Not TINA but TAPAS!

• In Event: Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future (Panel 1)

Proposal

This panel is about education for societal transformation. For the educational alternatives discussed to flourish, for our world to get out of the multiple global crises we face – we desperately need system change. I do understand that some believe that the idea of system change is both vague and farfetched. While system change is difficult to define and very difficult to enact, there are so many individuals, groups, organizations, and movements around the world working on exactly that. In this presentation, I will talk briefly about some of the writing, efforts, and practices I have found most compelling. Contrary to Margaret Thatcher’s TINA – There is No Alternative to (neoliberal) capitalism, I’m a firm believer in David Bollier’s TAPAS – There are Plenty of Alternatives!

This presentation starts with two wonderful recent books, one edited by Gus Speth and Kathleen Courrier (2021), The New Systems Reader: Alternatives to a Failed Economy. Its 28 essays explore a plethora of alternatives ranging from the Nordic experience to economic democracy to eco-socialism. Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary, edited by Ashish Kothari and colleagues (2019), discusses a dozen or so “reformist solutions” – i.e., ones that don’t present a challenge to oppressive structures – like a green economy and smart cities – but spends the most time on literally dozens of “transformative initiatives” like the alter-globalization movement, alternative currencies, buen vivir, the commons, degrowth, decolonization, ecofeminism, solidarity economies, and ubuntu.

These are more than academic exercises, and all connect with concrete alternative practices happening on the ground. WEAll, the Well-Being Economy Alliance, works to develop economies “designed to serve people and planet. In a Wellbeing Economy, the rules, norms and incentives are set up to deliver quality of life and flourishing for all people, in harmony with our environment….” WEALL is very active, having a dozen or so “hubs” in countries (e.g., Brazil, New Zealand, and Scotland) and communities around the world, and it has had an impact on helping governments move far beyond attention to economic growth. In a similar vein, the work of Kate Raworth has led to DEAL, the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, so named because the summary diagram looks like a donut!). Doughnut economics offers “a way of thinking to bring about the regenerative and distributive dynamics that this century calls for…[changing] the goal from endless GDP growth to thriving.” DEAL, like WEAll, is working globally to collaborate with cities, states, and nations “to promote paradigm change.”

This paper will discuss transformative societal alternatives that challenge capitalist hegemony and ends with implications for education alternatives that are truly non-reformist, that is, alternatives that challenge oppressive structures.

Author

• Steven Klees, University of Maryland