We would like to remind you that the deadline for the submission of scientific papers and civil society contributions for the Fourth International Degrowth-Conference is 28th of February 2014. The conference will be held in Leipzig from the 2nd to 6th of September 2014 with the strategic goal to bring forward the degrowth movement.
In order to achieve this, the conference facilitates the exchange between scientists, civil society, pioneer projects of a social and ecological economy and artists. The main theme of the conference is „building bridges“, not only between the above-mentioned protagonists, but also between the degrowth-debate and similar discourses, as well as the Global South and the Global North. The conference aims at giving an impulse for a common degrowth vision by bringing together people with different backgrounds.
The call for scientific papers including the electronic submission tool is available here.
The call for activist and practical contributions is available here.
In addition, there is the possibility to submit stirring papers. This type of papers can be submitted by scientists, practitioners and artists and will, if accepted, serve as introductory papers for expert working groups of a so-called Group Assembly Process. The length of such stirring papers should be between 1000 and 1500 words. More information on the Group Assembly process and the call for stirring papers can be accessed here.
Degrowth addresses the negative consequences of consumerism (psychological stress, long working hours and positional competition) and discusses the benefits of frugal lifestyles. Henri Lefebvre, a French philosopher from the 20th century, argues that if ideas or values are not physically implemented in space, they become mere fantasies. As such, if degrowth wishes to prevail, it has to leave it...
We all use models in daily life to explain our environment. An example: I assume that a tree will grow provided it has sufficient water, nutrients and sun. I am using a simple model here, without understanding the nitty-gritty – what exactly happens in the roots, stem, leaves and cells. Thinking in models is not only useful to understand our world, but also to solve problems. Let’s assum...
In order to facilitate the transition towards a postgrowth or even degrowth economy, further research on alternative ecoomic and social models is utterly important, as we have no working models of non-growing economies at the moment. However, despite the urgency of this matter, progress in this direction is slow. Large amounts of research-funding are directed towards "green growth" and other...
