How one can get things wrong – though they may be right in today’s age. Which then means: How wrong the times are …
A decline in real wages, a weak ruble and high interest rates have hurt middle-class people more than most, striking at their ability to travel abroad, invest in housing and in their health and children’s education.
What comes first to your mind when you compare Berlin with Moscow?
This had been the question asked by a Dutch colleague – and my prompt reply had been something like:
How can I and why should I compare apples and a piece of furniture?
These two places are really so hugely different that any comparison must end up in misunderstandings, wrong formulations and misleading prompts.
Sure, it is about two settlements and they are located in two different nation states. But in actual fact, even these general placeholders are somewhat misleading.
From the Grundrisse we know that
[t]he concrete is concrete because it is the concentration of many determinations, hence unity of the diverse. It appears in the process of thinking, therefore, as a process of concentration, as a result, not as a point of departure, even though it is the point of departure in reality and hence also the point of departure for observation [Anschauung] and conception. Along the first path the full conception was evaporated to yield an abstract determination; along the second, the abstract determinations lead towards a reproduction of the concrete by way of thought.
It is worthwhile to think another time about this statement in the context of comparing different cities, places as diverse as Amsterdam, Berlin and Moscow.
And it is worthwhile too to briefly mention that the colleague also said during the short time we could talk about the misleading perception: not individual people make history, but complex settings and arrangements are constitutive – providing, sharing spaces within which individuals act, but even then they do not act as mere individuals, even if they are outstanding figures of history”.
Travelling to and through different cities has frequently a bit of the déjà-vu experience: one thinks one knows and is still not entirely sure. In such a case of returning to in any case large cities – even if the figures are quite different:[1]
Amsterdam
Population (municipality, May 2014; urban and metro, May 2014; Randstad, 2011)
Municipality 813.562
Density 4,908/km2 (12,710/sq mi)
Berlin
Population (December 2014)[1]
City 3,562,166
Density 4,000/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
Moscow
Population (2010 Census)
Total 11,503,501
Rank 1st
Density 4,581.24/km2 (11,865.4/sq mi)
Urban 100%
Rural 0
– the likelihood of coming to different areas is quite high. And also the likelihood of perceiving the areas, one visited before, in different ways is remarkable: with the time one can go deeper into things, can explore the details one overlooked on earlier occasions.
Leaving aside that these are so different cities, the one point springing to my mind is that these are not only spaces, settlements but histories – and as much as history does not repeat itself, histories cannot be compared. The concrete is still entailed in the generalisation.
Berlin – a city which had been the platform for an black-haired Austrian gnome to start his March to secure global rule of the “Arian race”, starting racing with tanks towards east, after conquering the submissive west.
Amsterdam, giving in and accepting the new ruler more or less like several other European countries.
Moscow, the at that time blossoming metropolis, developing its own identity, to some extent against the former zarist complement – and with this the new identity of an entirely new state.
The one still refusing the responsibility of the predecessors, refusing to pay their debts, still not completely accepting the fact that many knew about the human dramas their “government” caused in the concentration camps, while the other is still thinking about the loss of most likely nearly 30,000,000 people in the Great Patriotic War.
The one morning, while leaving the hotel to a short walk I see the wires, spanning between the large buildings, offering accommodation for so many: they remind of the efforts of the electrification and industrialisation of a country that – at the time – only recently got rid of the joke of the zarist regime, standing against the old metropolis: in the one case the administrative centre of a “hegemone of the past and the future”: the old Prussian power, aiming on gaining superiority in and over Europe, and the claimant of the thousand year long empire. In the other case the old trade metropolis, which surely lost its glamour of the colonial times (sure, Auke know well about some strange places that still do exist as witnesses of those times…., though it managed well to rescue part of it and translate it into some kind of sedated modernity in the most amiable way.
This kind of light and likely drowsiness (I know, a pardox) is surely difficult to find in a city with a population of over ten million, though the walk along the river, or large lake in the middle of the still dormant city is most pleasant, and the large alleys offer some compensation for the otherwise densely populated “sleep-cities”.
Marks of orientation – it is always catching my consideration how we actually find the ways – something that surely changed fundamentally, first with the common use of street maps, then again with the common use of the GPS. But it changed also in another way: the marks are something that is remarkable.
