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Livelihood, Market and State: What does A Political Economy Predicated on the ‘Individual-in-Group-in-PLACE’ Actually Look Like?

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  • Stephen Quilley

    (School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L3G1, Canada)

  • Katharine Zywert

    (School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L3G1, Canada)

Abstract

Ecological economics has relied too much on priorities and institutional conventions defined by the high energy/throughput era of social democracy. Future research should focus on the political economy of a survival unit (Elias) based upon Livelihood as counterbalance to both State and Market. Drawing on the work of Polanyi, Elias, Gellner and Ong, capitalist modernization is analyzed in terms of the emergence of a society of individuals and the replacement of the survival units of place-bound bound family and community by one in which the State acts in concert with the Market. The operation of welfare systems is shown to depend upon ongoing economic growth and a continual flow of fiscal resources. The politics of this survival unit depends upon high levels of mutual identification and an affective-cognitive ‘we imaginary’. Increasing diversity, a political rejection of nationalism as a basis for politics and limits to economic growth, are likely to present an existential threat to the State–Market survival unit. A reversal of globalization, reconsolidation of the nation-state, a reduction in the scope of national and global markets and the expansion of informal processes of manufacture and distribution may provide a plausible basis for a hybrid Livelihood–Market–State survival unit. The politics of such a reorientation would straddle the existing left–right divide in disruptive and unsettling ways. Examples are given of pre-figurative forms of reciprocation and association that may be indicative of future arrangements.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Quilley & Katharine Zywert, 2019. "Livelihood, Market and State: What does A Political Economy Predicated on the ‘Individual-in-Group-in-PLACE’ Actually Look Like?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-23, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:15:p:4082-:d:252544
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stephen Quilley, 2012. "System Innovation and a New ‘Great Transformation’: Re-embedding Economic Life in the Context of ‘De-Growth’," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 206-229, October.
    2. Graham M Turner, 2008. "A Comparison of the Limits to Growth with Thirty Years of Reality," Socio-Economics and the Environment in Discussion (SEED) Working Paper Series 2008-09, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.
    3. Tom Kuhlman & John Farrington, 2010. "What is Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(11), pages 1-13, November.
    4. Kallis, Giorgos, 2011. "In defence of degrowth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 873-880, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jennifer Cole & Adam Badger & Phil Brown & Oli Mould, 2022. "Social Kropotkinism: The Best ‘New Normal’ for Survival in the Post COVID-19, Climate Emergency World?," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 11, November.
    2. Kaitlin Kish & Katharine Zywert & Martin Hensher & Barbara Jane Davy & Stephen Quilley, 2021. "Socioecological System Transformation: Lessons from COVID-19," World, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-17, January.
    3. Corlet Walker, Christine & Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Welfare systems without economic growth: A review of the challenges and next steps for the field," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    4. Vatn, Arild, 2020. "Institutions for sustainability—Towards an expanded research program for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

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