Climate Justice, Commons, and Degrowth
Climate Justice, Commons, and Degrowth
Climate Justice, Commons, and Degrowth
Ecological Economics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon
Analysis
ABSTRACT
Economic inequality reduces the political space for addressing climate change, by producing fear-based populism. Only when the safety, social status, and livelihoods
of all members of society are assured will voluntary, democratic decisions be possible to reverse climate change and fairly mitigate its effects. Socio-environmental
and climate justice, commoning, and decolonization are pre-conditions for participatory, responsible governance that both signals and assists the development of
equitable socio-political systems. Degrowth movements, when they explicitly prioritize equity, can help to focus activism for climate justice and sustainable live-
lihoods.
This paper overviews the theoretical grounding for these arguments, drawing from the work of ecofeminist and Indigenous writers.
Indigenous (and also ecofeminist) praxis is grounded in activists' leadership for commoning and resistance to extraction, the fossil fuel economy, and commodified
property rights. These movements are building a politics of decolonization, respect, solidarity, and hope rather than xenophobia and despair.
“The world is in the midst of a change in thinking about economic and world's wealth, including resource extraction, globalized production,
social policy in general, and environmental policy in particular. Climate investment, and energy production and use (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina,
change is showing that the world depends upon a common pool resource, 2016; Oxfam, 2018). Meanwhile global income inequality is very high;
the atmosphere. Other common pool resources, such as fresh water and half of humanity cannot afford basic food, shelter, education and
forests, are also important. Simply put, the world is discovering that healthcare (World Health Organization and World Bank, 2017; Roser,
people depend upon these common pool resources more than they be- 2016). Even within most “emerging” and “rich” countries, a large seg-
lieved… How should people organize themselves when they depend upon ment of the population feels disempowered and disrespected, to the point
a common pool resource? We need to study examples of peoples who where populist leaders are elected, promising to restore dignity to the
have developed complex and productive systems using a common pool masses (Norrlof, 2018; Graves and Valpy, 2018a, 2018b). We are told
resource as the fundamental source of wealth.” that “over-consumption” is Anthropocene, inevitable, part of greedy
– Ronald L. Trosper, Resilience, Reciprocity and Ecological human nature which “we” must struggle to get under control; we are told
Economics: Northwest Coast Sustainability (2009:4) that sacrifices are necessary. Meanwhile factories close, carbon emissions
and regressive taxes rise, economic inequality and insecurity deepen,
workers riot in the streets, racism and fascism threaten.
1. Introduction
Economic growth nearly always heightens inequities, since in the
absence of countervailing policies and institutions, wealth begets more
Climate change is an equity challenge. That is to say, it is a life-or-
wealth and political power in a positive-feedback cycle.2 The tendency
death challenge to human wisdom as evidenced in socio-political in-
under capitalism, state socialism, and colonialism for the powerful to
stitution-building.1
keep coming out better off, and for exploitation of less-powerful people
While there are large differences among countries (indicating that
and of nature to accelerate, is the prime driver of climate change (Klein,
policies and institutions do matter), growing economic inequality within
2014; Douthwaite, 1999; Korten, 2006; Latouche, 2003; Latouche,
many countries since the 1980s – the same time period when climate
2012; Wu, 2018; Whyte, 2018a). There are not enough negative feed-
change has become entrenched – has allowed a small elite, 1% of the
backs on this tendency of centralized colonial economies to keep
global population, to become responsible for decisions about 82% of the
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.02.005
Received 28 February 2018; Received in revised form 7 February 2019; Accepted 7 February 2019
0921-8009/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
P.E.E. Perkins Ecological Economics 160 (2019) 183–190
growing, at the expense of “nature,” Indigenous land sovereignty, and degrowth helps to redefine activist goals, because as (re)commoning
marginalized people, for them to be either socially, politically, or eco- takes place, growth itself is less relevant than provisioning – which
logically sustainable (see Thesis 2 in the Introduction to this issue).3 happens both within and outside of the measured/recognized market,
However, ecological destruction is not required by human nature – economy, and governance structures (Dengler and Seebacher, 2018).
quite the contrary. There are many examples of human societies which Degrowth thus helps blur old categories and ideals, and focus on new,
have lived within ecosystem relationships for thousands of years. more relevant ones in times of climate crisis.
