Realist utopias? Green alternatives to capitalism
While environmental economists have argued that environmental problems can be measured and added to production costs to neatly ‘internalise’ otherwise hidden externalities, green economists are sceptical. Even Jonathon Porritt (2005) in a recent book which seems superficially to defend capitalism notes that our existing economic system is unsustainable and we need a rather different form of capitalism. Markets seem to have a built-in growth imperative; while markets evolve and the system becomes more ornate with finance capital including shares and hedge funds, a basic principle remains. In a market, access to goods and service is via money. To get money one has to sell a commodity; for most of us this is our labour. There is a tendency to monetise ever more areas of life: a rainforest can be sold to farmers to grow soya or made to make money through various forms of intensive cultivation. The principle of producing and consuming more and more for ever and ever seems economically vital yet ecologically suspect. One approach to dealing with this dilemma has been to invoke natural capitalism, looking at ways of producing more while using fewer resources. This approach may be aided by an economy which trades increasingly in knowledge. However the principle of an economy that can only survive with constant accumulation tends to build in an anti-ecological trend. If we can cut down a forest, sell the timber and then use the land cleared as a parking lot, this creates economic growth; if we leave it to the birds this does not facilitate accumulation. The growth imperative of capitalism has led to the search for alternative forms of economic regulation. Anti-capitalism from Marx and before has a lengthy history. To some state intervention seems a way of achieving an alternative economic system. I was intrigued to read in Andrew Simm’s interesting Ecological Debt (2005) book that while capitalism was unsustainable and needed to be transcended, the fact that the UK economy Environmental Politics, Vol. 16, No. 3, 518 – 522, June 2007
The Energies of Activism: Rethinking Agency in Contemporary Climate Change Activism
This thesis is concerned with the energies of activism, and uses an exploration of the concept of ‘energy’ to rethink the agency of activism, rethinking: what counts as an act, who counts as an actor, and in particular how action is produced in activism. This process of rethinking brings recent theorising around agency more broadly, specifically in relation to non-representational theory, the more-than-human, and affect, into conversation with the practice of activism. The empirical aspect of this research involved three case studies of UK climate change activism, each of which demonstrates a particular form of activism: activism in the form of ‘direct’ action through the protest camps of Camp for Climate Action, activism as a more mundane and regular part of life through the meetings and events of a Transition Town group, and activism as a lifestyle in itself through the low-impact living and building practices of the Lammas eco-village. The methodology involved an immersive participatory approach consisting of periods of observant participation, alongside in-depth interviews with activists, the material from which was then developed into immersive narratives (Summers-Effler, 2010). These narratives aim to illuminate: the role of the more-than-human (Bennett, 2010) in the act of activism, and that emotions and affects are not simply “straightforward ‘prompts’ for activism” (Horton and Kraftl, 2009: 17) in line with emerging activism literature, but instead, alongside the human, the more-than-human, and the act of activism itself, emotions and affect are part of the ‘conditions’ (Ahmed, 2010) for action in activism. In this research, rather than action being literally and linearly produced, the potential for action emerged as a process of aligned and openness to action, and therefore always pivots on the relations between elements rather than the properties of a single element or actor.
Economics of General-Purpose Assembly Robots
Summary A study of the comparative economics of various automatic assembly systems using general-purpose assembly robots is described. In the study, use is made of a “typical” candidate assembly whose profile is obtained from statistical analysis of actual products submitted by interested companies. It is shown that the choice of assembly system and the various parts presentation methods depends on three main factors, namely: the annual production volume per shift, the number of parts in the product and the equipment payback period.