Joy Paton

Market Society: Growth, accumulation and crisis

IN THE PREVIOUS chapter we discussed the character of the commodity-based production system that underpins market societies. The ability of such societies to generate substantial and long-term economic growth is one of their most striking and impressive features. Economic growth has transformed our way of life, leading in many countries to a material standard of living unprecedented in history. When growth is high the economy seems to work well, delivering profits, higher incomes and jobs. However, economic growth sometimes falters. Periods of low growth, or ‘recession’, can lead to wider economic crises giving rise to unemployment, hardship and social misery which can also generate more serious society-wide crises. Managing the cycles of economic growth and decline has therefore become a central preoccupation of governments. In this chapter we consider the nature of economic growth and how it is measured and potential problems generated by growth in affluent societies. We also examine some of the different understandings of growth and the political implications of such analyses. Finally, we address the periodic crises that are a feature of capitalist economies as well as the relationships between economic growth and political legitimacy.

Experiencing recovery: findings from a qualitative study into mental illness, self and place

Abstract Background: Community-managed mental health organisations are important vehicles for “place-based” recovery-oriented services in regional areas. However, the community-based sector is not well described in data collections and more research is needed to identify the specific contributions that such services can make to recovery. This situation has become more acute in Australia with the restructure of mental health services under the new National Disabilities Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Aims: The project aimed to understand more about what is effective in the service system; what impacts living in a regional location might have on a person’s lived and service system experience and what people find helpful and supportive in their recovery journeys. Method: A one-year qualitative study utilising photovoice and written narrative with group workshops, individual interviews and a capstone exhibition experience. Results: Research findings were consistent with recovery principles but also revealed elements not commonly emphasised in the recovery literature. Four main themes were distilled: belonging and being connected; survival, resilience and hope; living a contributing life and compassionate service provision. Conclusion: The effectiveness of recovery-oriented service delivery needs to be secured under the individualised funding structure of the new NDIS and expanded for the specific needs of people living in regional communities.

Climate Change: The Economics and Politics of Justice

There has been a proliferation of publications related to the topic of ‘climate change’ in the last few years as global warming and its consequences have come to preoccupy people across the globe. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed almost twenty years ago at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, yet there has been little progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The high-profile Stern Review (2006) and the Garnaut Review (2008) in Australia both reflect the recent groundswell of concern. In emphasising the future economic costs of inaction with regard to anthropogenic climate change, they have done much to stimulate and shape the policy agendas in their respective countries. Internationally, however, the disappointments of Copenhagen (2009), and then Cancun (2010), were revealing. The climate change ‘science’ may have been known for decades, but the ongoing ‘failures’ of negotiation at these key forums illustrate the political difficulties of moving forward collectively on a global issue that bears so much uncertainty and still attracts sceptics. The three monographs under consideration here bring very different perspectives to bear on this complex issue. All of the authors have in common the fact they do take climate change seriously, but just what that means in terms of analysis and response is, unsurprisingly, quite diverse. Wolfgang Behringer acknowledges that the Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 2, June 2011, pp. 353–358

Sensitive Inquiry in Mental Health: A Tripartite Approach

This article presents an innovative tripartite approach for conducting safe and ethical ‘sensitive inquiry’ in the field of mental health recovery. The tripartite approach brings together the principles of recovery with trauma-informed practice and collective impact strategies. Together, these provide a framework for embedding and embodying recovery principles in research design and practice that empowers participants and ‘takes care’ of participants and researchers. The approach was effectively deployed in a 1-year qualitative arts–based study conducted with people living with severe and persistent mental illness. Its success was evident in the high retention rate of participants, despite their ongoing vulnerabilities, and in the elicitation of findings that expand current understandings of mental health recovery from the point of view of people with lived experience. In this article, we discuss the tripartite approach, how this was applied in the study, and what the design achieved in research outcomes and participant experience.

Is Globalizing ‘development’ Ethical? A View from the Pacific

As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) drew to a close in 2015, it was apparent that Small Island Development States (SIDS) did not fare well in achieving their goals for eradicating poverty. This chapter investigates development progress in the Pacific, providing a case study from Papua New Guinea (PNG) focused on the experience of poverty alleviation under the MDG framework. It points to an ethical conundrum for the international community whereby the ‘development’ process displaces and sometimes destroys existing social economies; yet, traditional systems for social and economic provisioning often constitute a necessary safety net for the poor in developing economy contexts. The Pacific SIDS development experience with foreign aid and volatile markets in international trade is one that threatens culturally specific means for socio-economic reproduction. The chapter therefore directs attention to the complex forms of livelihood that might form part of a creative and just approach to development and poverty alleviation. Further, it suggests hybrid institutional forms can maintain the integrity of culture in development rather than sacrificing it to the one-size-fits-all globalizing construct that characterized the MDGs and which continues in the newly sanctioned Sustainable Development Goal framework.