Common-pool resources, and other types of commons,4 have sustained The sections of this paper, which take up each of these points, are
human economies throughout human history. Collective governance meant as an overview and entry point into huge literatures on all of the
systems that prevent privatization and thus maintain livelihoods for issues mentioned. Following a section on ecofeminism, commons, cli-
entire communities are increasingly recognized by climate justice ac- mate justice, and degrowth, in the next section Indigenous leadership
tivists and scholars as key to equitably meeting the challenges of cli- and literatures on climate justice and commons are discussed briefly.
mate change. Indigenous scholars and activists critique private property The conclusion returns to the political role of equity in addressing cli-
in the context of settler colonialism, describing social-political-eco- mate change, and to the synergies between ecofeminist and Indigenous
nomic systems with sophisticated forms of property rights that have analyses.
maintained human societies for thousands of years in a variety of en-
vironments (Trosper, 2009; Borrows, 2010). Governance institutions
which are central in these systems include those protecting reciprocal 2. Ecofeminism, commons, climate justice, and degrowth
ecological relationships that foster collective continuance (Whyte,
2018b), contingent proprietorship and leadership (Trosper, 2009), The call of ecofeminists5 for recognition of collective, unpaid, taken-
ceremonial sharing, and social reciprocity demonstrated through po- for-granted foundational contributions of “nature” and “women's work”
tlatches and other rituals (Trosper, 2009; Atleo, 2011). While they have to socio-economic processes, and the patriarchal exploitation involved,
survived, all of these collective governance institutions have been highlights the importance of redistribution and common, shared pro-
threatened and nearly destroyed by colonialism. visioning in human societies (Mellor, 1997a; Mies, 1986/1999; Salleh,
Ecofeminist theorists describe how the rise of capitalism and colo- 2009).
nialism led to destruction of previously-existing commons, undermined As Carol Rose pointed out decades ago, commons of many kinds are
women's rights, and produced widespread social inequity and margin- ‘hidden in plain sight.’ Commons such as oceans and watersheds, the
alization (Federici, 2014, 2018; Mies, 1986/1999; Mies and Bennholdt- Earth's atmosphere, the internet, and languages, are ubiquitous (Hess,
Thomsen, 2001). These global and local histories underlie economic, 2008); they remain foundational supports for societies and economies,
environmental and climate injustice today. In the context of climate just like unpaid work and ‘nature;’ and they also act as flywheels,
change, through a wide range of movements and initiatives – many led maintaining and undergirding otherwise-unsustainable economic sys-
by Indigenous people and/or by women – they are beginning to be tems. Unpaid work and the vital economic role of ecological systems are
acknowledged and redressed. all much larger than the economy that non-Indigenous people have
This paper's argument is that equity, decolonization, and activism learned to ‘see’ (Gibson-Graham, 2006; Williams, 2005; Fournier, 2013,
are central to building political institutions to reduce carbon emissions UNDP, 2015).
and material throughput in human economies, so that humans can The ‘first enclosure’ of the commons in 16th-century Europe and its
again flourish within reciprocal relationships with the rest of life. colonies was fundamental to both the establishment of capitalism and
Climate justice is not only important in its own right, for moral/ethical the deepening of patriarchy (Federici, 2014:68–75). Women, who
reasons, but is also key to the politics of addressing climate change. “suffered most when the land was lost and the village community fell
The degrowth movement, which provides a catalyst for activism apart” (Ibid. 73), actively fought to protect the commons; “women
because it highlights the problems of and solutions to material holding pitchforks and scythes resisted the fencing of the land or the
throughput and over-consumption in rich countries, sometimes under- draining of the fens when their livelihood was threatened” (Ibid.). The
emphasizes equity and the unfair impacts of shrinking GDP on parti- European enclosures led to social crisis, misogyny and violence against
cular people and geographic areas. However, with equity foremost, women, reducing their employment options and confining them to the
home and unpaid reproductive work. In this transition from feudalism
to capitalism, “women suffered a unique process of social degradation
3
In traditional justice terminology, climate justice involves the principles of that was fundamental to the accumulation of capital and has remained
distributional and procedural justice (fairness in how material goods are dis- so ever since” (Ibid. 75). Meanwhile, in the colonies, where European
tributed among people, and in political access by all people), as well as inter- conquests imposed the same exploitative systems, women's resistance to
generational justice (meaning that current human consumption doesn't endanger enclosures preserved traditional commons-based religions and cultural
the welfare of future generations). Carrying equity principles a bit further re- practices. In Latin America, women “directed or counseled all the great
quires including interspecies justice (human respect for other species' welfare and anti-colonial revolts” (Ibid., 232, quoting De Leon, 1985, vol. 1:76).
