Thammasat University students who are interested in sociology, economics, political science, history, psychology, political philosophy, and related subjects may find a newly available book useful.
Convivial Futures: Views from a Post-Growth Tomorrow is an Open Access book, available for free download at this link.
It is edited by Professor Frank Adloff, who teaches sociology at the University of Hamburg, Germany and Professor Allain Caillé, who teaches sociology at the University of Paris X Nanterre, France.
The book discusses conviviality, or convivialism, the ability of individuals to interact creatively and autonomously with others and their environment to satisfy their own needs.
This interpretation is related to, but distinct from social cohesion policy or living together with difference and diversity. Conviviality is intended as opposed to industrial productivity that results in consumers who are alienated from the way that things are produced.
Instead, simple living is underlined, with localized production systems.
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of social cohesion.
As the editors note,
Abstract of Convivialism
Convivialism, the political philosophy of living together (of conviviality), of the art of cooperating in opposition without killing each other, makes explicit the ultimate values that animate all those, from very diverse ideological backgrounds, who are not resigned to giving up control, and therefore the survival of the world, neither to the champions of neo-liberal globalization, nor to the prophets of aneo-fascist nationalism (the two sometimes go hand in hand). The former, who advocate the planetary extension of a rentier and speculative capitalism, play on the aspiration to economic omnipotence, to ever more wealth (pleonexy). They are ransacking the planet. The latter mobilize the desire for political omnipotence and identity. They secrete hatred and murderous impulses.
Five principles + one categorical imperative
The intellectual, associative and political personalities (300 from 33 different countries) who co-signed the Second convivialist manifesto agreed on five principles. :
– The principle of common naturalness affirms that we are not masters and possessors of nature (Descartes) but share a common destiny with it. It is at the heart of ecological thinking.
– The principle of common humanity (which evokes communism) condemns all discrimination, of sex, skin colour, belief or religion.
– The principle of common sociality (dear to socialism) affirms that the wealth for humans is first and foremost that of their social relationships.
– The principle of legitimate individuation (particularly claimed by anarchism) states that the primary motivation of humans is the quest for recognition.
– The principle of creative opposition is the one that animated the first liberalism. It is the one that made it possible to put an end to absolutist monarchies and despotisms.
These five principles must be tempered and balanced by each other, in line with the prime categorical imperative to fight against hubris, against the desire of omnipotence.
Four minimum political implications
From these five principles and this imperative flow four minimum general policy orientations:
– A convivialist policy aims for a triple-zero objective by 2040-2050: zero net emissions of greenhouse gases; zero consumption of fossil fuels; zero highly toxic and high-risk waste.
– It leads a resolute struggle for a significant reduction of inequalities. This implies the introduction of an unconditional minimum income and of a maximum income and wealth level, however high it may be.
– It gives new life to the democratic ideal by systematically articulating parliamentary representative democracy, democracy of opinion and direct and participatory democracy (via citizens’ conferences and citizens’ initiative referendums).
– It promotes a plural universalism (pluriversalism) that allows different cultures, cultures, religions or philosophies to dialogue by opposing without massacring each other.
The book observes that the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic aggravated current conditions, making convivialism more timely than ever:
The coronavirus pandemic, which began in the spring of 2020, has shown which problematic situations were already virulent: for example, the fragility of financial capitalism, the massive digital and educational asymmetries, or the deepening of gender inequalities through the re-feminization of care work. Added to these problems are the consequences of the current crisis management: collapses in the global economy, newly indebted states, rising unemployment, and so forth. Whether the pandemic opens or closes avenues for convivial reform has yet to be decided at the time of this writing (August 2021). It seems clear that many things cannot go on like they have, but it will be important to draw the right conclusions from the crisis. One lesson that the pandemic has taught us is that existing certainties can be shattered rapidly and that there is no firm base for eternal business as usual. Delusive certainties have been replaced by contingency awareness. On the one hand, new things now seem possible. On the other hand, it is precisely this loss of illusory security and certainty that scares people. Can this fear be socially managed or, better still, made productive? In the meantime, it is becoming increasingly clear that the coronavirus pandemic is only the beginning. Compared to the consequences of climate change, dealing with COVID-19 is probably just a minor challenge. COVID-19 shows the different levels of temporality we are dealing with… Many social movements from the North and the South are calling on politicians, businesspeople, and academics to abandon the hubris of world domination that the SCM so clearly criticizes. Self-limitation and conviviality among humans and non-humans would have to be considered intrinsically valuable, and one would have to build completely new relationships of meaning that do not negate contingency and interdependence but rather affirm them. COVID-19 has also made clear how interdependent our world is. It is more evident than ever how all beings (human as well as non-human) depend on each other—even if not symmetrically. Solidarity could grow out of this feeling of interdependence, which was the thesis of the French sociologist Émile Durkheim as early as the end of the 19th century. He related this idea to the nation state; today, these dependencies have become visible to everyone on a global level. But it is not easy to derive a compelling new narrative of progress from this. One question of the future will be whether fears, segregations, inequalities, and conflicts over resources of all kinds will increase or whether it will be possible not to exacerbate the fear of the future through more individualism and privatism, as has been the case so far, but to mitigate it through more solidarity and convivial solutions. Future hopes for growth, dominance, and prosperity have thus far integrated Western societies, even if these hopes are increasingly proving to be economically unrealistic, socially unjust, and ecologically fatal. Now the task must be to nevertheless develop an attractive vision of living together. Against the fear of losing out to others, new forms of conviviality must be established. It is precisely in response to this that convivialism is trying to formulate new positive answers.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)