Looking at Berlin, it is surely relevant that it is (as nearly all larger conglomerations) a merger of different villages but also a place that still carries its marks from having been a city of two countries.
And Amsterdam is still characterised by the way it integrated socio-natural conditions (the channels) and the social hierarchy (going from the central “Single” over the “Herengracht”, positioning the Keizer to the margin, and the Princes even further out – the latter surely a specific form of translating the words:
give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God
– the nobility left in some memorable places of history, and god outside …
Moscow then, somewhat torn between the two dimensions: height and width: the height needed for the permanently increasing population and the width not least accepted to maintain some spaces.
These spaces consist of some of the old areas, and of the parks and park-like areas as for instance the one I mentioned a bit earlier or the area around the Moscow State University Lomonosov , reaching to sparrows hill – I remember well the time of an earlier stay when I lived in the old Lomonosov building and enjoyed the area every morning while I had been jogging.
There is something special when it comes to Moscow though it may be special just for me as some years ago, when I had been collected from the university building, from where we walked to the All Russian Centre, the driver said:
Things changed so much. Several years ago we could find our orientation by holding on to enterprises, chimneys, industrial sites – today these orientation marks are shopping centres, usually all with the same names of international chain stores …
And there is something else I am getting aware every day now, when leaving the metro on the way home at the Домодедовская – it has its name from Domodedovo International Airport. And there is a metal relief pointing this out … – and there are huge posters, telling us what to buy, which shops are close …, hardly allowing us to remain attentive for the reliefs …
We do not recognise many of these areas on the first occasion – not least after a long drive from the airport which directs our thinking towards seize, i.e. quantity, but time allows switching to quality: the small details we usually miss while dashing across airports, over the highways and along the alleys, the quantity that occurs with “pure reproduction”, which seems to be more a matter of being reproduced, pushing aside considerations about where we want to move and how we actively produce, even if this is, when seen relationally, also very much a matter of reproduction.
The Auchan, media market, Electrolux and bmercuditoydas – BMW, MERCEDES, AUDI, TOYOTA, SCODA, MERCEDES, AUDI, TOYOTA, SCODA – gained already dominance.
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TV in the background, a song, or better to say a singers-competition. May be it is politically incorrect saying children instead of young women: girls singing about love and longing, though it is more about sexual lust and seduction, staring in the spotlight – though thoroughly enjoying it, incited by members of the jury and parents to compete – who is the best … . At least many of the songs are in English language – does it matter? Or in which way does it matter – indicating to be part of … well …
… another world. It is not least a bit about redefining participation: the socialisation of hyper-individualism: staring, competing, so different to singing in a choir, something many cannot do as it conflicts with the schedules of work, with the requirements of competitive thinking that harshly stands against just the joyfulness of both, the “aimless” singing of people gathering to express themselves with others, and the obliviousness of enjoying oneself as somebody who is content, content while feeling being part of the universe, not in a metaphysical sense, but in the understanding of appropriateness of the old fisherman who resisted accepting the Irony of the Rat as unavoidable rule of life.
The TV had been silent since some time – we had been sitting around the fire, looking up to the stars. Three people, academics, usually talking about development economics, globalisation and labour market policies – and frequently forgetting that all this is so much about such details as the joy of singing in a choir and gaining for oneself and for others – even if it is possibly “only” the gain of not burning out, not being tempted by drugs, not feeling alone when it comes to the point of needing somebody …, and not being open to fundamentalisms that comes along under so many different headscarves and varieties of temptations, replacing apples by Easter eggs and playing other tricks …
***************
– Surely, all this is something that, being stated with the full awareness of the ambiguity, especially on such a day where we celebrate here orthodox Easter and Gagarin-day ….
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Part of the points are elaborated in notes written in preparation of presentations here in Moscow at the Plekhanov university in cooperation with the All Russian Center for the analysis of Living Standards
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[1] In the following taken from Wikipedia – 12/04/15
The book with a contribution on New Challenges in the context of Environmental Democracy is now reaching the final stage of production.
Editors of the book titled
公众环境参与的国际经验 (The International Experience of Enviornmental Participation)
are Ka Lin and Haoran Lv.
