Library

By: Bernd Sommer, Harald Welzer

Kritik der Wachstumsgesellschaft und Forderung einens radikalen Wandels dieser Gesellschaft. Der Verlag: "Was wir brauchen, ist ein komplett anderes Leben, nicht das Auswechseln altmodisch gewordener Technologien gegen andere", so die Autoren. "Wiederverwenden, umnutzen, mitnutzen" muss das Credo einer neuen, reduktiven Moderne lauten. Doch wie lässt sich eine Kultur des Weniger gestalten? W...

By: Samuel Alexander

degrowth; grassroots; sufficiency; sustainable consumption; transition towns; voluntary simplicity

By: Ana Agostino, Franziska Dübgen

From the text: A Language of opposition, once turned into a principle of governance changes its appearance. On the one hand, the social activist necessarily bases her intervention on the vision of a better state of affairs. Hence, her intellectual work is grounded in counter-narratives of what a different, alternative world should look like with the ultimate aim of transforming reality towards ...

By: Thomas Wallgren

Abstract: The new green movement that appeared in the 1960s and 1970s claimed that because of objective limits economic growth had become a false development goal. The claim is interpreted as a claim about an intrinsic tension between two cultural aspirations fundamental to the project of high modernity, ethical universalism and increasing material prosperity for all. Since the mid 1980s the id...

By: Verein Niedersächsischer Bildungsinitiativen (VNB e.V.), Arbeitsstelle Weltbilder e.V., Institut für angewandte Kulturforschung e.V.

Ein Buch, das die großen um.welt-Fragen unserer Zeit aufgreift und zeigt, dass Menschen es sind, die Veränderungen bewirken! Diese Menschen nennen wir global.patrioten, weil sie sich unabhängig von geografischen Grenzen mit großen Ideen, weitreichenden Taten oder kleinen Impulsen für eine bessere Welt einsetzen. In diesem Buch äußern sich Jugendliche, Fachwissenschaftlerinnen und Fachwissenscha...

By: Vincent Liegey

From the article: . . . Finally, Meadows failed, since he had the right ideas, but he was all wrong on the form. In Paul Ariès’ words: “ If it was enough to be politically right, we would have heard about it!”. But being right is not enough, what matters is to send the message and convey the ideas but to pretend to be “smarter” or to treat others as idiots, doesn’t contribute to a better under...

By: Guido Dalla Casa

Abstract: Economic growth was born only in a human culture in a particular moment of its history and is not a "natural push of mankind". It grew up in a culture with a completely anthropocentric background, which considers our species above (out of) Nature and independent from the Ecosystem: it originated from a worldview that sees human activities as possible regardless of their link with the ...

By: Gloria Germani

Abstract: Seeing things through the glasses of just one culture, without being aware that we are wearing them: this is the power of myth. The myth of our western-modern culture is based not only on Growth but – at a deeper level - on the Myth of Science (Newtonian-Cartesian classical science). This wider philosophical perspective (which requires a rethinking of Modernity, Enlightenment, and sci...

By: Pier Luigi Tosi

Contribution to the 3rd International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Venice in 2012. Italian only

By: Extraenvironmentalist, Janice Harvey

[ Janice Harvey // Creating Culture ] from Extraenvironmentalist on Vimeo. Interview with Janice Harvey made during the International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas in Montreal 2012. Janice Harvey talks about culture and what it is. It is pre-reflective, it gives a frame for what people live in, for taking decisions etc.. Further she talks about how culture can change.

By: Extraenvironmentalist, Mary Evelyn Tucker

[ Mary Evelyn Tucker // Creating a New Narrative ] from Extraenvironmentalist on Vimeo. Interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker made during the International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas in Montreal 2012. Mary Evelyn Tucker starts with talking about the movie "journey of the universe" and that the human species needs a new narrative for being one species. How do we get to stop denial of ...

By: Bill Rees, Extraenvironmentalist

[ Bill Rees // Why We're in Denial ] from Extraenvironmentalist on Vimeo. Interview with Bill Rees made during the International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas in Montreal 2012. Bill Rees talks about mental infrastructure, dependency on fossil fuels and possible collapse. The option "no-collapse" would need an acknowledgement of the state of the world and a new narrative in the weste...

By: Extraenvironmentalist, David Suzuki

[ David Suzuki // Observing Our Species ] from Extraenvironmentalist on Vimeo. Interview with David Suzuki made during the International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas in Montreal 2012. What would an Alien think about humans judging from our suicidal behaviour? David Suzuki talks about interconnectedness and how it is overseen. Also calls for an understanding of humanity as being one...

By: Geoffrey Garver

Décroissance Montréal/Montreal Degrowth - Ohenton Karihwatehkwen - Mohawk Thanksgiving address/Mots de grâce from Geoffrey Garver on Vimeo. Mohawk Thanksgiving address at the International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas in Montreal 2012. The Thanksgiving is first presented in the native language. The speaker then gives a translation and explanation. After the thanksgiving comes a...

By: Derek Rasmussen

From the text: I was listening to CBC, the national Canadian radio service, several years ago when the interviewer, Michael Enright, began chatting with a fellow named Alouitious from Newfoundland. Alouitious had a farm which was within the city limits of the capital, St John’s; so the first question that Enright asked him was, “How does it feel to be living such an old-fashioned way of life in...

By: Anitra Nelson

degrowth, Eduardo Galeano, exchange value, non-market socialism, use value

By: Konrad Ott

Abstract: This article intends to determine the relationship between variants of degrowth strategies and prospects for further democratization. In a first step, four variants of degrowth policies are distinguished. In a second step, a Habermasian approach to deliberative democracy will be outlined which will be enriched by some proposals for environmental democracy. Finally, a position on envir...

By: Georg Bollenbeck

Allgemeiner Verfall, Entfremdung und Vermassung, die Herrschaft des Geldes, der Technik und der Medien: das sind bis heute die Themen der Kulturkritiker. Auch wenn die Traditionen dieses Denkens bis in die Antike zurückreichen, beginnt die eigentliche Zeit der Kulturkritik erst mit der Aufklärung. Auf der Suche nach einer anderen, besseren Moderne erzählen die Kulturkritiker Geschichten vom Ver...

By: Stephen Duncombe

From the front flap: What do Paris Hilton, Grand Theft Auto, Las Vegas, and a McDonald’s commercial have in common with progressive politics? Not much. And, as Stephen Duncombe brilliantly argues, this is part of what’s wrong with progressive politics. According to Duncombe, culture—and popular fantasy—can help us define and actualize a new political aesthetic: a kind of dreampolitik, created n...

Alt+Shift is a combination of keys that allows us to open up a window of possibilities from the few keys that we are given in our keyboard. We need new tools and a new narrative, that must be altogether altering, alternative and altruistic.