is now a matter of incontrovertible fact: economic growth does not produce wellbeing or improve the quality of our lives. It 'an assumption which is inspired by the beautiful book entitled "The post-growth " (Edizioni Egea, pp.420, €. 26.50), of Giampaolo Fabris, a professor of the Sociology of Consumption IULM. In the past, economic growth has always been considered almost a synonym and / or an assumption that welfare was identified with the famous American way of life or that model of life and consumption that the U.S., for about a century, brought to the world.
The economic crisis has dramatically highlighted how the path of consumption leads to excess, as the only way to solve our problems, is increasingly less viable.
It is unthinkable to continue to consume more, not only by choice, but also a kind of scaffolding to support economic dutifulness moral, sometimes it feel like to suggest some. It makes sense to change
increasingly mobile (the statistics speak for Italy an average of 18 months of life for our mobile phone), it makes sense to spread the our wardrobes with new leaders when our cupboards at home does not contain more, it still makes sense to have not one but two parked car ownership under the house and the statistics tell us that we use on average 2 hours a day? Places
emblematic of this model consider the 'newsstand the house - where we are served up weekly collections of all kinds of objects-junk (from model cars to watches) without any value - and our post office now transformed a large bazaar where you buy the sim card, toys, books, (and where, inter alia, able to pay a bulletin has become an exhausting!).
companies now chasing the consumer in all aspects of his life to create in him sometimes stages of true exasperation. I do not know about you, but in my personal experience, for example, not a day goes by when at home or office does not receive phone calls and / or fax - not to mention the dozens of mail-with proposals for new price plans, changes of phone company, offers to buy food! The classic advertisement is increasingly losing their power and then try new ways increasingly invasive.
The Western world seems to suffer from a kind of bulimia for consumption that distinguishes all aspects of our lives. A recent study by the University of Carolina found that for the first time in the world the number of obese (about one billion) exceeded the number of undernourished people (800 million).
A study shows that the Mario Negri Institute in Italy each year are thrown away because expired about 10 packs of medicines per family (equivalent to 800 million euros), and two thirds of which end in landfill because they are not differentiated in the collection waste. And speaking of waste, the packaging of our products, we are literally drowning.
Our cities are at risk of becoming increasingly similar to that Leonia Italo Calvino, in one of his famous stories, imagine themselves overwhelmed by the waste it produces (and the recent cases of Naples and Palermo at the bottom are a prime example).
Guido Viale notes as " the cost of a pack of canned tomatoes is a few cents but the cost of its disposal as waste is three times as much. If we consider the environmental degradation that leads to this rejection, the total cost of that package would be ten times greater . The food expenditure is steadily decreasing in the budgets of families still in the early seventies it absorbed about 36% while spending in 2009 amounted to only 15.6%. Spending on communication is outstripping food. The only phone accounts for 6% of household spending, not to mention the affect on our budget for the car. Today a gallon of gasoline costs the same as a kg. pulp, which in turn costs the same as a ticket for the tram!
Luckily it seems that something is changing in individual behavior. A series of surveys on consumption, and illustrated with a wealth of data and scientific rigor reported in this text, they tend to show how different patterns of consumption are emerging from those previously hegemonic and pointing in the direction of a less exaggerated consumerism but not to decrease the so-called advocated by some ( Serge Latouche and Maurizio Pallante, just to mention the first that come to mind and not skipping Wolfgang Sachs whose positions are any less orthodox than the first two).
Indeed, Fabris, against the philosophy of decline, calling it critical is rather anachronistic utopia. Today the average consumer begins to show signs of discomfort and satiety against un'iperofferta unstoppable and try to react to this situation with a less passive than in the past, more attentive and aware, yet far from "the world stops I want to get off "proposed by the prophets of decline. In this regard, Fabris asks a simple question: " How can - he asks - require to pull the handbrake who looks just now at a level of widespread prosperity? And yet how can we fight against poverty and hunger that afflicts more than a billion people worldwide, drastically reducing consumption? "
between capitalism and the decline may develop, and this is already occurring in certain sections of the minority still Italian population, a third way, the fact that Fabris defines the post-growth and something that combines both of the two philosophies.
seems that a new trend is emerging. Among the first changes observed by Fabris emerges progressive acquisition of environmental sensitivity . The capture of awareness of the progressive destruction of natural resources, raising the temperature of the planet, the effects of excessive consumption of resources previously neglected, are eventually converge in the realization by some of us that the current model development based on the assumption of continued growth and unlimited consumption begins to become a crisis.
is emerging a new kind of reflexive consumer - Fabris also claims - seeking a balance between greed and anorexia preached yesterday by supporters of the decrease. In this respect He uses the example of the rise in recent years of collective phenomena such as GAC (Buying Groups Collective) and GAS (fair trade groups) which are based on the principles of localism and consumer awareness.