continued existence/non-extinction) and intersectional justice (measures to
Commons are still more prevalent and more important in assuring
counteract multifaceted vulnerability and marginalization). Restorative justice
people's livelihoods globally than many may realize. “Worldwide the
implies reshaping human institutions not only for redress but also so that so-
ciety can self-correct, reinvigorate itself, and prevent inequitable outcomes International Land Alliance estimates that there are an estimated 2
from occurring. Distributional justice involves material equity; all the other billion people whose lives revolve around subsistence commons of
types of justice mentioned above go beyond the material to extend equity forest, fisheries, arable land, water and wild game” (Bollier and Weston,
principles into dynamic realms of governance, time, race, class, gender and 2014:1). Those dependent on commons are often the most margin-
more-than-human species (see Thesis 1 and Thesis 3 in the Introduction to this alized. Mutual aid, utopian communities, and grassroots collaborative
Special Issue). economic initiatives have allowed Black Americans to persevere in
4
Following Turner and Brownhill (2001), in this paper the word ‘commons’
means organized ways of providing the essentials of life to all. Examples include
5
language, health care, regulated clean air and water, universal education, open There are many variants of ecofeminism, but all critique the undervaluation
environmental spaces and forests, nutritious food, adequate shelter, and equi- and exploitation of women and nature (Plumwood, 1993; Warren, 2000; Gaard
table political governance. Charlotte Hess, another commons researcher, uses and Gruen, 1993, Gaard, 2011, Merchant, 1980, Mellor, 1997a; Salleh, 1997;
this definition: “A commons is a resource shared by a group where the resource Mies and Shiva, 2014). Feminist theory in general emphasizes justice, respect
is vulnerable to enclosure, overuse and social dilemmas. Unlike a public good, it for diversity and pluralism, critiques of power and wealth concentration, and
requires management and protection in order to sustain it” (Hess, 2008:37). the central importance of biological/ecological processes (Spencer et al., 2018).
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P.E.E. Perkins Ecological Economics 160 (2019) 183–190
“finding alternative economic strategies to promote economic stability of common resources and spaces; … (localized) production, exchange,
and economic independence in the face of fierce competition, racial and consumption; … decentralization; reciprocity (instead of) me-
discrimination, and White supremacist violence and sabotage” while chanical mass solidarity; … policy from below, as a living process, in-
building leadership and community stability (Gordon Nembhard, stead of policy from above; … (and) manifold ways of realizing a
2014:27). community and a multiplicity of communities” (Mies and Bennholdt-
Institutional economists such as Douglass North “have long con- Thomsen, 2001:1021–1022).
tended that property rights lie at the core of the economic growth that In principle, degrowth and commoning movements seem like nat-
has dominated the last 300 years of world history” (Evans, 2005:86), ural allies. They arise in opposition to crushing centralization and
which is to say that the ‘first enclosure’ of the commons made possible globalization, income and power concentration, and destruction of local
the exponential growth of agrarian and then industrial capitalist communities; they are fundamentally democratic and relationship-
economies. The gendered marginalization and misery noted above was based; their stance is critical of “sustainable development,” counter-
a direct result of the economic growth which depended on commodi- hegemonic, and anti-capitalist. But in my view, topics such as women,
fying and privatizing formerly-communal land. But as long ago as the gender, intersectionality, Indigenous peoples, colonialism, and im-
fourth century BC, “state-defined property was individual, male, and plications for the marginalized remain underexplored in degrowth
private – a relation which individuals held with the State, not with each analysis (Deschner and Hurst, 2018). There are exceptions, and a few
other. Collective or communal tenure was, in contrast, described by authors call for venues or discussions or shared political platforms to
Plato as ‘natural;’ its relations were controlled by, and internal to, a self- bring together different perspectives (e.g. Martinez-Alier et al.,
defining community…. By the 20th century… (w)hether ideology was 2010:1746, Martinez-Alier, 2012; Bonaiuti, 2012; Asara et al., 2015).
communist, socialist, nationalist, or capitalist, a dominant shared (Re)commoning opens an ethical, political, and currently relevant
strategy… was that community-based tenure (or customary tenure as means to motivate and cushion degrowth, broaden its appeal, and
usually known) must be extinguished in the interests of progress” (Wily, emphasize its practical/livelihood applications, in recognition of the
2018:2). tremendous potential that degrowth has to negatively affect margin-
Traditional common-pool resources and common property have a alized people whose precarious lifeways imply minimal ability to
formal or informal system of property rights, and enforced governance handle shocks and disruption (D'Alisa et al., 2014).
that effectively allows those with shared access to protect the commons What steps might this entail? The degrowth movement has not
from outsiders. Common property allocates certain rights to members of (yet?) seriously considered or addressed the long-standing feminist and
a group: access, extraction, management, exclusion, and/or alienation ecofeminist literatures regarding the extent to which the measured/
rights (Hess, 2008:34). “New commons” include a wide range of types growth economy depends upon unpaid work, mostly done by women,
of connections between groups of humans and natural resources, goods, and unpaid ecological services. Many degrowth authors seem blind to
property, or cultural assets: “The new commons literature focuses on the effects of patriarchy, gender violence, colonialism, and wage dis-
collective action, voluntary associations, and collaboration. While crimination in forcing certain members of humanity, and “nature” (c.f.