From the introduction to my contribution 环境民主——新的挑战 (Environmental Democracy – New Challenges)
One may assume that the ongoing problems about sustainability are the lack of a clear definition; however, we may say that the actual problem is not the lack of such a definition itself but the claim that we need such description. Einstein supposedly said ‘the environment is everything that isn’t me’ (Einstein, 1931). The debate over the definition invites us to imagine and accept the multiple dimensions of the environmental issues. At least the following are seen as essential for the present context, namely the discussion of environmental democracy:
One important further moment at the outset is the necessity of distinguishing between the environment itself and environmental issues, understood as perception of and dealing with issues that concern the environment.
However, crucially important is the fundamental and widening process of disembedding and dichotomization. For the current subject, the following are the most decisive dimensions:
Against this background we have to highlight some fundamental shortcomings of the concept of environmental democracy. Such critique will be based in a very short presentation of the main lines of the understanding as they are defined by the Summit in Rio and the Aarhus Declaration.
Pensions do not exist to increase national savings or to provide jobs for actuaries, tax lawyers, accountants, fund managers and regulators. Their purpose is to allow the elderly and disabled to retire from work with dignity
Willmore, Larry: Three Pillars of Pensions: Is there a need for mandatory contributions? in: OECD, Private Pensions Series OECD 2000 Private Pensions Conference 2000. Insurance and Pensions; Paris 2001: 385-397; here 385
Each issue evokes in itself major debates, for instance reflecting on what humane orientations could be and if they ever existed; or if and to which extent capitalist development assumed per se such equation or if it is only THIS capitalism that kills – so the current pope.
Returning from Milano with Trenitalia, listening to
Joseph Stiglitz:
Restoring Growth and Stability in a World of Crisis and Contagion
Somebody passes, and puts a leaflet on every table a leaflet: itinerRe per le Frecce
EasyFood – comodamente al tuo posto
Tutti i menu a solo 1 €
On top of it: one is encouraged to pay by credit card. The young woman walks back and passes a short time later with the little “mobile bar”. I ask for a coffee but she makes me now again of the special offer which I refuse to buy – finally I just want a coffee.
Certo, 1.50
I stick to my decision, pay, take my coffee
No, grazie; senza zucchero.
take the headphones again and go on listening to the Stiglitz, presenting his ideas about how we get back on the growth path of the economy, increasing the GDP.
Still, I hear as well the words of non-understanding the lady says to the person sitting somewhere nearby:
I offered him this special menu, but he wanted just a coffee ….
both shaking their head.
… Restoring Growth …
As one can listen to Stiglitz without watching I look at the gentleman, enjoying his 1€-EasyFood-menu – he decided for
all taken out of the paper bag. At least he takes the sugar for his coffee which not everybody would do.
I am a bit torn, experiencing this ambiguity: I failed, did not properly contribute to growth which surely would in some way do good to the Italian economy; I just did not take up on the offer, throwing away
Sure, something good I see later: the leaflets are collected towards the end of the journey, and I hope it is for reusing them.
I do not feel too bad, I paid 50 cent, the additional charge for contributing a little bit to protecting the environment, which surely does in every day good to the Italian economy.
Two background noises that come to my mind on this occasion – do not say they do not belong here.
The first one
The other day I picked up the METRO. Il quotidiano gratuito.
The headline on page two:
Salvini balla da solo e punta a Palazzo Chigi
It is about the Lega Nord attempting to move south.
The headline on page three:
Medico e architetto ambulanti per forza
It is an article about a young couple, well educated and starting their career in precarity.
The second one
We all know about the recent success, La Repubblica writing about it under the hedaline
Cuba, la caduta del Mura
We talked about it more or less extensively with Soraya, Hugo, Orietta, José … many other colleagues and comrades from Bolivia, Cuba …. It had been the ever present matter – one that employed the mind. Sure, it is also allowing growth which surely would in some way do good also to the Cuban economy. But …, well, there is a but right?
PS: There is another point on Cuba, the the vulture capitalists already lowering the height of their flight.
The book
My Story – A study of Chinese cultural identity in Australia
edited by Fan Hong and Liang Fen had been launched during an international event in Perth, Australia. The book had been published as volume 5 of the series Asia Studies – Within and Without – a book series edited by that is kindly supported also by The Magazine Rozenberg Quarterly.
