The descriptions provided here try to summarise the way the various terms have been used in the book. Some of the terms are especially liable to shifting meanings over time, or to different interpretations. I’ve tried to explain the various nuances of many of these, both here and in the main text.
Anarchism Absence or abolition of government, the term is used in this work as one of the three ways to bring about changing society, the others being Reform and Revolution.
Collectivist Anarchists are committed to no government, but the collectivists recognise the need for some organisation in order to make decisions, but avoiding institutions, bureaucracy and hierarchy.
Individualist Anarchists who are most committed to freedom and independence.
Syndicalist Anarchists especially interested in organisation around production, which is the area they see as most needing collective decision-making.
Assemblies See Federalism
Capital
Constant Capital That part of wealth that maintains property and the means of production.
Commodity Capital Stock of produce held by a company.
Cultural Capital Intelligence, imagination and creativity, and their products, art, literature, music, etc.
Financial Capital Sometimes just money in general, but more specifically, money used for future production.
Human Capital Value innate to people, including labour and work.
Material Capital I use this term to distinguish the capital produced by the material economy from that which is produced by the other types of economy discussed in the text.
Natural Capital Often referring to all of nature (originally just called ‘land’) but preferably just those natural resources that are regarded as essential to be used by humans, whilst some of nature is retained as wild.
Physical Capital What I’ve called natural resources, or material wealth.
Productive Capital Assets retained and used for production.
Social Capital The value in the connections between people.
Variable Capital Labour power. (In Marx, the power that creates surplus value.)
Capitalism Generally referring to a mode of production focused on the production of goods for exchange, that is, commodity. The term also includes a few other ideas that are seen as critical: The idea of scarcity. The idea of competition. The idea that the financing of capitalism is by way of financial debt and the idea that the primary aim of capitalism is for profit. As the rate of profit is understood to fall over time, the amount of debt required to maintain production with at least the same profit increases, and hence the appropriation of the natural commons continues to increase to meet this need. (The falling rate of profit is however an idea contested by many economists.)
Citizens’ Assembly A temporary grouping of citizens, often chosen by lot, who meet to deliberate over a particular matter within society. Some suggest that such assemblies could become a more long-term feature of governance, as part of a system of participatory politics (Parapolity).
Cockaigne A medieval utopia, reachable only by eating through three miles of rice pudding.
Commodity/commodification Goods obtained through purchase. Whilst the commodity may still be a useful product, there is an element of its monetary value that still adheres. Hence, commodification suggests something being reduced to a financial calculation only, away from its use-value and social value.
Commoning Individual acts that relate to a physical or emotional commons, such as sharing, compassion and kindness.
Commons
Natural Commons Often referring to all of nature, but preferably just those natural resources that are regarded as essential to be used by humans, whilst some of nature is retained as wild.
Cultural Commons Eisenstein refers to intellectual property and creative copyright here, but I prefer to use the term to refer to the actual wealth produced, as in celebration, art, music and literature, rather than the copyrighting of these.
Spiritual Commons Imagination and creativity.
Social Commons Compassion, gifts and sharing.
Communism A belief in no government, like anarchism, but also communism believes in no private property and more or less equal status for all citizens. There has never been a nation that achieved true communism. The idea of a ‘communist state’ is, at best, a transitional stage (the dictatorship of the proletariat) to true communism and the phrase is really a contradiction in terms. Where states have tried to impose communism on their populations, this has generally gone very seriously wrong.
Compassion/ Sympathy/Empathy Compassion is practical action taken as a result of sympathy towards oneself or another. Empathy is the emotion behind sympathy and compassion. In this book, compassion includes shared pleasures and also compassion for oneself. Compassion and pleasure are seen as deeply linked.
Confederation/Confederalism Sometimes used in contrast to federalism. Federalism is often regarded as a top-down, state-imposed delegating of some decision-making to smaller regions within a nation. By contrast, confederalism organises from the grass-roots. Although the latter is the preferred option in this book, I have still used the term federalism to describe it, and have explained the difference in the text.
Consequentialism Governance system where the day-to-day decision-making is seen as more important than the form of governance itself or the ideals of a political theory or party. The term is often used in contrast to Proceduralism. Consequentialism is sometimes also referred to as Instrumentalism.
