Reading Materials: 

5.1 Human Agency and Sustainable Development

Human beings as subject to forces beyond their control or understanding, and able to actively work and reflect on them. In doing this, people change the world and, in the process, themselves. Institutions, social rules and cultural contexts influence the fabric of human social life, community, conduct and agency. People’s lives are structured by ideas, values, social habits and routines, and discourses and technologies they experience, apply and alter,which allows certain behaviors and actions to take precedence over the development of others.

By contrast, psychologists tend to think of human agency in terms of internal drivers or personality traits.“Agency” in many sociologists’ understanding means the temporally constructed engagement by actors of different structural environments – the temporal-relational contexts of action – which, through the interplay of habit, imagination, and judgement, both reproduces and transforms those structures in interactive response to the problems posed by changing historical situations.

And there are three different elements of human social agency:

the iterational element: the selective reactivation by actors of past patterns of thought and action, routinely incorporated in practical activity, thereby giving stability and order to social universes and helping to sustain identities, interactions, and institutions over time;

the projective element: the imaginative generation by actors of possible future  trajectories of action, in which received structures of thought and action may be creatively reconfigure in relation to actors’ hopes, fears, and desires for the future;

the practical-evaluative element: the capacity of actors to make practical and normative judgments among possible trajectories of action, in response to the emerging demands and ambiguities of presently evolving situations.

The psychologists also show their opinions to “agency”.

Rom Harre pointed out in 1984 that people achieve agency through their intentions, their knowledge of social rules and their facility for “activation”.He further explained that there is within us an inner capacity to act or not to act.

And we tend to obey our own inner commands, just as we may obey those of others, particularly if influenced by the status  of people we respect or perhaps fear, but there is a difference between being stimulated to act and having a constraint removed, thereby enabling action to occur.

The educational psychologist Jack Mezirow wrote bout transformative learning whereby our meaning schemes (specific attitudes, beliefs and attitudes) and meaning perspectives (criteria for evaluating right and wrong, good and bad) may alter as a result of experience and self-reflection. Perspective transformation is the process whereby people become critically aware of how and why their assumptions constrain the way they perceive, understand and feel about the world.

It may involve the transformation of habitual expectations, enabling a more inclusive or integrative perspective on the world together with an enhanced capability of deciding how to act. Perspective transformation can occur slowly, through gradual changes in attitudes and beliefs, or through an experience that may be highly personal or be prompted by an eye-opening discussion, film, book or article that seriously contradicts previously held assumptions.

These changes often involve a questioning of beliefs, personal values, sense of self and cultural identity. Social movements such environmentalism facilitate critical self-reflection and the formation of alternative meaning schemes and perspectives.

They enable people to identify with causes larger than themselves, motivating them to learn and engage. People who have experienced such personal and/or wider perspective transformations frequently bring considerable energy, power and commitment to social movements. Therefore, promoting sustainable development need s human agency.

Nowadays, human agency does have a major shift in perspective when dealing with sustainable development issues.Indeed, much policy development and political action focusing on the broader issues of sustainable development have emerged from environmental campaigning, conservation action, pollution control and environmental management practices operating at a variety of spatial levels.

New digital technologies, including social networking sites, seem to be further enhancing processes of political engagement and awareness. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has facilitated globalization through its coordination of dispersed economic and political networks, but these same CMC networks have also enabled relatively inexpensive and instantaneous communication, nurturing the growth of online activist virtual communities and the formation of new counter-public spheres.

New media have attracted increasing numbers of people intent on using the Internet to enhance the work of many global justice movements. These new forms of activist organizations constitute fluid social movements united by a passionate commitment to social and environmental justice, freedom and democratic community in a networked world.

5.2 Ecological Democratization

Recognizing the limits of ecology and the boundaries of the planet, some green political theorists have argued not only for an end to economic growth, but also for a seemingly politics that would curb the pursuit of economic interests by individuals and corporations, and for appropriate political policies.

These will be devised by an elite group of people who truly understand the long-term issues and can in effect articulate the general will.This may involve measures of coercion as well as regulation and education.Market economies are  incompatible with the environment and often fails to promote social welfare.

In the face of natural brute force,human beings must  acquire self-control and respect for values other than material ones.An ethical and spiritual rebuilding rooted in ecological realities is necessary that, although not opposed to democracy at local levels, needs to recognize necessary limits to freedom and the need for a simple but culturally rich life.

