Editorial: Shared Societies: A new approach to planetary conviventia

Abstract

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness (John K. Galbraith) If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a dif-ferent drummer. Let each man march to his own rhythm, however measured, or far away (H. D. Thoreau) This issue of Development explores the concept of 'Shared Societies' developed by the Club de Madrid to inspire a notion of society where all individuals and constituent groups hold status as equally contributing participants, free to express their differences while integrating their voices within the broader population. Unfortunately, the world around us does not seem to share these aspirations. The tragedies of Ukraine, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Nigeria, to name but some of the most recent headline-hogging places, suggest otherwise. A lethal cocktail of hate for diversity, quest for power and greed appears to be a stronger driver than the aspiration for peace, understanding and conviviality. Beyond these macroscopic conflicts, it is even more disheartening to experience the progressive erosion of the social foundations of many of our societies and the globalization of loneliness in a world overwhelmed by communication revolutions and new forms of instant media. Despite the vast information exposure about human suffering, something akin to 'hydro-repellence' seems to be in the making as we witness growing indifference to the depth of the tragedies that surround us. Interestingly, weaker social foundations and decreasing empathy are related to a significant reduction of the societal resilience against shocks precisely when unpredictability becomes the norm with such a higher frequency of extraordinary climate events, social turmoil and other unexpected crises. In the constant tension between reality and aspirations, the asynchrony between the development debate and the world around it does not represent an element of novelty. However, the ongoing discussions on the post-2015 development agenda are now pushing such an asynchrony to an entirely new level of ambition. The need to claim success in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is pushing the development industry towards an inappropriate celebration of poverty reduction and social progress against a world that continues to be plagued with violence, hunger and destitution. This is not to deny that progress took place in many social development areas but one cannot be blind to the inadequacy of the benchmarking parameters that are being used – the target that everyone should have an income of at least US$ 1.25 a day being a perfect example despite the rivers of justifications that conventional economists can provide as to its appropriateness. The MDG attribution question also raises other issues as the supposed halving of world extreme poverty was largely dependent on China's progress, something the MDG framework can hardly claim to have influenced. Beyond all this, the main concern is that the global development agenda has not managed to influence the main global drivers of exclusion, inequity and unsustainability, and rather facilitated a global-scale social bribery to ensure that some few crumbs could fall off the table of the wealthy to keep the poor and marginalized afloat and pacified. Indeed a noble goal, but too instru-mental in ensuring that the current dynamics of global accumulation proceed undisturbed by exces-sive social strain and unrest. The news is that this bribery does not seem to work anymore. Global protests are rising as the profile of growing inequalities shake social con-tracts around the globe. Nevertheless, the lack of proper diagnostics and critical assessment by the development establishment is fuelling high rheto-ric. We are therefore witnessing the emergence of a new global development agenda that is once again more concerned with regulating the local rather than the global, and is therefore pushing forward the homogenizing concept of modernity that has progressively conquered our societies over the past decades regardless of its failures and the tensions they have generated. Are there reasons to be hopeful? Indeed, there are. Many social movements, local communities, civil society organizations and solidarity initia-tives promote new ethical foundations for the cohabitation of diversity, new forms of convivi-ality, alternative economic frameworks, new agencies for the provision of social services, new ecologies based on surpassing anthropocentrism in favour of biocentrism, and rights-based models of governance centred on citizens' agency and pluralism. Unfortunately, these initiatives remain peripheral to the mainstream modernity project and can, therefore, be more easily classified as experiments of human resistance than real seeds for socio-economic transformation. However, some signs of coalescence of these development alternatives into a new vision of humanity are emerging. In this context, the Shared Societies proposition is consistent and aligned with the calls for BuenVivir and Planetary Conviventia – ideas that initially emerged from the practices and visions of the indigenous people of the Andean Region of Latin America and which were further elaborated upon by social move-ments, progressive civil society organizations, and radical thinkers and activists. The vision that emerges is inspiring although it clashes significantly with some major features of current modernity that our societies are struggling with and that are profoundly altering our human experience. Interestingly, these are increasingly manifesting themselves across the globe without the conventional distinctions across developed and developing countries. Another example of the emerging need for a universal development agenda that can inspire a new ethic for global citizenship based on the respect of diversity and the apprecia-tion of global conviviality. However, the following major obstacles seem to be in the way and would need to find proper responses for our societies to be truly engaged in alternative paths towards har-mony and sustainability.