Library

By: Ashish Kothari, Alberto Acosta, Ulrich Brand, Beatriz Rodriquez Labajos

Panel discussion at the the 4th International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Leipzig in 2014. Speakers: Beatriz Rodriquez Labajos, Ashish Kothari, Alberto Acosta Facilitation: Ulrich Brand From the conference programme: Degrowth proposals are largely debated within and for the Global North. Despite strong dynamics and orientations towards economic...

By: Michael Herrmann

From the introduction: This paper provides a clear framework of sustainable development, which helps to navigate through the increasingly muddled discussion, and to identify policy priorities for sustainable development pathways. The paper reiterates the call for more inclusive and greener economic growth and to this end argues for two distinct types of decoupling: Efforts to decouple economic ...

By: Friederike Habermann, Niko Paech, Hartmut Rosa, Frigga Haug, Lena Kirschenmann, Felix Wittmann

Herausgeber_innen: Was bedeutet Wohlstand, wenn wir über immer mehr Dinge verfügen, jedoch über immer weniger Zeit? Wieso haben alle immer Zeit für Erwerbsarbeit aber nicht für andere wichtige Tätigkeiten? Wie ermöglichen wir allen Menschen ein gutes Leben und achten gleichzeitig die ökologischen Grenzen unseres Planetens? Im Buch Zeitwohlstand geht es um diese und andere Fragen rund um die Th...

By: Niko Schäpke, Felix Rauschmayer

Abstract: Sustainability transitions require altered individual behaviors. Policies aiming to make people change their consumption behavior are designed according to efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency principles. Taking into account shortcomings of the first two principles, this paper specifically addresses the sufficiency principle. Sufficiency policies are not very popular due to the fe...

By: Tilman Santarius

Abstract: Research on rebound effects at the consumer level until today has been almost exclusively limited to the realm of economic sciences. Accordingly explanations of how rebound effects arise are restricted to economic theories, namely to income and substitution effects. This article analyzes rebound effects through the lenses of various social and behavioral science theories. The article ...

By: Santiago Gorostiza

degrowth, autonomy, democracy, fascism, ruralism, Spain

By: Niklas Toivakainen, Ruby van der Wekken

Time Bank, Political Dialogue, Taxation, Solidarity Economy

By: Hannes Fauser

Abstract: This short paper summarizes the development of railway services in Germany in the past two decades, which have been marked by commercialization, increased competition and attempts of privatization. I argue that these policies are misled from a social-ecological perspective and have only modestly performed in terms of shifting passengers and cargo towards railway transportation. The th...

By: Hartmut Rosa, Laura Bazzicalupo

Scientific lecture at the 4th International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Leipzig in 2014. Presentations by Laura Bazzicalupo and Hartmut Rosa. Laura Bazzicalupo: Ambivalence of dispositifs of subjectivation in the biocapitalist imaginary Hartmut Rosa: Striving for growth, yearning for degrowth? Resonance as a solution to the good-life problem

By: Robert Ulmer

unconditional basic income, modesty, sufficiency

By: Beatriz Saes, Ademar Romeiro

Abstract: Ecological economics recognizes the physical limits to economic growth, generating a paradigmatic criticism of mainstream economics. However, a macroeconomics corresponding to this vision hasn’t been consolidated. This paper describes the most relevant ecological macroeconomics alternatives; identify their bases in economic approaches and the main policies and measures suggestions. We...

By: Hans Diefenbacher

Abstract: The first contribution to the special session on the legacy of Richard Douthwaite is an attempt to carve out his most important heoretical findings to show to what extent the work of Richard Douthwaite can be seen as a convincing foundation to a degrowth strategy, and how this foundation can be used to develop practical suggestions towards its political realization. The contribution w...

By: Michele De Rosa

Abstract: In order to transform the societal paradigm it is necessary to start with the elementary components of the society: the individuals. A critique of modern society begins with a critique of the critics themselves, in this case the scientific community. This investigation provocatively started with a critique of how the concept of sustainability and sustainable Degrowth are applied in re...

By: Stephan Voswinkel

Abstract: Upward social mobility is a promise of modernity, but as a zero-sum game it includes potential for social conflict. Economic growth could moderate conflicting social aspirations for a long time, therefore upward mobility was understood universally. As a result of the lack of growth, the conflictual nature of upward mobility comes more to the fore. The lecture explicates various proces...

By: Jochen Dallmer

Abstract: Well-being is an important concept for revisiting ideas of a what a good life is and finding pathways towards a less materialistic and hence less production/consumption oriented society. But how and where do we learn about well-being? In education the concept of well-being is almost completely absent. Singular educational concepts work on happiness and well-being and give some promisi...

By: Lucas Chancel, Damien Demailly, Henri Waisman, Céline Guivarch

Abstract: A post-growth society for the 21st century - Does prosperity have to wait for the return of economic growth? To respond to this dissatisfaction with the current political and media discourse on growth, this report attempts to answer – as far as possible – the two following questions: 1. Can we have any certainty about the future of growth? 2. Assuming that the coming decades will be a...

By: Philipp Altmann

Abstract: Sumak Kawsay, Buen Vivir or Good Live has experienced much attention since its integration as a leading principle of the State into the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 and -as Suma Qamaña- into the Bolivian one of 2009. In this context it was understood as an alternative to the capitalist understandings of development as growth. By this, it acquired a role as a semi-utopian alternativ...

By: Joachim H. Spangenberg

Abstract: It has been argued that degrowth would lead to a catastrophic economic collapse triggered by a collapse of stock exchange values. However, this analysis rests on several flawed assumptions: (i) an outdated view on stock market mechanisms and values (ii) the assumption that the stock market mechanisms would remain unchanged in a degrowth economy (iii) unchanged expectations of benefits...

By: Josefin Smeds

Abstract: As a response to limitations of the conventional food system, alternative food networks such as community supported agriculture and direct selling box schemes have emerged in Romania, involving close producer-consumer connections and an emphasis on local and organic produce. Through a multi-case study of two such networks in the city of Cluj-Napoca, their contribution to the establish...

By: Degrowth Conference Leipzig 2014

Results from the GAP (Group Assembly Process) Group Reproduction and Work at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig 2014 Proposals for Transformation > Reduction in paid working time. > Dissociation of income from work, and work from identity. > Greater recognition of unpaid work (self reproduction, household reproduction, community reproduction). > Strengthening autonomous colle...