property rights and the nature of the good may still be important, there Francis Bacon – see Merchant, 2008), to continue providing other
is a growing emphasis on questions of governance, participatory pro- members of humanity the means to support their well-being.
cesses, and trust; and there is a groundswell of interest in shared values Degrowth theorist Takis Fotopoulos points out that degrowth ad-
and moral responsibility” (Hess, 2008:37). Even traditional commons dresses the ecological crisis while essentially ignoring the political,
such as communally-held land are surprisingly resilient, widespread, social, economic, and class crises (Fotopoulos, 2007:5). This is a pro-
and growing in places – due in some cases to the progress of Indigenous blem, he says: “The crucial issue today is how we may create a new
peoples in gaining recognition for their communal land rights (Wily, society where institutionalized domination of human being over human
2018). Neoclassical economists have begun to investigate the reasons being and the consequent idea of dominating nature are ruled out”
why communal tenure can be more efficient than private property: (2007:8). Fotopoulos shows how both socialist and capitalist growth
“When the output produced with the asset is a public good, then depend fundamentally on income concentration – both materially and
communal property rights (joint ownership) may sometimes be op- environmentally – since industrialization depends on privatization of
timal” (Besley and Ghatak, 2010:4552). the means of production and division of labour; it is simply not possible
In the face of climate change, movements in the Global South and for the benefits of increased production to be universalized because this
North, largely led by women, are resisting ongoing enclosures for ex- would endanger the conditions of income disparity required by profit
traction and fossil fuel industries and, in the process, reclaiming com- maximization. “Progress, in the sense of improvements in welfare
mons. “To the extent that the capitalist energy system is seized and through economic growth, has a necessarily non-universal character.
redirected towards commoning, actors within it have reduced dan- Therefore, the moment of truth for the present social system will come,
gerous emissions and elaborated an alternative system premised on when it will be universally acknowledged that the very existence of the
sustainable energy…. This ‘actually existing’ movement of commoners present wasteful consumption standards depends on the fact that only a
is the result of the exploited taking over some of the organizations of small proportion of the world population, now or in the future, are able
capital and using them to (a) undermine profit and at the same time (b) to enjoy them” (2007:14–15). He thus provides the reason why de-
negotiate and construct means for satisfying universal needs” growth cannot prioritize redistribution OR gender equity without what
(Brownhill and Turner, 2008:16; see also Akbulut, 2017). he calls a “cultural revolution,” the “transformation of existing in-
For example, La Via Campesina's Declaration at the 2015 stitutions” – but this must be accomplished without alienating “the
International Forum for Agroecology stated, “Collective rights and ac- lower social groups (including the lower middle class), which would
cess to the commons are a fundamental pillar of agroecology. We share particularly have to pay the price for the adoption of the measures
access to territories that are the home to many different peer groups, involved” if they are carried out within the market system by inter-
and we have sophisticated customary systems for regulating access and nalizing externalities (2007: 18).
avoiding conflicts that we want to preserve and to strengthen” “Progress,” as Maria Mies noted in 1986, depends not just on global
(Giacomini, 2016:98). La Via Campesina also notes, “As savers of seed income inequality but on patriarchy, and on disguising women's eco-
and living libraries of knowledge about local biodiversity and food nomic interests even from themselves. For society to vote democrati-
systems, women are often more closely connected to the commons than cally for degrowth, these fundamental characteristics of prevailing
men” (Ibid). economic systems would need to be maintained. Fotopoulos hints at the
Necessary steps in the process of re-commoning include “defending extensive changes which would be necessary to bring this exploitation
and reclaiming of public space, and opposition to further privatization to light when he says, “To my mind, it is only through a transitional
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P.E.E. Perkins Ecological Economics 160 (2019) 183–190
strategy aiming to create new democratic political and economic in- what can drive progressive North-South redistribution? Economic lo-
stitutions and, through paideia, which would aim to make hegemonic calization and decentralization can lead to greater equity in specific
the corresponding values, that we could realistically hope to create the cases (Kaufman, 2012; Gibson-Graham, 2006; Rowan, 2019) but the
conditions for the emergence of an economy and society not based on post-colonial/decolonizing global distribution questions remain
economic growth: a real ecological democracy, as an integral part of an (Dengler and Seebacher, 2018, 2019; Lang, 2017; Paulsen, 2017). This
Inclusive Democracy” (2007:19). The word paideia, meaning “child- remains an under-developed area of degrowth theory.
