CPSC 872 John D. McGregor Session 30 ULS and Complex Adaptive Systems, cont’d.
Revolution and Complex Systems Session 5 - … · Course outline Revolution and Complex Systems...
Transcript of Revolution and Complex Systems Session 5 - … · Course outline Revolution and Complex Systems...
Course outline
Revolution and Complex Systems
Session 1: Introduction to Complex SystemsSession 2: Smash the System – creating and harnessing chaosSession 3: Erode the System – building the new world in the shell of the oldSession 4: Escape the System – affect and surviving oppression Session 5: Tame the System – reforms without reformismSession 6: Bringing it All Together – a trajectory for revolution
Revolution and Complex Systems
● State managing capitalism● Liberté, égalité, fraternité –
● freedom of the individual● equality under the law● charity, altruism
● International human rights law
Social democracy
● Functions through: ● Representative democracy – political parties● Growth and full employment● Keynesian economics – Welfare state,
intervention in economy. ● Class compromise (unions) – balance of forces
● 'Reformism'
Revolution and Complex Systems
Pros● Generally seen as legitimate ● Represents largest amount of people (theoretically)● Incremental changes are easier for people to handle● Safe, legality, not all can do riskier activity
Cons● Slow change● Surface problems are tackled, but not root problems● Some reforms are reversible ● Electoral movements often demobilised after elections● The state often contributes to the problems we're fighting (police violence, capitalism etc)
Revolution and Complex Systems
● Why does social democracy reproduce capitalism?● Can we stop this?
● Why is electoral politics ultimately demobilising? ● Can we prevent this?
Questions:
Are 'non-reformist reforms' possible?
● Can we use social democracy to create:● rapid change?● irreversible change?
Revolution and Complex Systems
Communism
floating signifier (empty signifier)
=
dog
kennelleash
bone vet
Dog
vs
● Community councils?● Voluntary work?● Gift exchange?
OR
● Gulags?● Genocide?● State surveillance?
Revolution and Complex Systems
Socialism
Commons
Future
Network power:● ability to reprogram networks● ability to articulate (switch)
different networks
Reprogram: change the associations of a concept, like 'socialism', 'the commons' or 'future' etc
Switch: link it into other floating signifiers (Freedom? Peace? Prosperity?)
Revolution and Complex Systems
● Reactivates cognitive schema for leader (doctor, nurse)
● Schemas refreshed, neural pathways reinforced.
● Perpetuates system which produced that power (of white men etc) in the first place!
● Positive feedback loop can be broken by abandoning leaders
Leader
● White● Old ● Male● Heterosexual● Cisgender● Abled● Neurotypical etc● Individual
Faciality
Revolution and Complex Systems
Increase control that an agent (person, group) has over its environment (community), as well as expanding their awareness of this (learning)
“Empowerment is a measure of both the control an agent has over its environment, as well as its ability to sense this control.
… If two or more agents share an environment, so that their actions all influence the state of the world, then their empowerment becomes intertwined”
Empowerment
Cognition is: embodied, embedded, enactive, extended and affective
● bodily practice (embodied)● within communities (embedded) ● using the techniques of self-governance (enactive)● giving conceptual and material tools (extended), and● for that practice to be emotionally engaging and relevant to their lives (affective)
Revolution and Complex Systems
Adaptive cycle
Conservation
Release
Reorganisation
Growth
Connectedness
Potential / capital
Revolution and Complex Systems
Revolt and Remember
Mohammed Bouazizi self-immolation
Arab Spring
'Memory' of culture, media, governments, etc.
Sidi Bouzid protests
Tunisian revolution
Revolution and Complex Systems
Pressure valve 1) – elections
Election rearranges Constituencies
House of Commons and Downing Street
British state political system – (Lords, civil service departments, courts, etc)
Anger at local MP collapses their support
Revolution and Complex Systems
Pressure valve 2) – reform
Strike – over into release (chaotic phase)
government reform – back into rapid growth or reorganisation phase
State, business and dominant ideology – ensures reorganisation accords with state process, capitalist needs
Revolution and Complex Systems
Can we prevent election demobilisation?
