A Shareable explainer: What is the Solidarity Economy?
By Emily Kawano, originally published by Shareable May 9, 2024
"...Here are some key differences between the sharing economy and the solidarity economy:
Profit orientation: ...the solidarity economy actively seeks to downplay or redistribute profits to stakeholders and community members...
Community engagement: The solidarity economy is deeply rooted in community engagement and empowerment, aiming to improve local resilience and economic democracy...
Governance: Solidarity economy initiatives typically involve democratic or participatory governance, with stakeholders involved in decision-making...
Sustainability and equity goals: The solidarity economy explicitly aims for social and environmental sustainability and equity. While sharing economy platforms might contribute to resource efficiency, these outcomes are not always the primary goal..."
Digging into this paper by Sullivan and Hickel, and I am a bit distressed by the way authors misrepresent and distort their sources to fit their political narrative.
I’m a firm believer that #degrowth is necessary (though I hate the term). But I don’t know how it should be brought about. So I try to read, but I find a lot of the #degrowth lit I’ve come across frustratingly cherry-picking and wooly, including Hickel’s book. Particularly when it comes to practical ways to proceed. This makes it easy to deflect the general argument about necessity into one focusing on lack of rigor, which is a shame.
In the long term, #degrowth does not mean lower algorithmic quality. It means algorithmic diversity. Machine learning is much more than the one architecture that is currently being sold as ‘intelligence’. Machine learning is wonderful. But it can and should be small, energy-efficient and planet-friendly.
Is Degrowth an Academic Field or a Mass Movement? Taking Degrowth to the People!
By Phil Wilson, originally published by Resilience.org May 7, 2024
"...Tens of millions will either be mobilized to act, or not. The climate emergency cannot be mitigated...via private acts of conscience, nor...without a program of action and a massive base, expect to meaningfully oppose corporate reflexes. Intellectual virtuosity has limits – we would all do well to read Thoreau, but also, we must understand that his literary brilliance did not slow down the robber barons.
...degrowth, cannot be titrated in order to make it palatable to either profiteers or addicted consumers. It is inherently radical and based on the assumption that any alternative will be catastrophic...many...articles rather casually assumed that degrowth might be employed within the context of reform rather than revolution. There are no historical events that support such optimism..."
Can economic growth be decoupled from emissions? Yes, for sure, easily even.
Can economic growth be decoupled from environmental degradation in general? Absolutely not. The sheer throughput of materials through the economy, from extraction to waste disposal, must decrease. If we address GHG emissions in isolation from topsoil and biodiversity loss, we will fail to preserve the ecosystems on which we depend for life.
Radically Open Security, the nonprofit computer security company donates 90% of its profits to NLnet. Today @ros turned 10 years old and crossed the magical number of 1 million euro in donations to NLnet.
Happy birthday ROS! And thanks a million :-).
We interviewed ROS co-founder and CEO Melanie Rieback to learn why she decided to give the company such an unusual business model.