Library

By: Patricia E. Perkins

Abstract: Economic inequality reduces the political space for addressing climate change, by producing fear-based populism. Only when the safety, social status, and livelihoods of all members of society are assured will voluntary, democratic decisions be possible to reverse climate change and fairly mitigate its effects. Socio-environmental and climate justice, commoning, and decolonization are...

By: Giacomo D'Alisa, Gabriel Weber, Ignazio Cabras, Maria Calaf-Forn, Ignasi Puig-Ventosa

This paper investigates the introduction of unit-pricing (UP) schemes in waste management with regard to grassroots initiatives promoting bottom-up participatory processes in local communities, addressing several issues concerning environmental justice and degrowth. As waste service charges and fees increase in proportion of waste generated in presence of UP schemes, the paper explores and eval...

By: Anke Schaffartzik, Arnim Scheidel

Degrowth and environmental justice movements share overarching aims of sustainability and justice and pursue them through radical social change and resistances. Both movements are diverse and comprised of groups that originate and operate in different contexts. The ever-growing metabolism of the world economy presents an obstacle to both movements' aims, while a socio-metabolic perspective un...

By: Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos, Patrick Bond, Ivonne Yánez, Lucie Greyl, Serah Munguti, Godwin Uyi Ojo, Winfridus Overbeek

Both environmental justice (EJ) and degrowth movements warn against increasing the physical size of the economy. They both oppose extractivism and debt-fuelled economies, as well as the untrammelled profit motive which fails to incorporate full environmental and social costs. They both rely upon social movements that have led scholarship in its activities and achievements, in part through cha...

By: Joan Martinez-Alier, Mario Pérez-Rincón, Julieth Vargas-Morales

The extractive sector is increasingly important in the GDP and export basket of the four Andean countries under study (ACs) (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia). The analysis of an updated inventory of 296 environmental conflicts in the EJAtlas for these four countries reaches the following conclusions: extractivism causes environmental conflicts related to mining, fossil fuels, hydropower and...

By: Jérôme Pelenc, Grégoire Wallenborn, Julien Milanesi, Léa Sébastien, Julien Vastenaekels, Fany Lajarthe, Jérôme Ballet, Manuel Cervera-Marzal, Aurélie Carimentrand, Nicolas Merveille, Bruno Frère

This article addresses the issue of sustainability transformations in Ecological Economics through the lens of social movements, by linking environmental resistance movements and alternative movements. We advocate for a more politicized, social-movement oriented and place-based approach to sustainability transformations, and contribute to the development of a more political and emancipatory con...

By: Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, Alexander Paulsson, Stefania Barca

Since the 1970s, the degrowth idea has been proposed by scholars, public intellectuals and activists as a powerful call to reject the obsession of neoliberal capitalism with economic growth, an obsession which continues apace despite the global ecological crisis and rising inequalities. In the past decade, degrowth has gained momentum and become an umbrella term for various social movements...

By: Rowan Alcock

This paper investigates a grassroots Chinese movement called the New Rural Reconstruction Movement (NRRM). Drawing on field visits, surveys, interviews and social media posts regarding a NRRM project and relevant literature I link the NRRM to the degrowth movement. This is likely the first research analysing a Chinese grass-roots movement from a degrowth theoretical perspective. This link is de...

By: Jon D. Erickson, Michael B. Wironen

Ecological economics recognizes economic activity as a biophysical process mediated by social systems and ultimately subject to the constraints of a finite earth system. The Anthropocene discourse appears as validation of the central concerns of ecological economics yet throws into relief its limits as a normative transdiscipline oriented toward social transformation. We review ecological econo...

By: Bengi Akbulut, Federico Demaria, Julien-François Gerber, Joan Martínez-Alier

Environmental destructions, overconsumption and overdevelopment are felt by an increasing number of people. Voices for ‘prosperity without growth’ have strengthened and environmental conflicts are on the rise worldwide. This introduction to the special issue explores the possibility of an alliance between post-growth and ecological distribution conflicts (EDCs). It argues that among the vario...

By: Benedikt Schmid

Innovative forms of organising are a crucial pillar of post-growth transitions. Situated within a growth-based institutional context, actually existing forms of post-growth organising are ambiguous. Divisions across legal structure, market participation and sectoral focus do not suffice to single out post-growth organisations. Instead, this paper develops a more fluid notion which is based on t...

By: Timo Luthmann

Die politischen und persönlichen Herausforderungen nehmen für engagierte Menschen stetig zu. Wie können wir – ohne auszubrennen – mit diesen Umständen klug umgehen? Was macht Aktivist*innen wie auch soziale Bewegungen widerstandsfähiger, kreativer und erfolgreicher? Wie sieht es mit der feinen Balance zwischen individueller Selbstverwirklichung und kollektiver Befreiung aus? Erstmals wird da...

By: Alberto Gómez

Conferencia de la Plenaria del Miércoles por Alberto Gómez: "La vía campesina y la Soberanía alimentaria"

By: Federico Demaria

A decade after the first international 'degrowth' conference, FEDERICO DEMARIA charts the evolution of the term from a provocative activist slogan to what he says is now an academic concept taking hold with policymakers

By: Riccardo Mastini, Friends of the Earth Europe

“Sufficiency: moving beyond the gospel of eco-efficiency” suggests introducing hard limitations to unsustainable trends—in particular to overconsumption—and putting emphasis on distributional justice. Seven chapters written by sustainability and economics experts plus a foreword by Janez Potočnik (Co-chair of the International Resource Panel and former European Commissioner for the Environment)...

By: Eeva Berglund

Keywords: social movements; Finland; urban/DIY activism; design

By: Jason Hickel

A blog post by Jason Hickel which is the fourth part of a discussion between him and Branko Milanovic. Chronology of the discussion Original blog post by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of “degrowth” in a poor and unequal world" First reply by Jason Hickel "Why Branko Milanovic is wrong about de-growth" Reply by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of degrowth: Part II" Second Reply by Jason Hi...

By: François Schneider

Francois Schneider defends the use of the term "degrowth". From the text: . . . If degrowth was the name of a multinational of toothpaste, Drews and Antal would be right: degrowth is not the right word to gain (market) competition. However degrowth is not just about raising attention, being interesting, provocative, easy to remember. It actually has a meaning! When I was doing a tour of conf...

By: Andrea*s Exner, Sarah Kumnig, Marit Rosol

Urbane Gärten sind aus vielen Städten nicht mehr wegzudenken. Gemeinschaftlicher Gemüseanbau wird dabei oft als rebellischer Akt der Stadtgestaltung von unten verstanden. Gleichzeitig taucht »urban gardening« immer häufiger in Stadtentwicklungsplänen und Werbebroschüren auf. Die Beiträger_innen des Bandes liefern eine kritische Analyse grüner urbaner Aktivitäten und ihrer umkämpften und wide...

By: Antonio Roman-Alcalá

Keywords: food sovereignty, La Vía Campesina, peasantries, agonistic democracy, praxis