The Inevitable Labor and Environmental Crises and the Need for a New Economic System

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Zink

Capitalism is economically stable only if new investment creates jobs at least as fast as efficiency eliminates them, and physically sustainable only if sufficient material sources and pollution sinks exist to support new investment. We are passing limits on both conditions, leading to twin problems: A labor problem, where technology may begin to eliminate more jobs than it creates; and an environmental problem, where industrial activities are breaching planetary boundaries that will limit our ability to meet basic human needs. Both problems are products of a growth-based capitalist economy and are fundamentally unsolvable within that framework. We must endeavor to replace our capitalist growth economy with a system based on human flourishing. Drawing on degrowth literature, I propose several criteria for a replacement and suggest that they are met by tribal communities. Although challenges remain in design and implementation of such systems, the alternative of inaction is untenable.

Author(s):  
ATHANA PRIESTLY VEKIMA NJIE

The world is faced with a multitude of pressing problems and needs such as hunger, poverty, disease, poor health care, homelessness, pollution, adverse climate conditions, and other environmental hazards, just to name a few. Volunteer work, charities, and donations and of course the traditional profit-making businesses with all the elegant economic theories surrounding them have not been able address these ills which are a serious plaque to the society. In a bid to satisfactorily reduce or put an end to these societal hazards, Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and the practical genius who pioneered microcredit with his Grameen Bank, has initiated what is today known as social business. Social business is a new kind of business, not for profits, that is dedicated to solving a particular social, economic, or environmental problem that has plagued mankind since time immemorial. The whole idea about social business is to improve the lives of people by harnessing the energy of profit making to the objectives of fulfilling basic human needs. The resounding success stories of the Grameen Bank, the very first social business created by Muhammad Yunus has paved the way for other organizations to follow suit. This paper has demonstrated how social business has moved from a mere theory to a practice undertaken by several organizations that is transforming lives and having the potential to redeem the failed promise of the free-market enterprise.


Author(s):  
Vladislav Valentinov ◽  
Constantine Iliopoulos

AbstractIn a recent contribution to this journal, Deng et al. (2021) draw on an extensive range of theoretical and empirical literature to make the case for the tendency of social capital resources of agricultural cooperatives in the Western world to decline over time. The present paper revisits this argument by drawing on a Luhmannian systems-theoretic perspective that takes the capitalist economic system to be limitedly sensitive and receptive to a broad variety of human needs. Whereas many of these needs remain marginalized and neglected, some of them may be codified or translated into a profit-making calculus. Cooperatives are shown to present one of the channels through which this codification may be possible; namely, the codification effect of cooperatives enables the incorporation of a multitude of mutual self-help activities into the economic system. This incorporation gives rise to intrasystemic adjustment processes that can be considered complete when the mutual self-help activities introduced by cooperatives no longer require the cooperative form and are integrated into the activities of investor-owned firms. If this view is accepted, then declining social capital may be an indicator of the successful codification process, which helps to make the economic system less exclusionary and more sensitive to human needs.


1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-51
Author(s):  
Ephraim Nkwute Aniebona

The term, “technology,” as used here, refers basically to: (1) the science or art of devising tools and instruments and how to use them; (2) the development of new materials and substances and their application; (3) the development of machines to supplement or replace human effort, where desirable and feasible; (4) the development of energy and power resources for running the machines; and (5) the development of efficient methods of doing work—that is, using tools, machines, and instruments. From an observation of human efforts throughout the world, it is clear that every human society is concerned with technology, for it is a proven means by which man has extended his power beyond his physical capacity and gained some control over his environment. Although technology exists in every society, it is the amount and quality of the technology that separates nations today on a scale of economic development. Whilst the developing, technologically backward countries of Africa constantly face the basic human needs of food, shelter, and clothing, the developed nations consume and enjoy a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources and wealth by reason of their technological advancement.


