(translated from Catalan using AI)
The Jornades internacionals de l’economia plural arise from a conviction we’ve been working on at the Coòpolis Observatory: a new era requires a new economy. A just ecological transition needs an economy that doesn’t hide what sustains our lives: mutual support, social reproduction, ecosystem cycles, reciprocity, etc.
There is a long-standing tendency to understand the economy as a compact block of market relations that allow us to access goods and services. The predominant narrative presents the economy as a homogeneous market guided by supply and demand, driven by the exchange of monetary or financial capital. Beneath this appearance lies a very different reality. The economy not only includes a monetary sphere but also a whole set of relationships and forms of organization to meet needs that go far beyond the market circuit. In fact, they far exceed it.
In Catalonia, the hours of unpaid domestic work are nearly double those of paid hours. It is estimated that ecosystem services account for 250% of the world’s GDP. We need to send GDP to the dustbin of history. We must promote and value economies based on redistribution, mutual support, and proximity. The ideology that the capitalist market is the only space for regulating social life and that profit is the sole driver of growth is destroying life on the planet. The appropriation of resources and the exploitation of labor are left out of spreadsheets.
We must promote policies, regulations, and metrics for economies based on use value. We need to refound the economy based on concrete practices and policies that aspire to a more just world. We need a public, cooperative, and community alliance. The public counterpart can guarantee the general interest and universality; the cooperative sphere can strengthen economic democracy and the participation of workers; and organized communities embody citizen participation and the social control of the economy.
These sessions aim to be a space to gather all this potential and address questions such as: what are plural economies, and what are their challenges and dilemmas? What are the public policies that promote public-cooperative-community alliances, and how do they function? How can their impact be measured? What are the strategic areas for an ecosocial transition, and how can we intervene in them?
We will do this with entities and experiences from Catalonia, the Basque Country, the USA, Canada, the UK, and Venezuela. To show what we are doing, to learn from what is being done elsewhere, and to strengthen transformative alliances.
The Observatory and the Coòpolis circles have been working on sessions we consider highly relevant. We look forward to seeing you on October 23 and 24 at Bloc4BCN in Barcelona.
Most activities will have simultaneous translation.
Check the program here.