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The Bioregional Economy
In a world of climate change and declining oil supplies, what is the plan for the
provisioning of resources? Green economists suggest a need to replace the globalised
economy, and its extended supply chains, with a more ‘local’ economy. But what
does this mean in more concrete terms? How large is a local economy, how self-
reliant can it be, and what resources will still need to be imported? The concept of
the ‘bioregion’ – developed and popularised within the disciplines of earth sciences,
biosciences and planning – may facilitate the reconceptualisation of the global econ-
omy as a system of largely self-sufficient local economies.
A bioregional approach to economics assumes a different system of values to that
which dominates neoclassical economics. The global economy is driven by growth,
and the consumption ethic that matches this is one of expansion in range and quan-
tity. Goods are defined as scarce, and access to them is a process based on competi-
tion. The bioregional approach challenges every aspect of that value system. It seeks a
new ethic of consumption that prioritises locality, accountability and conviviality in
the place of expansion and profit; it proposes a shift in the focus of the economy
away from profits and towards provisioning; and it assumes a radical reorientation of
work from employment towards livelihood.
This book by leading green economist Molly Scott Cato sets out a visionary yet
rigorous account of what a bioregional approach to the economy would mean – and
how to get there.
List of illustrations xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
PART I
Making sense of the bioregion 1
PART II
Bioregional resourcing 59
PART III
Policies for a bioregional economy 143
Notes 219
References 224
Index 240
Illustrations
Photographs
2.1 Malden Island, in the central Pacific Ocean 30
3.1 Picture of horses and hands from the Pech-Merle cave,
Cabrerets, France 54
3.2 Young woman in metamorphosis 55
5.1 Mug made from local Stroud clay 91
5.2 Hat made by Sheila Wynter from Gloucestershire rushes 91
5.3 Ben Law’s woodland house 92
6.1 Clissett chairs 119
6.2 A rocking-chair in yew and cherry by Gudrun Leitz 121
6.3 Craft in the woodland: a group present their work after a week spent
at Clissett Wood 122
Figures
1.1 Francis Galton’s quincunx 18
2.1 Maria Mies’s iceberg model of the global economy 27
2.2 Geological map of the UK as suggestive of bioregional boundaries 32
2.3 Riversheds and geological formations of the proposed
Cotswolds bioregion 33
4.1 The Five Capitals Model 65
4.2 Carbon intensities of production now and required to meet 450ppm
carbon target 68
4.3 The production-consumption process as viewed by industrial ecology 76
5.1 Ecological functions of woodlands 96
5.2 Provisioning potential of woodlands 97
xii List of illustrations
Tables
1.1 Indicators of ecological stress 11
4.1 The five capital stocks explained 66
4.2 Aspects of the neoclassical and human ecology paradigms 75
5.1 Typical features of the Somerset Levels bioregion 100
6.1 John Seymour’s forgotten crafts 113
8.1 Indicative UK self-sufficiency rates in different historical periods 147
8.2 Real income growth by quintile group under New Labour,
1996–2009 152
8.3 Life expectancy at birth and at age 65 by social class, England and
Wales, 2002–05 153
9.1 Balance of Emission Embodied in Trade (BEET) for selected countries 173
9.2 Personal computers per capita for a range of countries, computers per
100 people, 2004 176
9.3 Proposals for a general agreement on sustainable trade 178
Preface
I have been thinking about this book for at least a decade, since I first began to
wonder in my own mind what sort of economy might replace the profligate and
essentially dissatisfying structure that globalisation has given us. Two beacons have
come to light my way in thinking and writing: one to attract me; the other to repel.
The first is best encapsulated in Doreen Massey’s suggestion that we should be ‘for
place’. At the risk of any pretention to an academic career, I have to say that I take
this as an inevitable assumption, a partial definition of the human condition. Just as
we cannot live as isolated individuals, we cannot live without a sense of place. The
second arose as a question following a talk I had given to an academic audience.
‘What’, my questioner asked, ‘did Molly Scott Cato have to say to the people of
Shanghai?’ I felt quite aghast at first: I had nothing to say to them, nothing at all. But
over the following days and weeks I realised this was a strength, not a sign of inade-
quacy. What right have I to create a message for Chinese people whose culture I do
not understand? Our lessons must be grounded and they must be local. This is the
philosophical motivation for the bioregional economy; the creative part is translating
that into a strategy for acquiring resources, and for developing a locally based provi-
sioning strategy.
To live in this way that would once have been commonplace now feels radical and
exciting. In an age when the world’s resources are available for a sum of money I
have in my purse 24 hours a day within a 10-minute walk, there is a way in which it
could be dismissed as playing. But something in me is not convinced of the power of
that system, and the number of people queuing for allotments and learning the skills
of growing, preserving and brewing, suggests that I am not alone in this. Playing is a
child’s work; it is a way of learning that is risk-free. It may be that, as a human
community, and by a mixture of reason and intuition, we are rejecting progress and
learning from an earlier way of being.
xiv Preface
I should begin with my friends in the Green House think tank and the Green Party,
who have had the courage to challenge the neoliberal paradigm and dedicate their
time and energy to working for something better. I feel I must say a special word
about John Barry, whose work seems to interweave with mine in a way that I find at
once inspiring and reinforcing. Developing a green political economy that will ensure
secure and fulfilling provisioning for all the world’s people is a demanding task, and I
greatly appreciate sharing that task with John.
The writing of this book would not have been possible if I had not, at some point
during 2011, decided to stop applying for research grants. After a series of time-
consuming but unsuccessful applications I decided that the time spent could have
produced the research, or at least part of it. I would like to acknowledge the fol-
lowing funding bodies that have declined to support aspects of this work: the ESRC,
the Leverhulme Trust, the European Research Council, and the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation.