After all it is through food choices, clothing, housing and its furnishings, the use of leisure time and the readings that defines our way of life. And this somehow exceeds in importance, even the choice of political voting. Today when we buy a product we express a preference just like when we go to vote in elections. The difference lies in the fact that consumption appears now weapon much sharper than the vote. Even
Fabris, at least in this in total harmony with Serge Latouche, dissociates in its analysis, the GDP as reliable gauge of economic growth and prosperity of a country. It reveals, in its view, a system now anachronistic and even "socially offensive". In fact already back in 1968 even Bob Kennedy in a famous speech he stated that " to fuel ratio are also air pollution, the cost of ambulances involved to the accidents on the roads ... the locks for the barricade our homes, the costs of prison for those who infringe .... " GDP today does not measure the quality of products, their environmental friendliness, quality of life. Hence the need, now supported by many, to identify new indicators to measure the state of development of a country.
We are moving to a new phase so that precisely defines Fabris post-growth and post-consumerism . As actors in this new phase he indicates three subjects: the consumer , the State the enterprise system. Among these, in his view, the consumer will just have the greatest weight and greater importance in contributing to the change that awaits us. The new consumer will have to take an attitude responsible against diseases induced by environmental consumption, critical models geared toward the waste and also aware of the political meaning that its consumer choices can play.
Fabris, among its many considerations, makes it a particularly agree with that. He shows genuine concern and says that one of the main obstacles to the spread of this sort of new deal consumption, and fundamentalism of segments of the population who present themselves as vanguards of this new model, especially the so-called "NO of environmentalism" and culture of radical chic that have in common an aversion to absolute capitalism, ostracism against large multinational companies unconditional adherence to a vision of the world between the ascetic and the exclusive militants. He defines these fringe groups that preach a kind of return to pre-industrial state of nature as " Taliban" and criticizes some of their choices ( the bathroom to be done once a month, the water to pull the toilet once a day, vocation to the Work and so ) might be valued individually, but they end up falling into caricature when claims are made to the system. In short, whilst expressing the highest respect, Fabris feared that, with their forbidding certain behaviors can maximalism eventually discourage a wide audience of people interclass and intergenerational has a pressing need to find points of union clot that these new sensitivity emerging now beginning to manifest itself at various levels and in the text of which is given careful analysis.
Let's list the main
Just under two-thirds of the population now claims to prefer, at the same cost, a brand active in environmental protection .
A growing share of the population now receives the waste as a negative value. In support of this thesis will allow me a brief digression: all forms of food waste that is certainly the most embarrassing. It is estimated that about one-fifth of spending on food ends up in the garbage. An average of 600 € per year per family: 27 kg. food!
Another significant trend is the continuing shift from possession of an object to its access : for the words of Jeremy Rifkin there is a transition of the ownership of an asset-based titolarietà scheme access based on ensuring the availability of temporary own good. We could do a lot of examples in this regard. Just think of the practice notes leasing or franchising . In general all what you can take rent instead of purchase, is recording a strong acceleration. The same mythology of the second house in the mountains or the sea is decreasing to the benefit of living on a farm or on cruise ships or in alternative homes in timeshare. The exchange, barter, even in houses, have become very topical. The same free begins to take on important connotations and in that sense use of the Internet represents an essential vehicle: just think of the possibility to download from the network not only an enormous amount of data and information free of charge, but even music and movie files.
a practice already mentioned is that the spread of Buying groups , the GAS , plus the parallel development of 'Farmer Market or stores of food from local farmers-managed manufacturers to drastically reduce the brokerage on the price to the consumer and ensure the authenticity and origin of the product, bring down the so-called external costs.
It is having a greater appreciation for the biological (22% of Italians in 2008 and 26% in 2009!). This finding is particularly interesting especially when they evaluate the economic aspects. An organic product costs on average about one-fifth more than the traditional one, and yet, despite the unfavorable economic contingency, shall be recorded for several years a steady increase in the percentage of purchase. Among other things - another brief digression - Italy, with its 50,000 suppliers and more than one million hectares of land dedicated, appears to be the first country in the world nell'agroalimentare organic. But the counter-
similar we can find both in the clothing sector than in the consumption of cosmetics and even in the transport sector where there is a significant return use bicycle as a means of locomotion, especially in big cities. In this regard the continued spread of bike-sharing (sharing among multiple users of the bike) it is an excellent demonstration.
