The Brundtland Reportas Paradigm Change

Professor Wayne HayesV. 0.6, Build #8 | 10/22/2013

The goal of this presentation is

. . . to understand the origins of sustainability.

. . . and to explore . . .

How the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future,

altered the paradigm of development

and changed the conversation about globalization.

The 1987 context is:

• We are living in the Anthropocene. Our Home is astonishing, but also in danger.

• Forests are burning and native people and others are unsettled.

• Growth destroys limited resources and cannot be the answer to the challenges of the Anthropocene.

• The dominant paradigm is riddled with anomalies but no alternative has coalesced.

We need a pathway toward another paradigm.

So before proceeding, we must illuminateour core concept,

upon which our course focuses:

sustainability.

Here is where we turn.

Note the title of thisclassic book:

Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development:

Our Common Future:From One Earth to One World.

Or, simply: The Brundtland Commission Report.

Who was Gro Harlem Brundtland and what was her background?

Brundtland has a resume!

• She was born 20 April 1939.• She is a medical doctor with a public health degree. She is

former director of the World Health Organization.• A feminist, she was Prime Minister of Norway (1981, 1986–

89, 1990–96), the first woman and youngest ever.• She was chosen to direct the U.N. World Commission on

Environment and Development.• Since 2007, she is a special U.N. envoy on climate change.• She is among the Elders --- view the web site.

Brundtland’s classic definition of sustainable development is:

"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.“(Cited from original report. This is important section is brief.)

So what?

The audacity, timing,

and horizon of Brundtland is noteworthy,

but the strategic insight has been neglected.

(Hey, we are still talking about sustainable development over a quarter of a century later. This discourse has become central in political economy, geopolitics, public policy, social movement formation, and academia.)

View the table of contents ofThe Brundtland Commission Report

Click on the web site of the Report.

Study the organization of the report.

Professor Hayes will provide background.

Note the Overview of the report.

Please scan the Overview but focus on

the Global Challenge and the Call for Action.

Note the title of the Overview:

Our Common Future, From One Earth to One World

Which rises to the challenge

of the Anthropocene:

The challenge is to reconcile this

With this:

Sounds familiar?

The Brundtland Commission attempted to define in 1987

a reconciliation of the occupation of the Earth

by the human species.

The scope of the report is daunting.

• The time perspective is generational.• The geographical scope is global, but

attempts to harmonize the interest of poor nations and rich.

• The report calls for a synthesis of broad themes: nature, society, and the economy.

• The report stands outside the dominant social paradigm of growth.

The timing is auspicious:

• The post-colonial Third World challenged the global power structure within the U.N. over poverty and inequality.

• The global ecological crisis had emerged but was defined as an environmental issue.

• Neoliberalism had become entrenched as the paradigm of globalization.

Which puts Brundtland’s classic definition of sustainability in context.

"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.“(Cited from original report. This is an important but brief section.)

Brundtland achieved consensus

The Report’s approval was unanimous among its 21 commissioners

and translated into 20 languages. The report was an immediate sensation

and is still a living document.Oxford University Press

reprinted the Report in 2009.

The report is a good starting point from which to understand

sustainability .

Browse the original report to get a sense of the historical mission of sustainability, why it is important, and how the concern represented by sustainability is framed.

The substance of the conversation changed.

The vocabulary, data, worldview, values all shifted from neoliberalism discourse

and neglected constituencies were given voice.

We need a paradigm shift?

• A paradigm is a conceptual system by which we understand the world. The paradigm provides form and meaning. We can use the metaphor of operating system as a helpful heuristic.

• When information does not fit the prevailing paradigm, such anomalies can shift to new paradigms, not always smoothly.

• The dominant paradigm vigorously resists paradigm shifts.

Recall Annie about paradigms.

• Philosophy of science: “a very general conception of scientific endeavor within which a given enquiry is undertaken” (Dictionary.com).

• The concept originates with Thomas Kuhn’s 1972 classic, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. See Stanford Encyclopedia of Science.

So, unpack your paradigm! Brundtland paved the way.

• Is nature a “reservoir of supplies” for human consumption (utilitarianism) or is nature “a sacred, complex system” (page xxiv)?

• Is pollution a right? Are markets always right? Read what Annie says, page xxiv.

• Take the Red Pill? Remember The Matrix?• Remember that the dominant social paradigm

will resist paradigm shifts.

Read a classic on paradigm shift.

Donella Meadows, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System (August, 2005). Notice the context: classics in complex systems thinking.

This short article is highly recommended.

How did the Brundtland Reportchange the paradigm?

The Brundtland report was not another dull, bureaucratic U.N. tome.

Rather, the report wasmore audacious and revolutionary

than commonly perceived. To understand this claim,

we must critically examine the historical and global context.

Recall the rule makers.

An organized regime, or mode of governance, over global trade

was negotiated by the victors of WWII at the dawn of the Age of Acceleration

in July 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

Bretton Woods

The story begins at Bretton Woods as an arrangement among nation-states under the auspices of the United Nations:1.to provide order to the international economy2.to promote post-World War II economic growth3.to forestall relapse into a global economic depression similar to the 1930s.

