Library

By: Carina Millstone

Abstract: This paper concerns new business models for de-growth and the steady state economy. It argues that business models need to be developed that drive products and services with the attributes of efficiency and sufficiency. It identifies four such models, including new approaches to product creation and retail, a shift from ownership to access, a shift from products to services and new wa...

By: Emma Soy Massoni, Joana Conill, Diego Varga, Josep Pintó

Abstract: The present study describes alternative economy practices that are being developed in rural areas by individuals who live on the margins, in whole or in significant part, of the capitalist economic behavior patterns, and live according to rules and values that they have built. The observations were performed in a group of rural farmers living in the region of Alt Empordà (Girona, Cata...

By: Gesa Maschkowski, Niko Schäpke, Janina Grabs, Nina Langen

Grassroots innovations, social learning, knowledge generation, conditions for transformation

By: Eva Kristin Stein

Abstract: The approach of today’s design practise should give prospects for the transformation into a post-growth and sustainable field of work. The shifting from a technocratic to a social construction qualifies designers for this job because he/she is traditionally responsible for the definition of use the act of using and its shaping. The academic debates in design are all along critical. Th...

By: Wolfgang Striewe, Friedemar Schreiber, Kurt Schüle, Gudawar Singh, Welf Aumann

Abstract: The presented project sets high standards for the sustainable preservation of food by drying. Fruits and vegetables are purchased from regional and ecological farms and gardens. In addition orchard meadows are harvested and cared for in order to preserve these important habitats. The drying process is driven by solar energy. The process is adapted and synchronized to the availability ...

By: Maximiliano Vila Seoane

Abstract: Culture and communication are areas under the all-embracing infinite growth and development discourse, like the popular "creative industries" approach. However, such frameworks generate in many developing countries dynamics against de-growth projects, because they favor concentration and cultural dominance of small regions over larger ones. This justifies the need to increase research...

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: Jasmin Wiefek, Bernd Sommer

Bottom-up initiatives, Organization of businesses, Conditions for degrowth, Productivity beyond growth

By: Gualter Barbas Baptista

communities of practice, nowtopias, peer production, postnormal science, open knowledge

By: Adrien Labaeye

Digital commons; Sustainability transition; Niches; Self-organization; Innovation

By: Ines Omann, Felix Rauschmayer

ustainability transition, needs, tensions, sustainable lifestyles, quality of life

By: Felix Rauschmayer

sustainability transition, needs, NonViolent Communication, sustainable lifestyles, quality of life

By: Max Gaedtke

Abstract: Subject of this paper is to analyse the potential of permaculture teachers as change agents for a sustainable modernity. The theoretical basis of the work is the change agent approach by KRISTOF (2010). Permaculture is presented as a sustainable design approach. The change agent approach is used as a framework. The methodology consists of qualitative interviews with teachers and stude...

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: Markus Flück

Abstract: My starting point is that the “green revolution” and free trade policies haven’t been successful towards solving hunger problems and might even endanger the nutrition system of the whole human society. On the consumption side, especially in the north, but also in the wealthy social classes in the south, feeding habits need more and more energy and produce too much rubbish. A hopeful c...

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: Dominic Egger

Non-market food provision - Transitory strategy - Food waste - Degrowth practice - Municipal strategy of climate change mitigation

By: Josué Manuel Quintana Diaz

Monetary system, monetary constitution, growth imperative, Transitions Initiatives, decommodification

By: Janina Dannenberg

Abstract: (Re) productivity transports a concept of sustainable society where boundaries between different forms of work and productivity are subject to annulment. In the Philippines, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act recognizes the right to collective ownership of land and considers a broad variety of economic, social and cultural land uses. Even if not titled the same, the concept of (re)prod...

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...