Born in Warsaw in 1927, Ignacy Sachs grew up and studied economics in Brazil during World War II. He worked in the Polish diplomatic services in India in the late years. 50, before returning to Poland. He left this country in 1968 and entered the School of Advanced Studies in Paris (a atual EHESS - School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences) in Paris. With his experience of life in various societies, he began to implement a global reflection on the challenges of development and defined the concept of “ecodevelopment”. Your research program, undoubtedly better known internationally than in France, it's simple to define: involves exploring the paths of “economic growth that is environmentally friendly and socially inclusive”. IT'S, therefore, the definition of ecodevelopment, a term he imposed at the first UN Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm (1972). This is clearly a precursor concept to sustainable development, introduced by the Brundtland Report fifteen years later, in 1987. In 2008, long after the initial work and, therefore, with a significant decline, Ignacy Sachs releases six interviews with the Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme for the audiovisual archives: «Thinking development in the century 21.
This is undoubtedly the best starting point for exploring the issue.: We can reconcile capitalism and ecology?
Ignacy Sachs: Inclusive and environmentally friendly social growth
The emergence of the climate crisis forces us to raise with increasing intensity the question of compatibility between the economic regime currently dominant worldwide and the maintenance of viable ecological conditions on the Planet. There is a break with the system? The system in question is really the capitalist system, based on a globalized market economy, favoring growth at all costs and ignoring the environmental issue, except, of course, for marketing or green washing purposes. As for the break, what would it be? The term itself implies a profound and rapid change.: in individual behavior in relation to sobriety, in national policies or even in the world order? We can reconcile capitalism and ecology? A highly divisive issue, because it incorporates multiple ideological and political dimensions. not new, but it becomes absolutely crucial in this first half of the century 21.
To start a useful conversation on this subject, it is probably necessary to take a step back. E, for that, what better solution than revisiting the thinking of one of the pioneers, if not the father, of the concepts of sustainable development?
End of Century Stranded Paradigms 20
Life experiences and his research work have led Sachs to an uncompromising analysis of what he calls the Stranded Paradigms from the __ century 20.
No North, the first wild capitalism gave way to reformed capitalism during the thirty glorious years (1945-1975), rather than the counter-reform of neoliberalism, from the decade of 1980, sweep away the achievements of Social Democracy.
in Eastern Europe, the balance of real socialism was without arguments: forced sobriety and restricted freedoms, in relative equality.
No Sul, underdevelopment dominates, with extreme inequalities and the waste of natural and human resources. The only thing that might escape this observation is that certain countries in East and Southeast Asia (South Korea and then the other "dragons", China and Vietnam today), endowed with "Developer States", who were the main beneficiaries of economic globalization.
But in general, the lessons of history are negative, says sachs. To face the challenges of the century 21, we are condemned to invent.
The two challenges of the century 21
What are these challenges that must be faced now? climate change is clear, whose manifestations are clear today, but that were already on the international agenda for thirty years, with the first report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the first summits of Heads of State.
Ignacy Sachs, the second challenge is the work. More specifically, that of creating a sufficient supply of “decent work” for a world population that will continue to grow, from 7,6 billion today to 10 billions around 2050. Em "The Useless Man" (2015), or economist Pierre- Noël Giraud also identifies the new convicts of the land, those who are excluded from work, in the North and in the South.
In articulation these two challenges collide. On the one hand, we have the growth freaks who consider maintaining growth an absolute priority and when it comes to the environment: later we see!
On the other hand, the proponents of degrowth, for whom growth depletes resources and destroys the atmosphere, knowing that material production is already more than enough: just distribute it better. This debate between cornucopians (reference to the Horn of Abundance, Ancient Greek symbol of the productivity of nature) e malthusianos (the idea that population growth is potentially exponential while food supply growth is linear) was illustrated, for example, in the controversy between ecologist Paul Ehrlich and economist Julian Simon.
Invocando Gandhi, Sachs recognizes the need to break with unbridled consumerism and the relevance of self-limiting consumption. But it is uncompromising about growth: any solution that leads to contention can certainly harm the wallets of the richest, but it can also mean hell for the poorest. Try, therefore, to guide the economy while moving away from the two dogmatisms, considering the objectives of growth and employment; inverting, no doubt, the priorities: employment and growth.
Invent a new developmental state?
It would be useless to go back to past solutions; it's been shown that they all failed the reality test. Pending the emergence and consolidation of a social economy in the market economy, the priority is to reform capitalism again. E, also, It is essential to reaffirm the importance of the role of the State in this perspective of socially inclusive and environment-friendly economic growth.
In the capitalism reform project, Sachs identifies the absolute need for social and environmental regulation of the market. This requires a clearly steady hand of the state..
In your conferences of 2008, he identified five priorities, which are extremely current. Five priorities
- The State must first of all manage the interface between the different levels of governance; in globalization, the nation-state must not disappear, but, on the contrary, to establish itself as a central element for the articulation of the global and the local.
- Obviously, it must also be the driving force in the composition of economic objectives., social and environmental, that constitute the basic triangle of sustainable development.
- Whether ecological and social transitions require a long-term vision, this should not be developed in a technocratic way., but it constitutes a future negotiated between the State., the companies, workers' representatives and organized civil society.
- Basic social services, mostly guaranteed by the state, of infrastructure, health and education must become a right for all and, of course, in all countries.
- Finally, the state must play a central role in research and innovation, not just because private interests underestimate the social benefits of research, but also because it must escape profitability criteria.
The thought of Ignacy Sachs does not exhaust the subject. But it is a strong basis for reflection to think about solutions to the challenges of the century 21. And it will be possible, and recommended, extend the reflection using the contributions of the American pragmatic philosopher John Dewey to the role of scientific investigation in the formulation of public policies or to the liberalism of social action; but also Pierre-Noel Giraud's detailed analyzes of the necessary management of nomadic and sedentary jobs in the global economy; Where, yet, the English economist Christopher Freeman's Schumpeterian vision of the green economic paradigm.
But, these are all subjects to add to a file that won't be closed for long.: reform capitalism to overcome the ecological crisis, while building equity and social inclusion.
original content https://envolverde.cartacapital.com.br. For questions, content suggestions or additional information, between me contact us.