rearing and education,” gives away the deep ecofeminist content of his Since degrowth involves substituting social benefits which are not
remarks: child-rearing and education, currently taken for granted, not derived from material throughput in the economy for economic benefits
worthy of comment, and done largely for free almost exclusively by which are materially-dependent, it is centrally concerned with issues
women, are the key to transforming society so that people can generally like unpaid work, caring, community as differentiated from individual
see that growth is not the point; ongoing livelihood and quality of life welfare, and other such matters which feminist economists have studied
for all is. for decades. Ecofeminists, in particular, have long considered these is-
What will induce the emergent “new forms of economic and social sues (Mellor, 1997b, Mellor, 1992, Kuiper and Perkins, 2005, Shiva,
organization” (Bonaiuti, 2012) to be good from an ecofeminist per- 1988, Mies and Shiva and Mies, 1993).
spective – that is, equitable for women and all marginalized ‘others’, Undervalued economic factors include women's work (and indeed
and for more-than-human life/“nature”? The answer to this question is all under- and unpaid work), as well as non-monetized services and
the crux of climate-crisis-driven system change. material inputs from ‘nature’ and colonial theft which are incorporated
From the standpoint of equity/redistribution and ecological bal- into the economic sphere virtually for free. Whenever they are esti-
ance, degrowth thus can seem a rather tangential tactic. Because some mated – e.g. Costanza et al. (1997, 2014), Pietilä (1997); D'Alisa and
degrowth theorists focus mainly on reducing humans' energy use and Cattaneo (2013); UNDP (2015) – these unpaid or ‘free’ services and
material throughput, the degrowth movement they envision can seem goods generally dwarf the measured economy in value, yet they are
somewhat conflicted and unclear about its equity implications. usually not central to policy deliberations and they are often ignored
Degrowth activists generally maintain that they want degrowth with entirely. Women's work and “nature” are crucial and irreplaceable
equity, but the movement itself to date largely lacks participation and foundations of the measured economy. Maria Mies has shown how
input from marginalized workers from either the global North or the capitalism was founded and continues to depend for its existence on the
global South, who might be able to represent and integrate those con- unpaid and underpaid work of women; Mary Mellor and Ariel Salleh
cerns – if indeed this is possible (see Thesis 4 in the Introduction to this and many other theorists have traced the material links between wo-
issue). Other degrowth proponents define their goals in terms of re- men's work and what economists call “ecosystem services”; these issues
organizing the social metabolism towards socially-determined aims, of underpayment and inequality based in social injustice and environ-
once growth itself is decentred as a societal indicator of progress (Kallis mental depredation, and the predictable ways in which they create
and March, 2014). economic winners and losers, are grounded in colonialism, patriarchy,
Turner et al., 2012 article in a special issue of Capitalism Nature under-development, and race and class discrimination both within
Socialism on degrowth, substitute ‘de-alienation’ in Marxian terms as a countries and globally.
better focus than degrowth, since this incorporates both justice AND Just as the ‘jobs vs. environment’ conflicts of 20 years ago are being
ecology. Justice, because all workers share the alienation which flows superseded via ‘green jobs’ and ‘green community development’
from over-consumption and overwork, and this shared burden provides movements which recognize the importance of safe green sustainable
a basis for political action, and for economic restructuring with equity. jobs for all workers, as the climate crisis intensifies ‘degrowth vs. re-
Ecology, because commons are an age-old solution evolved by humans distribution’ conflicts will need to be overcome through ‘de-alienation
to meet the challenges of joint sustenance, risk, and long-term en- via commoning,’ which lays the groundwork for all members of society
vironmental equilibrium. to be supported, simply, first and foremost, so that growth becomes
In terms of social justice, given the ever-present reality that eco- irrelevant (Macgregor, 2014).
nomic contraction (or changes of any kind) tend to impact most gravely This focus on participatory commons governance decenters both
on people who are already marginalized, most degrowth theorists growth and degrowth as goals: Degrowth is mostly a means to an end,
specify that attention to justice is crucial in bringing about degrowth, which is a just, peaceful quality of life for all. In comparison with
and they try to include voices from the margins in arguing for the de- current realities, income redistribution is more central than degrowth
growth agenda. Part of this strategy includes pointing out that growth per se as a step in a good direction. More progressive wealth taxation
too hurts the poor, due to its ecological, climate change, and neoliberal policy including inheritance taxes and ceilings that favour wealth dis-
social impacts. Martinez-Alier, a central figure in the degrowth move- tribution; crackdowns on tax havens and tax flight; and anti-corruption
ment, argues in his book The Environmentalism of the Poor (2002) that policies in general are examples of ways to advocate and move towards
strategies used by poor people worldwide to minimize or buffer the this goal even within capitalism and current political structures, by
environmental consequences of economic growth, which fall heavily on building political will for transparency and redistribution. More fun-
them and endanger their more sustainable livelihoods, effectively damental reconstruction of commons in the Western/European domi-
shrink the size of the measured, growth-focused economy. nated world, however, will involve deep restructuring of economic
Nonetheless, from an ecofeminist and equity-driven perspective, it systems, livelihoods, rights, and culture (Fuente Carrasco et al., 2019;
seems dangerous to advocate degrowth without very clear and specific Whyte, 2017a, 2017b, 2018a).
