where do we go from here? a response with embedded benefits raymond de young re-imaging our economic...
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WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?A response with embedded benefits
Raymond De Young Re-Imaging
Our Economic System
2013 MSU CCED Institute 26
March 2013Raymond De
Young
Re-Imagining our Economic System2013 MSU CCED Inst i tute
26 Marc h 2 0 1 3
Source: Joel Pett, Cartoonist Group Image Number 41786
Embedded benefitsSimplificationContext Pre-familiarization
Overview
Premise: End of cheap energyRising defensive
expenditures
·Result: Business-as-usual disrupted
Response:Localization
» Psychological aspects:
1. Simplifies behavior change
2. Pre-familiarization will ease the change
3. Embedded benefits within the change
Adapted from Holmgren (2009) Future Scenarios Scenarios
Embedded benefitsSimplificationContext Pre-familiarization
Scenario analysis
Do we pick which scenario to pursue? The scenario we end up on is not
primarily based on our choices
Largely due to biophysical realities driven by geology, biology and climate
Our choices are in crafting responses
One response: Sudden localism
Random House, 2009
Jeff RubinCanadian economist, author and former chief economist at CIBC World Markets
Other authors, darker visions:The Long DescentThe Revenge of GaiaThe Long EmergencyThe Collapse of Complex Societies
Another response: Localization
A process of
Transitioning to place-based communities
Adapting goals, expectations and daily patterns to biophysical limits
Shifting our attention from
Centrifugal forces of industrialization toward(cheap and plentiful raw materials and energy, displaced wastes, consumerism, concentrated governance)
Centripetal forces of localization (sustainable use of local energy and materials, local production and provisioning, discursive governance )
A process of rebuilding
With more focus on
Personal proficiency
Community self-reliance
Place-based social interactions
Locally provisioned goods & services
Embedded benefitsSimplificationContext Pre-familiarization
Behavior change is simplified
No choice but to live simpler lives
Less need to persuade or motivate people
People will change behavior
• Without awaiting our interventions
• Without seeking permission
Embedded benefitsSimplificationContext Pre-familiarization
Gaining experience beforehand
People not limited by status quo
But they need to pre-familiarize
Embedded benefitsSimplificationContext Pre-familiarization
Benefits from process of localization
Intrinsic satisfactions derived from• Competence – learning skills
• Frugality – being resourceful
• Participation – helping others
Behavioral aesthetics
Raymond De Young
Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology and PlanningSchool of Natural Resources and Environment
www-personal.umich.edu/[email protected]
Drawing source: Agricultural urbanism by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, LLC at www.lindroth.cc/pdf/QuickReadAgf.pdf
De Young & Princen (2012) The Localization Reader: Adapting to the Coming Downshift. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press