Library

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: Angelos Varvarousis

Abstract: Gavdos is a small limitary islet in the southernmost part of Greece wherein has been formed an alternative community that has remained active for almost two decades. Based on ethnographic data assembled through fieldwork, this article examines the crucial role of liminality in the creation, maintenance and expansion of this community. The residents of this community perform their limi...

By: Heide Imai, Anthusa Loeffler

Abstract: This is the topic this paper wants to discuss in the context of Tokyo, which is characterized by Roland Barthes as a city without a center. After the enormous growth in the second half of the twentieth century of Tokyo, we have to discuss the De-growth and the chance for future living at different examples found in Japan and Germany. In summary, this paper focuses on the question in w...

By: Tobias Hartkemeyer

Abstract: Our culture is dominated by an economic doctrine based on economic growth, short-term-profit and externalization of social and ecological side effects. Our educational system prepares our children to form part of this culture. The transformation of our consumer culture towards a mindful society with a solidarity based economy can not be taught merely intellectual. The paradigm shift f...

By: Soledad Granada

Abstract: The expansion of the modern state implies the continuous conquer of territory, and people, in order to access to resources. This conquer expresses as the continuous substitution of production models from peasant self-sustainable to agro-industrial and/or extractive, resulting in the territorial homogenization of production. This substitution, associated to different conceptions of dev...

By: Sanna Frischknecht

Abstract: Focusing on the question of how people live and interact, co-housing projects, such as “Kraftwerk1”, “Nena1” and others attempt to withdraw imperatives of growth by establishing a new way of life in urban contexts. Some of the projects are closely connected to the ideas of an urban utopia “bolo’bolo” which was written by P.M. in the 1980ies. This ideal of a new way of life describes a...

By: Lúcia Fernandes

Abstract: The work aims to present the general aspects of a recently started postdoctoral research project at the Research Centre in Sociological and Organizational Sociology (SOCIUS) and the Centre for Social Studies (CES), Portugal. Some empirical data is from the research project Communication and Political Engagement with Environmental Issues - COMPOLIS (I am part of the project research te...

By: Francesca Gardiol

Abstract: Today the frantic search for well-being seems to be a social must: living well has become the new imperative, sadness, anger, anxiety, are feelings to be deleted. Subjective well-being is actually a normative construct, that is the product of the values and core principles in a culture. In the consumer society the most important aim is a "happy life"; the necessary condition for being...

By: Jin Xue

Degrowth; Relocalization; Eco-village/urban village; Urban planning; Multi-scalar strategies

By: Simone D'Alessandro

Abstract: The repeated failures of global agreements for GHG emissions abatement call for a new strategy that involves local communities in implementing effective transitions to sustainability (the Warsaw Climate Change Conference in November 2013 is the last example). This paper investigates the environmental, social and economic consequences of Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SAEP) at the lo...

By: Claudio Cattaneo

Abstract: Eco-communities are specifically planned and set up for people to come and live together with the goal of living and working according to ecological principles by promoting a degree of sharing (see also work-sharing) and pursuing well-being through more sustainable life-styles, direct democracy and a degree of autonomy. Participative DIY non-monetary practices are applied for agricult...

By: Michel Bauwens

Abstract: Corporate R&D communities design for scarcity with planned obsolescence not as a bug but as a feature. Open design communities design for inclusion, modularity, bio-degradability, the shared use of machinery and combined with distributed microfactories, prefigure a demand-based economy 'of scope' that aims to replace a suppy-driven economy 'of scale'. This intervention will offer ...

By: Catherine Apostolidi

alternatives, capitalism, citizen initiatives, degrowth, self-management, solidarity economy, transition

By: Les Convivialistes

Übersetzung des 2013 in Frankreich erschienenen und von 40 frazösischsprachigen Wissenschaftler_innen und Intellektuellen initiierte »Manifeste Convivialiste«

By: Annette Jensen, Ute Scheub

Verlag: "Forscher sind sich einig: Lebensfreude hängt immer weniger von Geld und Besitz ab. Wichtig für persönliche Glücksgefühle sind soziale Fähigkeiten wie Kooperieren, Teilen oder sich für andere einsetzen - und sie finden immer öfter Eingang in unsere Arbeitswelt und Gesellschaft. Erfolgreiche Unternehmer, die bevorzugt Alleinerziehende beschäftigen oder sich selbst weniger Gehalt ausbezah...

By: Sven Eberlein

Shareable's guide to setting up a repair café.

By: Christa Müller, Andrea Baier, Karin Werner

Neue urbane Räume des Do it yourself Der Verlag: Es ist nicht mehr zu übersehen: Eine neue Generation von Do-it-yourself-Aktivisten nutzt die postfordistische Stadt als Labor für soziale, politische, ökologische und ästhetische Experimente. Ob im Gemeinschaftsgarten oder im FabLab, ob in Offenen Werkstätten oder bei Tausch-Events – überall hinterfragen die Protagonistinnen und Protagonisten ...

By: Les Convivialistes

From the English book: "A different kind of world is not just possible; it is a crucial and urgent necessity. But where do we start when it comes to envisaging the shape it should take and working out how to bring it about? The Convivialist Manifesto seeks to highlight the similarities between the many initiatives already engaged in building that world and to draw out the common political philo...

By: Transition Network

The "Transition Network" about the film: In Transition 2.0 is an inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You'll hear about communities printing their own money, growing food, localising their economies and setting up community power stations. It's an idea that has gone viral, a social experime...

By: Dan Hancox

The publisher: One hundred kilometres from Seville lies the small village of Marinaleda, which for the last thirty-five years has been the centre of a tireless struggle to create a living utopia. This unique community drew British author Dan Hancox to Spain, and here for the first time he recounts the fascinating story of villagers who expropriated the land owned by wealthy aristocrats and have...