Transitioning to a Post-Carbon Society: Degrowth, Austerity and Wellbeing

302 Pages·2017·3.603 MB·English

by  Ernest Garcia, Mercedes Martinez-Iglesias, Peadar Kirby (eds.)

International Political Economy Series
Transitioning to a Post-Carbon Society
Degrowth, Austerity and Wellbeing
Edited by Ernest Garcia,
Mercedes Martinez-Iglesias and Peadar Kirby
International Political Economy Series
Series Editor
Timothy M. Shaw
Visiting Professor at the University
of Massachusetts Boston, USA
and Emeritus Professor at the
University of London, UK
Aims of the Series
The global political economy is in flux as a series of cumulative crises
impacts its organization and governance. The IPE series has tracked its
development in both analysis and structure over the last three decades. It
has always had a concentration on the global South. Now the South increas-
ingly challenges the North as the centre of development, also reflected in
a growing number of submissions and publications on indebted Eurozone
economies in Southern Europe. An indispensable resource for scholars
and researchers, the series examines a variety of capitalisms and connec-
tions by focusing on emerging economies, companies and sectors, debates
and policies. It informs diverse policy communities as the established
trans-Atlantic North declines and ‘the rest’, especially the BRICS, rise.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/13996
Ernest Garcia • Mercedes Martinez-Iglesias • Peadar Kirby
Editors
Transitioning to a
Post-Carbon Society
Degrowth, Austerity and Wellbeing
Editors
Ernest Garcia Mercedes Martinez-Iglesias
University of Valencia University of Valencia
Spain Spain
Peadar Kirby
University of Limerick
Ireland
International Political Economy Series
ISBN 978-1-349-95175-8 ISBN 978-1-349-95176-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-95176-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947269
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A
cknowledgements
The idea for this book came out of the symposium “Better with less:
Degrowth, austerity and well-being”, held in Valencia (Spain) in October
2014, within the framework of a research project supported by the Spanish
National R&D Programme of the Ministry of Science and Innovation,
under grant number CSO2011-24275. Chapters by Gras, Sempere,
Garcia and Martinez-Iglesias, Raineau, Lerma Montero, Victor Climent
Sanjuán and Vicens broadly follow several outcomes of the above men-
tioned project.
Chapters 2, 3 and 6 have been translated from the Spanish by James
C. Kelly. Chapter 1 has been translated from the French and Chaps. 10,
11 and 12 from the Spanish, all of them by WordsFactory.
v
c
ontents
Part I Transition 1
1 The Deadlock of the Thermo-Industrial Civilization:
The (Impossible?) Energy Transition in the Anthropocene 3
Alain Gras
2 Uncertainties, Inertia and Cognitive and Psychosocial
Obstacles to a Smooth Transition 37
Joaquim Sempere
3 Towards the Post-Carbon Society: Searching
for Signs of the Transition and Identifying Obstacles 57
Ernest Garcia & Mercedes Martinez-Iglesias
4 The Degrowth Imperative: Reducing Energy and
Resource Consumption as an Essential Component
in Achieving Carbon Budget Targets 87
John Wiseman & Samuel Alexander
Part II Rethinking Austerity 109
5 Austerity Pasts, Austerity Futures? 111
Rebecca Bramall
vii
viii CONTENTS
6 Coffee, Toast and a Tip? Initial Reflections
on the Transformation of the Self 131
Jorge Riechmann
7 Frugal Abundance in an Age of Limits: Envisioning
a Degrowth Economy 159
Samuel Alexander
Part III Case Studies 181
8 Cloughjordan Ecovillage: Modelling the Transition
to a Low-Carbon Society 183
Peadar Kirby
9 Challenges for Wind Turbines in the Energy Transition:
The Example of an Offshore Wind Farm in France 207
Laurence Raineau
10 Social Partners, Environmental Issues and New
Challenges in the Post-Carbon Society 221
Victor Climent Sanjuán
11 Landfill Culture: Some Implications to Degrowth 235
Ignasi Lerma Montero
12 Social Actions Transformed in a Post- Carbon
Transition: The Case of Barcelona 249
Jesús Vicens
Erratum to: Social Partners, Environmental Issues and
New Challenges in the Post-Carbon Society E1
Conclusion 267
Ernest Garcia, Mercedes Martinez-Iglesias & Peadar Kirby
References 277
Index 279
n c
ote on ontributors
Samuel Alexander is a research fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society
Institute and lecturer with the Office for Environmental Programs, University of
Melbourne, Australia. He teaches a postgraduate course called “Consumerism and the
