Library

By: Julien-François Gerber

Abstract: Degrowth refers to a radical politico-economic reorganisation that leads to smaller and more equitable social metabolisms. Degrowth posits that such a transition is indispensable but also desirable. However, the conditions of its realisation require more research. This article argues that critical agrarian studies (CAS) and degrowth can enrich each other. The Agrarian Question and the...

By: Hawzhin Azeez

Democratic confederalism, the ideological framework organizing society in Rojava, outlines the features of a post-revolutionary justice system.

By: Max Koch, Andro Rilović, Julia Tschersich, Mira Pütz

Standard session (discussion following 4 presentations) Structure, Action and Change: A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Preconditions for a Degrowth transition - video 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 transi...

By: Uma Dinsmore-Tuli

'The Dark Mountain Project' online series 'Becoming Human' explores the physical, psychological and experiential aspects of our current predicament and how we might realign our bodies and minds with the living systems. Uma Dinsmore-Tuli makes a case for the reclamation of sleep in an insomniac culture. Notes from a fractal encyclopædist on the interdependence of sleep and waking, delivered a...

By: Ruth Falkenberg, David Fox

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Degrowth Practices"] In this session we explore how growth logics are embedded in research practices. Then, we critically discuss perspectives from Science and Technology Studies and from the Degrowth community on how to enable the practice and organisation of science that is required for socio-ecological transformations. Presenters:...

By: Nina Treu, Brototi Roy, Matthias Schmelzer, Tadzio Müller, Julianna Fehlinger, Corinna Bukhart

Special session Degrowth as an emerging social movement overlaps with radical activism for systemic change such as anti-globalization and climate justice, commons and transition towns, basic income and Buen Vivir. The book “Degrowth in Movement(s). Exploring Pathways for Transformation” (Zer0 books, June 2020) reflects on the current situation of social movements and their relationship to de...

By: Lucía Muñoz Sueiro

Presentation [part of the standard session "Communicating Degrowth"] Social Anthropology has great potential to contribute to degrowth debates and proposals, hardly explored until now. I propose three ways to do so, further exploring one of them, inspired by the question: what can be recovered from the near past, still accessible in the present, for the future? The degrowth project needs new...

By: Dario Krpan, Frédéric Basso

Presentation [part of the standard session "Communicating Degrowth"] We investigated how to influence people’s support for degrowth, and whether such influence may be subject to individual differences regarding transformative social change. To do so, we adopted the regulatory focus theory—one of the most widely used theoretical frameworks in social psychology—and used it to frame how degrowt...

By: Julia Tschersich

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] This paper applies insights from a review of research on social-ecological transformations, in particular a framework developed to bridge process-oriented and structural approaches, to the Degrowth Movement. It derives suggestions for a common strategy, while embracing the movement‘s diversity. Presenters: Julia Tsch...

By: Nathan Barlow, Panos Petridis, Nilda Inkermann, Katya Chertkovskaya

Panel debate This panel aims to give an overview of different strategic approaches for degrowth. Panelists will discuss frameworks or typologies of strategic approaches to assist the discussions on strategy that place in the following days of the conference. Further, challenges and weaknesses of different strategic approaches, as well as inter-linkages between strategies will be discussed. ...

By: Ulrich Schachtschneider, Frank Adler, Jana Flemming, Barbara Sennholz-Weinhard, Ellen Ehmke

Special session How could counter-hegemony become realistic, which is necessary for a democratic transition? Our thesis: We need a bundle of “non-reformist reforms” (Gorz) which tie on everyday social needs and problems (time pressure, fears of future or descent, deficient recognition etc.) and propose alternative ways of their satisfaction or solution. The chances and barriers of this strat...

By: Robert Fletcher, Bram Büscher

A post-capitalist manifesto for conservation Conservation needs a revolution. This is the only way it can contribute to the drastic transformations needed to come to a truly sustainable model of development. The good news is that conservation is ready for revolution. Heated debates about the rise of the Anthropocene and the current ‘sixth extinction’ crisis demonstrate an urgent need and desir...

By: Viviana Asara

Abstract: Under regimes of austerity, social movements´ transformative eco-politics may appear endangered. What kinds of environmentalism and radical imaginaries can unfold in social movements in crisis-ridden societies? I focus on the ‘movement of the squares’ during its post-encampment phase, with a case study of three urban projects of the Indignados movement in Barcelona. Observation of the...

By: Ruth Falkenberg, David Fox

Standard session (discussion following 2 presentations) Social Work, Ecoanxiety, and Peer Pressure Ecoanxiety is a significant component of the global climate crisis; yet it is mostly absent from collective understanding regarding the Grand Challenge to create social responses to the changing environment. Social work has an opportunity to employ positive peer pressure throughout the disci...

By: Maria Paulitsch, Sven-David Pfau

Workshop In diesem Einführungsworkshop machen wir uns mit den Steigerungszwängen der kapitalistischen Gesellschaftsordnung und dem Denken von wachstumskritischen Ansätzen vertraut. Was sind die Ursprünge, Eigenheiten und Ziele der verschiedenen Strömungen? Dabei schauen wir auf Gefahren und Potentiale der verschiedenen Perspektiven für einen emanzipatorischen Wandel zum Guten Leben für Alle!...

By: Yurii Mielkov

The article is dedicated to analyzing the philosophical and educational grounds for the sustainable development of humankind. The growth of human civilization is already recognized to have its strict natural limits, and that has resulted in the formulation of the concept of sustainable development as a strategy for the future of humankind. However, there is some discrepancy noted in the concept...

By: Jens Mayer

Was haben systematische Steuervermeidung durch sämtliche DAX-Konzerne, Josef Ackermanns Geburtstagsfeier im Kanzlerinnenamt oder die Legalität von Hochfrequenzhandel und Schattenbanken mit „sozialer Marktwirtschaft“ noch zu tun? Jens Mayer legt zunächst in der Analyse den Finger in die Wunde der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft, die nur noch zum Teil als Realität existiert, danach skizziert er konkrete...

By: Marie-Jo Ouimet, Pier-Luc Turcotte, Louis-Charles Rainville, Yves-Marie Abraham, David Kaiser, Icoquih Badillo-Amberg

The climate crisis represents the biggest public health threat of our time. It interacts with the rising inequalities, chronic diseases and mental illness widely associated with our dominant economic system. Though degrowth and public health approaches differ, both share common values. The former proposes a new paradigm intended to halt the destruction of life-supporting systems by infinite eco...

By: Beth Stratford

Ecological economists aim to transform our economic institutions so that society can flourish within planetary boundaries. The central message of this article is that private rent extraction forms a key barrier to the realisation of that goal. I define rent as an economic reward which is sustained through control of assets that cannot be quickly and widely replicated, and which exceeds propo...

By: Franklin Obeng-Odoom

In the last two hundred years, the earth has increasingly become the private property of a few classes, races, transnational corporations, and nations. Repeated claims about the "tragedy of the commons" and the "crisis of capitalism" have done little to explain this concentration of land, encourage solution-building to solve resource depletion, or address our current socio-ecological crisis...