Another growing phenomenon is the so-called "ecotourism . And 'now a fact easily verified that the proliferation in recent years of the Farm. Among the main reasons that led many to prefer this new form of holiday there are a different relationship with nature and environment, the search for a formula not verifiable to the traditional holidays, but especially attention to the environment, the idea of \u200b\u200ban eco-friendly vacation and the opportunity for those who always lived in the city to re-establish contact, and also a cultural exchange with the rural world, for example, now our children are unaware. Also in the field
of waste there are important steps. Take charge of waste disposal is becoming a real civic duty. Today, roughly two-thirds of our waste is to be credited directly or indirectly to the packaging of the products we buy. In this sense, people's willingness to assume the problem is much improved compared a decade ago. Investigations return even the pride of the citizens of certain areas or municipalities (in Tuscany Capannori (LU) is one example) declaring the primacy of your location in this type of commitment is now considered as a battle of civilizations must see the participation of all. The recent
favor to the use of bulk or plug is very indicative in this respect.
In general this research shows clearly a growing awareness by consumers through the purchasing decisions that can be expressed also an implicit message of premium brands, products, services virtuous. Albeit slowly is being done on a feeling increasingly critical of the world and dell'iperconsumo increasingly aware not only of how the goods can satisfy their needs but also to social and political damage which they may have left behind in their production process.
is now emerging, in short, more and more clearly a new type of consumer independent, competent, demanding, selective, disenchanted, responsible and thoughtful , what with an inspired idea Maria Roman Zorin established a consum-actor .
Locksmiths compares this new figure of "consum-actor " to the mythological character of Prometheus. As Prometheus was able to take possession of the fire taking it away from Olympus, now the new consumer is able to take possession of the knowledge of the product once the exclusive manufacturers. However, the comparison is not random and, like Prometheus was chained by the gods are still so many obstacles that stand between the companies and the acquisition of its total consumer awareness. This in view of the fact that much work remains to be done and it really would be illusory to think that they are already out of the problem. Once again, however, the myth comes to our aid: as Heracles freed Prometheus from the chains, the extraordinary potential of the Web in allowing anyone to access data and information otherwise difficult to find by Fabris are considered as one of the most powerful weapons at our disposal to address this knowledge gap that still prevents most of us to get hold of truth and act accordingly.
The economic crisis has dramatically highlighted how the path of consumption leads to excess, as the only way to solve our problems, is increasingly less viable.
It is unthinkable to continue to consume more, not only by choice, but also a kind of scaffolding to support economic dutifulness moral, sometimes it feel like to suggest some. It makes sense to change
increasingly mobile (the statistics speak for Italy an average of 18 months of life for our mobile phone), it makes sense to spread the our wardrobes with new leaders when our cupboards at home does not contain more, it still makes sense to have not one but two parked car ownership under the house and the statistics tell us that we use on average 2 hours a day? Places
emblematic of this model consider the 'newsstand the house - where we are served up weekly collections of all kinds of objects-junk (from model cars to watches) without any value - and our post office now transformed a large bazaar where you buy the sim card, toys, books, (and where, inter alia, able to pay a bulletin has become an exhausting!).
companies now chasing the consumer in all aspects of his life to create in him sometimes stages of true exasperation. I do not know about you, but in my personal experience, for example, not a day goes by when at home or office does not receive phone calls and / or fax - not to mention the dozens of mail-with proposals for new price plans, changes of phone company, offers to buy food! The classic advertisement is increasingly losing their power and then try new ways increasingly invasive.
The Western world seems to suffer from a kind of bulimia for consumption that distinguishes all aspects of our lives. A recent study by the University of Carolina found that for the first time in the world the number of obese (about one billion) exceeded the number of undernourished people (800 million).
A study shows that the Mario Negri Institute in Italy each year are thrown away because expired about 10 packs of medicines per family (equivalent to 800 million euros), and two thirds of which end in landfill because they are not differentiated in the collection waste. And speaking of waste, the packaging of our products, we are literally drowning.
Our cities are at risk of becoming increasingly similar to that Leonia Italo Calvino, in one of his famous stories, imagine themselves overwhelmed by the waste it produces (and the recent cases of Naples and Palermo at the bottom are a prime example).
Guido Viale notes as " the cost of a pack of canned tomatoes is a few cents but the cost of its disposal as waste is three times as much. If we consider the environmental degradation that leads to this rejection, the total cost of that package would be ten times greater . The food expenditure is steadily decreasing in the budgets of families still in the early seventies it absorbed about 36% while spending in 2009 amounted to only 15.6%. Spending on communication is outstripping food. The only phone accounts for 6% of household spending, not to mention the affect on our budget for the car. Today a gallon of gasoline costs the same as a kg. pulp, which in turn costs the same as a ticket for the tram!