Conservation/Environmentalism/Ecology/ Deep Ecology These all offer different approaches to the human treatment of the bio-sphere. Conservation may seek to preserve particular environments, even when these are human-made, such as a particular farming landscape. Environmentalism is more focused on nature, but this tends to be nature as we might like it to be for humans. Ecology recognises the importance of all flora and fauna within a bio-region and/or the whole planet. Deep Ecology tends to give priority to the flora and fauna, over and above humans. These definitions are of course, fuzzy-edged and blend into one another.
Cornucopia One of the flavours of utopia identified in this work. Cornucopians take a very positive view of the future, with abundance achieved mainly through technological advance.
Democracy Originally a bad form of governance by the many, a corruption of polity.
Deliberative A governance system where there is universal suffrage and where all or most citizens have the opportunity to discuss things that will affect their lives and directly influence the decision-making process. In this book, both Citizens’ Assemblies and Participatory Politics are seen as forms of Deliberative Democracy.
Direct Universal suffrage again, but Direct Democracy is often used to describe a system that uses referendums, so there is a direct vote, but not necessarily much deliberation.
Representative A system where the citizens elect people to represent their views and/or make decisions on their behalf (a critical distinction that is often a source of contention in representative government). The citizens have little or no power to veto decisions between elections.
Dystopia A bad vision of the future or an existing vision for a better world that has turned out to be worse rather than better. Dystopia is used to contrast with utopia, and some would argue that many utopian visions would in fact turn out to be dystopias.
Economy
Command Economy See Planned Economy below.
Cultural Economy Art, Music, Literature. One of the five economies considered in this book, and key to making explicit the disparities between the other economies, notably the suppression of the emotional economy, and the emphasis on the material.
Emotional Economy
Compassion solidarity conviviality, friendship, love. I also use the term ‘re-making’ in this book, to represent all of the above, and to complement the ‘making’ of the material economy. One of the five economies considered in this book, and critically it is the one that is least recognised in its importance for the good functioning of society.
Financial Economy Traditionally, Just the support of money for the functioning of production and exchange, but now covers transactions of money increasingly abstract from the physical world.
Market Economy Referring to market decisions being the best way to keep prices, inflation, employment etc. stable and efficient, and also implying that market forces are the best way for this to be achieved, with little interference from government. The term is often used in contrast to a Planned or Command Economy.
Material Economy Production and sale of physical goods and usually also refers to services such as care and the hospitality industries. One of the five economies considered in this book.
Natural Economy Nature is considered as an economy in this book, especially in Chapter 7, and so is one of the five economies. Nature, in particular, is the archetypal circular economy, that might serve as a model for our other economies. (Or we could say that all the other economies are already part of nature’s circle, but not necessarily in a way that is working very well. Pollution is the obvious example.)
Planned Economy In contrast to the Market Economy, a Planned Economy (or Command Economy) regulates, by government, or by some other means, the flow of goods and services in order to achieve some specific goals. This might be to full employment, to conserve resources or to achieve a fairer and more equal society.
Spatial Economy One of the five economies considered in this book, the term is used in Chapter 7, essentially to mean Place.
Economic Rent Traditionally, income from the rent of land and property, the profit from the labour of others and the interest gained on money.
Ecotopia One of the flavours of utopia identified in this book, Ecotopia works to achieve an ecologically-sustainable future.
Equality
of opportunity Where all citizens have a reasonably equal potential in such things as education, work opportunities, their treatment by the state and their status under the law.
of outcome Equality in the stricter sense that society is arranged to ensure that all citizens obtain a roughly equal share of resources, no matter their age, state of health, intelligence etc.
Externality
Positive externality Something that is considered more or less a free resource in terms of economics, such as, traditionally, nature and the emotional commons (the latter not even clearly recognised as a resource, although highlighted by Marx.)
Negative externality Something that is a bad result of economic activity, but for which the economy does not carry a direct cost, for instance pollution and the effects of climate change.
Federalism
Federations and Assemblies Local arrangement of a governance system. I use the term in the book to mean a grass-roots system such as in Participatory Politics, and not to mean local organisation that is devised and controlled by a state.
Cellular and Associationalist Used to refer to grass-roots small-scale governance, which together form larger assemblies. The Participatory Politics and Deliberative Democracy systems described in the book are cellular and associationalist systems.