corollary measures to negate the tendency of the powerful to come out Colonialism, as noted above, violently suppressed and continues to
better-off. undermine Indigenous socio-economic institutions that exemplify
Traditional income redistribution mechanisms usually rely at least commons governance for securing sustainable livelihoods. Is it possible
theoretically on growth, so that the least well-off can gradually be al- for ecofeminist, degrowth, and Indigenous activists to become allies in
located a proportionally larger share of economic returns without re-commoning?
others having to receive absolutely less. In practice, growth is usually Says Indigenous writer Lindsay Nixon:
accompanied by increases in both economic and political inequity, and
“Indigenous feminists know that mainstream feminism predominantly
worsening income distribution (Piketty, 2014; Wilkinson and Pickett,
represents white settler feminists who, more often than not, choose to
2009). But what mechanism can address historically-based material
ignore the ongoing processes of colonialism from which they actually
inequities, both within and among countries and regions, as well as
benefit…. Ecofeminism that appropriates Indigenous environmental
globally? Without growth as the engine, in reality as well as in theory,
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P.E.E. Perkins Ecological Economics 160 (2019) 183–190
knowledges often fails to fully represent what environmental justice and, thus, political power – given the U.S. colonial governance system's
means to Indigenous communities. What is often ignored within these lack of negative feedbacks on wealth accumulation, unlike Indigenous
analyses is how neocolonial state violence, compounded by exposure to governance systems.
environmental contaminants, is embodied in very specific ways for Indigenous histories document a diversity of ways of organizing
Indigenous women and Two-Spirit peoples…. Indigenous peoples have society to prioritize resilience, interdependence, and ecological re-
again and again described how solutions to the effects of environmental lationships (Trosper, 2009; Leroy, 2016). Indigenous traditions of
contamination need to extend far beyond the return of land…. If eco- hospitality, sharing, potlatch (or giving away material wealth to de-
feminists truly want to engage with Indigenous feminism to legitimize monstrate moral and community standing), humility, and reverence for
their own movements, they must first engage with their own positionality the earth and all its creatures and life systems are central to locally-
and privilege as settlers: a positionality on which the continuation of appropriate commons governance processes. First Nations also had
settler-colonialism and the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples are nested governance institutions which seem to correspond with what
prefaced. Furthermore, Indigenous peoples don't need saviour feminists Elinor Ostrom has cited as successful ‘polycentric’ ways to govern large-
defining what strategies must be used to address environmental con- scale commons (Ostrom, 2009a, 2010, 2014).
tamination within Indigenous communities…. What Indigenous feminists The active suppression of the potlatch by the Canadian government
want from eco-feminists is simple: Sit down, be quiet, and listen” between 1884 and 1951, on penalty of 2 to 6 month jail terms, shows
(Nixon, 2015) the extent to which gift-giving, generosity, and moral community re-
lationships were inimical to the selfishness and violence of colonial
This call to listen respectfully is consistent with an empirical, evi-
capitalist expansionism. During the potlatch, guests are named and
dence-based approach to sustainable livelihoods, as pointed out by
given gifts with the words, “you are recognized.” In The Principles of
Ronald Trosper in the quotation that heads this paper (Trosper,
Tsawalk: An Indigenous Approach to Global Crisis, E. Richard Atleo
2009:4).
(Umeek) says,
“Over time it was learned that gift giving and recognition promoted
3. Indigenous commons, climate justice, and degrowth
balance and harmony between beings, that (this) obeyed what might be
called the laws of the positive side of polarity…. When two neighbouring
Sustainable ecological practices, communal wealth-sharing, and
nations shared the same resources, whether cedar, salmon, or human,
institutions that preserve long-term quality of life are apparent in many
then it was obvious to the ancient Nuu-chah-nulth that to neglect the act
Indigenous governance systems. In Canada and elsewhere, Indigenous
of recognition would open the way to conflict, while to observe the act of
leadership, especially by young women, is generating a new impetus for
recognition, through what I refer to as ‘mutual concern,’ would open the
settler-allies to learn about and act on these lifeways and the history
way to balance and harmony.”
and pernicious legacies of colonialism.