Luckily it seems that something is changing in individual behavior. A series of surveys on consumption, and illustrated with a wealth of data and scientific rigor reported in this text, they tend to show how different patterns of consumption are emerging from those previously hegemonic and pointing in the direction of a less exaggerated consumerism but not to decrease the so-called advocated by some ( Serge Latouche and Maurizio Pallante, just to mention the first that come to mind and not skipping Wolfgang Sachs whose positions are any less orthodox than the first two).
Indeed, Fabris, against the philosophy of decline, calling it critical is rather anachronistic utopia. Today the average consumer begins to show signs of discomfort and satiety against un'iperofferta unstoppable and try to react to this situation with a less passive than in the past, more attentive and aware, yet far from "the world stops I want to get off "proposed by the prophets of decline. In this regard, Fabris asks a simple question: " How can - he asks - require to pull the handbrake who looks just now at a level of widespread prosperity? And yet how can we fight against poverty and hunger that afflicts more than a billion people worldwide, drastically reducing consumption? "
between capitalism and the decline may develop, and this is already occurring in certain sections of the minority still Italian population, a third way, the fact that Fabris defines the post-growth and something that combines both of the two philosophies.
seems that a new trend is emerging. Among the first changes observed by Fabris emerges progressive acquisition of environmental sensitivity . The capture of awareness of the progressive destruction of natural resources, raising the temperature of the planet, the effects of excessive consumption of resources previously neglected, are eventually converge in the realization by some of us that the current model development based on the assumption of continued growth and unlimited consumption begins to become a crisis.
is emerging a new kind of reflexive consumer - Fabris also claims - seeking a balance between greed and anorexia preached yesterday by supporters of the decrease. In this respect He uses the example of the rise in recent years of collective phenomena such as GAC (Buying Groups Collective) and GAS (fair trade groups) which are based on the principles of localism and consumer awareness.
After all it is through food choices, clothing, housing and its furnishings, the use of leisure time and the readings that defines our way of life. And this somehow exceeds in importance, even the choice of political voting. Today when we buy a product we express a preference just like when we go to vote in elections. The difference lies in the fact that consumption appears now weapon much sharper than the vote. Even
Fabris, at least in this in total harmony with Serge Latouche, dissociates in its analysis, the GDP as reliable gauge of economic growth and prosperity of a country. It reveals, in its view, a system now anachronistic and even "socially offensive". In fact already back in 1968 even Bob Kennedy in a famous speech he stated that " to fuel ratio are also air pollution, the cost of ambulances involved to the accidents on the roads ... the locks for the barricade our homes, the costs of prison for those who infringe .... " GDP today does not measure the quality of products, their environmental friendliness, quality of life. Hence the need, now supported by many, to identify new indicators to measure the state of development of a country.
We are moving to a new phase so that precisely defines Fabris post-growth and post-consumerism . As actors in this new phase he indicates three subjects: the consumer , the State the enterprise system. Among these, in his view, the consumer will just have the greatest weight and greater importance in contributing to the change that awaits us. The new consumer will have to take an attitude responsible against diseases induced by environmental consumption, critical models geared toward the waste and also aware of the political meaning that its consumer choices can play.
Fabris, among its many considerations, makes it a particularly agree with that. He shows genuine concern and says that one of the main obstacles to the spread of this sort of new deal consumption, and fundamentalism of segments of the population who present themselves as vanguards of this new model, especially the so-called "NO of environmentalism" and culture of radical chic that have in common an aversion to absolute capitalism, ostracism against large multinational companies unconditional adherence to a vision of the world between the ascetic and the exclusive militants. He defines these fringe groups that preach a kind of return to pre-industrial state of nature as " Taliban" and criticizes some of their choices ( the bathroom to be done once a month, the water to pull the toilet once a day, vocation to the Work and so ) might be valued individually, but they end up falling into caricature when claims are made to the system. In short, whilst expressing the highest respect, Fabris feared that, with their forbidding certain behaviors can maximalism eventually discourage a wide audience of people interclass and intergenerational has a pressing need to find points of union clot that these new sensitivity emerging now beginning to manifest itself at various levels and in the text of which is given careful analysis.
Let's list the main
Just under two-thirds of the population now claims to prefer, at the same cost, a brand active in environmental protection .
A growing share of the population now receives the waste as a negative value. In support of this thesis will allow me a brief digression: all forms of food waste that is certainly the most embarrassing. It is estimated that about one-fifth of spending on food ends up in the garbage. An average of 600 € per year per family: 27 kg. food!