The Bretton Woods accord framed the international economy.

The accord negotiated in July 1944 set up the framework for global trade since, paving the way for the Great Acceleration.

Welcome to Bretton Woods!

Source: New York Times

The deal was struck inthe Gold Room.

Source: New York Times

The Bretton Woods set up three institutions to promote world trade.

1. The International Monetary Fund, or IMF2. The World Bank 3. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT), which led to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The significance of Bretton Woods

We will discuss Bretton Woods later in the course as we examine

the origins, character,

and trajectory of economic globalization.

(See my notes.)

Brundtland promotes local and regional economic development.

This topic, too, gets much attention later in the course. For now:1.Look at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.2.Peek at my notes around Bill McKibben, Deep Economy.

Brundtland changed the paradigm.

Thus redefined the notion of globalization from purely economic growth based on increasing export industries to a more inclusive agenda that included •Local economic development and the livelihood of indigenous people•Respect for Nature, putting the environment in a larger context•Ethics, equity, fairness and rights of peoples.

Recall the epilogue from The Story of Stuff

Shrink the growth-driven paradigm of economic progress. Focus on the quality of life not the quantity of stuff. Some advice:•Share, aka, reciprocate. •Build communities. •Preserve the commons. •Discourage commodification of nature.

What’s hiding in the Brundtland Report?

The Brundtland Report was a paradigm shift

that altered the assumptions that dominated the

existing approach to economic development.

How does the Brundtland report change the paradigm?

Ecology and economy are interlocked and embedded in society and must be thought of together. The report states (p. 5):“Ecology and economy are becoming even more interwoven --- locally, regionally, nationally and globally --- into a seamless web of causes and effects.”

Brundtland challenged the orthodoxy .

The prevailing paradigm was neoliberalism “which holds that the social good will be maximized by maximizing the reach and frequency of market transactions, and it seeks to bring all human action into the domain of the market” (David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford University Press, 2005, page 3).

Or, according to Margaret Thatcher:

The Prime Minister of Britain, elected in 1979, proclaimed:

“There is no alternative.”Or, more simply:

TINA.

Brundtland disagreed.

The Brundtland Report provided a coherent,

well-researched, concrete and specific,

inclusive, comprehensive, robust, thoughtful, insightful

alternative.

Uh, by the way . . .

. . . did you notice that the two major texts in

Ecology, Economics, and Ethics after the Anthropocene

are authored by very audacious women?

Population is still important but

. . . population is linked to other issues such as1.The empowerment of women (after all, Brundtland is a feminist)2.The right of tribal and indigenous people to livelihood, an alternative term for economics.

Speaking about educating girls:

Listen to Malala on The Daily Show

and learn about her story:Class Dismissed: The Death of Female Education.

Right after population comes the discussion of food and agriculture:

The issue is now food security to include:1.Agricultural subsidies by the rich countries that hurt farmers in other countries2.Lack of purchasing power among poor nations as income distribution3.The need for rural development (pp. 12-13 and later chapters).

The agents of sustainability were enlarged and made inclusive.

As an arm of the U.N., such commissions are generally limited to nation-states. Not so here:•Civil society organizations were central players in the solutions•Poor nations were to be active and not simply a recipient of aid from rich and powerful nations.•The role and status of women was central•All stakeholders were to be empowered and mobilized as agents of sustainability.

The report questioned the role of the international economy.

1. The destruction of the environment that was so obvious in the 1980s

2. The growing inequality produced by the global economy

3. The growing debt burden of the poor nations4. The lack of attention to the shared Commons5. The lack of economic diversification at the local

and regional levels.See specifically the Role of the International Economy.

Brundtland Report re-defined the core concept: development.

The prior definition might be called the Truman Doctrine (1949 Inauguration Speech):

"All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from a constructive program for the better use of the world's human and natural resources. Experience shows that our commerce with other countries expands as they progress industrially and economically.“

Truman articulated a doctrine that implied that progress for the multitude of the world's peoples and cultures was to be found through emulating the material progress of the USA and its partners in what was then called the Free World (WSY Wiki).

Wolfgang Sachs explains the assumptions of the Truman doctrine.

"Truman's imperative to develop meant that societies of the Third World were no longer seen as diverse and incomparable possibilities of human living arrangements but were rather placed on a single 'progressive track,' judged more or less advanced according to the criteria of the Western industrial nations. Greater production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key to greater production is a wider and more vigorous application of modern scientific and technical knowledge" (Sachs, 4).

The Report led to the Earth Summit.

In 1992, five years after the Brundtland Report, the U.N. convened the

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),

popularly known as the Earth Summit. The outcomes included the

Rio Declaration that includes Agenda 21, an action plan.

See some of my notes on the Report.

• My overview and context• Background, Preface through Chapter 3• Chapters 4 through 6.