2011/09/26 by Richard Westra · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Asian Industrial and Economic Development #Political Economy and Marxism #Economic and Social Issues #Realisation #Sustainable development #Economic system #Poverty #Sustainability #Empowerment #Consumption (sociology) #Economic growth #Political science #Economics #Sociology #Social science
paper · doi:10.1080/00472336.2011.610612
openalex publication_date 2011/09/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Current global economic trends have rekindled interest in development alternatives. Competing socialist and green proposals for these development alternatives raise important questions about crafting institutional vehicles for the simultaneous realisation of popular empowerment, sustainability and poverty alleviation development goals. Much of the debate is about economic scale and the re-localising of production and consumption sundered by globalisation. Yet socialists and greens are fuzzy on principles of economy necessary to achieve their desired goals. To help sort out these issues this article introduces the concept of “socio-material communication” as a way of differentiating among available economic forms. It then offers a design for socialist development that is progressive, sustainable and realisable under current “really existing” conditions. It is concluded that realisation of socialist and green development goals for future human betterment requires the combining of modes of socio-material communication to meet specific development challenges, rather than seeking to impose one mode, such as economic planning or society-wide market operation, indiscriminately.