Free trade Referring to trade without tariffs or other restrictions imposed by governments, but the term is also sometimes used to refer to ‘free market’, that is, favouring international business.
Golden Age Referring to a past or future time when life is idyllic, so a golden age is often the basis of a utopia.
Goods
Rival/Non-rival A rival good is one where its use or consumption will prevent it being used by someone else, such as, food or energy. A non-rival good is one where its use does not exclude others, such as street lighting, and other types of public infrastructure, and also, critically for this book, most types of cultural commons.
Exclusive/Inclusive Similar to Rival/Non-rival above, but often used to refer to social and cultural ‘goods’. Streaming a song or a film for instance is, to an extent, exclusive, whilst a concert or a film show is more inclusive. Clearly there are fuzzy boundaries here, in particular, the commercialisation of culture may lead it towards being less inclusive.
Expansive Again, mainly referring to social and cultural goods. Most forms are expansive in the sense that they grow with use, such that compassion and friendship lead to more compassion and friendship, and artworks, music and literature will often inspire new works to be produced. The expansiveness extends to all of the other economies, as all are potentially related by means of the exchange of gifts. (See Chapter 7.)
Government
Aristocracy Rule by a few.
Democracy See separate entry.
Dictatorship Bad form of Monarchy.
Monarchy Rule by one, often a king or queen.
Oligarchy Bad form of Aristocracy.
Polity Good form of rule by the many (of which, Democracy is the bad form).
Grace The word is used in this book to suggest that the universe is not neutral but is generally benevolent towards life. As such, grace may be a further ‘economy’ that underpins and sustains life.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) A measure of the economic output of a society.
Happiness In this book, the definition of pleasure and purpose sustained over time is adopted.
Hierarchy
Dominator Hierarchy
A ‘power-over’ structure imposed by authority and possibly aggression.
Reciprocal Hierarchy
A ‘power-with’ structure that implies co-operation.
Idealism Values and other regulative beliefs that impose an order on decision-making (especially of governments) but which are of a generalised and often abstract nature. Often criticised for not being pragmatic. In this book the idealistic aspects of many utopian visions are contrasted with the more pragmatic and concrete visions.
Instrumentalism See Consequentialism.
Joy The emotion underlying pleasure and happiness, but sometimes also taken to mean a long-lasting sense of pleasure and contentment.
Land traditional term used in economics to refer to all aspects of nature used in production, so water, air, sunshine, soil, etc. as well as actual physical real estate.
Marginal Utility In economics, the benefit of producing one additional unit of anything. This may, in balance, not be worthwhile, so the marginal utility value is the cut-off point in what is worth producing. The concept of marginal utility seems to derive from Friedrich von Wieser, but the term is usually attributed to Alfred Marshall. The emphasis of utility to the consumer (discussed especially with regard to neo-liberalism) was first explored by Carl Menger and William Stanley Jevons.
Means of Production Tools, factories etc. used for the production of material goods. Having the ‘means of production’ is a key feature of arguments for communism and socialism, as this allows the workers to control their making in order to benefit directly themselves from the production process rather than profits going to business owners.
Meritocracy An organisation or governance system based on ability or intelligence.
Municipalism See Confederation/Confederalism.
Nationalism Could be a benign honour and respect for one’s nation. However, at least in several societies, the term has come to mean a negative form of government or political belief that excludes others, including a hostility towards foreign nationals within the nation’s borders. In the book I have contrasted nationalism with patriotism.
Nature This book gives special emphasis to everything being within nature. In particular, all of the other four economies discussed — material, cultural, emotional and spatial — are contained by the economy of nature.
Neo-liberalism A conflation of the ‘neo’ of neo-classical economics (with its emphasis on production) and ‘liberal’ from the rights and privileges afforded by a liberal society — and especially freedom. The aims of neo-liberalism could be seen as benign and it could be argued that no nation has ever managed to practice neo-liberalism in its ‘pure’ form. However, attempts at neo-liberalism have led to contradictions of its core values and bad consequences. Some might argue that one or more of the consequences have been the underlying intention of neo-liberalism all along (such as disparities of wealth). Critics also often conflate neo-liberalism with capitalism, seeing it as the style of economics that encourages, in their view, the worst aspects of capitalism.
Noble Savage The idea (usually attributed to Rousseau) that humankind, in our early history, was largely benign and free of such negative features as aggression, paternalism, hierarchy and selfishness.
