Library

By: Norie Tamura, Hein Mallee

Presentation [part of the standard session "Regional Transformations"] Embedding human lives again into the local ecosystem may help to reverse overexploitation and to foster degrowth lifestyles. To discuss transition strategies for alternative lifestyles, we analyze two niche developments in Japan: the fishery-forest movement and the self-employed forestry movement. Presenters: Norie Tam...

By: Matthias Haberl, Isabella Szukits

Workshop Südwind works since many years about the supply chain of mobile phones. Current initiatives range from modular design over certain procurement strategies of public institutions to refurbishment and proper recycling. Still on local and regional levels many small initiatives can do and are doing interesting steps in the right direction and we want together to elaborate more on it. And...

By: Andro Rilović

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] This paper will demonstrate why, when envisaging degrowth transitions and strategies for achieving them, it is essential to seriously engage with arguments concerning the limitations of the State in enacting radical systemic change, emanating from the long and fruitful history of anarchist thought. Presenters: Andro ...

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: Brent Bleys, Jonas Van der Slycken

Economic welfare measures (EWM) such as the ISEW and the GPI are often argued to lack a sound theoretical foundation. However, we observe that the initial EWM were jointly inspired by Hicksian and Fisherian income. Welfare's experiential nature is Fisherian-inspired, whereas seeing the consumption of community capital (e.g. the ecosystem) as a cost is Hicksian-inspired. As most scholars do no...

By: Jeffrey Althouse, Guilio Guarini, Jose Gabriel Porcile

This article introduces a novel (environmental) interpretation of a “Keynesian coordination game” and develops four potential scenarios to remaining within a global carbon emissions constraint. With inspiration from research on “ecologically unequal exchange” (EUE), we demonstrate the drawbacks of present “green growth” strategies by considering how pollution- and resource-intensive industrie...

By: Max Koch

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] A deprioritization of economic growth in policy making in the rich countries will need to be part of a global effort to re-embed economy and society into planetary boundaries. However, societal support for a degrowth transition remains for the time being moderate, and it is not well understood as yet why this is the cas...

By: Nina Treu, Matthias Schmelzer, Corinna Bukhart

A dictionary of social movements and alternatives for a future beyond economic growth, capitalism, and domination. Degrowth is an emerging social movement that overlaps with proposals for systemic change such as anti-globalization and climate justice, commons and transition towns, basic income and Buen Vivir. Degrowth in Movement(s) reflects on the current situation of social movements aimin...

By: Ted Trainer, Samuel Alexander, Jonathan Rutherford

Ted Trainer is an Australian scholar-activist who for decades has been defending and practising an 'eco-anarchist' perspective he describes as the Simpler Way. His vision is of a world where self-governing communities live materially simple but sufficient lives, in harmony with ecological limits. This anthology contains some of Trainer's most insightful and provocative essays, covering all a...

By: Aaron Timms

Aaron Timms shares his impressions of the Degrowth Summer school, and life at Can Decreix in Cerbère. This article appeared in The New Republic, on January 27th 2020

By: Lukas Hardt, John Barrett, Peter G. Taylor, Timothy J. Foxon

Post-growth economists propose structural changes towards labour-intensive services, such as care or education, to make our economy more sustainable by providing meaningful work and reducing the environmentally damaging production of material goods. Our study investigates the assumption underlying such proposals. Using a multi-regional input-output model we compare the embodied energy intensi...

By: Giorgos Kallis, Joël Foramitti, Angelos Varvarousis

Scholars have argued that the sharing economy represents a transitional pathway to sustainability. The growth, however, of multi-national giants, such as Airbnb or Uber, has created new environmental, social, and economic problems and led many to question the dominant form of the sharing economy. In this paper, we study a transition within a transition—that is the emergence of a new niche o...

By: Jamil Khan, Roger Hildingsson, Lisa Garting

In this paper, we study the integration of ecological sustainability and social welfare concerns in cities. Efforts to handle ecological challenges risk having negative impacts on equality and social welfare. While current levels of consumption and material welfare are unsustainable, there is a need for more sustainable approaches to welfare and wellbeing. Still, ecological and social concerns ...

By: Sarah Hafner, Aled Jones, Annela Anger-Kraavi, Jan Pohl

Meeting its climate policy objectives requires the UK to rapidly decarbonise its energy sector. This demands high levels of investments into low carbon energy infrastructure, which are currently not undertaken at required scale, leading to a green finance gap. We explore (1) key investment barriers, (2) a theoretical framework for investigation and (3) possible solutions, drawing on a review of...

By: Caroline Shenaz Hossein

For social enterprise to matter to racialized people, it must be purposefully embedded in the community. This study examines three nonprofit organizations led by women engaged in community economic development work – Firgrove Learning and Innovation Community Centre, Warden Woods Community Centre, and Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women – in Toronto, one of the largest cities in North America. This study explores the work of these anti-racist feminist leaders who lack the certainty of funding from federal sources, yet understand that the key to making ethical community economies is to advance politicized economic solidarity and not to legitimize the corporatization of the social economy. This research also draws on the ethical coordinates of J.K Gibson-Graham to provoke a radical shift in the accepted understanding of social innovation in the enterprising development sector.

By: Jefim Vogel

Presentation [part of the standard session "Resources and Energy"] Paris obligations make the inevitability of consumption reductions for affluent societies undeniable if we combine 3 non-radical demands: 1) equal per-capita allocation of the global carbon budget, 2) accounting for carbon footprints of imports/exports, 3) non-reliance on yet unproven technologies. Presenters: Jefim Vogel ...

By: Gibran Vita

Presentation [Part of the standard session "Practicing Degrowth"] The present work aims to contribute in three major ways- 1) By connecting fundamental human needs by Max-Neef et al to global carbon emissions and their satisfaction. 2) By employing an Environmentally Extended MultiRegional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) to assess the outcomes of massive consumption-related lifestyles changes envisio...

By: Dirk Holemans, Andreas Novy

Workshop Based on a thesis paper inspired by Polanyi´s reflections on “freedom in a complex society” the workshop discusses effective strategies for a Good Life for All within planetary boundaries. The thesis paper proposes three new pillars for more effective strategies: (1) acknowledging the importance of a strong state that enables public-civic partnerships, (2) overcoming the focus on ni...

By: Wendy Harcourt, Anna Katharina Voss, Rosa de Nooijer

Presentation [part of the standard session "Territories, Resources and Care Work Feminist Perspectives on Transformation"] The Corona crisis has unprecedentedly highlighted the topic of this session: care work got visibility, its systemic relevance gained public recognition as never before. The appalling shortage of health care workers and the deficiencies in public health systems due to res...

By: Jason Hickel

Jason Hickel's response to Andrew McAfee's piece for Wired ('Why degrowth is the worst idea on the planet')