Start Date

27-4-2012 2:10 PM

End Date

27-4-2012 2:40 PM

Document Type

Presentation

Description

Over a quarter century, efforts to build global environmental governance institutions have been thwarted by ideology and vested interests, while ecological degradation has accelerated and disparities in wealth, living standards and economic opportunities have grown. Nonetheless, the sustainability idea remains appealing and valid: Future generations can be protected from debilitating ecological degradation only if we, the present generation, redirect development to begin restoring ecological balance to key earth systems (e.g., oceans, climate, biodiversity). The social cost perspective (SCP) of institutional economics, rooted in the contributions of Karl Polanyi (1944) and K. William Kapp (1950), provides a framework for thinking about, organizing, and accounting for the interdependent complexity of these problems. Unlike the perspective of conventional economics, where these problems are seen as various forms of incomplete markets or market failures, the social cost perspective (SCP) identifies the market system, in both its institutions and its ideology, as a major impediment to sustainability. The "doughnut model" developed by Oxfam's Kate Raworth provides a conceptual framework for thinking about how to direct economic systems so as to protect and restore biophysical systems on the one hand ("outside the doughnut"), while also developing and conforming to social norms and needs on the other (the "doughnut hole"). This model is used to introduce and discuss the social costs of alternative energy paths, and is translated into the social fabric matrix (SFM), a contemporary institutionalist tool for organizing and accounting for the dynamic complexity of interrelated environmental, social, and economic systems.

Additional Files
swaney-transcript.pdf (158 kB)
Transcript - Social Cost - Swaney
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Additional Files

swaney-transcript.pdf (158 kB)
Transcript - Social Cost - Swaney


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Apr 27th, 2:10 PM Apr 27th, 2:40 PM

Environmental Sustainability from a Social Cost Perspective

Over a quarter century, efforts to build global environmental governance institutions have been thwarted by ideology and vested interests, while ecological degradation has accelerated and disparities in wealth, living standards and economic opportunities have grown. Nonetheless, the sustainability idea remains appealing and valid: Future generations can be protected from debilitating ecological degradation only if we, the present generation, redirect development to begin restoring ecological balance to key earth systems (e.g., oceans, climate, biodiversity). The social cost perspective (SCP) of institutional economics, rooted in the contributions of Karl Polanyi (1944) and K. William Kapp (1950), provides a framework for thinking about, organizing, and accounting for the interdependent complexity of these problems. Unlike the perspective of conventional economics, where these problems are seen as various forms of incomplete markets or market failures, the social cost perspective (SCP) identifies the market system, in both its institutions and its ideology, as a major impediment to sustainability. The "doughnut model" developed by Oxfam's Kate Raworth provides a conceptual framework for thinking about how to direct economic systems so as to protect and restore biophysical systems on the one hand ("outside the doughnut"), while also developing and conforming to social norms and needs on the other (the "doughnut hole"). This model is used to introduce and discuss the social costs of alternative energy paths, and is translated into the social fabric matrix (SFM), a contemporary institutionalist tool for organizing and accounting for the dynamic complexity of interrelated environmental, social, and economic systems.