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Ecological Economic Development Goals: Reincorporating the Social Sphere in Ecological Economic Theory and Practice by Kaitlin Weedmark-Kish

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Ecological Economic Development Goals: Reincorporating the Social Sphere in Ecological Economic Theory and Practice by Kaitlin Weedmark-Kish Ecological Economic Development Goals: Reincorporating the social sphere in ecological economic theory and practice by Kaitlin Weedmark-Kish A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social and Ecological Sustainability Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2018 © Kaitlin Weedmark-Kish 2018 Examining Committee Membership The following served on the Examining Committee for this thesis. The decision of the Examining Committee is by majority vote. External Examiner Supervisors DR. STEPHEN MURPHY Professor, Director DR. STEPHEN QUILLEY Associate Professor Internal Member DR. DANIEL MCCARTHY Associate Professor Internal-external Member DR. VANESSA SCHWEIZER Assistant Professor Other Member(s) DR. JASON HAWRELIAK Assistant Professor ii Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii Abstract The various approaches and methods within ecological economics all have their benefits, limitations, and internal debates. In this dissertation, I focus on macro-social theoretical ecological economics which seeks to find large patterns of opportunity for dealing with the cycles of socio-ecological and socio-economic life over time. In doing so, I broadly critique other areas of ecological economics, mainly in their lackluster attempts at including the social sphere in their analysis. While many are interested in ensuring that we have an economy that fits within the biosphere, they ignore the question of whether it will also fit within the social sphere. There tends to be very little focus on what a sustainable society might look like and how the economy might fit into that. It is much more common for a scholar to look at how society views nature, and to have the economy reflect that. It is a subtle but important difference. One puts society as a central tenet for shaping the economy and the other uses existing economic systems to measure how society values their environment. In my research, I argue that the economy needs to be seen as a subsystem of an eco-social system, and thus we need to determine what a ‘healthy’ social system is, and how the economy could service that. I present a reconfigured framework for ecological economics which explicates social and cultural dimensions for local economic change drawing on Polanyian economics – economics submerged in social relations – and early ecological economic work by Herman Daly. I provide a framework for ensuring future inclusion of the ecological economic social sphere in the development of a realistic green economic vision. I use lessons learned from a case-study of Maker Culture in Prince Edward Island and Southern Ontario, alongside historical sociology to suggest what a healthy ecological economic social sphere might look like. The work on historical iv sociology draws on work from Weber, Marx, and Durkheim and modern sociologists Rifkin, Pinker, and Bauman. Throughout my dissertation I question if we can continue to have a progressive, high- tech, and multicultural lifestyle while being environmentally and socially responsible. The results from the case study indicate early signs of strong out group antagonism and reduced value on science within degrowth communities. This suggests that within the social sphere there may be cherished liberal processes undermined by the process of degrowth. v Acknowledgements More than anything, what got me to the end of this program was a strong and caring community. I entered this program with the best cohort I could ask for – I want to thank each one of them for their wisdom, laughs, and exciting conversations over the last five years. Also, much love to my gals for all the desperately needed nights off: Zuzu, Caitlin, Steph, Allison, Patricia, Dorothy, Heather, Alyssa, Kristen, Katharine, Barb, and Sophie. You all constantly pushed me to find my own voice among a sea of brilliant people and empowered me in both my personal and professional life. I never would have gotten to where I am without the encouragement and help from so many mentors and peers including Sarah Wolfe, Martin Bunch, Jonathan Newman, Peter Victor, Simron Singh, Lewis Dartnell, Sheldon Solomon, Rob DeLoe, Norman Kearney, Chris Orr, Peter Brown, Anne Wilson, and Jennifer Lynes. Also, the CANSEE executives for all the ‘general pal-ing’ around and really solidifying my place in the ecoecon community. I can’t thank my committee - Dan McCarthy, Vanessa Schweizer, and Jason Hawreliak - enough for giving me so much of their time to help expand my thinking and improve my work. And of course, my advisors, Steve and Steve. Thank you to Smurph for possessing a super human ability to sense when I most needed support and/or a dose of reality and for constantly reminding me of my strengths. And Quilley, thanks for everything, but especially for helping me explore whole new areas of thought and ways of thinking about the world, loving Nora, and for always being ready to have a laugh or a fight. And finally, to my family – Andy, Sarah, Nick, Molly, Jimmy, Paul, Qing, Shaneka, Ashley, Elaine, Kate C, EL, Mel, & Jodi – for their boundless love and inspiration. Thank you to vi my mum, my best friend, for always being a voice of reason, constantly pushing me to do my best and, loving me so much, unconditionally. And Bay, my solid and unwavering foundation, I love you and I like you. Finally, to my Nora, a category all your own. Thank you, my sweet girl, for putting everything in the world into perspective and making every decision I ever made in life all make sense. vii Dedication Everything I have ever done, am doing, or will do, is for my NoryNu. viii Table of Contents List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. ii List of Illustrations ......................................................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Research Approach ........................................................................................................ 15 2. Conceptual Framework .......................................................................................................... 21 2.1. Ecological Economics .................................................................................................... 23 2.1.1. Critique of Ecological Economics .......................................................................... 27 2.1.2. The Forgotten Sphere .............................................................................................. 36 3. Theories of Social Change ..................................................................................................... 50 3.1. Behavioural Economics.................................................................................................. 50 3.2. Sociology of radical change ........................................................................................... 55 3.3. Terror Management Theory ........................................................................................... 58 3.4. Resilience and Transition ............................................................................................... 61 3.5. Concluding remarks on theories of social change .......................................................... 67 4. The Problem with Change ..................................................................................................... 69 4.1. The Base-Superstructure ................................................................................................ 69 4.2. Social and Economic Entanglement ............................................................................... 72 4.3. A Complex Systems View ............................................................................................. 77 4.4. Possible Implications...................................................................................................... 80 5. Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 85 5.1. Study Subject: Makers ................................................................................................... 86 5.1.1. History..................................................................................................................... 87 5.1.2. Psychology .............................................................................................................. 90 5.1.3. Modern Day ............................................................................................................ 91 5.2. Method Overviews ......................................................................................................... 94 5.2.1. Interviews ................................................................................................................ 94 5.2.2. Q Methodology ....................................................................................................... 95 5.3. Process ............................................................................................................................ 97 5.3.1. Ethics......................................................................................................................
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