*** Futuribles. L'anticipation au service de l'action. Futuribles Sarl (47 rue de Babylone, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 - fax: 42226554 - Email: revue@futuribles.com - Internet: http://www.futuribles.com ). May-June 2016, No. 412, 132 pp. €22. Annual subscription: €115. ISBN 978-2-84387-425-3.
Although many European citizens allow themselves to be overcome by a certain despair that sometimes, as in the case of the British over the past few days, pushes them into committing hopeless and desperate acts, this edition of the French-speaking perspectives journal headed by Hugues de Jouvenel opens a little window, which raises our morale somewhat. This small window opens onto the "better living initiative" launched in 2011 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which seeks to ensure that any calculation of well-being of society is not exclusively based on productive economic and subsequently misleading indicators. The editor in chief therefore points out in the editorial that the struggle to ensure that the situation in the world is no longer distorted by cold figures and a penchant for omission dates back to almost a century. Those fighting for this cause included Arthur Cecil Pigou (who introduced the notion of externality), Denis de Rougemont, who pointed out that Gross Domestic Product the sacrosanct GDP, "calculated products that are dear but not things that are dear to us", Jacques Delors with his 1971 book on "social indicators" and more recently, Joseph Stiglitz, who denounced the limitations of economic accounting that is guilty of making positive calculations of, "disasters, accidents, pollution but not socially useful activities". To say that the real trajectory of struggle needs to be elsewhere is quite something and it is subsequently followed by the OECD sentence on its website that, "Your life cannot be summed up by sterile figures relating to GDP and other economic statistics".
Since 2011, the OECD has been using a raft of indicators that are more qualitative and which relate to, "what counts for citizens and society" in addition to the economic resources and one's employment situation, other factors are calculated such as one's health living conditions, environmental quality, the balance between private and professional life, educational level, social ties, civic engagement, personal security and subjective well-being. It is this approach and the appropriateness of these new indicators that are explained in this issue of Futuribles by Martine Durand, the Director of Statistics at the OECD. She explains that it is, "crucial to look at the development model we are seeking to promote" at a time when economic growth, a fortiori is weak is and no longer a synonym for better living conditions or an improvement in the quality of life. On the contrary, she argues, "the increase of inequalities and environmental costs generated by growth… Forces us to look at the appropriateness of returning to a scenario of business as usual based on quantity and a failure to take into account the quality of growth". Consequently, in addition to GDP, she argues that we need to look at growth and well-being within a perspective of risk management. This is indeed the subject tackled in the "How's Life?" Report 2015, which shows that no country is in first position in all dimensions of well-being. By focusing on the situation in France, Martine Durand, we look at both education and volunteering, which are factors that are not taken into account in GDP but which should, perhaps, be considered as an investment in social capital because it provides benefits not just to the people and communities but also to the volunteers themselves. In conclusion, in light of the prevailing situation in France, the United Kingdom in Scotland, she emphasises how important it is that, "these indicators are not just use for diagnosis" but they generally become tools for orientating the formulation of public policy. This lesson is undoubtedly valid for the whole of the European Union.
The other contributions included in this issue focus on, "health in the big data era" (with the crucial question of data protection), second chance schools and the group report from the Commissariat General Plan chaired by Jean Boissonnat in… 1995 on "Working 20 Years Time", which, on several points, remains appropriate at a time of the El Khomri law. Finally, the "European Column" is written by Jean-François Drevet and focuses on the "key policy factor" gas is proving to be in the Eastern Mediterranean. Michel Theys
*** DIMITRIS EMMANOUIL (Editor): Les classes sociales et la consommation. Les classes économiques, les strates d'Etat et les modèles culturels et matériels de la consommation à Athens. Editions Alexandreia (133 rue Solonos, GR-10677 -Tel: (30-210) 3806305 - fax: 3838173 - Email: alexpubl@alexandria-publ.gr - Internet: http://www.alexandria-publ.gr ). 2016, 344 pp. €20. ISBN 978-960-221-677-4.
Two major sociological approaches have dominated the exploration of the relationship between social classes and consumer habits over recent decades: the approach by Pierre Bourdieu has been codified as the "Distinction" of a robust description of class and at the opposite end, more fluid post-modern approaches that reject the need to understand class or modern consumption. This book stems from work carried out by the Athens research programme and is collectively written by six sociologists all of whom are researchers at the National Greek Social Research Centre. Nonetheless, the authors have also drawn from a very specific sociological context, namely that of international concern, illustrated by a flourishing in publications, focusing on social stratification dimensions, economic classes and state strata, as well as consumption approaches and, particularly, the cultural forms of the latter. The theoretical and methodological tools employed hugely benefited the work carried out by the researchers and have helped contribute to this novel approach. In practice, the texts included in this volume examine social stratification in Athens and its relationship with cultural aspects (music, cinema) and consumption material (accommodation, eating out, et cetera.), particularly with regard to social class relations with consumption, social signification of holiday homes and consumption transformations in times of crisis. (AKa)
*** ANTONIS ZAIRIS, GEORGE STAMATIS: Quelle croissance ? Une anarchie créatrice conçue. Editions Sideris (116 rue Solonos, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3833434 - fax: 3832294 - Email: contact@isideris.gr). 2016, 373 pp. €23. ISBN 978-960-08-0702-8.