For technical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual support and I would like to
thank the following: Peter Richardson of Ethical Internet; Mike Munro-Turner of
Jericho Partners; Helen Hastings-Spital; Rebecca Boden and Debbie Epstein of
Edbrooke Careers Guidance and Moral Support Services; Jane Seraillier and Neil
Buick; Jenny Jones, Michael Dunwell and Rhydian Fôn James. For helping me keep
domestic body and soul together additional thanks to Angela Paine and Sue Dance.
For supporting my explorations in bioregional cosmopolitianism, my thanks to
Nadia Johanisova, Lukaš, Eliška and other friends at Masaryk University, Brno; Pavla
and Mark in Lučeč; Olga and Andrew in Helsinki; and Timur in Astana.
Finally, for reading parts of the typescript along the way: Jane Seraillier, Brian
Heatley, Chris Hart, James Beecher, and Martin Large. And a big thank you to Rosa
for her almost unfailing good humour (in spite of the crippling exam system) and for
sparing my eyes.
Part I
Making sense of the bioregion
1
WHY BIOREGIONAL ECONOMICS?
The world and I reciprocate one another. The landscape as I directly experience it is
hardly a determinate object; it is an ambiguous realm that responds to my emotions
and calls forth feelings from me in turn.
(David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous)
It has been a basic assumption amongst green economists for several decades that a
green economy will be a local economy, or rather a system of self-reliant local
economies that meet most of their own needs from within their boundaries. This
might be seen as a reaction against globalisation, but in fact it is a reaction to the
evidence of the destructive consequences of an economy that relies heavily on fossil
fuel energy and, therefore, on the production of carbon dioxide. Less widely con-
sidered by policy-makers, although of equal and urgent concern, is the lack of resi-
lience in our global systems of production and distribution. A globalised economic
system heavily dependent on oil makes itself vulnerable directly, through depleting its
own fundamental resource, and indirectly, through increasing the likelihood of
destructive climatic events that would in turn threaten transport systems. The global
economy as currently designed, therefore, is ultimately self-limiting. The primary task
of a green economist in the era of climate change and ecological crisis is to consider
how a system of self-reliant local economies might be designed, and how we might
make a rapid transition towards such a future world.
This is fine to argue in theory; in practice the global economy is stronger than
ever. The extraordinary ability we have to buy products from across the world for a
normal person’s wages at any hour of the day or night is dizzyingly impressive. Yet
while civil servants struggle to find policies to both mitigate and adapt to climate
change (this is a distinction I reject, for reasons that will become clear later), two
different words are dominating the discourse amongst social scientists who are seeking
responses to the crises that face us: transition and resilience. The experience of those
4 Why bioregional economics?
our species, the most reflexive that has yet evolved on this planet. As self-conscious
social beings we are aware of these major historical breaks, even if the calendar that
we use to mark them is our own construction imposed on a natural system that is
cyclical rather than linear. It is in this context that I would like to place the extra-
ordinary outburst of enthusiasm and hubris that is globalisation. What else could have
persuaded us to accept such clearly mythical notions as ‘the weightless economy’
(Quah, 1999; Perraton, 2006) and the idea that we could somehow adopt a timeless,
spaceless lifestyle? The high priest of financialised capitalism himself described the
continued boom in global stock markets around the millennium as ‘irrational exu-
berance’ (Greenspan, 1996). To remind yourself of this time of supreme (and mis-
placed) confidence I would suggest that you read Thomas Friedman’s book The
World is Flat, a last-century paean to fossil-fuelled globalisation, whose very title
suggests the loss of reality that accompanied our movement from the twentieth to
twenty-first centuries, and then compare it with his later book, Hot, Flat and Crowded,
written just three years later. Here we find Friedman coming down to earth with a
bump after the millennial party at the end of the universe. This is a difficult transition
and – like many who were both adherents and proponents of the hegemonic two-
dimensioned myth of finance capitalism and the weightless economy – Friedman has
moved rapidly to denial by now seeking, as he repeats countless times ‘a free, cheap,
renewable source of electrons’ to make possible the continuation of his lifestyle in a
climate-changed world.
Our attempt to escape our earthbound natures and live in the weightless, spaceless
world of our shared imaginings was temporarily rather thrilling, but ultimately dis-
appointing and inherently unsatisfying. Its dominance in western economies was
accompanied by higher rates of mental illness than had previously been recorded
(Angell, 2011). The establishment economist Richard Layard took up green econo-
mist Richard Douthwaite’s (1992) theme that growth was ‘an illusion’ in the sense
that, while apparently bringing more, after a certain level of development it actually
reversed its munificence and ceased increasing our happiness, perhaps because it
brought in its wake social consequences that we do not welcome: crime, family
breakdown and environmental destruction, to name just three examples (Layard,
2006). Perhaps the source of this mental dis-ease can be found in the requirement
of those who inhabit the weightless economy to indulge in permanent cognitive
dissonance.
It is possible, in hindsight, to see the irrational exuberance that characterised the
closing of the twentieth century, with its ‘end of history’ and other celebratory
capitalist myths as a form of mass psychosis. We are living in two parallel worlds: one
where we have never had it so good and human civilisation has reached an apotheosis
of success where no further advance is possible; and another where we are confronted
daily with evidence of the negative consequences of this same system for those in the
poorer countries of the South, for other species and for our planet. Mary Mellor
likens this denial of the negative consequences of our way of life to Dorian
Gray’s ability to ignore the painting hidden in his attic, which bears the marks of his
dissolute lifestyle (Mellor, 2006).
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