(Atleo, 2011, pp. 80–81)
International legal scholar Shawkat Alam notes, “Collective rights
are often affiliated with Indigenous people, as they are defined as rights Indigenous forms of resource management prior to colonization
held by groups…. However, it has been argued that the ‘recognition of included burning forests to create grasslands for common hunting
collectivities and collective rights is one of the most contested in in- grounds and areas where food plants and medicinal herbs could be
ternational law and politics’. Indeed… this concept of collective rights harvested by visitors of many nations (First Story, 2016; Frost, 2019;
can be seen to conflict with Western ideas of individual freedom and Turner et al., 2000); Shasta and Hupa management of salmon fisheries
liberty…. Collective rights have been seen to foster tolerance, and di- through a combination of ritual, ceremony, taboos, respect for elders,
versity of culture and knowledge. To this end, many Indigenous peoples and astute observation of the fish over many years (Berkes and Folke,
view the recognition of their cultural rights as ‘of paramount im- 2002:126–127); Cree oral history to transmit knowledge of long-term
portance’ or ‘as a token of respect towards their identity and commu- cycles in caribou herd fluctuations (Ibid.:140); and Nishinaabeg myths
nities as well as the only way for their survival and development’” and stories to convey knowledge about interrelated natural phenomena,
(Alam, 2012:588; Xanthaki, 2007:13). along with human dependence and humility (Simpson, 2011:18). All
Indigenous legal scholar John Borrows has demonstrated the extent these practices depend upon shared cultures, resource use by groups for
to which First Nations governance traditions have provided a founda- the benefit of the whole collectivity, and limitations not just on in-
tion for current Canadian law, as part of a living, resilient legal system dividual consumption and wealth accumulation but on overall human
which ‘works’ in the modern world (Borrows, 2010). Carol Rose, in a consumption when necessary to preserve the natural resource – in other
very thorough 1986 study, demonstrated that the legal status of com- words, effective and sustainable commons governance.
mons is well-represented, understood and respected in modern Western Balanced gender roles and social domains (e.g. Haudenosaunee
legal traditions, and in fact that there are so many types and advantages women were clan heads; they chose the male sachems or chiefs) were
of collective property rights that their benefits remain unambiguous; and are the norm in many Indigenous societies (Mann, 2005:372–373).
“the commons was not tragic, but comedic, in the sense of a story with a Indigenous women, as those responsible for water and life-transmission,
happy outcome” (Rose, 1986:723). lead the most powerful grassroots environmental movements in Canada
The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee confederacy among the Seneca, today (Perkins, 2017; Temper, 2018b). Indigenous chief and activist
Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora peoples was Arthur Manuel and R.M. Derrickson comment in their book Unsettling
“probably the greatest Indigenous polity north of the Rio Grande in the Canada: A National Wake-Up Call that women have long held leading
two centuries before Columbus and definitely the greatest in the two roles in Indigenous activism on land, rights and the environment, and
centuries after” (Mann, 2005:330). The Haudenosaunee ‘Great Law of the majority of young Indigenous activists today are women (Manuel
Peace,’ with its 117 codicils setting out ways of achieving political and Derrickson, 2015:211). Indigenous authors have pointed out that,
balance, requiring subsidiarity, and setting checks on authority, has besides gendered economic and social roles in a patriarchal society,
been cited as the direct inspiration for the U.S. Constitution (Ibid.:333). cultural factors also lead Indigenous women to assert their voices and
However, while they adopted Haudenosaunee protections for liberty leadership on matters related to water, health, education and liveli-
and individual rights going far beyond European standards of the time, hoods (Gorecki, 2014; Nixon, 2015; Awadalia et al., 2015; Ellis, 2015;
the U.S. constitutional ‘framers’ failed to incorporate Haudenosaunee Whyte, 2014a).
traditions of communal property ownership (Ibid.: 333–336). Arguably, The links between exploitation of land, resources, and women are
they thus missed out on a crucial piece of the overall system's tradi- clear: “…Indigenous women activists and academics have shown how
tional, well-evolved constraints on individual wealth-accumulation the foundation of contemporary capitalism was contingent on industrial
187
P.E.E. Perkins Ecological Economics 160 (2019) 183–190
resource extraction of Indigenous people's land, which was also si- 4. Conclusion: equity, commons, and climate justice
multaneously fully reliant on disempowering any positive ethic towards
nature and women. This was achieved by installing European forms of Women's movements, and especially Indigenous women's move-
gender relations and dismantling women's power, aided by the appro- ments, revive and underscore the importance of participatory democ-
priation of Indigenous women's bodies. Residential schools were per- racy and local responsibility for preventing the commodification of
haps the strongest tools in reinscribing balanced gender relations of water, mineral resources, forests, fisheries, information, collective
North American Indigenous matrilocal societies into the unequal ones transportation, and other widely shared systems that are vitally im-
of patriarchal models imposed by European colonizers and settlers…. portant for most communities' livelihoods and for human flourishing
(T)he centrality of resisting the colonization of Mother Earth, Terra (Bollier and Weston, 2013; Murota and Takeshita, 2013; Shimada,
Madre, and Pachamama is paramount” (Gorecki, 2014).6 2010; Dyer-Witheford, 2011; Cochrane, 2014; Hess and Ostrom, 2007;
As noted by climate justice activists, it is those on the front lines of Great Lakes Commons, 2013).