The blurb of the book states
This research project is a part of the Cultural Identity Research led by the Confucius Institute at the University of Western Australia which focuses on the Chinese who have migrated to Australia since China opened up to the world in the 1980s. In this book we will tell the stories of these ordinary Chinese, their happiness and sorrows, inspirations and difficulties,, and through recorded oral histories we will analyse their cultural identity, and their experience of integration with, and contribution to, this vast far away land. Most of our interviewees, even if they have been living in Australia for many years, struggle to convey their cultural identity. This project is a precursor to further research on this fascinating universal issue for immigrants.
Actually it links into some ongoing research that investigates and discusses the processes of identity building amongst Chinese migrants in Australia, Ireland, Italy and South Africa. Part of the research is including the development of a social quality perspective in this framework.
The other day I received a mail (I received it as CC), somebody stating
As I mentioned to you, it is clear that our colleague Peter’s mind was not shaped by Central bankers neither other kind of executive format.
Thanks god, though I do not believe in that one.
Interesting as NB is the following: I presented a while back on the same conference as the author of those line – it had been in Cuba, his topic being the Eurocrisis, a reasonably “good” presentation of bad economics, though very affirmative. At the end he also gave out, blaming the victims of austerity etc., and asking for a restrictive monetary and fiscal policy and for further restrictions. Investment, growth as source of eternal wealth — in other words: the ongoing belief in the eternal
… the heavenly lullaby,
The old song of abnegation,
By which the people, this giant fool,
Is lulled from its lamentation.[1]
In the original
das alte Entsagungslied,
Das Eiapopeia vom Himmel,
Womit man einlullt, wenn es greint,
Das Volk, den großen Lümmel.[2]
In my presentation applied in analytical terms but as well in terms of developing a perspective a more complex perspective – much appreciated and welcome. And leading to ongoing cooperation with colleagues from the Cuba government …
for my part I can only see it as praise — and hope that not only the colleagues in Cuba will maintain their critical position to the minds of Central bankers and other kind of executive format.
==============
[1] Germany. A Winter’s Tale; Text by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856); translated into English by Joseph Massaad; http://www.heinrich-heine.net/winter/wintereng1.htm
[2] Heine, Ein Wintermärchen caput 1; http://www.heinrich-heine-denkmal.de/heine-texte/caput01.shtml
We frequently talk about the glass, wondering if it is half full or half empty … , and easily deny or overlook when it is broken.
Only looking for a new one then will allow us to avail of one that is at least half full and that may be filled up further.
The following are the notes of the closing remarks during the conference “Rafforzare il Modello Sociale Europeo. Il contributo della Qualità Sociale alla coesione del sistema comunitario”, Venerdì 31 Ottobre 2014 presso la Sala Polifuzionale, Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Rome
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I want to thank all participants for their contributions – they had been especially in their diversity a major challenge for me to think about the tasks ahead. The actual challenge is – another time – to overcome the contradiction between what we know and what we do. And it is probably correct to say that there is a general good will and acknowledgement of the virtues as we know them already since ancient times. And nevertheless we fail acting accordingly.
I will keep it short and will not develop the long story which we know from Pinocchio:
Pinocchio’s legs were so stiff that he could not move them, and Geppetto held his hand and showed him how to put out one foot after the other.
When his legs were limbered up, Pinocchio started walking by himself and ran all around the room. He came to the open door, and with one leap he was out into the street. Away he flew!
Of course, you may also refer to the work for instance of Max Weber, Niklas Luhmann and many others.
It seems today that we are facing a similar story: Europe had been established as system based on values as – amongst others – peace and justice. And now it seems to go entirely stray, following its own ways.
Already in the mid 1990s a large number of academics called for a focus on social quality as central parameter for future politics. In a declaration in Amsterdam it had been stated in 1997:
Respect for the fundamental human dignity of all citizens requires us to declare that we do not want to see growing numbers of beggars, tramps and homeless in the cities of Europe. Nor can we countenance a Europe with large numbers of unemployed, growing numbers of poor people and those who have only limited access to health care and social services. These and many other negative indicators demonstrate the current inadequacy of Europe to provide social quality for all its citizens. We want, in contrast, a European society that is economically successful, but which, at the same time, promotes social justice and participation for its citizens.