Another significant trend is the continuing shift from possession of an object to its access : for the words of Jeremy Rifkin there is a transition of the ownership of an asset-based titolarietà scheme access based on ensuring the availability of temporary own good. We could do a lot of examples in this regard. Just think of the practice notes leasing or franchising . In general all what you can take rent instead of purchase, is recording a strong acceleration. The same mythology of the second house in the mountains or the sea is decreasing to the benefit of living on a farm or on cruise ships or in alternative homes in timeshare. The exchange, barter, even in houses, have become very topical. The same free begins to take on important connotations and in that sense use of the Internet represents an essential vehicle: just think of the possibility to download from the network not only an enormous amount of data and information free of charge, but even music and movie files.
a practice already mentioned is that the spread of Buying groups , the GAS , plus the parallel development of 'Farmer Market or stores of food from local farmers-managed manufacturers to drastically reduce the brokerage on the price to the consumer and ensure the authenticity and origin of the product, bring down the so-called external costs.
It is having a greater appreciation for the biological (22% of Italians in 2008 and 26% in 2009!). This finding is particularly interesting especially when they evaluate the economic aspects. An organic product costs on average about one-fifth more than the traditional one, and yet, despite the unfavorable economic contingency, shall be recorded for several years a steady increase in the percentage of purchase. Among other things - another brief digression - Italy, with its 50,000 suppliers and more than one million hectares of land dedicated, appears to be the first country in the world nell'agroalimentare organic. But the counter-
similar we can find both in the clothing sector than in the consumption of cosmetics and even in the transport sector where there is a significant return use bicycle as a means of locomotion, especially in big cities. In this regard the continued spread of bike-sharing (sharing among multiple users of the bike) it is an excellent demonstration.
Another growing phenomenon is the so-called "ecotourism . And 'now a fact easily verified that the proliferation in recent years of the Farm. Among the main reasons that led many to prefer this new form of holiday there are a different relationship with nature and environment, the search for a formula not verifiable to the traditional holidays, but especially attention to the environment, the idea of \u200b\u200ban eco-friendly vacation and the opportunity for those who always lived in the city to re-establish contact, and also a cultural exchange with the rural world, for example, now our children are unaware. Also in the field
of waste there are important steps. Take charge of waste disposal is becoming a real civic duty. Today, roughly two-thirds of our waste is to be credited directly or indirectly to the packaging of the products we buy. In this sense, people's willingness to assume the problem is much improved compared a decade ago. Investigations return even the pride of the citizens of certain areas or municipalities (in Tuscany Capannori (LU) is one example) declaring the primacy of your location in this type of commitment is now considered as a battle of civilizations must see the participation of all. The recent
favor to the use of bulk or plug is very indicative in this respect.
In general this research shows clearly a growing awareness by consumers through the purchasing decisions that can be expressed also an implicit message of premium brands, products, services virtuous. Albeit slowly is being done on a feeling increasingly critical of the world and dell'iperconsumo increasingly aware not only of how the goods can satisfy their needs but also to social and political damage which they may have left behind in their production process.
is now emerging, in short, more and more clearly a new type of consumer independent, competent, demanding, selective, disenchanted, responsible and thoughtful , what with an inspired idea Maria Roman Zorin established a consum-actor .
Locksmiths compares this new figure of "consum-actor " to the mythological character of Prometheus. As Prometheus was able to take possession of the fire taking it away from Olympus, now the new consumer is able to take possession of the knowledge of the product once the exclusive manufacturers. However, the comparison is not random and, like Prometheus was chained by the gods are still so many obstacles that stand between the companies and the acquisition of its total consumer awareness. This in view of the fact that much work remains to be done and it really would be illusory to think that they are already out of the problem. Once again, however, the myth comes to our aid: as Heracles freed Prometheus from the chains, the extraordinary potential of the Web in allowing anyone to access data and information otherwise difficult to find by Fabris are considered as one of the most powerful weapons at our disposal to address this knowledge gap that still prevents most of us to get hold of truth and act accordingly.
Piero Bevilacqua, in his "The Poverty of Development " writes: " What is there to develop or innovate in a healthy habitat, or unspoiled scenery in the countryside of Italy or France, the historic city centers of Europe and the world, in our streets, Mediterranean food and traditions of all countries inherited from millennia of folk wisdom? What is there to innovate in the immense artistic heritage which we inherited from the past, the eternal pleasure of reading novels, walking in the woods, watch the sea, contemplating the starry sky? What remains to develop the joy of conversing with their children, being with friends, making love, playing with our pets? Nothing, really, of what it is worth living needs to be developed. "
dream as long as such words will once again be discounted for most of us.
Michele Salvadori
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