Opportunity Cost In economics, literally, the next best thing that a person would choose to do, or, the thing they would give up in order to do their first choice. Often, this is related to money value, but economics often start with the example of Robinson Crusoe deciding between fishing or collecting coconuts. The term was first coined by Friedrich von Wieser. Von Wieser, notably, related the opportunity cost to whole societies rather than individual choice. The difference between price and opportunity cost is the economic rent.
Organic Term used by Murray Bookchin, amongst others, usually used to imply positive features of people living close to nature, much as for ‘noble savage’ as described above.
Participatory Economics (Parecon) A form of planned economy, where decisions about production and distribution are made by all citizens and not regulated via market forces.
Participatory Politics (Parapolity) A type of deliberative democracy. In this book I have used the term Parapolity to mean both a grass-roots federalism type of government (also known as Associationalist or Cellular) and a Citizens’ Assembly style often appointed by sortition, that is, by lot.
Patriotism In this book I use the term to mean pride and honour associated with a particular place or nation, but one which is generous, inclusive and welcoming — giving special regard to foreigners, visitors, as well as to other groups who may be in danger of being marginalised by society. In this regard, patriotism is almost directly opposed to nationalism and populism.
People’s Parliament Used in this book to refer to a government, or an estate of government, by means of one or both of the types of participatory politics described above.
Permaculture Originally ‘permanent agriculture’. A system to maximise agricultural yield with minimum effort, in particular, using perennial crops, and no artificial pesticides and fertilisers. The term has been expanded to include ideas about human society and more general care of the planet.
Pleasure In this book taken be the foundation of a person’s emotional life and deeply linked to compassion for self and compassion of a community and society. Recognising and exploring our pleasures is seen as key to devising a new story.
Privatopia The term is used to describe our current Western system of consumer capitalism and is one of the three flavours of utopia described in the book.
Proceduralism A style of government where the form of government itself and/or its ideals are seen as more important, and leading to better decisions, than dealing with situations as they occur and making judgements based on pragmatism. (It could reasonably be asserted that the book’s focus on deliberative democracy is a proceduralist stance.)
Politics Taken to mean governance by the people in this book, and as distinct from party politics or the state.
Polity A general term for governance, but used more specifically to refer to government by the people, as per politics above.
Populism A style of politics where the allegiance of the many is obtained by blaming or excluding some other group, either within or outside the society. Right-wing populism might target immigrants. Left-wing populism might see the 1% as the minority group that causes society’s problems. In this book, populism is contrasted with patriotism.
Power
Power-over Power based on hierarchy, and often associated with paternalism, exploitation and dominance.
Power-to The ability to work within the context of flourishing as a person, as in having independence, autonomy and self-direction. Making one’s own story.
Power-with Including the elements of power-to above, but also including co-operation with others.
Pre-distribution In contrast to re-distribution, the idea (from John Rawls) that wealth — for instance, from the natural commons — should be distributed equally to people in advance of any production etc. This is so that poorer people do not need to be supported by allowing a few to become very wealthy from exploiting the natural commons and then taxing them to redistribute the wealth back to the poor.
Property and Possession Property is used in this book to mean just ownership whilst possession is used to mean ownership with responsibility. The terms could be applied to material things, but could also be extended, for instance, to contrast ‘intellectual property’ with ‘intellectual possession’. This might in turn suggest alternatives to copyright and patent law.
Proportionality As an alternative to absolute equality, proportionality means a fair share, in proportion, for instance, to the amount of work a person does.
Re-Making The term is used in the book to mean ‘reproduction’ in its traditional understanding in economics, but also all aspects of the emotional/social commons that support the material economy, but are generally un-acknowledged.
Re-Wilding Allowing land (including rivers, lakes and oceans) to be taken back by nature, often with minimal intervention by humans, but sometimes with selective planting of native flora and the re-introduction of native fauna.
Reform One of the three ways identified in the book to change our governance system — reform, revolution or anarchism. Reform suggests gradual change. The systems of Parapolity promoted by the book are intended as gradual reform and not sudden breaks with current systems.
Regenerative agriculture A system of agriculture that takes in numerous techniques, but, in particular, avoids chemical fertilisers and pesticides and tries to achieve a natural balance in its processes. Regenerative agriculture is also especially concerned with the preservation of healthy soil.
