Backcasting for Sustainable Employment: A Hungarian Experience

Abstract

Sustainability and employment are terms seldom used together. Especially when defining sustainability in the stricter sense of the word, delineating a world where strong sustainability is the norm, it is problematic to deduct which elements may compose sustainable employment. In the relevant discourse, two distinct directions can be identified. Ecological modernization promises -quick fixes‖ to employment problems while reducing environmentally harmful economic activities without initiating major changes either in our ways of thinking or in our way of living. At the same time, the radical change paradigm disposes of the concepts of the free market society and believes that new -great transformations‖ are unavoidable, whereby values must change just as much as institutions. Yet, how far have these normative theoretical approaches penetrated our everyday thinking? The paper builds upon the experience of a backcasting project on sustainable employment conducted in Hungary in 2012 and early 2013 and suggests that when people are given the chance to leave the path dependencies of today behind and imagine a sustainable future, their normative visions provide us with invaluable insight as to what may constitute sustainable employment. It also contributes towards our understanding of which policy tools lead us towards a more sustainable world of work in particular and a more sustainable society in general.

Back from the future. Defining sustainable employment through backcasting

“…However, this qualitative technique facilitates real participation thorough deliberation and active exchange of ideas between participants resulting in learning and shared understanding. Hence, it provides an in-depth insight that some other decision-support techniques with wider involvement may not generate (Köves et al, 2013b). Over the limitations that have already been published, it is also important to add a few more in order to complete the picture.…”

“…The Hungarian process DOI: 10.14267/phd.2015010 can be categorized as a pathway-orientated backcasting exploring the possibilities of the future without identifying specific goals to reach in the future. However, as involving various stakeholders in the creation of a normative vision was a key characteristic of the process from the very beginning; the methodological approach can be regarded as participatory pathway-orientated backcasting (Köves et al, 2013b).…”

“…Nonetheless, they can constitute a valuable contribution to the dialogue on sustainable employment bearing in mind that other social groups may have interpreted this issue otherwise (Köves et al, 2013b). DOI: 10.14267/phd.2015010 …”

“…12 The resulting vision was published in an article in the journal of Sustainability (Köves et al, 2013b) and an overview was presented as a poster presentation at the 10th Biannual Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics: Ecological Economics and Institutional Dynamics on 18-21 July 2013 in Lille, France (Köves et al, 2013c). This chapter contains figures and excerpts from both these publications.…”

“…DOI: 10.14267/phd.2015010 This approach would enrich the forms of employment and dispose of the idea that employment generally means a 40-hour paid labour week. Participants truly believed that localized employment through the encouragement of local production and consumption patterns would contribute significantly to sustainable employment (Köves et al, 2013b). This shift is facilitated by technological development.…”