Thread by @RBarnthaler

New paper is out @tandfonline. “Provisioning for Sufficiency: Envisaging Production Corridors”, with Ian Gough

doi.org/10.1080/154877…

What are production corridors and why do we need them? 🧵

#sufficiency #transformation #needs #planetaryboundaries #floors #ceilings #excess

Millionaires are on track to burn more than 70% of remaining carbon budget for 1.5℃ sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Excessive water use by elites exacerbates urban water crisis as much as climate change or population growth nature.com/articles/s4189…

*** and so forth ***

Thus, … 1/18

In a world of planetary boundaries & substantial inequalities, between & within countries, it will not be possible to meet basic needs of all people without imposing limits on forms of excess. The climate crisis is, first & foremost, a distributional crisis. @Earth4All_ 2/18

Hence, the most important term of the latest #IPCC report: SUFFICIENCY (@IPCC_CH)

see:

https://twitter.com/timparrique/status/1518122567923556352?s=46&t=SGxMDd4wR0nyTsDpvPkBbw

(@timparrique)

Sufficiency = “having enough” in a double sense; as in: “I am full now, I have had enough” & “I am hungry, I wish I had enough” 3/18

Building on the framework of a sufficiency economy, we define sufficiency as the space between a floor of meeting basic needs and a ceiling of ungeneralizable excess (with acknowledgements to @KateRaworth @DoughnutEcon) 4/18

Thus, the importance of “consumption corridors”, the space between consumption minima & maxima, guaranteeing basic consumption levels & limiting overconsumption: tandfonline.com/journals/tsus2… (@DorisFuchs8, @m_sahakian, @1pt5lifestyles, @giulio_mattioli, @librand3, @m_kanerva ...) 5/18

But: consumption-production nexus is crucial to understand PRODUCTION of overconsumption (e.g. “work-and-spend cycles” @JulietSchor)

Production decisions are taken by owners/managers of means of production, not by consumers (e.g. “treadmill of production”, @KgouldA et al.) 6/18

Hence: “production corridors” must complement “consumption corridors” to better understand climate change as class struggle, as power over the economy lies with those who own and control production (@Matthuber78) 7/18

To develop this notion, we survey a range of concepts starting with #HumanNeeds to establish a “floor” and #PlanetaryBoundaries to establish a “ceiling.” We then assess in some detail a range of conceptual debates that pertain to production: … 8/18

To specify the production ceiling, useful debates include:

- Marxian categories of labour: labour in sphere of circulation, supervision, non-reproductive labour

- The production-boundary debate: various contestations since the 1930s on what counts (not) as “production” 9/18

To specify the production floor, useful debates include:

- (Social) provisioning & the #FoundationalEconomy (e.g. mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1…, foundationaleconomy.com)

- Social reproduction: reproductive role of the welfare state & of unpaid labour (#FeministEconomics) 10/18

Finally, “unnecessary labour” (jobs that can be deemed unnecessary or otherwise problematic) exists in all production, including the essential, e.g. @bullshitjobs & “guard labour”; the extent of the latter notably correlates with countries’ degree of inequality 11/18

These debates permit us to identify essential production (enabling satisfaction of human needs within planetary boundaries) & excess production (contributing neither to need satisfaction nor human flourishing), e.g. luxuries, finance & military. 12/18

This distinction further allows for an “in-between” domain of the economy, situated between the floor and ceiling. Within this space, the moral case to respect the role of market provision remains strong. 13/18

Our depiction of a production corridor leading to rapid but fair decarbonization entails 3 eco-socialist principles: (1) radically shrink excess at the top; (2) market provision in the in-between; (3) no markets at the bottom (provision of basic needs as social right) 14/18

Besides positive effects on need satisfact. within plan. boundaries, eliminating excess production (+ unnecessary labour in all production) frees up substantial labour resources that could be employed for eco-social transformation or translated into working time reduction 15/18

Though not discussed, there are synergies with MMT for degrowth as production/consumption corridors reduce undesirable effective demand, creating macroecon. space for more public spending in useful sectors papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… @christopher_olk @jasonhickel @ColleenFights 16/18

Thanks for valuable feedback on previous drafts from George Boss, @annacoote3, Len Doyal, @EconEnough, @jasonhickel, @E_Hofferberth, Maja Hoffmann, @michaelujacobs, Andreas Novy, Charlotte Rogers, & Robin Stott 17/18

This is part of our forthc. SI on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Eco-Social Transformation”; watch this space for more to come by @JKSteinberger, @E_Hofferberth, @elkepirgmaier, @ColleenFights, @MiessMichael, @Haleeks, @DorisFuchs8, @corinna_viajera, @k_bohnenberger, … 18/18