And actually there had been a very positive reception, the then commissioner for employment and social affairs highlighting the importance of focussing on social quality.
The two crucial points claimed had been the need to arrive at a policy design
This merged in the claim concerned with politics, i.e. the need to develop policies beyond finding technical and short-term solutions.
I do not want to discuss the Lisbon strategy which stated in 2000
Leaving a structural analysis aside, THIS Europe had not been able to address the crisis, and actually it can be seen as part of a global political arena, leading straight into it, deepening and accelerating it. In actual fact we find today major challenges – most of them well-known and often discussed.
A major reason for the failing of the debates and analysis had been and is that the complexities and interdependencies had not been sufficiently considered: a matter of power, interests and of Pinocchio running his own way, even if they may have – or claim to have – the same vision.
Proposals for alternatives had been made from different sides, too often limited to models and dreams, simply based on abstract values. However, the reality needs to go beyond this. One of the major steps had been shown in November 2013, coming from an angle that had been perhaps unexpected by many, Pope Francis, writing about an economy that kills. More important than this statement had been another sentence in that paragraph, asking
How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.[1]
Indeed,
All this can be put into a nutshell – at least people living in Rome will understand immediately and others probably just have to replace the names of places and streets. And it is only a rephrasing of what Francis said:
How is it possible that we ignore the homeless people and “celebrate excessive consumerism”: go to Termini station at 4 o’clock in the morning – and in the afternoon have a look at excessive luxury on the Via dei Condotti and even the Via del Corso.
Indeed, all the answers will remain a torso as long as we do not manage to re-embed all policy areas into one guiding principle, that orient on
the interaction between people (constituted as actors) and their constructed and natural environment. Its subject matter refers to people’s interrelated productive and reproductive relationships.[2]
The objective conditions of making use of the potentials will allow to translate social justice (equity), solidarity, equal valuation and human dignity, the normative factors presented in the framework of social quality, into meaningful parameters of an analytical tool and an instrument to systematically develop alternatives.
Urgently needed is in this light the confrontation of some major flaws of current politics:
Excessive cheap production and low fare trade, being a major feature of quantitative growth strategies are established on the strategies of sheep advertising and “low fair production”.
But we urgently need
What else remains to be said? Since several years now there is a label on cigarette now: Smoking kills Perhaps we should think about this in connection with the words of Pope Francis and public responsibility.
The EU has to refocus policies: instead of adjoining welfare policies to a growth oriented strategy of competitiveness, policies have to be focused on the social as people’s interrelated productive and reproductive relationships in everyday’s life as the true aim of policy making.
National governments have to commit themselves to the same goal, strongly considering their action as part of their global responsibility.
It is necessary to orient local and regional policies on strategies that take overall sustainability into account, and allow for participative approaches that foster the interaction between people (constituted as actors) and their constructed and natural environment.
It is necessary to develop new understandings of syndicalism, thoroughly analysing the critical developments on labour markets and in society, putting more emphasis on the representation of men and women in atypical employment and the societal contributions made outside of labour markets.
The role of civil society is to provide a glue between the different levels and realms of society and to link particularistic interests into the wider context of an overall sustainable society
Interdisciplinary orientation cannot be a catchword alone but has to be implemented and a permanent guideline of academic world – be it in teaching or research. For this the academic world has to be open for heterodox approaches, a truly open debate and a non-competitive working climate that is rooted in discourse and exchange.
We as European Observatory on Social Quality commit ourselves
The goal then will not be paradise – but a proper use of the resources we have.
[1] Pope Francis, 2013: Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops, Clergy, consecrated persons and the Lay Faithful on the proclamation of the gospel in today’s world; Città del Vaticano; Libreria Editrice Vaticana; http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html – 28/10/14
[2] van der Maesen, Laurent J.G./Walker, Alan, 2012: Social Quality and Sustainability; in: Van der Maesen, Laurent J.G./Walker, Alan (eds.): Social Quality. From Theory to Indicators: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 250-274; here: 260
COMMEDIA DELLA VITA OR PÁNTA RÊI'S FIRM GROUND 