Sociology - notes for treadmill of production

Point
Define: Treadmill of production – Schnaiburg 1980 theory –Because of the constant rejuvenation of markets (done by capitalists for money) society feels a constant pressure to update goods. This constant rejuvenation is done through exploiting our environment for raw materials B
Movement to invest in off shore manufacturing – reduced cost of goods = more people can afford to purchase more goods A
Offshore manufacturing – lower standards of environmental laws B
Since UN conference of Environment and development 1992 – rapid loss of species and ecosystems in global south A
Increased investment in offshore agriculture, mining + forestry in global south A
Species extinction accelerated through pollution associated with manufacturing + processing (refineries, petroleum and distribution (transport)) A
Natural resource extraction reduced in industrial countries – increased in developing A
Schnaibergs original theory looked at US Ecop- environment relation – didn’t really consider overseas production A
US ecological destruction decreased by the production of US goods overseas destroying non-us environments A
US manufacturing ect pollution levels dropped since 1980 A
Reliance of Northern treadmill on the southern resources. A
Insatiable hunger for material goods creates competition + jealously = people feel dissatisfied with what they have and feel the material goods is the way to happiness – never ending cycle – never produced desired outcome C
Companies respond to demand by producing more produces = for profit C
Constant need for more products destroys the environment – the raw materials must come from somewhere C
Northern countries hog most of the natural resources – developing don’t have resources to help get them out of poverty C
Developing workers strive to become more like consumerist nations = work to produces the consumerist goods to be able to afford to buy similar unecassary products as this is seen as the way to happiness C
“Modern treadmill of production, which uses profits from environmental extraction to develop more capital – intensive ways of extracting still more resources” p2 D
Capital owners accelerate the treadmill by skewing citizen use values – 1) that resource extraction is compatible with citizen use value 2) when ehpersuasion fails, that citizens’ own exchange-vale needs must take precedence over this us value interests D
There was a major change in the last half of the 20th century between the impact of the production process and the environment E
Changes in the late 20th cent which caused increased environmental impacts
1) Modern factories need more imputes – more energy to run machines (fuel) and because of the increased speed of production more raw materials
2) Modern factories had more outputs pollution- more chemicals and fuels used in production – not workers- they just direct energy and chemical flow E
As firms grew = profits grew- this expansion required greater inputs and lead to greater outputs
Also: after each round of production – more profits – money is being invested in upgrading technologies to more efficient machines = workers seed to own destruction ultimately removing themself from the production process E
Tragedy of the commons – Key concept of overconsumption – overuse of the commons leads to the destruction of the common area – short term benefits for some long term consequence for all F
Capitalism not a new trend- “the impulse to acquisition pursuit of gain, of money, of the greatest possible amount of money, has in itself nothing to do with capitalism” G
Capitalism in all of us – “One may say that it has been common to all sorts of conditions of me at all times and in all countries of the eart,w herever hte objective possibility of it is or has been given” G