These views are not widely shared but they continue to resonate as ecological conditions worsen democratization, or the enhancement of democratic values, involves increasing the number of people participating in the political process, raising the quality of their contributions and broadening the range of topics under public control and examination, as well as the extent to which this control is substantive rather than merely formal or symbolic.

Political greening falls into two categories:

• Politics becomes more biocentric and less anthropocentric, including the recognition of nature's and non-human beings' rights.

• Politics becomes increasingly sensitive to human interests in the context of a clean, safe and pleasant environment.

Some international agreements, represent political greening at the global level, but generally progress has been slow at all levels, despite the growth in our ecological knowledge and our understanding of humanity’s impact on the planet. There are four potential strategies frequently cited as possible vehicles for ecological democratization.

1. Make the most of liberal democracy.

This can be seen as a neutral platform for political outcomes or something that can itself be enhanced by ecological values, although economic and commercial imperatives always seem to override ecological concerns in securing the attention of decision-maker.

       2. Crisis and Apocalypse.

One view is that liberal democracy is a major part of our ecological dilemma, given the silo mentality of government and the ensuing separation of policy making and policy implementation.

3. Reflective development.

Collective life is now largely organized around the production, distribution and management of risk, leading to the loss of much of the authority of science and technology in society, often because of the emergence of new opportunities for debate and intervention in decision-making by citizens, activists and social movements.

4. Rejection.

Whereas the risk society democracy extends beyond the state, a rejectionist strategy calls for para-governmental activity and an active global and national civil society offering separate forms of political action, values and organization.

Therefore, we can sense that a sustainable future is in the mix of reflective development and that society can then present itself as a “rejectionist” civil society.

A happy future of ecological democratization would involve industrial society giving way to reflexive modernization in a risk society, and the acceptance of ecological modernization as a discourse and a set of proven claims about the 'trade-off' between the economy and the environment.

Matters will look very different if ecology does not indeed prove good for business in general. In the latter case, the civil society of opposition becomes more important; but even in happy situations, such opposition is still necessary to prevent the technicality of risk management.

More importantly, if green and environmental activists enter a government, there should be a price to pay - moderation and potential stagnation.Unless there is an active social movement , it is unlikely that the government will move forward.

And we should have some optimism about the reshaping possibilities of Agenda 21, outline four necessary implications for a democratic and institutional transition to sustainability.

①　the need for an ecological right to know and guarantees regarding freedom of  information;

②　the sharing of power in an ecological fashion;

③　the controls on the movement of capital to prevent movement that would wreck economies implementing necessary ecological controls and regulations; and

④　the imposition of limits on capital accumulation that would otherwise lead to disfiguring and harmful social, economic and political inequalities (and inequities)..

⑤　The adaptation of key institutions in any transition towards sustainability would need to articulate clear commitments to:

• reflect a clear understanding of ecological limits;

• respond to visions of a more ecologically protective and fair polity;

• create a sustainable society by negotiated consent, understanding or agreement;

• measure the effects of policy and actions within ecological and social parameters

• linked to agreed norms and targets; and

• implement policy according to agreed norms and rules located in markets, law,

• social values and governmental regulation.

The transitional phase necessarily includes a broad critical political ecology that includes an understanding of the natural environment that forms part of the human moral community and an explicit political engagement.

Geography or, more specifically, the complex intersections between nature, culture, space, place, landscape, human agency, identity, knowledge, politics, power and economy are integral components of such a political ecology.

Ecological democratisation will require changes to national constitutions and multilateral arrangements and the emergence of a new 'green state' as a facilitator of transboundary democratic processes.The demand for social and environmental justice will be incorporated into the broad context of a communicative justice.

It will also mean culturally embracing both human and non-human emancipatory politics, putting aside the language of economics, politics and morals , even though this language may more easily travel across national cultural boundaries, in favour of realizing non-anthropocentric values.

In order to make this happen, democracy will need to be fundamentally radicalized – not a small task, you might think, but one that is currently being played out between environmental pragmatists and ecocentrists in the real-world democracy, with the former often forgoing the ‘big picture’ so as to facilitate ‘interest accommodation’ and the latter frequently ignoring practical criticism in favour of realizing broader goals.

