The social commons by Francine Mestrum
MEER, 2024
Exploring the limits of current strategies and the need for actions against wealth inequality
www.socialcommons.eu and AEPF, 2021
Global thinking on social policies has changed a lot in these past years, to the extent that it i... more Global thinking on social policies has changed a lot in these past years, to the extent that it is allowed to speak of a new social paradigm. While the World Bank put poverty reduction on the international agenda in 1990, it sent a strong message against welfare states and social insurances. Poverty reduction was also supported by the United Nations Programme for Development (UNDP). Ten years later, the World Bank introduced its new thinking on 'social protection' as 'risk management', a task for governments, markets and families. Another ten years passed before a more developed concept of social protection was presented, less based on rights than on privatisation and deregulation. 1 In the meantime, the ILO had been working on its own concept of social justice, decent work and fundamental labour rights and in 2012 adopted a Recommendation on 'Social Protection Floors'. 2 Slowly, the problem of inequality also made it to the international agenda and is integrated in the SDGs, as is social protection, though the World Bank solution will not change much to the current distribution of incomes. 3 Regarding these incomes, it is interesting to note that 'income' was totally absent from the World Bank's definition and conceptualisation of poverty in the 1990s. In its excellent participative research 'Voices of the Poor. Can Anyone Hear us?' 4 its conclusion, after poor people had told they do not have decent wages, good prices for their agricultural produce, too far away doctors and schools, it concluded that 'people do not speak about income' … Of course, this was the heyday of microloans, Brasil's 'bolsa familia' was largely unknown, income was not considered to be important in a 'multidimensional' poverty approach. The definition you make tells us all about the solution you think of. The approach to reducing poverty slowly began to change with the 'conditional cash transfers', though they were still not warmly embraced. Migrants' remittances on the other hand were seen as very interesting, and many attempts were made to lay hold of these huge amounts of private money, in vain. What is on offer? With neoliberalism being adopted and institutionalized all over the world, the thinking on social protection was changing. While, in Europe, the cradle of welfare states, the objective went from 'safeguarding standards of living' to 'making work pay', in countries with limited histories of social protection, Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) and markets began to play an important role. In Asia, where the financial crisis of 2008/2009 wreaked havoc, the demands for social protection became louder and stronger. Unfortunately, in the traditional development debate, there was more attention for the topic at the right of the political spectrum than at the left and progressive side. It was mainly economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz and José Antonio Ocampo 5 who started to study the possibilities for more and better social protection. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), or publications such as The Economist did the same. No one will be surprised it did not go in the direction Good political debates start with good definitions so that we all know what we are talking about.
Development, 2020
The COVID crisis is once moire evidence of the crucial need for universal social protection, with... more The COVID crisis is once moire evidence of the crucial need for universal social protection, with health care, but also with clean water and air to breathe - or how via an approach of social commons the link between social judtice and climate justice becomes crystal clear
The Great Transition, 2020
Why advocates of universal basic income put the right questions but give the wrong answers
Development, 2020
COVID-19 reveals the undeniable fact of our interdependence and some hard truths about our econom... more COVID-19 reveals the undeniable fact of our interdependence and some hard truths about our economic system. While this is nothing new, it will now be difficult for all those who preferred to ignore some basic facts to go on with business as usual. Our economy collapsed because people cannot buy more than what they actually need. But as the economy grows the more people get sick and need help. And our universal welfare systems never excluded so many people as they do now. The many flaws in the dominant thinking and policymaking do not only refer to our health systems, but are almost all linked to the way the neoliberal globalization is organized. Turn the thinking around, forget the unfettered profit-seeking, start with the real basic needs of people and all the so badly needed approaches logically fall in the basket: the link with social protection, with water, housing and income security, the link with participation and democracy. In this article, I want to sketch the journey from needs to commons, since that is where the road should be leading us to. It goes in the opposite direction of more austerity, more privatization, more fragmentation of our social policies. It also leads to paradigmatic changes, based on old concepts such as solidarity and a new way to define sustainability.
Global Social Justice, 2020
The current COVID-19 crisis shows once and for all the crucial importance of a broad social prote... more The current COVID-19 crisis shows once and for all the crucial importance of a broad social protection system, with a universal public health care system at its heart. It also shows the many interlinkages with other elements of social justice: we now realize that housing is a health determinant ...
Global Social Justice, 2019
Analysis of the World Bank's proposals for a new 'social contract'
www.globalsocialjustice.eu, 2019
The World Bank and the ILO have published a joint statement on 'universal social protection'. Do ... more The World Bank and the ILO have published a joint statement on 'universal social protection'. Do they give the same meaning to these words?
‘Social Europe’ has followed a very bumpy road since the inception of the European Community. Thi... more ‘Social Europe’ has followed a very bumpy road since the inception of the European Community. This is not only a consequence of the lack of competences at the European level, or the lack of ‘political will’ at the level of Heads of State and Governments, but also and mainly of the ideological tendencies that have permeated all policies for the past six decades.
Since the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, most social movements in Europe have been demanding a ‘social and democratic’ Europe. However, never has it been clarified what this could or should mean. Even today, there are no clear demands on what precisely the European Union should do or not do. This article is meant to shed some light on the past, the present and the possible future of ‘social Europe’.
Can the World Bank poverty statistics be trusted?
Zeggen dat de statistieken 'fout' zijn, zou impliceren dat er ook 'juiste' cijfers bestaan. Maar ... more Zeggen dat de statistieken 'fout' zijn, zou impliceren dat er ook 'juiste' cijfers bestaan. Maar met de statistieken van de Wereldbank moet wel erg omzichtig worden omgegaan
A proposal for re-examining, strengthening and broadening our social protection systems - www.soc... more A proposal for re-examining, strengthening and broadening our social protection systems - www.socialcommons.eu - with a synthesis in Duch and French (and soon Spanish)
Comment l'inégalité s'est forgée une place sur l'agenda politique internationale et comment elle ... more Comment l'inégalité s'est forgée une place sur l'agenda politique internationale et comment elle sera 'combattue'
In this Valdai Paper I explain how neoliberalism introduced a new social paradigms and how it can... more In this Valdai Paper I explain how neoliberalism introduced a new social paradigms and how it can be thwarted
In defense of social protection and reacting to Raul Zibechi's statement that social policies are... more In defense of social protection and reacting to Raul Zibechi's statement that social policies are counter-insurgency policies
On the advantages and possible problems with conditional cash transfers
Advocates of the basic income sometimes say their idea is neither left nor right. But the left is... more Advocates of the basic income sometimes say their idea is neither left nor right. But the left is very different from the right and there are arguments to say, first, that neoliberalism cannot be an alternative and second, that the basic income can never be a leftwing policy.
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The social commons by Francine Mestrum
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Since the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, most social movements in Europe have been demanding a ‘social and democratic’ Europe. However, never has it been clarified what this could or should mean. Even today, there are no clear demands on what precisely the European Union should do or not do. This article is meant to shed some light on the past, the present and the possible future of ‘social Europe’.
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https://www.alainet.org/fr/node/210042
Since the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, most social movements in Europe have been demanding a ‘social and democratic’ Europe. However, never has it been clarified what this could or should mean. Even today, there are no clear demands on what precisely the European Union should do or not do. This article is meant to shed some light on the past, the present and the possible future of ‘social Europe’.