Growth Economy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives” into the Masters of Environment.
He is also co-director of the Simplicity Institute. He is author of Prosperous Descent:
Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits (2015), Sufficiency Economy: Enough, for
Everyone, Forever (2015) and Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation (2013), as
well as editor of Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture
(2009) and co-editor of Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future (2014).
Rebecca Bramall is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at London
College of Communication, University of the Arts, London. She is the author of
The Cultural Politics of Austerity (2013) and recently edited a special issue of New
Formations on the theme of “Austerity Future” (2016).
Ernest Garcia is Professor of Sociology at the University of Valencia (Spain),
Faculty of Social Sciences. His main field of research is environmental s ociology.
He is the author of Medio ambiente y sociedad: la civilización industrial y los límites
del planeta (2004).
Alain Gras is Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-S orbonne
(France), Faculty of Philosophy. His main field of research is the socio-anthropol-
ogy of technology. He is the author of Fragilité de la puissance (2003) and Le choix
du feu: Aux origines de la crise climatique (2007).
Peadar Kirby is Professor Emeritus of International Politics and Public Policy,
Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick
ix
x NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS
(Ireland). Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland,
Reykjavik. He is the author of Celtic Tiger in Collapse (2010).
Ignacio Lerma Montero is University School Professor at the Department of
Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Valencia (Spain). He has been
Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2005–2012), and coordinator of the
Environmental Sociology Network of the Spanish Sociological Association (FES).
His research projects have addressed issues concerning citizens’ participation in
ecological politics, socio-ecological conflicts and socio-labour policies.
Mercedes Martinez-Iglesias is an environmental sociologist and she has been an
associate professor and research technician at the University of Valencia (Spain).
Since 2009, she has been an elected member of the Coordination Board of the
Environment and Society Research Network (RN12) of the European Sociological
Association (ESA). She has edited Experts and Campaigners: Scientific Information
and Collective Action in Socio- Ecological Conflicts (2014).
Laurence Raineau is assistant professor (Maître de Conférences) at University of
Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne (France) and researcher at the CETCOPRA (Centre
d’étude des techniques, des connaissances et des pratiques). She works on the socio-
anthropological aspects of the energy transition and on collective representations
of nature. Her latest researches focus on the articulation of local and global scales
facing the environmental issues, on nuclear waste management and on environ-
mental controversies.
Jorge  Riechmann is a professor of moral philosophy at the Autonomous
University of Madrid (UAM, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), essayist and
poet. He has worked in fields such as sociology of the new social movements and
green parties, environmental sociology, environmental ethics and eco-socialist
political philosophy. Blog: http://www.tratarde.org.
Victor Climent Sanjuán is a professor of sociology at the University of Barcelona,
Department of Sociology. He is specialized in labour market, business and envi-
ronment. His main contributions in the last few years are related to large compa-
nies’ new environmental management as a response to citizens’ demands and the
new social and economic consequences arising from this new strategic
framework.
Joaquim Sempere is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Department of Sociology,
University of Barcelona. He is specialized in environmental sociology. He has con-
ducted research and published on human needs and wants, the role of experts in
environmental social movements and the social effects of ecological crisis. He has
written, among other books, Mejor con menos: Necesidades, explosión consumista y
crisis ecológica (Better with less: needs, consumerist explosion and ecological crisis)
(2009).