Community Education for Environmental & Social Justice:

Green Work, Wealth & Community Development

Special topics in Adult Education AEC1131H S2

Tuesday & Thursday 5:30 to 8:30 pm July 5 to August 11, 2011

Room 5-150

instructor: Brian Milani, author of Designing the Green Economy

After a short period of growing hope for fundamental economic change from 2006 to 2009, cynicism, denial and escapism now seem to hold sway in mainstream North American culture. The wave of awareness concerning climate change that continued to grow through the economic collapse and the federal elections of 2008 has been replaced by "climate amnesia." The hope engendered by the Obama campaign, the serious talk of carbon taxes etc. in both Canada and the US, and calls for economic restructuring following the financial crisis of fall 2008 now seems like a cruel delusion. That said, trends toward environmental destruction, social inequality, deindustrialization, unbridled corporate power and cultural decadence continue. Is there hope for change?

This course looks at processes and possibilities growing beneath the radar of the mass media and mainstream politics that hold the possibility of radical (i.e. fundamental) change. It looks through the dual prisms of work and wealth—what they are, and what they might be, at our current level of social development. The course will weave together theory and practice—looking at both the nature of this intensifying crisis of capitalism while surveying some of the most dynamic new movements for economic change. Special attention will be paid to the role of ecology and community, albeit from a mainly economic standpoint. From this perspective, "community development" is not seen as a supplement to 'larger' economic development but the very essence of sustainable economics. As such, the social and environmental cannot be separated. Implicit throughout will be the role of education as well as activism in developing and implementing local living economies and grassroots participatory processes in the North American context.

CGCE5B Besides class participation, primary student work will involve a mid-term mini-review, a collaborative class presentation, and a final term paper

Note: Most, if not all required readings will be accessible from this webpage. Check weekly for changes and additions.

1. Tuesday July 5 Overview/Introductions:

Community Development in Historical Perspective

Powerpoint Presentation

Readings:

· Brian Milani, "What is Green Economics?", Race, Poverty & the Environment: A journal for social and environmental justice, Vol. 13 No. 1, Summer 2006

· Gar Alperovitz, "The New Economy Movement," The Nation, June 13, 2011

2. Thursday July 7

Real vs. Phantom Wealth: Value Revolution and its Diversions

Powerpoint Presentation

Readings:

· John Talberth, “A New Bottom Line for Progress,” Chapter 2, The State of the World 2008, NY/Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 2008

· David Hulchanski, Rich City, Poor City: A great city with great neighbourhoods requires...good jobs at living wage, background paper, Toronto Good Jobs for All conference, Nov. 2008

· David Korten, A New Economy Policy Agenda, Address to BALLE 2009, conference of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, May 23, 2009, Denver Colorado

· John Bellamy Foster, "The Financialization of Capitalism," Monthly Review 58, 11 (April 2007); reprinted as chapter 4 of Foster and Magdoff's The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and consequences, NY: Monthly Review Press, 2009

· Les Leopold, "How Wall Street Thieves, Led by Goldman Sachs, Took Down the Global Economy," Alternet, April 25, 2011

Optional:

· Lucy Komisar, "The Real AIG Scandal: How the Game Is Rigged at Wall Street's Casino", AlterNet March 26, 2009

· Toronto's Vital Signs 2010, community indicators report summary

· Sustainable Measures, sustainable community indicators website, Maureen Hart

3. Tuesday July 12

What is Green Work? Human Potential & Economic Development

Powerpoint Presentation

Readings:

· Sarah van Gelder, "Rebecca Adamson: Age-Old Wisdom for the New Economy," Yes! Summer 2009

· Preeti Mangala Shekar and Tram Nguyen, Who Gains from a Green Economy?, Colorlines, March/April 2008

· Van Jones and Ben Wyskida, “Green-Collar Jobs for Urban America: Oakland looks for a greener path toward prosperity,” Yes! magazine, Winter 2007

· Bernard Marszalek, "Green-collar Jobs, Industrial Policy, and Society with a Future," New Labor Forum, Fall 2008

Optional:

· David Korten, "We Are Hard-wired to Care and Connect," Yes! mag.com, July 30, 2008

· Green Jobs: Toward decent work in a sustainable low-carbon world, United Nations Environment Program report, Sept. 2008

· Robert Poulin & Heidi Garrett-Peltier, Building the Green Economy: Employment effects of green energy investments for Ontario, report for Green Energy Act Alliance, Blue-Green Canada & WWF, 2009

· Robert Pollin, "How a Green Economy Is an Antidote to Casino Capitalism," New Labor Forum, April 2, 2009

Links: j0437932

· Good Jobs for All Coalition, Toronto

· Blue-Green Alliance

· Blue Green Canada

· Apollo Alliance

· Green for All

· Sustainable South Bronx

4. Thursday July 14

Glocalization I: Labour, Green Work & Service

Readings:

· John Cartwright, Green Jobs are the Future, background paper, Toronto Good Jobs for All conference, Nov. 2008

· Michael Renner, Creating Jobs, Preserving the Environment, from State of the World 2000, NY: W.W. Norton/Worldwatch Institute

· Philip Mattera et al, High Road or Low Road? Job quality in the new green economy, report for Good Jobs First, February 2009 (skim)

· James Trimarco and Jill Bamberg, "Worker Co-ops: Green and just jobs you can own," Yes! Summer 2009

· Juliet Schor, "The Work-sharing Boom: Exit ramp to a new economy?", Yes! magazine.com, August 9, 2010

Optional Resources:

