Handelskammer Slowenien: Exner spricht über Solidarische Ökonomie

Am Montag, 20. April, spricht Andreas Exner über Solidarische Ökonomie anlässlich der „Innovation Days“ der Handelskammer Slowenien in Ljubljana.

Der listenzweite, parteiunabhängige Kandidat der Grüne/UG für die AK-Wahl in Kärnten stellt den Ansatz der Kartierung und Vernetzung Solidarischer Ökonomie als eine Alternative zum neoliberalen Kapitalismus vor.

Nähere Informationen hier. Anfragen an: andreas.exner*ÄT*chello.at

Die Zusammenfassung des englisch-sprachigen Vortrags:

Regional Cohesive Economies. Mapping and Linking Value-Driven Firms with Internal and External Stakeholderships

The current crisis puts not only the financial system under stress, but questions the system of production on the whole. Far from being a mere financial or economic crisis, the current developments point towards a global societal crisis. The problems emerging are: 1. profit expectations reach economic limits, 2. economic growth starts being ecologically restrained, 3. neoliberalism failed to secure and improve living standards of the majority. A key actor in this terrain of economic, ecological and social dynamics is the firm, being a condensation of organizational and ideological structures with significant ecological impacts.

The challenge to reorganize distribution and production thus has not only to include the firm, but must start from firm-related activities. It has to mobilize management potentials of actors related to the firm and actors constituting the firm. Experiences with real socialism as well as the current crisis-prone interventions of state authorities make sceptical about government. Much more emphasis should be laid on self-organization, democratic participation and self-management of stakeholders in civil society.

The challenge such an approach to change faces is threefold: 1. how to build an economy oriented towards concrete needs instead of abstract profits, 2. how to organize production and consumption in order to stay within ecological limits, 3. how to distribute goods and services in a way that secures and improves the living standards of all individuals.

A possible framework for a trial-and-error-process to change are regional cohesive economies. Cohesion builds confidence and is a crucial ingredient not only for expanding relations of democratic cooperation, but also to sustain social integration which is severly put under pressure due to rising unemployment and poverty.

Regional cohesive economies start from a special type of actor. This is the value-driven firm with internal and external stakeholderships. Such firms activate self-management potentials by enabling democratic decision making and they orient themselves toward concrete needs of their social environment.