Library

By: Tim Jackson

This briefing paper addresses the question of when the UK should aim for zero (or net zero) carbon emissions. Starting from the global carbon budget which would allow the world an estimated 66% chance of limiting climate warming to 1.5oC, the paper derives a carbon budget for the UK of 2.5 GtCO2. The briefing then analyses a variety of emission pathways and target dates in terms of their adequa...

By: Benedikt Schmid

In the light of social and environmental unsustainability and injustice, scholars from geography and neighboring disciplines question incumbent socioeconomic trajectories. Empirical evidence renders the continuing attachment to a growth‐based economy and its reconcilability with ecological limits increasingly implausible. Instead, a lively transdisciplinary debate explores alternative forms of ...

By: Homero Aridjis

Conferencia de la Plenaria del Martes por Homero Aridjis: "Supervivencias de un mundo mágico"

By: Viktorija Smatko-Abaza, Monika Kiss, Pascal Lokiec, Aida Ponce

Chair: Guillaume Balas, MEP (S&D) Panellists: Viktorija Smatko-Abaza (Principal Adviser, European Commission, Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion), Monika Kiss (European Parliamentary Research Service), Pascal Lokiec (Sorbonne University, Author of “Il faut sauver le droit du travail !”), Aida Ponce (European Trade Union Institute, Senior Adviser)

By: Hug March

Abstract: The 21st century has been hailed as the urban century and one in which ICT-led transformations will shape urban responses to global environmental change. The Smart City encapsulates all the desires and prospects on the transformative and disruptive role technology will have in solving urban issues both in Global North and Global South cities. Critical scholarship has pointed out that ...

By: Ursula K. Le Guin

Der große utopische Science-Fiction-Klassiker in kongenialer Neuübersetzung. Ursula K. LeGuins ›Freie Geister‹ ist eine der bedeutendsten Utopien des 20. Jahrhunderts, in der die Systemfrage – Kommunismus, Kapitalismus oder Anarchismus? – mit aller Deutlichkeit gestellt wird. Ältere Ausgaben sind unter den Titeln ›Planet der Habenichtse‹ und ›Die Enteigneten‹ erschienen. Der einzige Ort a...

By: Niklas Lollo

Comment from Niklas Lollo on the novel "Ecotopia" by Ernest Callenbach. Introduction: Since 1972, Ecotopia has inspired many to envision, and perhaps even foster, a more ecological society. In Ernest Callenbach’s novel, we are transported to a contemporary America, albeit an America that has been torn in two through civil war. This time the war wasn’t over slavery, but rather ecological prin...

By: David Gibbs, Kirstie O'Neill

Future green economies and regional development: a research agenda. Regional Studies. The past 30 years have seen an explosion of interest and concern over the detrimental impacts of economic and industrial development. Despite this, the environmental agenda has not featured substantially in the regional studies literature. This paper explores a range of options for regional futures from a ‘cle...

By: John Foster

The sustainability discourse and policy paradigm have failed to deliver. In particular, they have failed to avert the dangerously disruptive climate change which is now inevitable. So, if there is still a case for some transformed or revitalised version of sustainability, that case must now surely be made in full acknowledgment of deep-seated paradigm-failure to date. But if we really take ours...

By: Kevin Karaca

Review from Kevin Karaca on the book "Entropia - Life beyond Industrial Civilisation" by Samuel Alexander Introduction: Peak Oil is around the corner. The rise in the political-right sends hints that the neoliberal project is coming to an end. Economic growth is being questioned by many. What could a post-growth society look like?

By: Fabian Scheidler, David Goeßmann

Your browser does not support the video tag. Einleitung von Kontext TV: Nach Das Ende der Megamaschine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation thematisiert Kontext-TV-Mitbegründer Fabian Scheidler in seinem neuen Buch die Herausforderungen von Gegenwart und Zukunft: die Krise des Lebens auf der Erde, die extreme Spaltung zwischen Arm und Reich und das System der „globalen Apartheid“, da...

By: Fabian Scheidler

Nach dem Erfolg seines Werkes Das Ende der Megamaschine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation, das sich mit der Entstehungsgeschichte globaler Krisen beschäftigt, widmet sich der Berliner Autor und Journalist Fabian Scheidler in seinem neuen Buch Chaos. Das neue Zeitalter der Revolutionen der Gegenwart und Zukunft. Weltweit breitet sich zunehmend Chaos aus: Der Klimawandel wird zur Rea...

By: Lorenzo Fioramonti

GDP is much more than a simple statistic. It has become the overarching benchmark of success and a powerful ordering principle at the heart of the global economy. But the convergence of major economic, social and environmental crises has exposed the flaws of our economic system which values GDP above all else as a measure of prosperity and growth. In this provocative and inspiring new book, ...

By: Jason Hickel

Introduction: When Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate deal, the world reacted with outrage. And rightly so: the agreement represents a remarkable achievement in international diplomacy – a breakthrough after 20 years of failed climate negotiations. But as we rally to defend the Paris deal against the onslaught of an ill-informed bully, we need to resist the temptatio...

By: Christoph Rupprecht

Introduction: The World Economic Forum’s 2017 report on the future of food examines what the world’s food systems might look like in 2030. But none of the four future scenarios it presents is particularly attractive. To create a world where everyone can eat well without wrecking the planet, we need better ideas, a rich imagination and the right tools.

By: Christoph Rupprecht

Article about the future of food. How it is envisioned by the World Economics Forum in 2017 and what other possible imaginaries there are or could be.

By: Matthias Schmelzer, Iris Borowy, Gareth Dale, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Barbara Muraca, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Christophe Bonneuil, Andrea Westermann, Stephen Macekura, Jeremy L. Caradonna

The publisher about the book: The future of economic growth is one of the decisive questions of the twenty-first century. Alarmed by declining growth rates in industrialized countries, climate change, and rising socio-economic inequalities, among other challenges, more and more people demand to look for alternatives beyond growth. However, so far these current debates about sustainability, post...

By: PeterWells

Automobility Degrowth Small scale Corporate governance Car industry Technological innovation

By: A.Varvarousis

Plan C&D - Commons & Democracy – has been proposed as an alternative to austerity and stimulus for a degrowth future, but how and why does it emerge, and what challenges does it face? The proposed paper studies new commons in the context of crisis, using Greece as a case-study. Our research registered a substantial increase of commoning in health care, food provision, urban living, educ...

By: Liisa Haapanen

The positive vision of green growth and the negative outlook of a recession are the prevailing images of future for a growth-centred society. They are challenged by various alternative views of a post-growth society. The purpose of this paper is to specify and elaborate the desired future end-states and scenarios put forward in contemporary growth critique. A literature review of the following ...