Friday 25 May 2018
The Futility of Social Enterprise - Peter Dauvergne's War on the Social Economy
Peter Dauvergne, author of "Environmentalism of The Rich". the "Shadows of Consumption" and "Eco-Business: the Big Brand Takeover of Sustainability", is Canadian. But, assuming that last fact embodies a positive moral connotation, Dauvergne is not at all polite or nice about social enterprise,the business concept that fueled our creation of the TorontotheBetter directory. We take enterprises at their word and aim to enable their aspirational selves. But, simply put, Dauvergne thinks that 1) social enterprise and those who believe in their power for good are deluded to think that their "tiny environmental cuts" are ever "going to transform western-style capitalism" (p.6), and that 2) many well-meaning NGOs have sold out to their corporate enemies in return for sponsorship of their well-meaning business endeavors. The problem for TorontotheBetter and the enterprises within it is that Dauvergne is largely right. Much private enterprise is dependent on sales of consumables, and so cannot, obviously, cure the ills of consumption, and many corporations cynically use charities merely to clean up their image.
Deluded or hypocritical, the social economy options presented both seem bad and would leave the field of social enterprise in political disarray, even though, in his more sentimental moments, Dauvergne recognizes the sincerity of many social entrepreneurs at a personal level. The question that Dauvergne does not answer is the key one; if private enterprise that is built on increasing turnover for success is always contributing to the problem it professes to remove how can enterprise improve its act? Selling green products is still selling and the pursuit of profit through more green products can be as taxing on the environment as non-green products in that both encourage use of environmental capacity and require more or less consumption.
The way out of Dauvergne's Gordian knot must start with a clear minded recognition of the in- principle aspirational futility of the ideal of clean consumption in a capitalist economic form built on endless growth. But just as TorontotheBetter supports other forms of social enterprise such as democratic workplaces, so enterprise can seek benign goals that do not depend on exponential consumption, e.g. protecting and conserving services, and contributing to greater understanding of the need for other kinds of intervention, such as government action, and community partnerships that restrict consumption. If recognizing the futility of one's actions might seem a contrary way to the greater good for society it is nonetheless entirely in line with the Socratic tradition of wisdom that starts with recognition of one's own limitations and, sincerely believed, can serve to spur further efforts. TorontotheBetter continues to support clear-sighted attempts to make the private enterprise that still makes up over 50% of the Canadian economy serve the greater/better good. Aspiration to the better is always better than acceptance of achievement of the worse. And even to acknowledge the error of one's ways is a positive step in most belief systems. Capitalistic growth may be a problem, but feeding people healthy nutrition does not have to be.
Wednesday 23 May 2018
Beyond Feel Good - On Toronto's 2018 Buy Good Feel Good Expo
BOUGHT SOMETHING GOOD AND NOW FEELING BETTER?
The people in the pictures above are all of a certain age, chat happily, hold hands, scan an art display and likely will purchase some of the colourful gifts on display. Though multicultural, they are clearly not poor, or old, or visibly diseased, even if those they want to help may be. The imagery would not be out of place in a popular magazine. Which, in a way, is likely the point.This is a long post, bit stick with us. It's about the promise of an easy way to a good way.
Shopping as psycho-therapy was long ago advocated by ex U.S. President George
Bush, among others, as a cure for what ails us and,
like most placebos it works with some things… for a while. But shopping as a
cure for social ills is a more recent phenomenon. It was born as a reaction to a
long neo-liberal economic consensus in the mainstream, and its associated
constraints, most notably reduced, or removed, social support. The Buy Good Feel
Good [BGFG] expo organizers, whose event brought many passionate and sincere
entrepreneurs to Toronto in May must have long pondered an appropriate title
for the gathering, so the conjunction of consumerism and well-or better feeling could not have been an accident; it poses for all the need to think about a central issue: the roles, actual and potential, of business enterprise in society.