States, politics and welfare

THE STATE PLAYS a central role in economic life. It creates the rules in which markets operate and produces some goods and services directly. The state also facilitates private sector production and service provision through financial support. It redistributes income, both directly through taxes and transfer payments and indirectly through regulating wages and industry. It also performs many functions that help reproduce the economy, such as establishing education and health systems and governing the use of the environment. In all of these ways the state is a key economic institution of market societies. This chapter is concerned with the interrelated economic and political developments of the capitalist state. Having arisen from the uncertainties of medieval conquest and war, the state has been shaped by challenges to its legitimacy arising from the periodic economic crises and conflicts discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. There remain diverse attitudes towards the state and different understandings of what the state is which have, in turn, influenced what states do. We look at how states differ across time and between countries and the recent effects of neoliberalism.

Market Society: Family, environment and sustainability

THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER focused on work and consumption as two aspects of life most clearly identified with the economy. Traditionally, the study of economics evolved around the notion of the economy as a closed and discrete system with little attention paid to the broader social and ecological systems in which production for the market takes place. The natural environment was seen as a relatively limitless source of raw materials and an equally limitless destination for waste products. Non-market production occurring within the household was largely ignored as were the broader affective and reproductive functions of the family which raised, socialised and supported the workforce of (largely male) paid workers. In recent decades this neglect has begun to change due, in part, to real changes in the economy. The limits of natural resources, the damaging effects of pollution and the large-scale entry of women into the workforce have all challenged the assumptions supporting Fordist production. This has prompted examination of issues like environmental behaviours, childcare, working hours and volunteer work. Such preoccupations also stem from social movements which have questioned our understanding of the environment and the family and raised important questions about the sustainability of our economic system. In this chapter we consider how economists have sought to incorporate these concerns into existing frameworks of economic analysis. We also consider an alternative reproductive framework in which market-based commodity production is located in the broader social and environmental systems that constitute a large part of our everyday experience.

Market Society: Inequality, distribution and conflict

THE LAST TWO chapters have explored key aspects of economic production. The market system is built on the commodity form and markets act as a coordinating mechanism, allocating commodities for consumption and between different uses in production. This coordinating role of the market has also been extended to the factors of production – land, labour and capital – making them ‘fictitious commodities’ and thus creating a ‘market society’. The market system has proven to be highly productive with accumulation expanding the range, quality and quantity of goods available. Material living standards have also been lifted for many people. This process sometimes breaks down, creating hardship during periods of economic recession. For some people, this hardship is a persistent feature of their everyday lives, even through periods of economic growth. This is because the proceeds of growth are unevenly distributed. Analysing economic production is therefore only part of the story in understanding market society. Looking at economic distribution is also an important and necessary counterpart in understanding and evaluating a commodity-based system. Historically, inequality was an essential part of how market society was constituted and such societies continue to be marked by pronounced inequalities in the distribution of economic resources. In this chapter we explore the nature of inequality and how it is measured, as well as how the onset of capitalism changed the nature of inequalities. The resulting patterns of distribution have also been highly contested as the values of modernity inspired many people to challenge the fairness of market distributions. We therefore also examine the struggles over economic distribution because such conflicts have profoundly reshaped the evolving character of market societies.

Market Society: Introducing market society

MUCH OF OUR everyday life revolves around markets. This is because markets are central to the way contemporary society organises the production and distribution of goods and services. Our work comes through a labour market. We find our accommodation through a housing market. Our food, clothes and entertainment are largely purchased in markets. Even markets we have little direct knowledge or experience of can have a profound impact, as became evident in 2007 when the subprime mortgage market collapsed. Although many people had never heard of the complex financial markets and instruments associated with the ‘global financial crisis’, its implications were immense. People lost jobs and homes, and rumours emerged that whole national economies might collapse because of the severe disruption to the market processes at the heart of the economy. Markets are clearly important to the economy, but they are only part of what is in fact a complex institutional system. Governments also play a central role in the economy. Despite decades of economic restructuring purportedly aimed at reducing state activity in the economy, governments continue to establish and regulate markets. They provide services, redistribute income and are directly involved in production. Other institutions are also central. Much trade and most production do not take place directly in markets but within and between firms, particularly large corporations. While corporations operate within markets, their size and structure give them considerable power to shape both their internal production process and their external environment.

Market Society: Markets, risk and globalisation

MARKETS ARE MORE central to capitalism than to previous ways of organising the economy and are themselves a form of regulation. We have already seen how through commodification much of life becomes subject to the competitive pressures of markets. Because most people earn their income and purchase many of the goods and services they need through markets, the price mechanism is central to our lives. Since the 1970s markets have become even more central as state policies around the world have been transformed under the influence of neoliberal politics. Globalisation and policies of privatisation, deregulation and marketisation mean that many aspects of life that were not previously coordinated through the price mechanism are now subject to it. Whereas states use law and regulation to exert direct control over the economy, market prices create incentives that ‘regulate’ and influence our behaviour. Thus, economists often talk about markets providing ‘decentralised’ rather than ‘centralised’ forms of decision-making. Market incentives also involve a greater degree of uncertainty than is typically the case with direct state regulation because they allow greater flexibility in behaviour and outcomes. A key feature of market societies is therefore the presence of risk. In this chapter we look at the increase in risk and other changes resulting from economic restructuring and explore key theoretical perspectives that seek to explain both the forces driving restructuring and its implications.