Author(s):  
Hidayatul Reza ◽  
Franky Liauw

The conflict between the two social understandings between individualism and collectivism does not need to be clashed, but instead it needs to be managed according to values, morals and ethics. So that it can become a social force for social life. In this issue, architects can play a role in cultivating a 'space' that is fit to the problem of individualism-collectivism. The research method used is a comparative and synergistic method. Literature in the form of journals and books on the phenomenon of individualism-collectivism is used as a reference and comparison. To be able to change a person's attitude, it is necessary to have an environmental role that creates events and events that occur repeatedly and continuously, gradually being absorbed into the individual and influencing the formation of an attitude. In order for this approach to be applied easily, this approach must be applied to basic human needs. In basic human needs there is a hierarchy of the most basic, namely physiological needs, the most basic needs to be fulfilled because they include things that are vital for survival, namely, clothing, food, and shelter. So in order to answer this issue, the vertical housing function is fixed. In addition, vertical housing is considered important because it responds to limited land and the increasing human population. Vertical housing with a collaborative space in grouped dwelling unit concept, because offers many possibilities, from people who live together sharing physical space to communities that share values, interests and philosophies of life. Grouping system is also be an important value and in community prefer to live in small community amount 4-10 members with various background. Consisted by good quality personal space and supporting facilities to develop self-potential as self-actualization. Keywords:  collaborative; collectivism; individualism; monodualism; self actualization Abstrak Konflik dua paham sosial antara individualisme dengan kolektivisme tidak perlu dibenturkan, tetapi justru perlu dikelola menurut nilai-nilai, moral, dan etika, sehingga dapat menjadi kekuatan sosial bagi kehidupan bermasyarakat. Dalam isu ini, arsitek dapat berperan dalam mengolah ‘ruang’ yang fit terhadap permasalahan individualisme-kolektivisme. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode komparatif dan sinergis. Literatur berupa jurnal dan buku tentang fenomena individualisme-kolektivisme, dijadikan sebagai acuan dan pembanding. Untuk dapat mengubah sikap seseorang diperlukan peran lingkungan untuk menciptakan kejadian-kejadian dan peristiwa-peristiwa yang terjadi berulang-ulang dan terus-menerus, lama-kelamaan secara bertahap diserap kedalam diri individu dan memengaruhi terbentuknya suatu sikap. Agar pendekatan ini dapat diterapkan dengan mudah maka pendekatan ini harus diterapkan pada kebutuhan dasar manusia. Pada kebutuhan dasar manusia terdapat hierarki yang paling dasar yaitu kebutuhan fisiologis (physiological needs), kebutuhan yang paling dasar untuk dipenuhi karena meliputi hal-hal yang vital bagi kelangsungan hidup yaitu, sandang, pangan, dan papan. Sehingga untuk menjawab isu ini, ditetapkan fungsi hunian vertikal. Selain itu, hunian vertikal dinilai penting karena untuk mejawab keterbatasan lahan dan semakin tingginya populasi manusia. Hunian vertikal dengan mengusung konsep ruang kolaboratif pada setiap unit hunian yang dikelompokkan, karena menawarkan banyak kemungkinan, mulai dari orang-orang yang tinggal bersama dengan berbagi ruang fisik hingga komunitas yang juga berbagi nilai, minat, dan filosofi hidup. Sistem pengelompokan penghuni juga menjadi nilai penting dan dalam komunitas lebih menyukai jumlah yang sedikit 4-10 orang dengan latar belakang yang berbeda. Ditunjang dengan kualitas ruang pribadi yang baik dan fasilitas penunjang yang dapat mengembangkan potensi sebagai bentuk aktualisai diri.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 612-648
Author(s):  
Johannes Scherling

Abstract For a few decades now and most prominently promoted by the US, neoliberal economics have been on the rise, epitomized in recent austerity policies with regard to countries that have met financial trouble. In particular the drive for privatization of core public services relating to basic human needs, such as water, social services or pensions, has been increasingly criticized because of a perceived incompatibility between the profit motive and social solidarity. This article uses a corpus-based analysis of the discourse on privatization in the US of proponents supporting, respectively opposing it, with an overall corpus size of about 230,000 tokens. It examines how the two groups conceptualize privatization differently and which strategies are applied to fore- or background particular aspects of it.