Milton Friedman, neo-liberal economic hero, argued that
the only role of business is to make a profit. By implication, this leaves it to the state, whatever is ideologically left to It, to
fix whatever ills arise from the single-minded pursuit of profit, of which ills history has seen many, and still does. A simple division of labour follows, we could then conclude: business creates the jobs and income to purchase whatever business
creates, while the state heals any wounds that the wealth creation process generates. But since neo-liberals oppose tax
increases and almost tax itself, in principle, society’s ability to perform such a role has significantly waned. And since, too, statist solutions, such as full employment, for the
ills of economic productivity, have been discarded after the fall of centralized
communism, a core challenge was posed for government: how to ensure
productivity, and public well-being without increased tax-funded public service
investment?
Enter at this point – a perfect option that offered social
benefits without taxation to fund it.
How about if business itself does the job by incorporating in its business
models social goals as well as its bottom line needs, including profit? BGFG
and TorontotheBetter are both committed to the potential of this model. And
since the birth of industrial capitalism there have been enterprises like Bourneville Chocolate, that have indeed incorporated moral,
religious or political values in their principles and practices. However successful such
enterprises may be, however, we believe that their advocates must explicitly
recognize what they cannot and will not do. The Buy Good Feel Good space offers
an opportunity for such to do that, but unfortunately there was little mention of
it to the knowledge of this observer.
TorontotheBetter is a non-profit set up to promote the use
and availability of socially progressive economic options. In this regard, then, there is common ground between the aims of TorontotheBetter, a non-profit enterprise, and the BGFG initiative. With the greater part of developed economies still in private
hands and with the goal of profit maximization leading, as always, to the
depletion of much human and environmental capacity, there is clearly growing
opportunity, and space, for what has
been called “business done differently.” Feelgood has become a pejorative
phrase in recent years because of its implicit recognition of the gap between
feeling and being, or aspiration and actuality. Scanning the range of goods and
services on display at BGFG we saw enterprises that do many things that benefit
various sufferers like the many impoverished peasants of Nepal and/or the environment
everywhere. The problem for TorontotheBetter then, is not the good that many
social enterprises do, but their relative silence about the much that they
can’t, or don’t do, even if they recognize that other institutions are required
for an adequate social fabric to be completed. The danger of a relentlessly positive
feelgood chorus is that it will encourage complacency about remaining problems
that remain un-served and, most importantly, about the causes of these and other societal
problems.
So, for future trade expos, whose object must be to
promote use of its sponsoring enterprises, we recommend a continuous parallel
narrative about the limits of the independent social enterprise sector on the one hand and the
critical importance of stable tax support for the provision of basic needs for
all by the public sector on the other. In addition to their relatively piecemeal coverage of
societal needs, and consequential high prices and associated class privilege of
social enterprise users (patrons seems a fitting word her, for once) – there seem to be few socially committed
engineering or mining companies, for instance – silence on the need for state
funding in key areas inevitably leaves them open to an accusation of more or less smug
complacency in the face of real societal stress.
We call on BGFG and other initiatives like them to be upfront about the benefits and the
limitations of what they do. They will gain in credibility and commitment if they do.
Sunday 6 May 2018
TorontotheBetter greets the 2018 Homeless World Cup
2018 marks another year for the FIFA World Cup of football (aka soccer) the world's largest sporting event. This year the millionaire players of professional football will strut their stuff in Russia. Meanwhile, what is, we believe, an equally, if not more, important soccer celebration will take place in Mexico where teams made up of homeless volunteers from many countries will engage in fierce but friendly competition for the Homeless World Cup, a parallel event to the FIFA contest, that takes place annually to remind the world that by no means everyone has the chance to play and develop their life opportunities in the economic mainstream. For lack of sufficient affordable housing,Toronto, Canada's richest city, in one of the richest countries in the world, is "home" to never diminishing numbers of homeless people.
Stay tuned to this space for reports from the Homeless World Cup, stating in August, 2018. TorontotheBetter is pleased to lend its support to initiatives that increase awareness and action to reduce a social scourge - homelessness - that continues to blight the potential of so many members of our community and others around the world. NOTE: though Canada has sent teams to previous homeless world cups we regret that it will not in 2018.
We invite you to follow this blog for future posts and plans for future homeless world cup events in Toronto and beyond.
