convinced. The best thing for stimulating the security and defence sector would be a rise in political tensions, more global conflict, maybe a new arms race between Russia and China. Not exactly good for humanity, but great for job creation at BAE. That’s why Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex of course – don’t tie your economy to defence in such a way that peace becomes bad news.

The growth imperative has stolen our sense of perspective. We don’t care where we’re going, as long as we are constantly moving in the direction we have come to understand as forward. There is an endless focus on this quarter’s numbers, this year’s final figures, and no concern for the cumulative effect of that growth, the consequences further down the track.

I’ve certainly got a few ideas about where I’d like society to go. It includes green space and liveable cities, local business and ethical trading; a stable climate, clean water, and thriving biodiversity; greater equality, strong communities, healthy democracy. I’d like more peace and justice and human happiness.

We can agree on most of that, right? So let’s recalibrate our standards of what’s good and what’s bad – because growth, in itself, can be either.

Related posts:

1. Food, Population, and Good Old Conversation
2. News
3. Add It Up & The Daly News

This article has been cross-posted from whydev.org

Economic Growth: Accessible for some but not all

The global economy, even before its evolution and sophistication, was and is about access; about controlling access to resources, knowledge and markets. Economic growth for any one nation is also predicated on this same concept of access. However, as the many of the current economic, political and social systems are set up, only a small percentage of a given population benefit from a nation’s acquired access. They have privileged access through geography, patronage, gender, status, nepotism, corruption, and family history.

For example, in the U.S, the top 20% of the population have 85% of the wealth. This year, the poverty rate in the U.S hit 15.1%, or 1 in every 6 people. In Australia, according to a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the wealthiest 20% of households in account for 62% of total household net worth. Research has also shown that such wealth inequality is not truly understood by the public.

“I think one of the reasons that we see people having a disconnect between understanding how much wealth inequality there really is, is this very strong American belief in the ability to be socially mobile and to be mobile with your wealth. So people have very strong beliefs that across generations and even in their own life they can go from rags to riches. And it’s certainly possible. I mean one of the fantastic things about America is that that is in fact possible. But it’s much, much rarer than people believe, and especially wealth transmission, so money that goes from generation to generation to generation is very flat. So it tends to perpetuate a great deal over time” (Prof. Michael Norton, Harvard Business School).

Development without growth

Wealth in very uneven in its distribution, both in the U.S and Australia, and across the world. Yet, international institutions continue to push for economic growth-oriented policies in international development contexts. These policies are deeply rooted in a particular understanding and histories of industralisation, capitalism and growth. However, there are others, such as many UN agencies, smaller actors such as Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), and individuals like Amartya Sen, who push for a broader understanding of, and approach to, development. Ones that encompass well-being, social, environmental and human development, reframing concepts of freedom and happiness without the intense focus on wealth.

However, this concept of access has trickled down into our articulation of these new spaces in development, and into sectors such as microfinance and education. It is believed that greater access to, and control of, finances and credit will empower and reduce poverty. Yet, the evidence is far from conclusive. In education, for example, the eight Millenium Development Goals (MDG) articulate access. In particular, MDG number two and three which relate directly to education say nothing of learning.

Indeed, it is not even stated in the MDGs whether children need to learn once they are in a classroom. It was wrongly assumed or just not considered. It is only recently that international attention has prioritised a post-access agenda as data reveals declining standards, high dropout rates, and low achievement rates in countries such as Uganda, Ghana and India. Although there has been remarkable success in striving towards the MDGs, in some cases, we are seeing rising levels of inequity. For example, according to a World Bank report on Ghana, a girl in a rural area from the poorest quintile is 13.9 times more likely not to have attended school than a boy in an urban area from the richest quintile. This is despite the government achieving almost universal primary school access and an average GDP growth rate of 5% over the past decade.

It is not such a far leap to then say that the access agenda is characteristic of very individualist societies, and has perhaps contributed to a blindspot on equity.

Sharing as a basis for economic and educational development

The conventional wisdom holds that if a child has access to education, then it is their responsibility to take advantage of it. Traditional educational pedagogies encourage individualism and competition. Through learning activities, standardised assessment tasks and even whole systems. Complimented by extra-curricular activites, children are constantly encouraged to compete against their peers; even when with a team, they compete against a team of their peers. Education systems are geared towards giving children a competitive advantage throughout their lives.

But, what if we were able to change this narrative? To encourage truly collaborative learning, in which children share knowledge, ideas, resources rather than compete for access? If we want to challenge the current economic growth model, then it must start with education. An initiative of the Post Growth Institute, an international group seeking to inspire people to explore paths to global prosperity that do not rely on economic growth, has begun the challenge through an innovative and participatory approach.

On September 15th, at various public locations worldwide, people handed out their own money to complete strangers, two coins or notes at a time, asking the recipients to pass one of these coins or notes on to someone else. The aim was to raise awareness and start conversations about the benefits of economies based on sharing, as well as offering a learning experience that gets us thinking more critically and creatively about our relationship with money and how we could have new types of economic activity. It would be great to see this event adapted to schools to include children, teachers and parents in conversations about not just economies, but education, based on sharing.

Related posts:

1. Four Degrees of Sharing
2. Two Myths That Keep The World Poor
3. Book Review: Not For Profit by Martha C. Nussbaum