Can development be envisaged in Greece in the current circumstances with an economy that is heavily in debt, hampered by organised obscurantism and backward ideas inherited from the system of patronage and which is devoid of curiosity for what is happening outside one's neighbourhood? Does Greece have the ability to one day escape this poverty? These are some of the questions that the authors of this book invite their readers to tackle. Antonis Zaïris and George Stamatis have significant experience in the domain of theoretical knowledge and affairs. In this publication they meticulously record the myriad of problems affecting the Greek economy and seek to identify possible ways of reviving confidence and optimism. Nonetheless, they also point out that the validity of the optimistic responses they outline will ultimately depend on the will of millions of what they describe as "neo-Greeks". Antonis Zairis and George Stamatis base their premise of a series of convictions that are as robust as they are far-reaching: "there is no wealth without production"; "there will be no social care without wealth"; "there will be no justice without equal rights and obligations"; "there will be no quality without freedom"; and, especially, nothing good will be possible in a "nepotistic political system". Consequently, the two authors claim that the major challenge facing the country, particularly in the current situation when it is, "trying to find a way out of the national disaster of recent years… Is to create the conditions and environment for healthy, creative and sustainable development for the good of all Greek society". The authors are optimistic because Greece has already proved in the past that it had the resources and capacity to rebound after having suffered from different disasters. A page is turned and another chapter begins and it is now necessary to carry out the necessary institutional changes to release dynamism, flexibility and intelligence from Greek society! How will this be achieved? By providing the country with a development framework that is appropriately adapted, namely, "a conceived creative anarchy". In more brutal terms, Greece must ultimately be liberated from a kind of Ottoman financial oppression and fully apply the commitments it made when it became a member of the European Union and more recently, the Eurozone. (AKa)
*** YANNIS MYLOPOYLOS: Les… si du développement. Éditions Livanis (98 rue Solonos, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3661200 - fax: 3617791 - email: webmaster@livanis.gr - Internet: http://www.livanis.gr ). 2016, 160 pp. €9.90. ISBN 978-960-14-3017-1.
The entire book argues for the need to develop a new model for Greece so that it can find an exit to the multifarious crisis affecting the country. The solution will need to be by way of devising and implementing a new economic development model. Yannis Mylopoylos is a Professor at the Civil Engineering Department at the Aristotle University in Salonika, where he was also director from 2010 to 2014. In this publication he seeks to ask a range of questions and provide a number of answers. How should a development programme be devised and implemented in Greece today and how can it be sustainable, irrespective of the neoliberal environment of austerity? What are the real possibilities for finding the solution to the crisis? What are the conditions for balanced and sustainable development that take into account concerns relating to the environment and natural resources in a country that is bogged down in a deep recession? Does the poverty prevailing in Greece reflect, above all, and educational deficit? Does Greece now need a genuine cultural revolution? What social change will ultimately be possible after the failure of neoliberalism? In conclusion, how and through what will the major change required come in the areas of economic, environmental and balanced social development? These are some of the questions posed in this book and the author also puts forward a number of ideas to get out of the current stalemate that an exclusively neoliberal perspective in our globalised economy has created. (AKa)
*** ALAIN RÉGUILLON, ALAIN MALÉGARIE: Actualité européenne. Dettes souveraines des États membres de l'Union européenne: la Grèce au milieu du chaos. Presse fédéraliste éditions (242 rue Du Guesclin, F-69003 Lyon. Internet: http://www.pressefederaliste.eu ). "Carnet d'Europe" series. 2015, 76 pp. €10.
This pamphlet has been put together by two European activists, Alain Réguillon, a militant for a federal Europe since 1976 and Alain Malégarie, the director of the Euro Institute, who was also active in the preparations for the single currency. In this publication contains their articles written between 2010 2015 and which focused on the issue of sovereign debt, particularly the crisis affecting Greece. In this context, they explained that, "it is not too much Europe that the Europeans are suffering from but not enough Europe particularly a Europe that puts humanity back at the centre of the European project because ultimately, the market cannot be an end in itself". (MT)