Living Economies
Charlotte Akers, first published September 2020
“Eco comes from the Greek Oikos, meaning ‘home’. The management and taking care of this home is economy. The knowledge of this home is ecology. The two are both related , and they both derived from the Earth. Anything that destroys the earth, is not Economy.”
- Vandana Shiva
When economy is supposed to mean the management and care of our home, how have we ended up with a dominant economic system which systematically destroys our planet? The reality is that the answer to that question is as complex as the problems we currently find ourselves in. Rooted in colonialism, extractivism, capitalism, and many other ‘-isms’, ‘The Economy’ as we know it is a Frankenstein’s Monster.
Designed and manipulated by man, with an ambition for power, control, and to defy the borders of life and nature, akin to Shelley’s fictional monster, the Economy seems to have taken on its own supernatural identity. With this economic presence overlooking almost all aspects of our lives, it can sometimes seem impossible to imagine what an economic system which worked in harmony with living systems could possibly look like. That’s where Living Economies comes in…
Living Economies are defined by Communitywealth.org as ‘a global system of local-rooted, self-organising, real-wealth living economies that mimic the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s biosphere.’ Whilst researching this topic, as someone that is sometimes daunted by the looming monster of The Economy, it was initially difficult to find consistent and comprehensive definitions of Living Economies. In comparison, an immediate Google search will give us a concise definition of our modern conception of economy: the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money. Growth = good. Decline = bad… right?
However, after some research it became apparent that perhaps the inability to sum Living Economies up in one contained ideology or goal is in itself an indication of its design. Living Economies are designed to function in harmony with life and our ecosystem; a living economy should indeed resemble a living vine, that grows and bends with all other elements of our ‘home’. From meaningful livelihoods, and community networks, to wild spaces for animals and the elimination of waste: a living economy is not an economy around which these features must bend (and often break). On the contrary, a living economy weaves itself into these fundamental elements of life. It is not about an end-goal, or endless growth, but rather it is a combination of values, structures, and co-created design which support and care for life, rather than dictate its purpose…
8 Design Elements of Living Economies
(adapted from The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, pp. 126-132.)
1. Human-Scale Self-Organisation
We organise economic affairs on the basis of large numbers of relatively small enterprises owned by local stakeholders. Most individuals have an ownership stake in the enterprise from which they obtain their livelihood and a long-term interest in its viability. Ethical standards in economics, as in other relationships, are highly valued and those who violate these standards are held in low regard.
2. Village & Neighbourhood Clusters
Modelled on successful eco-village and co-housing experiments, a typical pattern involves modest row houses of varied designs, based on local materials and adapted to local climate. They are then clustered around courtyards with lawns, playgrounds, and flowerbeds, with spaces between housing units used for small gardens, composting, and raising small animals.
There may be cooperative office facilities with shared equipment and support staff for those who would otherwise work out of home offices—thus reducing the need for larger homes and individual office equipment.
In more urbanised centres, most clusters consist of multi-story, multi-family dwellings or apartments organised around parks and green belts interspersed with urban gardens.
3. Town & Regional Centres
Typically there is a larger town centre within cycling distance of each village cluster that features a wider range of medical services and sports facilities, a secondary-school, small production facilities, repair services, specialised shops, administrative offices and a variety of public services. Small shuttle buses link villages to their nearest town centre, which are in turn linked to one another and to larger regional centres by bus and light rail public transit. Colleges and universities, more specialised hospitals, research centres, firms engaged in larger-scale production, and governmental offices responsible for serving the region are located in the regional centers.
More difficult-to-produce high technology goods such as pharmaceuticals, medical and scientific equipment, machine tools, and computer chips are generally produced in these regional centres, with different regions specialising in different products to the extent that larger-scale production facilities are required.
4. Renewable Energy Self-Reliance
Most villages have a few commercially or cooperatively owned high efficiency solar or hydrogen powered cars and trucks available for sharing or renting for special trips for which public transportation is not suited. Housing units feature energy-conserving architecture, insulation, solar collectors and photovoltaics that make each group of houses largely energy-independent. Each settlement grouping seeks to be as self-sufficient as possible.
5. Closed Cycle Materials Use
Each community is also relatively self-reliant in materials use. To the extent possible, necessary resources are harvested and processed locally and then maintained in a constant state of use, reuse, and recycling. All packaging materials are reused. Bottles are refilled locally. Products are designed to be repaired locally and ultimately to be recycled. Organic matter is composted in local vegetable gardens. Sewage is biologically processed, used to generate biogas, and recycled onto agricultural fields.
Products such as appliances, vehicles, machines, and electronic equipment are leased rather than sold and returned to their local manufacturers at the end of their useful life to be repaired, upgraded, or broken down into their basic material components for recycling.
6. Regional Environmental Balance
Each region structures its economy to live in balance with the limits of the regenerative capacity of its bio-system and seeks substantial self-reliance in its use of environmental resources. High taxes on imported fuels limit the use of other than locally generated solar energy. Energy fees keep bulk transportation costs between regions relatively high, thus encouraging local recycling and a general reliance on regional resources and regionally produced goods.
7. Mindful Livelihoods
Since work centres on providing the goods and services necessary to a good life and available paid employment is equitably shared, there is no need to encourage the production and consumption of harmful and unnecessary products simply to sustain the economy. Work is as much a source of fulfilment and an opportunity to participate in the life of the community as it is a source of income.
Eliminating the production of harmful and wasteful products in turn eliminates most needs for large-scale production. Production for most needs is local and human-scale. There is also a flourishing of artistic and artisan craft production. People have much more time for recreational activities, sports, participation in the arts, intellectual and spiritual development, family life, and community service.
8. Wild Spaces
The use of physical space honours the needs of other living creatures for wild spaces in which non-human life may flourish in its own way with minimal human disturbance.
Wild spaces are connected by wildlife corridors that facilitate natural evolutionary processes, with appropriate mitigation measures taken where transportation corridors between settled patches cross wildlife corridors.
With an economic system that is designed to twist and weave with more meaningful, healthy, and sustainable life and livelihoods, it is to be expected that there is variation across different designs. But one feature is persistent: it is an economy which returns to the original meaning of oikos, home. A Living Economy is an economy which adapts and feels, which lives and breathes and beats in rhythm with our ecosystem, and as we all know: home is where the heart is. It is time to put the heart back into our oikos.
