Library

By: Orson Zuanic

Any conception of a degrowth society requires a fundamental change in our communal definition of existence. For centuries, we have upheld a Cartesian view of reality: an irreducible duality between mind and matter, body and soul, enshrined in Descartes’ famous dictum Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). This conception of existence has placed humanity among an external, material environm...

By: Alexandra Köves

Workshop System maps are a good visualization of mental constructions different groups hold on Degrowth. Based on our previous research results we propose 30 factors that we deem the most important in a Degrowth transition. In this workshop we involve the participants in a participatory system mapping exercise where they can arrange and rearrange the components of a potential Degrowth societ...

By: Pasi Heikkurinen

Abstract: The call to transform the growth society lacks an analysis of the human will. Problematically for degrowth, the enactment of this so-called will to transform has undesired matter-energetic consequences. Every act of transformation requires matter–energy, adding to the cumulative throughput of societies. To revert the ecospherical metabolism from a state of overshoot to one of degrowt...

By: Bengi Akbulut

Abstract: Critical perspectives on economic growth have laid bare the fragility of the assumed link between material growth and socio-ecological wellbeing. The appeal of economic growth, however, goes beyond the economic sphere. As a societal goal, growth is often mobilized to pre-empt and/or co-opt opposition around issues of social justice and redistribution. Not only does the constitution o...

By: Angelos Varvarousis

Abstract: The decolonization of the social imaginary has been proposed as an important dimension of the transition towards a degrowth society. However, although omnipresent in the degrowth literature, the terms “social imaginary” and “social imaginary significations” have not been adequately explained. This creates a level of mystification that limits the analytical value of the degrowth frame...

By: Kristoffer Wilén, Maria Sandberg, Kristian Klockars

Abstract: Scientists agree that changes in the organization of human society and economy are needed to stop the degradation of the natural environment. The most commonly proposed solution, green growth, has been increasingly criticized, but the offered alternative of degrowth has remained a marginal undertaking in academia and in practice. This article further develops the argument for degrowt...

By: Christoph Sanders, Nadine Kaufmann, Julian Wortmann

Abstract: Considering education in the context of making and unmaking sustainable futures, a growing relevance is attributed to the role of shared beliefs or mental infrastructures which shape the way people perceive crises and solutions. The currently dominant capitalist economic paradigm is seen as one such powerful belief that generates imaginaries which cannot accommodate sustainable futur...

By: Benedikt Schmid

Innovative forms of organising are a crucial pillar of post-growth transitions. Situated within a growth-based institutional context, actually existing forms of post-growth organising are ambiguous. Divisions across legal structure, market participation and sectoral focus do not suffice to single out post-growth organisations. Instead, this paper develops a more fluid notion which is based on t...

By: Anya VerKamp

Comment from Anya VerKamp on the novel "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens. Introduction: Charles Dickens, an author witnessing firsthand the harsh impacts of the industrial revolution, wrote a novel that contains in it some of the themes still present in degrowth discourse today. His novel Hard Times demonstrates the invasion of utilitarianism and its economic implications into human relationsh...

By: Max Koch

Bourdieu; Growth paradigm; Marx; capitalism; degrowth; naturalisation; postgrowth; regulation approach

By: Hubert Buch-Hansen

Keywords: Crisis, Critical political economy, Institutional change, Degrowth, Paradigm shift, Political projects

By: Stephen Quilley, Kaitlin Kish

Highlights • Entanglement of socio-ecological systems is described from a historical perspective. • Entanglement of traditional growth economics, the sanctity of the sovereign individual and complexity is analysed. • We present five cherished norms and dimensions of progressive modernity and how limiting growth economic may change them. First Page Preview

By: Oliver Emde, Uwe Jakubczyk, Bernd Kappes, Bernd Overwien

Beim Umbau unserer Gesellschaft in Richtung eines nachhaltigen Lebens kommt der transformativen Bildung eine Schlüsselrolle zu. Im Buch werden dazu folgende Fragen untersucht: Was genau kann Globales Lernen für soziale Transformationsprozessen leisten und was nicht? Welche Faktoren bestimmen die Schritte vom Wissen zum Handeln? Und wie verhält sich das Veränderungsinteresse der Bildungsakteure ...

By: Branko Milanovic

A blog post by Branko Milanovic which is the third part of a discussion between him and Jason Hickel. Chronology of the discussion Original blog post by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of “degrowth” in a poor and unequal world" First reply by Jason Hickel "Why Branko Milanovic is wrong about de-growth" Reply by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of degrowth: Part II" Second Reply by Jason Hic...

By: Madalina Balau

Presentation by Madalina Balau In Romania all parents want to offer their children a better life and a better future, sometimes with their own sacrifice, yet the years following communist regime have brought unsustainable development, present in environmental degradation and social insecurity. After living in communism and knowing how bad it was, people have been accustoming for the last 26 ye...

By: György Folk

Presentation by György Folk Degrowth may appear for the majority in the developed world a sacrifice of the human comfort we live in, a loss of the present standard of life or well-being. Weal proposes a radical reorientation of our understanding about the human good. Biological and social research produced a multitude of partial results that shed light on how humans live well. Equating the lev...

By: Kristoffer Wilén

Our article is based on interviews with 20 self-declared environmentally conscious individuals, and by drawing on theories of performativity (Judith Butler), we have studied the ways in which questions of work and working life are negotiated within the formation of green selves (identities). We believe that our findings are relevant for understanding how environmental concerns generate reflecti...

By: Elisabeth Skarðhamar Olsen, Lisa L. Gezon, Lisa L. Gezon, Eeva Berglund

Degrowth calls for decolonizing human identities and relationships from values and visions that exalt the endless expansion of production and consumption. This multi-session explores paths toward such decolonization through initiatives to recuperate, adapt and invent sociocultural systems that change the way we humans produce and consume goods and services, and—more powerfully—the ways in which...

By: Zsolt Boda

Karl Polanyi argued that a market economy can only function in a market society. Paraphrasing him we may say that a sustainable economy can only function in a sustainable society. An essential feature of such a society is that its social norms and institutions reward future-oriented, responsible decisions and actions while hindering myopic and materialistic choices. The mainstream model of eco...

By: Judith Kleibs

This presentation deals with the question how to distinguish measures and approaches which fundamentally change the current social logic that is based on an instrumentalistic attitude towards the world from those which maintain this logic and only seem to contribute to a social and ecological just society. For this intent, at first the main characteristics of the instrumentalistic social logic...