Miriam Kennet
Miriam Kennet
Miriam Kennet is an economist and founder of The Green Economics Institute and the International Journal of Green Economics. (Kennet and Heinemann 2006) (Kennet 2007)
She has published widely on Green Economics and runs one of the largest green networks covering a range of subjects within Green Economics in its widest sense.Her institute challenges mainstream economics orthodoxy, to become more inclusive in all senses, to take into account the needs of all people everywhere using the framework analysis of Maria Mies,(The Subsistence Perspective,in Scot Cato and Kennet (1999) including former colonies and women and minorities, as well as the planet and its systems and the biosphere. These are included in economic decision making as beneficiaries rather than throw away inputs to economics activity.
Green Economics special features include a Long term perspective of archaeological or palaeontological time, and a perspective which includes women( Wilber ( 2005) Ghilligan (1982) as half the population is women, especially women's economic well being as men own 99% of assets on the planet and poverty is a gendered issue, in the Uk the pay gap is actually increasing for example. The Institute argues that it is not possible to express concern AbOUT poverty without taking this into account.(Fawcett Society report 2007) and this is also influenced by lack of women's representation in politics- the Uk is ranked 47th in a new survey, where both aspects seem to dovetail.Similarly with this -young people in the UK came out bottom in a survey about their happiness ( UNEP 2006) but the UK is ranked 5th globally in terms of GDP. This is another piece of evidence that GDP and mainstream economics are predicated on the " rational self interest of homo economicus" who tends to be white western educated middle class male which is a small percentage of people and life on earth and has been highly over represented in economics. In fact economics was based on household or estate management according to Xenophon and Aristotle when it began - the root of economics is oikia a Greek word meaning house. Today our perception is that no one understands economics except homo economicus- the Nobel Prizes for economics have almost entirely gone to men, the book by Heilbronner most students of economics are given when they study economics about famous economists " Worldly Philosophers" does not include a single woman. Is it any wonder that women feel they have no acess to economics and that their needs and those of the planet are no longer considered at all? The idea that those without an economic voice do not count has been misused in many ways- for example using child labour, in wars, abuse of other peoples resources and land, those with special needs not being considered. Similarly the idea that technology will "fix it" has been over emphasised as people need meaningful jobs- and extensive rather than intensive economies. Machines have been a means of creating higher GDP, at the expense of well being. Technology fixing it - has been an excuse to car on business as usual, such as creating greener cars, greener aeroplanes, but fundamentally the march of climate chaos continues for example. In considering Green Economics there has to be an emphasis on lower consumption,lower demand- a change to growth meaning growth in nature, and abundance, rather than destruction for production. The best example of this is chopping down the rainforest increases economic growth and GDP as currently measured by mainstream economics, but actually destroys stocks of natural capital, and CREATES scarcity not abundance, and is actually the opposite of growth. ( Daly, Garey 2005,Hoershele 2008 forthcoming,Mill J.S. ). Green Economics is an attempt to therefore rectify the situation and to provide economic access for all and to take a much wider, more inclusive and more diverse,long term world view of economics. There is no one solution that fits everyone. Economics is no longer about the battle between giant men's IDeaS. It is about provisioning for the needs of all of us, and those of the planet and the biosphere. This is creating a new kind of robust economics which is in the process of rapid transformation of the way we do things. For further information please see:
Kennet and Heinemann (2006)Green Economics:Setting the Scene, International Journal of Green Economics,Inderscience, Geneva Vol1 Issue1. Kennet (2007) Editorial, the forgotten factor of reality in economics, International Journal of Green Economics, Vol1, Issue 2.Inderscience, Geneva Kennet (2008) forthcoming, Transnational Corporations, Vol 2 issue 1 International Journal of Green Economics Seeberg M-L., and Kennet M,. (2008) forthcoming. A HIstory of Anthropology, International Journal of Green Economics Vol2 Issue 2 Inderscience Geneva Kennet (2007) The Green Economist, Vol 2, issue 2,The Green Economics Institute Kennet( 2006) Procedings of the Oxford University Conference on Intergenerational Equity. Kennet (2008) forthcoming Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung, Socio-ecological transformation- the learning from Green Economics. Dietz Germany. Kennet M and Scot Cato (1997) Green Economics, Beyond Supply and Demand to meeting people's needs. Green Audit Daly (2005)Ecological economics Hoerschele W.(2008) The economics of abundance. Zed Books forthcoming Mies M.The subsistence perspective.Zed Books. (1997) Mies.M. (1999)Green Economics, in Scot Cato and Kennet. Mies M,(2006) The Iceberg Model of economics, (2006) International Journal of Green Economics Vol2 issue 1.Inderscicence. Mill J.S.( ) TBA Heinemann V.(2000) Oekonomie Der Zukunft. Books on Demand.