● Reprogramming floating signifiers
● Empowerment
● Pressure valve 1: elections
● Pressure valve 2: reforms
Revolution and Complex Systems
“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.”
- Karl Marx
Revolution and Complex Systems
“[Capitalism] is not overthrown, but is on the contrary strengthened by the development of social reforms."
- Rosa Luxembourg
Revolution and Complex Systems
● Miliband: the State is an instrument of “that class which owns and controls the means of production and which is able, by virtue of the economic power thus conferred upon it, to use the state as its instrument for the domination of society”
Focus on interpersonal relationships – could work for us – socialist state possible?
● Poulantzas: the State is “neither the subject of history nor a mere instrument-object of the dominant class, it is, from the point of view of its class nature, the condensation of a class relationship of forces”
Focus on 'objective' structures – no room for agency – socialist state not possible?
Poulantzas vs Miliband
Agree: the State aims to support the capitalist class through maintaining equilibrium of capitalist production
Network of Agents vs
Network of Roles
Revolution and Complex Systems
Miliband
media
economic
politics
education
Poulantzas
Working class
Ruling class
Revolution and Complex Systems
Living systems and coupling
● Relative autonomy of the state – coupled systems● The state is a condensation of the class struggle and is contested – learning system
Revolution and Complex Systems
Capital needs: ● Laws to maintain property rights and contracts. ● Stability in which to ensure consumption and production and distribution. ● Workers and consumers. ● State's power of reprogramming
State needs: ● Tax revenues ● Jobs● Compliant populace
Ecological dominance
PATH DEPENDENCE“small or insignificant events or decisions result in an organizational or institutional change that persists over long periods of time and that limits the range of options available to actors in the future”
Phase I - pre-formation Phase II - formation Phase III - lock-in
Revolution and Complex Systems
Scope/range of variety
Revolution and Complex Systems
Can they be de-coupled?
1) If the state is a 'condensation of forces', can a state in a capitalist society be anything but pro-capitalist?2) If the state is a learning system, having learned to benefit the ruling class, can this memory be erased?
Revolution and Complex Systems
● Reform the state so quicker decisions can be made? Lose 'checks and balances' i.e. negative feedback loops
● Cascades
Rapid:
Revolution and Complex Systems
ThermostatAudio feedback
● 'Positive' ● Self-amplifying● Growth / decay
● 'Negative'● Self-regulating● Homeostasis
Accelerationism? Degrowth?
Revolution and Complex Systems
scale
threshold?
regime 1
regime 2
economicspolitics tech
threshold?
threshold?
threshold?
threshold?
threshold?
threshold?
threshold?
threshold?national
municipal
local
domainThresholds Matrix
Revolution and Complex Systems
municipal
national
local
politics economics technology
unemployment
benefits policy
unrest
household income
Police repression
social movement
rate of tech change
rate of job creation
automation of jobs
Police repression
Justice / security policy
Consumer electronics purchased
working hours policy
Political engagement
Strength of working class
business profits
Revolution and Complex Systems
● None (steady change)● small change in variable leads to small change in
output● Step change
● small change in slow variable leads to jump in output. Original position can be returned to
● Hysteresis (lag)● after jump, to return to original position requires
greater force in opposite direction● Irreversible
● original position cannot be returned to without taking a different route [diagram = deeper hysteresis, hand not strong enough to push OR does it destroy the original attractor?]
Thresholds
Revolution and Complex Systems
State and transition model – degrowth
Build local renewable energy infrastructure
Step change
Green taxes
LEGEND
dynamics without action
with action
Basic income Debt audit/jubilee
Invest in solidarity economy
Irreversible
Hysteresis / Lag
Reduce the working week
End private sector investment
Reduce advertising
CO2 caps
Consumption (for-profit)
Households free of debt
Growth Climate disaster
Lots of free time
Strong alternative economy
For profit overtakes
Self-reliance from business
Re-privatised energy
Debt encumbered people
Overworked, poor
Education on necessity and skills
Lower growth, cleaner air
Local democratic control, checks and balances