4.3 Extending Democracy to the Workplace

It might seem a little odd that although democracy in its various forms is frequently heralded as the best form of governance democratic participation and decision making in the workplace and business have rarely captured the popular imagination except at times of acute economic and political crisis.However, democracy, in the form of producer/consumer or worker/ employee cooperatives has a long history dating back at least to the Rochdale Pioneers in mid-nineteenth-century England.

In the Basque country of Spain, the Mondragon cooperative has expanded since its inception in the early 1940s and now involves over 100,000 people. Cooperatives can be big business and quite successful, as the United Nations recognized when it declared 2012 ‘International Year of Cooperatives’, articulating the slogan ‘Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World’.

In the vast majority of cases, private business corporations are run by relatively few major shareholders, who in turn determine the composition of the board of directors who themselves tend to organize work in a hierarchical manner. This type of organization does not necessarily lead to either good job satisfaction or optimum company performance as high levels of job insecurity, unemployment or underemployment in many of the world’s developed and developing economies already create considerable anxiety and tension among many people.

The Arizmendi website offers support and information to other groups in the Bay Area who wish to establish a cooperative, and on it can be read the Association mission:

• assure opportunities for workers’ control of their livelihood with fairness and equality for all;

• develop as many dignified, decently paid (living ‘wage’ or better) work opportunities as possible through the development of new cooperatives;

• promote cooperative economic democracy as a sustainable and humane option for our society;

• create work environments that foster profound personal as well as professional  growth;

• exhibit excellence in production and serving our local communities;

• provide continuing technical, educational and organizational support and services to member cooperatives;

• seek to link with other cooperatives for mutual support; and

• provide information and education to the larger community about cooperatives.

5.4 Governance, Democracy and Eco-welfare

Governance is not an easy concept to grasp, and has been interpreted and defined in various ways. For the United Nations, governance refers to the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of a country’s affairs at all levels. Governance comprises the complex mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, mediate their differences, and exercise their legal rights and obligations.

Governance occurs within corporate, local, regional, national, international and global contexts.“Good governance” is an umbrella term denoting lasting and positive changes in accordance with the six key principles of openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness, coherence and civic peace, which may involve civil society actions as well as major public sector reforms. From the perspective of human development as outlined in the Human Development Report for 2002, Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World, good governance means democratic governance.

• People’s human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, allowing them to live with dignity.

• People have a say in decisions that affect their lives.

• People can hold decision-makers accountable.

• Inclusive and fair rules, institutions and practices govern social interactions.

• Women are equal partners with men in private and public spheres of life and decision making.

• People are free from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class, gender .

• The needs of future generations are reflected in current policies.

• Economic and social policies are responsive to people’s needs .

• Economic and social policies aim at eradicating poverty and expanding the choices that all people have in their lives.

What’s more, good governance can be seen as an ‘enabling tool’ in reducing urban poverty, improving service provision, combating crime and violence, fostering civic participation and enhancing economic performance.

Governance must also concern the wider ecological environment too.It is imperative to significantly improve our understanding of environmental governance. Sudden shifts in biogeophysical systems create severe challenges for environmental governance that have broader effects.

Governance can even take place without government, institutional outcomes frequently depend on bargaining and individuals rather than re-existing interests, and that scholarly research must be converted into usable knowledge to ensure that environmental governance institutions truly fit the purpose and problems they are designed to address.

The institutions can influence state behaviour in operationalizing environmental governance procedures and performance indicators, clearly demonstrating that power,

interests, knowledge, norms, habits, and so on are often influential in both policy formation and implementation.

Political ecology can act as a frame for good governance because it explicitly recognizes the multi-scaled factors that influence communities, places, local environments and human agency.

It examines the human social influences on ecosystems and shows how political reforms may affect human use of the land, natural resources and the overall physical landscape. Good governance, in needing to be inclusive, also needs to be decentralized and linked to local context.

With global issues such as climate change, this has led to a recognition that, in addition to the high-level international conferences, treaties and protocols, and state-based prescriptions, there have recently emerged hybrid locally focused institutional and voluntary initiatives.

In fact, governance and eco-welfare, sees human capacities as essentially relational, expressive, spiritual and practical–intellectual, developed through the experience of difference, conflict, participation, accommodation and transformation.

Indeed, the quality of social relations depends on social conviviality and the democratization of everyday life. Green welfare would promote the utmost respect for human dependency and would champion the development of a new generation of human-scale institutions and integrated, community-based models of support in which holistic models of health, social care and education would flourish.

