Library

By: Ashish Kothari

This framework on radical alternatives proposes that alternatives are built on the following key elements or spheres, interconnected and overlapping in a ‘Flower of Transformation’: ecological integrity and resilience, including the conservation of nature and natural diversity, maintenance of ecological functions, respect for ecological limits (local to global), and ecological ethics in all ...

By: Federico Savini

Abstract: Over the last decade, degrowth has offered a concrete alternative to eco-modernization, projecting a society emancipated from the environmentally destructive imperative of competition and consumption. Urban development is the motor of economic growth; cities are therefore prime sites of intervention for degrowth activists. Nevertheless, the planning processes that drive urban develop...

By: Giorgos Kallis, Riccardo Mastini, Jason Hickel

The IPCC warns that in order to keep global warming under 1.5°, global emissions must be cut to zero by 2050. Policymakers and scholars debate how best to decarbonise the energy system, and what socio-economic changes might be necessary. Here we review the strengths, weaknesses, and synergies of two prominent climate change mitigation narratives: the Green New Deal and degrowth. Green New Dea...

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

In order to avoid environmental catastrophe we need to move to a post-growth economy that can deliver rapid reductions in environmental impacts and improve well-being, independent of GDP growth. Such a move will entail considerable structural change in the economy, implying different goals and strategies for different economic sectors. So far there are no systematic approaches for identif...

By: Mira Pütz

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] In order to develop and implement socio-ecological (economic) policies the processes and structural conditions of representation in democracies today need to be rethought, re-imagined and changed. Citizens’ assemblies can help us to do just that, starting now. Presenters: Mira Pütz (Sciences Po) Language: English ...

By: Roberto Sciarelli

Presentation [part of the standard session "Limits, Ethics, Unsustainability and Change"] The session will explore the relations between Epicurean hedonism and degrowth, showing how such connection has the potential to enrich and refine degrowth transformative proposal of a frugal society based on shared simple pleasures, relational goods and friendship, leisure, idleness and dépense. Pre...

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: 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: 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: Tom Smith

Presentation [part of the standard session "Communicating Degrowth"] This talk stages a conversation between diverse economies and practice theory literatures, outlining the distinct paths these two areas of scholarship have taken to explore current patterns of growth. It argues that their simultaneous consideration would benefit radical and critical scholarship, especially in understanding ...

By: Oxana Lopatina

Presentation [part of the standard session "Limits, Ethics, Unsustainability and Change"] This presentation will discuss the usefulness of both the concept and the practice of dépense for the degrowth project, and will make suggestions on how to frame proposals based on it for the purposes of informing a transition to a degrowth society. Presenters: Oxana Lopatina (Autonomous University o...

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: 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: 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: 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...