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Re-taking Sustainable Development for Degrowth

By: André Reichel

22.03.2016

From the text: In the discourse on degrowth – the deliberate and planned downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions and equity on the planet – the notion of »sustainable development« has sort of a bad rap. In fact, sustainable degrowth is intended to replace sustainable development as the central concept under which ecological and social minded activists and researchers might rally. Serge Latouche, the one who first fired the »missile word« of décroissance into the pubic realm, once held a talk titled »Down with sustainable development! Long live convivial degrowth!« at a conference in Paris in 2002. What are the reasons for such disregard of sustainable development? And could this be a somewhat foolish mistake?

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André Reichel

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Degrowth: an active project of hope

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By: François Schneider, Joanna Pope

Degrowth is a movement that explores another direction for society, one where ecological and social justice become possible, along with more meaningful lives. While there is no single definition for degrowth, this entry attempts to offer some guidance for understanding degrowth in all its diversity. First, degrowth is a variety of challenges to the current status quo. Secondly, degrowth ...

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Call for 6th International Degrowth Conference is open

Degrowth conference 2014 photo by eva mahnke cc by sa 04 gr%c3%bcne abrissbirne

The 6th International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity will take place in Malmö 21-25 August 2018, with Dialogues in turbulent times as its overarching theme. More information about the conference is available at malmo.degrowth.org. In the spirit of the previous conferences, the organizing committee is inviting three types of contributions: - academic ...

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Carework as Commons: Towards a Feminist Degrowth Agenda

By: Bengi Akbulut

The debates around post-growth transitions to just socio-ecological futures - while undoubtedly variegated - all emphasize that such a transition will involve a fundamental change in the way we organize economic relations and processes. At a first glance, this implies both a nominal and a structural, change with corresponding shifts in production, labor and consumption patterns. Whereas nominal...