Brian Davey, social ecological economist and Feasta member based in the UK, has kindly offered to give two lectures during his current visit to Cloughjordan.
Venue: 1 Ard na gCapall, Cloughjordan, (in the ecovillage; contact info@feasta.org or call 086 3642728 for directions.)
Cost: Attendance is free but donations to Feasta would be gratefully received.
Time: 8-10pm (The lectures will be about an hour long, giving plenty of time for questions and discussion afterwards.)
This Thursday, 7th February
(i) The place of the environment in economic theory – an introduction
The lecture is about the place of the environment in economics – and the fact that, for many periods in the history of economic theory it has been pretty much absent. Brian shall also try to make clear that there are different views between different economists – for example very different attitudes to economic growth. He will explain the anthropocentric view of economics as compared to nature-centric views.
From the standpoint of the anthropocentric view he will explain how mainstream economics conceptualises environmental problems as “market failures”, why these failures are seen to occur and what market mechanisms are proposed to deal with the resultant problems. The lecture will conclude with an explanation why these market mechanisms are not as satisfactory as they are claimed to be.
Next Monday, 11th February
(ii) Can technology and markets can solve all the problems?
This lecture will contrast the different forms of energy metabolism in pre-industrial and industrial societies and the role of techno-innovation as a driver of change. It will address the question of whether green innovation can solve the problem of the limits to economic growth and suggest that there are many persistent and profitable delusions about ‘silver bullet‘ technologies. It will suggest that counterposing the precautionary principle against many forms of reckless and futile techno-innovation is as necessary as ever.
