SHARINGACTION2019 Feminist digital economy; towards a feminist platform, enterprise or/and policy. 2019/11/19/apunts/01

https://pad.femprocomuns.cat/sharingbcn2019feministplatform

Feminist digital economy; towards a feminist platform, enterprise or/and policy.

Sharing Cities Action Encounter Barcelona - 19-21 November 2019

http://www.sharingcitiesaction.net/encounter-2019/programme/

Collaborative notes at Teixidora.net, documentation to share and reuse.

https://www.teixidora.net/wiki/Sharing_Cities_Action_Encounter_2019

Conference notes

Monica Grau : Need to change economic system, Session is a starting point in debate they are creating between feminist and sharing eocnomy, create some kind of dialogue

1. What is feminist economics?

Monica grau : has something to do with women, with gender as central category of analysis., braoder goal: the way we do economy

Picture of trade exhcnage with men looking at screens, picture of african woman, on bike with kids with some wood : students would wonder what this picture has to do with economy : many economic activities in this picture but wouldn't be in regular book of economy.

Adam Smith : father of modern science of economy. When wrote wealth of nations : who gets your dinner? it's the self-interest of any economic agent : all of agents looking for best interest, profits. He never got married but lived with his mother. women's work not recognized for their economic practice, not only improve women's situation in labor market and ensure equal working conditions as they have most precarious conditions and lowest wage, take care of many domestic tasks : care, adminsurative, fundamental activities, take into account vulnaribility of life and environment. So "who cooked adam smith's dinner?" (Katrine Marcal, 2017).

FE school of thought looking for transofrmation with new analytical framework and methodologies; it is a theoretical and empirical framework that challenges the androcentric foundations of the main school of economics which focuses on market performance, growth or production. the general objective of FE is to transcend a reductionist, biased and hierarchical vision and to create new economic aspects that place people's daily life in the center -- an ethical-practical framework for social transformation and for the construction of an economy that functions on basis of justice and equality (Angenjo-Calderón & Gálvez-Muñoz, 2019).

FE questions assumptions such an individualism and logic of self-interest in contrast to cooperation; artificial distinctions from social relations to natureor homo economicus as rational and efficient, and imposition of growth as objective

Feminist economies question some of the most basic assumptions of neo-classical economic theories, such as:

1 - the individual understanding of social relations (i.e. individualism and logic of self-interest in contrast to cooperation);

2 - the artificial creation of an autonomous realm in which economic relationships are separated from nature and social relations.

3 - the homo economicus as the central actor, an individual that is defined as self-sufficient, selfish and rational and able to make rational decisions in his best interest - the logic of self interest (vs. collaboration)

4 - growth and progress as the ultimate objectives and general principles of social evolution

[shows picture of a meeting of the governing council of the ECB (European Central Bank), whose president is Christine Lagarde, surrounded by dozens of men around a round table.]

economy : not objective science but ideology.

two main concepts : inclusion and sustainability of life

we cannot achieve inclusion without representation and participation

performativity of gender, in public space and economics;  personal is political and personal is economic

picture: carmen chacon, spanish minister of defence, april 2008, walking pregnant in front of the military

How to measure nation's economic wealth : GDP? include well-being indicators Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum : human development indicator or replace indicator? Include unpaid care work in GDP? For mexico : 20% of GDP is unpaid care work

Practical implications of feminist economies in macroeconomy:

1 - critiques to growth and GDP: does it include all types of work? is it the best indicator to track the health of a nation's economy?

2 - well-being indicators - capabilities aproach - human development index (amartya sen, martha nussbaum)

3 - the value of the care economy: Corina Rodriguez (2014) studied the Care Economy with time use surveys in Mexico. Unpaid care work represents 20% of the GDP. 20 points of the GDP supposes a dimension that is greater than oil exports or more of what the millions of Mexicans who have emigrated to the world remit to their homes.

According to a European regulation SEC 2010 there are satellite accounts that are included in the measurement of the GDP of European countries for measuring the value of activities that are not in the market, as prostitution and drugs.

Papers, interntional and national congresses on FE, knwoledge beyond academia

2. public policies to promote feminist transformation

Sonia Ruiz : Feminist economy can be developed from and in institutions

Mika Ferlu (?) : gender Mainstreaming : reorganization, development and improvement of policy processes to incorporate gender perspectives in all policies at all levels, technical tool that requires political will at highest possible level, if met leads to a revolution at the heart of the organization implementing it

In Barcelona city Council : economic tools and mechanims put in place in machinery of the city Council itself and integration of gender gals in economic policies carried out for the citizenship.

Institutional change needed but doesnt happen easily : feminist actions increase democracy and contributes to good government, include participation of feminist organizations take into account needs and demands of all women and marginzalized groups, imbued with intersectional perspective, organized in digital form through Decidim Bcn, space for actions and exchange, that contribute to the feminist transformation of our cities.

public authorities responsible for redistributing wealth, putting all lives at center of decision-making : gender impact of budget : increase, maintain or decrease gender inequalities : assessment : keep or redirect policies : analyze culture, public transport, employment, etc. Macro-economic policies : find out who pays what taxes, adjust taxation : long shadow of the things that are invisible and that follows us everywhere: getting this data will enable to revise all local taxes, real estate tax, and single-mother families , 80% of single parenthood, suffering from poverty, can go to municipal sports centers to take time for themselves.

