Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:11 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi THE POLITICS OF ACTUALLY EXISTING UNSUSTAINABILITY Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability Human Flourishing in a Climate-Changed, Carbon-Constrained World JOHN BARRY 1 Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #JohnBarry2012 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2012 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby MPGBooksGroup,BodminandKing’sLynn ISBN 978–0–19–969539–3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi 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 Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi 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 Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi 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 Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi 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 Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi 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. Comp.by:PG1891 Stage:Proof ChapterID:0001484574 Date:2/12/11 Time:17:30:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001484574.3D OUPUNCORRECTEDPROOF–FIRSTPROOF,2/12/2011,SPi