5.5 Global Civil Society and World Civic Politics

The last few decades have seen the growth of a number of non-governmental organizations and social movements whose activities and influence on international politics, intergovernmental agencies and national governments have been significant in promoting a globalized ecological sensibility, through animating sustainable values and practices.

Many of the new social movements and global civil society organizations have developed in opposition to the work of the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which have been perceived as insensitively, and unnecessarily, forcing neoliberalist policies and practices on developing nations.

The growth of civil society activism also stimulated the formation of a counter-public sphere in the ‘real’ and virtual worlds, where neoliberalism, globalization, imperialism, and alternative strategies and ideas could be vigorously debated and discussed.

The World Social Forum (WSF), probably the most visible manifestation of this counter-public sphere, has expanded to become an important dialogic space and key intervention in world political activity. Smaller Forum meetings have also taken place in India, Africa, Europe, and North and South America. It is a site for ideas, the sharing of experiences and intense networking among political activists from across the world. The WSF does not take a position on issues or pass resolutions. Its aim is to be, and remain, pluralist in conception and practice.

As such, it should be understood as a process, rather than an event, constituting part of the larger movement opposing war, imperialism, and global economic and social exploitation.

The WSF has helped create an environment that cultivates social movements, an ideological climate, and a new internationalism that offers opportunities for widespread participation and social and intercultural learning. Although not without its critics, tensions and conflicts, the WSF articulates possibilities for a distributed democratic global leadership through its commitment to the belief that ‘another world is possible’.

Through the processes of dialogue, discussion and networking, activist groups can break free from their sometimes overwhelming sense of isolation. The challenges of sustainable development are interlinked, and politics is now central in an attempt to reframe some key debates, particularly with regard to the recognition of the complexity and uncertainty that characterize the operation of socio-ecological, economic and political systems; appreciating the  notions of progress and the ways to sustainability; and encouraging an open politics of choice around possible directions for sustainable development and their distributional consequences.

This will involve forging links between global science and local participation in decision making and implementation to create a ‘3-D agenda’ for innovation encompassing:

• the direction of innovation towards sustainability;

• l the more equitable distribution of costs, benefits and risks; 。

• l the value of diversity in socio-technological systems and approaches to innovation.

5.6 Greenpeace International and the Politics of Perspective Change

Greenpeace International, originating in Canada, in the late 1960s with a small but highly visible direct protest action against nuclear testing in the Pacific, is now a large global organization operating transnationally, nationally and locally. Many of their actions have focused on securing sufficient publicity to alter people’s way of looking at the world, on changing their values and perspectives, and ultimately their actions and behaviour.

Greenpeace aims to broadly spread an ecological sensibility that can operate as a political force by changing people’s meaning schemes and perspectives, and so influence policy development and implementation, and change practice.

A people generally tend to translate experience into action through their general interpretative categories, understandings and conceptions of the world.Their experience is mediated culturally through the dominance or operationalization of certain norms, values and predispositions.

Greenpeace campaigns aim to (re) align these with a clearer and deeper concern for the planet, often by ‘bearing witness’, stinging people’s consciences by showing environmental abuse or revealing corporate disinformation, and exposing the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of public relations, news management and actual behaviour.

Defining what is meant by ‘ecological sensibility’ and measuring changes to societal and ideological discourses is not easy. It requires a fluid approach that is sensitive to subtle but meaningful changes in individual, group, institutional, corporate and governmental deliberations.

Despite the nature of green activity and activism, environmental and sustainability awareness is slowly becoming mainstreamed within business, government, culture and politics. Green has become a symbol for global political action, as with the rapid expansion and globalization of new and old media, TV and the Internet.

Globalism is now increasingly associated with a push for global (eco)citizenship that understands the fragility of the Earth's ecosystem, its life-support systems, its beauty and its interdependence, and is combined with a belief in global human equality.

Similarly, global civil society campaigns have functioned to extend this ecological sensibility to encompass the wide range of sustainability concerns.

There is a 'movement of movements' based on a wide range of ideas and values that underpin countless citizen-based organizations, from the suburbs of the developed world to the poor slums and indigenous communities of the developing world.These organizations constantly challenge political corruption, corporate greed, environmental pollution, global poverty, preventable diseases and species extinction.

It is this ‘blessed unrest’, this human desire to change the world rather than simply interpret it, that offers hope for a sustainable future. Globalization is a fact; and, thanks particularly to new and emerging media technologies, we are all connected now and doing something about it.