Pluralism, Ecology and Planning

Authors

  • John O'Neill University of Manchester, United Kingdom

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v17i2.884

Abstract

In Economic Democratic Planning Robin Hahnel rearticulates and defends the model of participatory planning he developed with Michael Albert. This paper develops three lines of criticism of the model. It argues that the model’s principle of distribution of income among workers according to a metric of effort would involve pervasive surveillance of persons and potential humiliation. The use of a price metric of opportunity costs and cost-benefit analysis in the allocation of resources fails to address the implications of value-pluralism and incommensurability for their allocation. In response to Hahnel’s criticism of those who argue that environmental constraints entail limits to economic growth, it argues that we need to take those constraints more seriously than he does. The paper focuses on the second and third area of disagreement by placing those differences within the wider history of the socialist calculation debates and ecological economics.

Author Biography

John O'Neill, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

John O’Neill is Professor of Political Economy at Manchester University. He has written widely on philosophy, political economy and environmental policy. His books include Markets, Deliberation and Environment (Routledge, 2007), The Market: Ethics, Knowledge and Politics (Routledge, 1998) and Ecology, Policy and Politics: Human Well-Being and the Natural World (Routledge, 1993). He is co-author of Environmental Values (Routledge, 2008) with Alan Holland and Andrew Light. He has co-authored a number of reports on environmental valuation and on climate change and justice.

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Published

2025-01-24

How to Cite

O’Neill, J. (2025). Pluralism, Ecology and Planning. Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 17(2), 27–48. https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v17i2.884