2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-33
Author(s):  
Lynn Thiesmeyer

The Millennium Development Goals are framed within the post-war discourses of development that also gave us Basic Human Needs and Human Security. The Goals set out a consideration of the failures of earlier strategies along with an agenda for the accelerated reduction of poverty and its accompanying human insecurities. Though the more critical aspects of the MDG discourse were sorely needed, they also left space for the repetition of earlier top–down development strategies, and, more generally, for a (re)vision and wider implementation of globalised intervention by developed countries into the less-developed. In this discourse developed countries identify needs on the part of the less-developed and then supply these needs. The ‘need’ discourse focussed on here represents inferior public health that requires services, goods and equipment to be provided by developed countries; what it ignores are negative health consequences that can arise from development schemes themselves.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1013-1016
Author(s):  
Martin Boroš ◽  
Martin Halaj ◽  
Andrej Veľas

Security has been and will probably be one of the basic human needs that we work on every day. Some of the popular options nowadays is the use of modern technologies in security, which is increasingly popular with alarm systems. Mostly alarm systems are electrical security systems, which in many cases can be supplemented by various additional functions according to the owner's requirements. More often, they are also able to connect a secured object to a centralized protection center so that the owner has the possibility of verifying a declared alarm signal through the intervention of the alarm system company operator.This article is aimed at transmitting the indicated alarm signal over a radio network to the centralized protection desk located in the monitoring and alarm receiving center with identification of the most appropriate option.


NALARs ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Ai Siti Munawaroh ◽  
Rachmat Ade Gunawan ◽  
Satrio Agung Perwira

ABSTRAKRumah merupakan salah satu kebutuhan pokok manusia. Kebutuhan manusia di dalam rumah berbeda-beda. Keberadaan perumahan yang menyediakan rumah typical menjadi salah satu solusi dalam pemenuhan kebutuhan rumah bagi masyarakat.Namun rumah typical masih menimbulkan permasalahan, yaitu adanya aktivitas dan kebutuhan ruang dari penghuni yang tidak bisa  terakomodir. Disisi lain permasalahan lingkungan akibat dari aktivitas manusia di dalam rumah menimbulkan dampak negatif bagi lingkungan. Lampung merupakan salah satu daerah yang memiliki arsitektur yang khas. Tetapi rumah typical yang dikembangkan oleh para developer perumahan belum ada yang menonjolkan arsitektur khas Lampung tersebut. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk merancang rumah yang dapat memenuhi kebutuhan masing-masing penghuni rumah dengan luas bangunan yang sama. Selain itu, rumah yang dirancang tidak menimbulkan dampak negatif bagi lingkungan dan mencirikan arsitektur Lampung.Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif. Metode kualitatif dilakukan melalui studi literatur dan perancangan. Studi literatur dilakukan melalui kajian dari berbagai sumber yaitu buku, jurnal dan internet. Perancangan dilakukan melalui: penerapan konsep flexible house dan konsep green architecture serta transformasi bentuk hasil kebudayaan Lampung.Hasil penelitian adalah desain rumah typical di Lampung dengan konsep green flexible house. Kata kunci: green architecture, flexible house, rumah lampung ABSTRACTA house is one of the basic human needs. Human needs of house for each people is different. The existence of housing that provides typical house become one of the significant solutions to fulfill the needs of house for community. However, typical house is still causing problems for the occupants, because this typical house cannot accommodate all the occupants’ activities within it. I tbecause, typical house is a minimum standard for living which is different for each people.  On the other hand, environmental problems which is occurred by human activities within a house could raise negative impact for the environment. Lampung has been regarded as one of an area which has a distinctive character of architecture. But the typical house that is developed by the developer, have not described and represented the character of Lampung’sarchitecture.  This study has been conducted to design a house that would fulfill the needs of occupants of the house which has the same area space of the house. Additionally, the house has been designed to eliminate negative impact for the environment and would have a significant character for Lampung’sarchitecture. This research has used a qualitative method, which has been done by using literature study and design process.  Literature study has been conducted by reviewing some relevant books, journal sand various sources from worldwide web. And finally, design process has been conducted through: the application of flexible house and green architecture concept and the transformation of the Lampung’sculture. As a final result, this research will provide a design of typicalhouse in Lampung with green flexible house concept. Keywords: green architecture; flexible house; Lampung house


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