climate change – both extreme weather events and extraction – who are The toxic effects of fossil fuel and other extraction, and industrial
most aware of its impacts and most knowledgeable about how they production more generally – water and air pollution, ecosystem impacts
should be addressed; this puts women at the forefront of climate justice on fish, wildlife, soils, agriculture, etc., trampling on local governance
struggles (Beuchler and Hanson, 2015:228). Indigenous women, facing processes, Indigenous land rights, and the health of the most vulnerable
multiple health and livelihood crises, are leading powerful movements – first and most clearly demonstrate the deathly problematic nature of
to address this issue at its source (Whyte, 2014a; Whyte, 2017a, 2017b; the economic system that produces climate change. The impacts of
Green, 2017; Temper, 2018a). fossil fuel consumption – greenhouse gas emissions leading to extreme
Commoning, or reclaiming/rebuilding Indigenous governance sys- weather events, weather variability, etc. – while global in their im-
tems, requires decolonization. Dene activist Glen Coulthard, in his book plications, are longer-incubating but also crucially important in per-
Red Skin White Masks, discusses the hope and the promise of commons: petuating climate change. In both production and consumption, roles
and impacts are gendered (Cohen, 2017) and environmental injustices
“What must be recognized by those inclined to advocate a blanket ‘return
abound. Climate justice includes both production and consumption
to the commons’ as a redistributive counterstrategy to the neoliberal
related activism.
state's new round of enclosures, is that, in liberal settler states such as
This paper presents an alternative, deeper argument regarding a
Canada, the ‘commons’ not only belong to somebody – the First Peoples
way forward in times of worsening inequality and climate chaos: that
of this land – they also deeply inform and sustain Indigenous modes of
humans have proven themselves to be capable of building socio-cultural
thought and behaviour that harbour profound insights into the main-
systems which secure a respected place for all members of society and
tenance of relationships within and between human beings and the nat-
provide for their livelihoods, material needs and emotional welfare
ural world built on principles of reciprocity, nonexploitation and re-
through commons, protected by collective social governance institu-
spectful coexistence. By ignoring or downplaying the injustice of colonial
tions. Despite centuries of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalist
dispossession, critical theory and left political strategy not only risks
growth, such commons continue to sustain and supplement the liveli-
becoming complicit in the very structures and processes of domination
hoods of most people in the world. Led by the marginalized, who are
that it ought to oppose, but it also risks overlooking what could prove to
well aware of this, commoning is a mode of social activism which al-
be invaluable glimpses into the ethical practices and preconditions re-
lows people to relink with the means to collectively control production
quired for the construction of a more just and sustainable world order”
themselves, outside of the market and independent of capital (Fournier,
(Coulthard, 2014:12)
2013).
Justice-oriented economic transformation requires non-Indigenous Commoning implies addressing all forms of justice: distributional,
people to undertake significant and ongoing education about the da- procedural, intergenerational, intersectional, interspecies, restorative.
mage and legacies of colonialism in order to begin to build economic It also requires understanding the deep colonial roots of growth itself,
institutions that respect the contributions and rights of women and in order to actively “unsettle” the collaborative process of redressing
Indigenous peoples, both individually and collectively (Davis, 2010; wrongs, building respect and humility, and envisioning a resilient,
Tuck, 2017; Fortier, 2017; Davis and Todd, 2016; Whyte, 2016). In- sustainable future. Relationships between settler ecofeminists,
digenous governance systems underscore how foundational justice is Indigenous women activists, and global climate justice movements re-
for long-lived and ecologically-sustainable commons. However, de- quire settlers to commit to ongoing self-education, respect, and soli-
growth theorists and activists have yet to engage much with this, or darity in working towards decolonization.
with Indigenous activists and approaches in North America; the Eur- Equity-oriented degrowth, climate justice, and commoning are thus
opean degrowth movement even less so. potentially mutually reinforcing, and offer a politically viable path to-
Global commoning movements grounded in Indigenous lifeways, wards energy transition and a post-capitalist future. The first step along
including Buen Vivir, Pachakuti, and Sumak Kawsay in Latin America, this path is to dismantle colonialism, restore stolen land to its
Ecological Swaraj in India, Gross National Happiness in Bhutan, Ubuntu Indigenous caretakers in reconciliation, and (re)build the social respect,
in Africa, and Maori “Economy of Mana” in New Zealand, have many relationships and fundamental human values that can link all members
parallels with degrowth, especially their insistence on transformative of society together, without fear or xenophobia, for shared and re-
reorganization of society to recenter harmony among humans and with sponsible commons governance.
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