Devolution for the right reasons
April 24, 2020 5:30 PM Subscribe
Is anyone aware of regions, movements or collectives seeking devolution with an holistic mindset or looking to create a new politics, and especially one oriented to low-carbon thinking?
Back at uni 2002ish we looked at various political alternatives for a low-carbon/oil-free future and devolution was considered as one route (real watersheds as polities was another - and this is starting to happen in NZ). We didn't go into much depth and it was onto the next. I've developed on this view but only internally.
I'm coming at this issue from a background in urban three-waters design and so-called Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), also referred to as LID (Low-Impact Design) and BMP (Best management Practice). I've seen a few theses out there hinting at this and heard some rumours but movements is what I'm seeking.
I find devolution attractive as a fully-rounded system where it could for instance include all the things that are normally externalised (a bit like when I make a planted stormwater wetland), but devolution as practiced seems to be nationalist/racist/libertarian/'small government'/also used to attack regions not supporting power.
I'm looking for sources on progressive and Planet-friendly devolution.
Back at uni 2002ish we looked at various political alternatives for a low-carbon/oil-free future and devolution was considered as one route (real watersheds as polities was another - and this is starting to happen in NZ). We didn't go into much depth and it was onto the next. I've developed on this view but only internally.
I'm coming at this issue from a background in urban three-waters design and so-called Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), also referred to as LID (Low-Impact Design) and BMP (Best management Practice). I've seen a few theses out there hinting at this and heard some rumours but movements is what I'm seeking.
I find devolution attractive as a fully-rounded system where it could for instance include all the things that are normally externalised (a bit like when I make a planted stormwater wetland), but devolution as practiced seems to be nationalist/racist/libertarian/'small government'/also used to attack regions not supporting power.
I'm looking for sources on progressive and Planet-friendly devolution.
Best answer: I'm not going to thread sit but furnace.heart's suggestion got me one useful paper:
"sustainable urban stormwater" degrowth"
Managing complexity in Australian urban water governance: Transitioning Sydney to a water sensitive city
which led to several recent citations with suggestive titles:
and 99_'s drawdown.org helped me find
Embracing Watershed Politics
both of those have the right keywords I'd also be looking for; e.g. complexity, fragmentation. Wonderful!
posted by unearthed at 8:28 PM on April 24, 2020
"sustainable urban stormwater" degrowth"
Managing complexity in Australian urban water governance: Transitioning Sydney to a water sensitive city
which led to several recent citations with suggestive titles:
and 99_'s drawdown.org helped me find
Embracing Watershed Politics
both of those have the right keywords I'd also be looking for; e.g. complexity, fragmentation. Wonderful!
posted by unearthed at 8:28 PM on April 24, 2020
I don't know if this is exactly what you're after, but the Scottish Green Party are one of the parties that support independence for Scotland.
This is not uncontentious, but you'll find plenty of people who'll tell you that Scottish nationalism generally is a more progressive movement on many levels than many other nationalisms. I'm certainly not a confirmed nationalist myself, but my inclination would be to agree that it's generally progressive in social terms. And environmentally, on certain things like banning fracking, they've been ahead of most of the rest of the UK, I think.
(I'm making the leap here from devolution to nationalism - Scotland already has devolution so I guess nationalism is the next step for people who want to see it continue in that direction).
posted by penguin pie at 10:03 AM on April 25, 2020
This is not uncontentious, but you'll find plenty of people who'll tell you that Scottish nationalism generally is a more progressive movement on many levels than many other nationalisms. I'm certainly not a confirmed nationalist myself, but my inclination would be to agree that it's generally progressive in social terms. And environmentally, on certain things like banning fracking, they've been ahead of most of the rest of the UK, I think.
(I'm making the leap here from devolution to nationalism - Scotland already has devolution so I guess nationalism is the next step for people who want to see it continue in that direction).
posted by penguin pie at 10:03 AM on April 25, 2020
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posted by furnace.heart at 6:30 PM on April 24, 2020 [3 favorites]