Where is sustainability in the interaction of forms of capital?

Transcription

1 Where is sustainability in the interaction of forms of capital? Rethinking Capitals ICAEW 2014 Professor Kathryn Haynes

2 The Challenge Why the need to rethink capitals? Which types and aspects of capital are typically missing from contemporary debates? Or privileged above others? Does the way we characterise capital serve some interest groups and exclude others? What could an inter-disciplinary or philosophical approach to examining these issues look like?

3 Why the need to rethink capitals? While financial capital still dominates global capital markets, its interaction with natural capital, through corporate use of natural resources, has become a key part of sustainability reporting and measurement. Imperative of global warming and unsustainable practices How do capitals interact with each other? 3

4 Sustainable development Defined by the Brundtland Report (UN, WCED, 1987) as a system of development which: Meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs Introduces elements of: Inter- and intra generational equity 4

5 Equity Intragenerational equity is concerned with equity between people of the same generation. distribution of resources and justice between nations, justice within nations Intergenerational equity is concerned with equity between present and future generations moral obligation to future generations 5

6 Which types and aspects of capital are typically missing from contemporary debates? Or privileged above others? 6

7 Does the way we characterise capital serve some interest groups and exclude others? Inherent power relations between multiple actors in interaction of capitals Problems of equity between global north and south e.g. land rights, indigenous peoples, women, poor Focus of some capitals is on western elites 7

8 Example Women s Major Group at Rio +20 summit United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, 2012 The Future We Want the Future Women Want Participant observation and documentary analysis Major groups: business and industry; children and youth; farmers; indigenous peoples; local authorities; NGOs; scientific and technical community; women; workers and trade unions 8

9 Visions of SD Rio+20 UN theme was green economy in context of sustainable development and poverty eradication Criticism from Women s Major Group: too far separated from the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and will be misused to greenwash existing unsustainable economic practices that lead to inequities and infringe on the rights of effected peoples and future generations, because it does not fundamentally and adequately question and transform the current economic paradigm 9

10 Social Justice? Rio+20 outcome document refers to social justice only once In Women Major Group - discussion of social justice resonates with intra-generational equity within sustainable development: building societies based on respect for human rights of all people, ensuring social protection, sustainable livelihoods and environmental security, and fair distribution of the earth s natural and economic resources a world where economic, social and environmental rights for women and men are fully respected. 10

11 Interaction with accounting & business Do we need to account for capitals differently? How much does measurement constrain us? Women s Major group recommended specific cross cutting goals, targets and indicators on gender equality in all spheres of society Critiqued the current use of performance indicators that are socially and environmentally blind e.g. GDP Critiqued current economic measures which value nature at zero where women s unpaid labour is invisible 11

12 What could an inter-disciplinary or philosophical approach to examining these issues look like? Pierre Bourdieu French sociologist and philosopher Identifies three fundamental forms of capital: Economic the power to keep economic necessity at arms length Cultural embodied, objectified, institutional Social actual or potential resources linked networks of culturally, politically or economically useful relations Convertible and transmutable into each other and into broader symbolic capital 12

13 Bourdieu and the field of power global capitalism Bourdieu does not specifically evaluate natural or human capital The field of power is the struggles among the holders of different forms of power, a gaming space in which those agents and institutions possessing enough specific capital (economic or cultural capital in particular) to be able to occupy the dominant positions within the irrespective fields confront each other using strategies aimed at preserving or transforming these relations of power. (Bourdieu,1996: pg. 264) 13

14 Interaction of capitals and sustainability Dominant agents, notably corporations, control agenda setting and policy debates in the sustainability context, such that some forms of capital, and owners of capital, are marginalised. Without an interaction of capitals, how can inter and intra-generational equity be achieved? Implications for those without access to forms of social, cultural and economic capital, such as inter alia, indigenous peoples, women, and the poor in parts of the developed and developing world, whose natural and human capital is also being eroded. 14

15 Where is sustainability in the interaction of forms of capital? Rethinking Capitals ICAEW 2014 Professor Kathryn Haynes