· John Farrell, Maximizing Jobs From Clean Energy: Ontario's 'Buy Local' Policy, executive summary, January 2011

· Apollo Alliance, Make it in America: The Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan, March 2009

--full report Apollo GreenMAP

· Gary Gereffi et al, Manufacturing Climate Solutions: Carbon-reducing technologies and US jobs, Duke Center on Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness, 2008-2009

· Walter R. Stahel, “The Utilization-Focused Service Economy: Resource Efficiency and Product-Life Extension,” The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems, Washington DC: National Academy Press, 1994

5. Tuesday July 19

Glocalization II: Business in Local Living Economies

Powerpoint Presentation

Readings:

· Jonathan Rowe, “Is the Corporation Obsolete?”, Washington Monthly, 2001

· Alex Goldmark, "The Benefit Corporation: Can business be about more than profit?" , Good Business website, July 1, 2011

· Stacy Mitchell, "Survey Finds 'Buy Local' Message Benefitting Independent Business," ILSR press release, January 26, 2011

· Michael Shuman, "Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: Americans want to invest locally. What's stopping them?," Yes! Summer 2009

· Stacy Mitchell, “The Impossibility of a Green Wal-Mart,” GRIST, March 28, 2007

Optional

· Nelson Lichtenstein, “Wal-Mart: A Template for 21st Century Capitalism?”, abridged version of introduction to Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First Century Capitalism (New Press, November 2005)

· Walter Stahel, “From Products to Services: Selling performance instead of goods,” ITPS Report, #37

· Marc Gunther, "B Corps and Fixing the Broken System of Shareholder Capitalism," GreenBiz.com, May 4, 2011

· David Korten, "Economies for Life," Yes! magazine, September 2002

Links:

B Corporation

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

6. Thursday July 21

Commons & Creativity in the Network Economy

Powerpoint Presentation

Readings:

· Jay Walljasper, "What is the Commons?", chapter 1 of All That We Share: A field guide to the Commons, New York: The New Press, 2010

· Yochai Benkler, A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge, Chapter 1 of The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale U. Press, 2005

· Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Introduction and Chapter One “Wikinomics: The Art & Science of Peer-Production,” from Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (Portfolio/Penguin, 2006)

· Laurence Lessig, “Some Like It Hot: Piracy & culture,” Wired magazine, Issue 12.03 (March 2004)

· David Morris, "Why is Multi-Billion-Dollar Telecom Time Warner fretting over a small city in North Carolina?", Alternet, June 27, 2011

Recommended (but not required):

· Jonathan Rowe and David Bollier, "The Missing Sector: Enlarging our sense of 'the Economy'," On the Commons, October 24, 2010

Optional:

· Christine Smillie-Adjarkwa, Is the Internet A Useful Resource For Indigenous Women Living In Remote Communities In Canada, Australia and New Zealand To Access Health Resources?, Paper researched and written for the Summer Student Internship Program 2005,National Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research

· Toward Equality of Access: The Role of Public Libraries in Addressing the Digital Divide, report for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

· Cory Doctorow, Internet ©rapshoot: How Internet Gatekeepers Stifle Progress, Internet Evolution

· Stan Cox, "War, Murder, Rape...All for your cell phone," AlterNet, Sept. 14, 2006

· Scott Thill, "Google: Good or Evil when it comes to the Environment?," AlterNet, July 3, 2008

· The Natural Step & Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, IT and Sustainability: Enabling the Future, 2002

7. Tuesday July 26

Distributed Regulation

· Brian Milani, “Mindful Markets, Value Revolution and the Green Economy: EPR, Certification and the New Regulation”

· John H. Richardson, "Saving Capitalism from Itself: Inside the B Corp Revolution," Esquire, August 23, 2010

· Interview with Michael Conroy: certification and social movements

· John Farrell, Democratizing the Electricity System, executive summary of ILSR report, June 2011

· David Korten, "How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule," Introduction to report from The New Economy Working Group

· full report (optional) j0215966

Optional:

· Murray Bookchin, "Libertarian Municipalism: An Overview," Green Perspectives, Burlington VT.: October 1992; reproduced on Athene direct democracy website

· Product Policy Institute, "What is EPR?"

· Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Canada-wide Action Plan for Extended Producer Responsibility, Oct. 2009

· Brenda Platt, Local Inititatives Leverage EPR, ILSR Waste to Wealth report, Nov. 2000

· Neil Gunningham and Darren Sinclair, “Regulatory Pluralism: Designing Policy Mixes for Environmental Protection”, Law and Policy 21, 49-76, 1997

8. Thursday July 28

Economic Security: Creating a Culture of Abundance

Readings:

· Chandra Pasma and Jim Mulvale, Income Security for All Canadians: Understanding Guaranteed Income, BIEN Canada study, 2011

· Armine Yalnizyan, "The Rise of Canada's Richest 1%", Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Dec. 2010

· Kelly Ernst, "If Economic Disparity is a Growing Problem, Let's Discuss Solutions," BIEN website, July 25, 2011

· Tom Greco, "The World's Ominous Reckoning," Jan. 2011

· James Gustave Speth, "Toward a Post-Growth Society," Yes! magazine, July, 2011

Optional:

· Conference Board of Canada, Hot Topic: Is Canada Becoming More Unequal?, July 2011

· Richard C. Cook, A Bailout for the People: Dividend Economics and the Basic Income Guarantee, paper presented to the 8th Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network and 2009 Eastern Economics Association Annual Conference, Jan. 2009

9. Tuesday August 2

Green Pathways Out of Poverty

Environmental Justice movement 2.0