“Capitalism is indientical with the pursuit of profit, and forever renewed profit, by means of continuous, rational, capitalistic enterprise” G
“their (capitalists) activities were predominatly of an irration and speculative character, or directed to aquistion by force, above all the acquisition of booty, whether directly in war or in the form of continuous fiscal booty by exploitation of subjects” G
Everything we do has some impact on nature- can be positive but society revolves around nature H
“Each firm treis to produce more good more cheaply than the others. Merely making a profit isn’t good enought. A firm continually needs to maximize its profits or investors will withdraw their support and put their resources in a fim that does” p69
“Richard Douthwaites – “It is not just the at firms like growth because it make tehm fmore profitable: they psotivly need it fi they are to survive” I
Consequence of the treadmill – some people will be forced off. Not all companies can keep up with production of huge firms – centralization and concentration of capital (monopolization) of the market I
As firms try and stay on the treadmill they tend to cut back – usually jobs or environment - I
Adam smith – invisible hand guiding the economy (J)
Michael Jabobs – invisible elbow – “Elbows are sometimes used to push people aside in teh desire to get ahead” p73 J
I
Damge come from a relatively small number of economic actors _Freudenburg found
EG. 46% of toxic releases in the US come from the chemical industry – Chemical industry on make up 2.9% of the GNP I
Freudenburg fournt hat a single company – The magnesium corporation of America = 95% of all toxic releases int eh industrial category I
People choose to stay on the treadmill – materially advantageous I
John bellamy Foster – “the goal of an economic treadmill isn’t production (and it certainly isn’t underproduction either). Rather, what keeps peope going on it is the desire for accumulation – more money, more stuff, and the sense of greater environmental and social power that come with more of both” p78 I
These need to work to produce more and have more = takes time away from free leisure time
- ABS – people spend about 4 hours 13 min on leisure activities per day
- 46% necessary activities (eating sleeping) 16% contracted (working) 17% commited, 21% leisure K
12million people in Australian workforce – ½ pop including kids +retired k
Material Inequality in Australia – “even though we live in an open society, our economic circumstances remain a constraitn. It take money to buy the best education, to live ina well-rsources neighbourhood and to buy the lifestly of the wealthty” K
Linkage of communities through the flow or people, technology, finaces, the media and ideas – most important:
“Finanscapes on the rise: The increaslingly rapid flow of money around the world, ‘as currency markets, national stock exchange, and commodity speculations move mega-monies through national turnstiles at blinding speed, with vast absolute implications fro small differences in percentage points and time units - Appadurai K
Wallastiens world system theory: defines what a state doess Core, Periphery and semi-periphery nations – providing for those above. L
2 faces of interdependency
Ecological sustainability issue and the economic developmental issue.
Has 2 assumptions – 1) society requires some form of environmental system 2) to preserve the envrioment we need to restrict some of our social uses of the system. M
Goal is sustainable development - “utopian one inasmuch as it implies a congruence between ecological and economic goals” – p3 M
“stable ecosystems are in quilibrium,with a relatively unchanging proportion of each specie and a relatively unchanging mixture of nutrients”P7 M
“with all forms of industialiazation, the impact of human interventions on ecosystems changed in 2 ways: (1) more ecosystems were affected by human withdrawals and additions, and (2) the effects were more harmful and more enduring”p8 M
“ecological factores have been in tension and conflict iwth socio-economic and political factors, from the earliest form of conservationism through the rise of modern environmentalism and continuing into the sustainable development movement. This conflict is likely to endure in definitely, regarless of changes in economic and social policies we adopt. M
“environmental disorganization has the potential to change:
1. The dynamics of population forwth through changes in the incidence of illness, death, and live births
2. The average levels of living of individual actors as well as the average resources their social and economic insititutions will have available
3. The distribution fo resources and risks amount more and less powerful froups within the society
4. The political movilization of various parts of the societ to engage in controlling this distribution M
People are not understanding the inconectedness between societ, the economy and the environment – we fix one problem but don’t understand that that then impacts another sector. Each of these 3 things can act inderpendetly of eachother “one of the effects of the3 sector separation is to encourage a technical fix approach to sustainable development issues. This focuses on pollution control, lower resource use and greenhouse gas trading rather than tackling the deeper issues or seeing the connection between society, economy and the environment”p 189 N
The separation of society, economy and the environment has been “shaped by the alienation of much of human life from the environment we live in, as well as the speration between the production and consumption of the means of life” P194 N
Post WW2 there was a rise in technological research – goal increase tech to reduce labour time + people - tech needs more energy = more environmental destruction to provide the engery – process detrimental to both environment + people O

References:
a) Kenneth, G, Pellow, D & Schnaiberg, A 2004, “Interrogating the Treadmill of Production: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Treadmill but Were Afraid to Ask.” Organization & Environment. Vol.17, No. 3. Pp. 296-316 http://oae.sagepub.com/content/17/3/296 b) Lecture
c) http://globalenvironmentssocieties.wikispaces.com/Treadmill+of+Production
d) http://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/publications/papers/urban-policy-and-community-development/docs/schnaiberg/political-economy-environmental.pdf
e) http://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/publications/papers/urban-policy-and-community-development/docs/schnaiberg/treadmill-of-production.pdf
f) https://www.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243.full - tradgedy of commons
g) http://ereserve.library.usyd.edu.au.ezproxy2.library.usyd.edu.au/fisher/WeberAuthors1976pp13-31.pdf
h) http://ereserve.library.usyd.edu.au.ezproxy2.library.usyd.edu.au/fisher/GouldTwentyLessons2009Ch2.pdf
i) FROM H: An invitation to environmental sociology Mayerfeld Bell, M 2007. An invitation to Environmental Sociology, Pine Forge, Thousand Oaks, CA.
j) From F: Smith, A 1904, Wealth of Nations, Cosimo, New York, NY.
k) Van Krieken, R, Habibis, D, Smith, P, Hutchins, B, Martin,G & Maton, K 2014, Sociology, 5th edn, Pearson, Frenchs Forest.
l) Baylis, J, Smith, S & Owens, P 2011, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, 5th edn, Oxford University Press, New York.
M) Schnaiberg, A & Gould, K 1994, Enviroment and society: The enduring conflict, St. Martins Press, New York, New York.
N) Giddings, B, Hopwood, B & O’Brien, G 2002, “Enviromental, economy and society: Fitting them together into sustainable development”. Sustanable Development, Vol. 10, No. 4, Pp. 187-196.
O) Gould, A, Pellow, D & Schnaiberg A 2008, The treadmill of production: Injustice and unsustanabilty in the global economy, Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, CA.