Rentier One who benefits from ‘economic rent’, but the term has also come to be used in ‘rentier capitalism’ — where all aspects of a society are commodified and are therefore available to be rented back to others.
Republican Literally this means government without a monarchy. However it also implies a degree of involvement with government by the population at large. It is an especially difficult term to define, with its association with right-wing politics in the USA. The plea for ‘republican values’ is as much a slippery term as nationalism, populism, patriotism and liberalism. But we might include government by public discussion, the idea of a common good, openness to differing opinions and a search for truth. Freedom is also important, and republicans see freedom as ‘socially constructed’.
Revolution Sudden overthrow of government. One of the three ways to change society identified in this book, the others being reform and anarchism.
Silence Not to be taken entirely literally, but as well as actual silence it is the contrast between ‘sound’ and ‘noise’. The term is used in this book to denote a desirable state where there is minimal intrusion by unwanted noise, especially as a component of a simple lifestyle. Good music, laughter, birdsong etc., under this definition, would be welcomed as beneficial sound.
Slowness As with silence above, not necessarily literally slow, but rather having things at an appropriate speed, both in one’s own life and in wider society. Again, a potential component of a simple lifestyle.
Socialism Government that emphasises equity, fair distribution of resources and social justice.
Sociocracy A governance system based on all participants having a voice, mutual obligations, and a commitment to vision, mission and aims. Sociocracy also tries to avoid hierarchy and tries to adapt to changing circumstances. In this book, Sociocracy is taken as a suitable basis for deliberative democracy.
Sortition Choosing by lot. Used in this book especially in relation to Citizens’ Assemblies, a system of governance that might, in turn, form one type of people’s parliament.
Statism Literally, of the state, but used negatively to imply top-down governance.
Subsidiarity Decision-making that is based on the region that will be affected by the matters that are being decided, such that, what is local is only decided locally, and so on. Subsidiarity is a key ingredient of deliberative democracy and Parapolity.
Surplus value In Marxist economics, there is only one true value, labour power, whose use-value is the ability to produce value larger than its own exchange value. For Marx therefore, the process of production is the process of the production of surplus value.
Absolute Producing more by adding more labour.
Relative Producing more by improving the means of production and/or the speed/skill of labour.
Triple bottom line Planet, people, profit. Usually offered as an alternative to capitalism that is purely based on the profit motive.
Usury Making money from money, rather than from work. One of the three forms of economic rent.
Utopia A vision for a better world. A utopia can be idealistic or pragmatic or a mixture of the two.
Value
Commodity value Mainly meaning value derived from exchange, but also implies that things that would not normally be bought and sold (like nature or friendship) have been reduced to mere transactions, that is, have become commodified.
Use/Utility value Value that something has when directly used, traditionally in contrast to commodity value, but note that commodities also contain some use-value, otherwise there is no point in buying or selling them.
Exchange value The value of goods when bought and sold.
Extrinsic value A material value (either use-value or commodity value) used in contrast to intrinsic value.
Instrumental value Similar to extrinsic value above, but often used to imply a misuse of something.
Intrinsic value Having value in and of itself. We may say this in regard to a person or with reference to wild nature. It implies that we should not use people and not use at least some aspects of nature only for their instrumental or extrinsic value.
Vision/Mission/Aims From Sociocracy. The vision is how we wish the world to be. The mission is the process of change involved in achieving the vision. The aims are the means by which the changes are brought about.
Wealth
Common Wealth A collective term, often referring to natural resources, and implying that these are shared resources.
Cultural Wealth The wealth (more specifically, the benefit to community and to personal thoughts, imagination and creativity) derived from art, music, literature.
Material Wealth A material production process produces wealth, first and foremost. The wealth might be used directly by the producer or by others. All capital comes from wealth, but not all wealth is capital.
Social Wealth The benefits derived from community and the interactions between us, thus, in the terms used in this book, from the emotional economy, the social commons and re-making.
Wild Nature
Wild Body The term is used in the book as a reminder of our connection with nature. All aspects of self are embodied.
Wild Mind The term is used again as a reminder that knowledge, creativity and imagination are not separate from nature.
Wild Soul The book uses this term to suggest that there is a wider economy that supports the manifest world of nature and which is benevolent towards the life in which we participate.