Abstract: Western Europe and the USA have held themselves up as models to be followed by the countries of Eastern Europe - democratic countries run according to the rule of law, with market based consumer societies, privatised key sectors and focused on economic growth. Joining the European Union and learning how to be like the "successful" western economies has been seen as Central and Eastern Europe's alternative to the failed communist experiment after world war two, under the dominant influence of the Soviet Union. The presentation will argue that this grand narrative as a future and as a solution for the problems of eastern european societies never was realistic. It failed to recognise and take into account the unsustainable nature of the development in the western economies. It also fails to acknowledge that there is a global ecological crisis that all countries will have to respond to.

There is no paper for this media entry. This was a contribution to a scientific session at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014, which doesn't exist in written format or is not published under open access.