Efficiency Versus Enjoyment: Looking After the Human Condition in the Transition to the Bio-Based Economy

Abstract

In this paper, we criticize the current focus of the bio-based economy (BBE) on efficiency and control and demonstrate the contradictions that this causes. We elucidate these tensions by comparing the BBE to alternative conceptions of economy that emphasise the relevance of both the human condition and unfathomable nature in the macro ecological transition project. From Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy, we take and extrapolate two major concepts-il y a and enjoyment-that help to reevaluate the status of both nature and the human subject involved in environmental instability. From this analysis, we evaluate current economic practice in close relation to the deteriorating environment to contribute to a conception of an economy that is truly based on principles of the biosphere. We conclude that humankind and nature are notions that must be always considered in this encompassing and topical effort and explain how they have been fundamentally overlooked in current thought on the bio-based and circular economy.

Ecomodernism and the Libidinal Economy: Towards a Critical Conception of Technology in the Bio-Based Economy

“…The ideal of the BBE is to establish an "economic metabolism" that operates within the carrying capacity of the biosphere, in which all used materials provide renewed inlet for the following production cycle. The idea is that if human, economic processes were similar to biological processes, such as circular ecosystems and energy cycles, they could operate within the physical limits of the planet instead of exceeding them as we currently do (Asveld et al, 2019;Pfau et al, 2014;Zwier, 2021;Veraart & Blok, 2021a, 2021b. Our hypothesis is that, in order to answer to the new situation of a world that has entered the Anthropocene, a philosophical perspective is needed to make sense of the fundamental relation between economy, technology and the human condition.…”

“…The problem is that sustainability is a normative concept here, describing the world not as it is, but as it should be; but the BBE does not take on this normative task explicitly, which would mean actually basing economy on the biosphere. Instead, the BBE is merely understood as a guideline for resourceoptimisation and so, in practice, everyday survival on the open market takes precedence over normative sustainability (Blok, 2020;Veraart & Blok, 2021a, 2021bZwier et al, 2015).…”

“…In current BBE practices, the techno-optimist orientation of ecomodernism is the dominant strategy in dealing with sustainability challenges (Veraart & Blok, 2021a, 2021b. BBE-policy consistently emphasises how biorefineries offer new business opportunities for value creation to remain competitive on the global market in the future, e.g.…”

Philosophy of agriculture as a way of understanding agrarian practice

“…These include the close interaction of physical and biological natural processes with the lives of individual people; special balance of physical and intellectual work in production activity; the shortest time path between costs and labor results; maximum psychological satisfaction from consideration of economic action, decision-making and profit-making; sacralization and transcendence of an individual's being in relation to himself and the world; striving for harmony with the natural world. In the process of agricultural activity, a person not only transforms nature, but also transforms himself, while the consequences of such a transformation are not fully known (Veraart & Blok, 2021).…”

Philosophy of technology in the digital age : The datafication of the World, the homo virtualis, and the capacity of technological innovations to set the World free

“…In order to contribute to a sustainable future, it is not sufficient to be a Luddite and reject technology, or to be a technophile and embrace technology, but to study the relationship between the biosphere and the economic sphere in the biobased circular economy (Veraart and Blok, 2021a), the impact of economic thinking on the invention of digital technologies and the datafication of the World, and the need of a new political economy to contribute to a sustainable future (Blok, 2022b: 54-72). Philosophers like Levinas and Bataille can help to think about the relationship between the biosphere and the economic sphere, and about the consequences for the human condition as zerowaste (Zwier et al 2015) or wasteful (Veraart and Blok, 2021b) humanity.…”