A Dangerous Transition to Hope
The dawn of a global urban age is the beginning not the end of a challenging journey. Industrial capitalism it seems is finally mired in insuperable contradictions, and transition to a new human dispensation is inevitable and desirable. A two-stage transi
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A Dangerous Transition to Hope Brendan James Gleeson
Abstract The dawn of a global urban age is the beginning not the end of a challenging journey. Industrial capitalism it seems is finally mired in insuperable contradictions, and transition to a new human dispensation is inevitable and desirable. A two-stage transition awaits: first, a time of uncertainty and painful adjustment as the retrenchment of carbon capitalism begins in earnest, followed, it is to be hoped, by a new political economic order that provides humanity and the biosphere with the means for a safe and sustainable coexistence. My interest in this chapter is with the first stage – of painful adjustment – which will surely necessitate repurposing of state rationale and scope. My controversial submission is that we may need a strong ‘Guardian’ State to guide the transition and forestall attempts to reinstate the ruinous conditions that have caused the present crisis. In the neoliberal present, this idea is perhaps unthinkable, but neoliberalism is collapsing and the time for radical action has surely arrived. The Guardian State would seek a new human dispensation and represents therefore a postcapitalist response to the dissolution of neoliberalism. Keywords Climate change • Neoliberalism • Guardian State • Transition • Urban age
3.1 Introduction: Is the Urban Age the Final Age? We live in what the late Ulrich Beck termed a ‘world at risk’. The mounting social and ecological crises that have attended the rise of industrial capitalism during the past three centuries have reached planetary scale in reach and threat. The evidence suggests that a terminal crisis of capitalist modernity is no longer a prospect; it is
An earlier version of this chapter appeared in Gleeson (2014). B.J. Gleeson () Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 T. Moore et al. (eds.), Urban Sustainability Transitions, Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4792-3_3
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breaking upon us. Luminaries of political economy agree. Wolfgang Streeck (2014) asks not if capitalism will end but how. Andre Gorz beat him to it declaring, just before his death in 2007, ‘the exit from capitalism has already begun’ (2010: 21). An optimistic counter narrative arises from the chorusing of an urban age. A chorus of expert commentary welcomes a golden era of human prospect (e.g. Glaeser 2011; Brugmann 2009). A new conversation welcomes the fact that humanity is now preponderantly an urban species, homo urbanis. The major transnational institutions (e.g. OECD 2010) bestow great significance to urbanisation as a force shaping human fortunes. For the past half-decade, the United Nations has broadcast the message of a new urban ascendancy. UN-Habitat enthuses, ‘A fresh future is taking shape, with urban areas around the world becoming not just the dominant form of habitat for humankind, but also the engine-ro
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