Criteria in gender-subsidies when applying, public procurement to be tool of transformation: 600 million in contracts (goods and services) : employment free from gender discriminations. enterprises are required to have a series of dimensions: gender equality, inclusive communication, joint responsibility for work-life balance.

Monitor gender sentive economic contracts : street cleaning, and homecare

Employment, business : bcn 's leading in tech ecosystem : 60 000 people employed in these actviites, 34% only in ICTs are women , percentage of women fell in enrolling in math at university , women in mechanical engineering and computer science is only under 1% (!). fight gender stereotypes

Digital economy line at bcn activa : to raise awareness, provide trainign and life-long learning based on users and goals : bcn manzana, desnudate, lidera

hackathons with gender perspective : APP for domestic workers, index on women's proverty and pracriousnes with open data initiative, supporting wikidones project at La bonnemaison,

Carried out with parity in management positions at city Council in bcn for the first time

3. Some feminist dimensions of Platform economy

Mayo Fuster :

    Platform economy : consumption, production and exchange of goods and services between distributed groups of people supported by a digital platform. in last century, the fatcory was main space of production, transition to platform : it is not just a sector but the main space of production in emerging economic system. Expansion of disruption of platform become center of production in many industries, depending on industry more commons or extractivist oriented. How to differentiate different models of platform economy? Certain industries are now fully dominated by platforms : software or encyclopedia. Airbnb, uber, Wikipedia all platforms but with different models : Need dimensions to differentiate them: open commons, platform coops and unicorn models, depending on governance and economic model; tech and knowledge policy; social responsibility and impact.

    Commons and Platform coops : Fairbnb, Fairmondo model different from exctractionist or unicorn model, open data and software vs extractionist technological policies, lack of integration of feminist economy into platform, commons or social economy have been integrated

Possible feminst analysis of the plat. economy: corporate model vs pro-commom+coop model.

1.  Does it reposition the reconcialiation between productive and reproductive economy? corporate model : NO, it is reinforcing the gender distribution of work, it could even create more distance; maintaining women in domestic space (Singer, 2014) : part time work, platform economy favors dimension of abuse towards women : interactions are about profit, all of life is working for profitability through data extraction; plus the patriarchy of the social: put to work free social time, reinventing capitalism to also take advantage of the social sphere (not only reproductive).

Pro-commons : also reinforce this dynamic even if they value the social.

2. Does is reformulate the conception of value? does it place life in the center? study of value conceptions (P2Pvalue, Mayo, 2014). extractionist model : no / EXCHANGE VALUE, central axis, and reputational value . Pro-commons : Yes, new professional values, value in terms of community building (relationship building); use value: creation of useful resources; mission achievement value (objectives and agenda in mor pro-social mission, against mere profit generation.

3.  Is the productive system reformulated towards a more Marxist model (class equality?) Corporate model : No : Boyd : segregation of platforms by social class Schor : exclusion of the lower working class ; Pro-common  : Yes : greater control of the means of production of people who create value, non-alienating link, distribution of the fair value generated , access conditions as a public good

4.  Is it a more inclsuive economic model? do women participate? at all levels/areas? corporate model : less than traditional model, segragation by gender and roles; greater inclusion of women as producers than in the common model, 30% women in Floss vs 1.5% in common . Pro-common : Women as consumers, better condition of access to the resulting resources (public economy)

    feminist perspective: let's do something about it in these 3 days! find actions to implement.

Monica grau : disappointed than pro-cmmons model not achieving equality. Why are we not seeing improvement? How can we create policies for more inclusion in platform economy?

Mayo Fuster : Complex problematic , but trade-offf between inclusion and openness : when you open you can reinforce, what are the conditions for democratic openness, resources, time for women to be able to participate, role of insittutions to ensure they have resources

Sonia ruiz : Patriarchy still exists, and need to assess all the time, intersectional and gender perspective with boomerang effects, need to evaluate constantly our work, to try to overcome this dichotomy that is present. the value aspect is essential: what are we giving value to, overcome reproductive/productive dichotomy, which type of value of any human activity: the political, the social activites that are maintaining our lives. put that in the picture: voluntary, social, community work. this is important to do public policies. think abour the reorganization of time and work, understood as a whole, not only employment : from city counicl: policy on democratization of care work, not only responsability of women, but of men and state, and enterprises.

Q&A:

intervention 1 (@Delfine, @&Plan de desarrollo comunitario de Sagrada Familia): how to change situation, need some time and some laboratory to think how we can do things differently. Working on project care work at Sagrada familia area: how to design the user journey in neighborhood : be efficient, but that's not what we want, need some resources to think about other ways to involve people. "we spend a long time thinking about things like we need to be effective, we need to go fast, but this is our mindset, our background. we need to do differently to really involve the community and the people, we need more time.... and public resources to change this."

Intervention 2 : Optimistic elements for future?

Mayo Fuster : in the middle of the 4th feminist wave globally, parity representation in city council. From daily life, our generation is rising the intelorance to sexism and misoginy, increasing sorority, this stand's mottois about inclusiveand sustainable platform, 40% of program on feminist issues, all panels have parity

Sonia Ruiz : at demonstrations, many menarethere who are aware of this.

Monica Grau : we are here, where knowledge is created, decison made, action deployed, transformation in our mind