Special session

“Cities of Dignity” presents seven successful strategies of such urban transformation toward more democratic, sustainable, socially equitable and antipatriarchal relations from below in a series of case studies: the self-determination and organization of slum dwellers in Buhj in India; Black-led urban commons in Birmingham, Jackson, and Detroit in the U.S.; the San Roque popular market in Quito, Ecuador; the 15th Garden food sovereignty network in Syria; the resistance of slum dwellers of Maroko and Mokoko in Lagos, Nigeria; the communitarian currency experimentation in Kenya; and the resistance of Izidora community in Belo Horizonte, Brasil. Many important lessons for social-ecological transformation toward societies that leave the growth imperative behind can be drawn from these seven urban experiences.

How to move forward in an informed way, without reproducing the existing hierarchies and injustices? How not to end up in a situation when ecological sustainability is the prerogative of the privileged, direct democracy is ignorant of environmental issues, and localisation of production is xenophobic? These are some of the questions that have inspired the edited collection “Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth”. Bringing degrowth into dialogue with critical social theories, covering previously unexplored geographical contexts and discussing some of the most contested concepts in degrowth, the book hints at informed paths towards socio-ecological transformation.

Facilitator: Lena Gerdes

Presenters: Mabrouka Mbarek, Stefania Barca, Max Koch, Emanuele Leonardi, Giorgos Velegrakis

Language: English with translation to German

Technical details: SP MB_Book Presentation-Cities of Dignity and Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth.mp4, MPEG-4 video, 617MB

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