Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The case for a welfare imagination
- PART I From problems to solutions: a post-growth ecosocial political economy
- PART II Building an ecosocial imaginary
- PART III An ecosocial political imaginary
- Conclusion: The case for systemic transformation
- Appendix: Ireland
- Notes
- References
- Index
PART II - Building an ecosocial imaginary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The case for a welfare imagination
- PART I From problems to solutions: a post-growth ecosocial political economy
- PART II Building an ecosocial imaginary
- PART III An ecosocial political imaginary
- Conclusion: The case for systemic transformation
- Appendix: Ireland
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Part I of this book argued that the contemporary capitalist political economy's destructive impacts on both environmental sustainability and society underpins the urgent and compelling need for transformation. The case for an ecosocial state is manifold, from the obvious perspective of climate change, but also from the wider perspective of systemic change. Our political economy models and our related worlds of welfare capitalism are deficient, failing to secure gender and other equalities, socio-economic justice, health and wellbeing, social reproduction, democratic participation as well as sustainable ecologies. The case for change is altogether stronger from these multiple perspectives and demands a comprehensive politics of transformation embracing recognition, redistribution, representation and sustainability (Fraser, 2013).
Part II attempts to apply the theory to practice and link welfare reform with the urgent need to decarbonise the economy and pursue other environmental goals including biodiversity. While a variety of policies are needed, as illustrated in the ‘Policy ingredients for a post-growth ecosocial world’ box in Chapter 3, the focus here is on three core options:
• An enabling institutional infrastructure to enhance the eco-system of people's lives and limit our collective dependance on the market to deliver core services and supports.
• A foundational economy as a network of provisioning systems for satisfying basic and essential needs and a way of meeting our collective needs through a system of Universal Basic Services.
• A Minimum Income Guarantee, a form of Participation Income, to enable participation in socially useful activity and life choices consistent with a post-growth world that values and supports care, reciprocity, mutual interdependence and democracy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Creating an Ecosocial Welfare Future , pp. 59 - 60Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023