Library

By: Kristoffer Wilén, Maria Sandberg, Kristian Klockars

Abstract: Scientists agree that changes in the organization of human society and economy are needed to stop the degradation of the natural environment. The most commonly proposed solution, green growth, has been increasingly criticized, but the offered alternative of degrowth has remained a marginal undertaking in academia and in practice. This article further develops the argument for degrowt...

By: Corinna Dengler, Lisa Marie Seebacher

Abstract: Degrowth calls for a profound socio-ecological transformation towards a socially just and environmentally sound society. So far, the global dimensions of such a transformation in the Global North have arguably not received the required attention. This article critically reflects on the requirements of a degrowth approach that promotes global intragenerational justice without falling ...

By: Dennis Eversberg

This contribution draws on empirical evidence from the 2016 wave of the survey “Environmental Consciousness in Germany” to identify the potential social bases of both support for and resistance to attempts to overcome the current socio-ecological crisis by way of a broad social-ecological transformation. Firstly, the results of factor and cluster analyses of the survey’s items on attitudes ...

By: Cle-Anne Gabriel, Carol Bond

Post-growth societies seek socio-ecological transformations towards a just and sustainable redistribution and reduced consumption of natural capital. There is no one universally just and ecologically sustainable way of fulfilling these redistribution and consumption objectives; it depends on the criteria used and their underlying ethical teleology. We suggest three distribution criteria, borrow...

By: Sofia Getzin

Key pedagogical approaches that work at fostering critical reflection and fostering transformative action become more effective when they are applied in a degrowth context.

By: Jonathon Porritt

A dramatisation of Jonathon Porritt’s book The World We Made—adapted for the stage by CUSP fellow Beth Flintoff—received its ‘world premiere’ at the Change Festival in October 2019. The play takes a retrospective look (from the year 2050) of the changes that took (will have taken) place to combat climate change and achieve sustainability. With support from the ESRC and local citizen groups, the...

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: Gareth Dale

Radical action on climate change is at last on the agenda. The emphasis is on urgency and action and - for XR notably - ‘truth.’ Questions of long-term strategy are less clear, but strategy platforms have been advanced. Foremost among them are the Green New Deal (GND) and degrowth. This article provides a comparison and sketches lines of convergence  

By: Max Koch

The limits of the environmental state in the context of the provision of economic growth are addressed by applying materialist state theory, state-rescaling approaches and the degrowth/postgrowth literature. I compare state roles in a capitalist growth economy and in a postgrowth economy geared towards bio-physical parameters such as matter and energy throughput and the provision of ‘sustainabl...

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: Lukas Hardt, Karen Turner, Paul Brockway, Grant Allan, John Barrett, Peter McGregor, Andrew Ross, Kim Swales, Marco Sakai

This study investigates how an increase in exports (a key pillar in the UK Industrial Strategy) could impact energy and industrial policy by comparing two types of energy-economy models. Achieving the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions set out in the UK Climate Change Act will require a significant transformation in the UK's energy system. At the same time, the government is pursuing...

By: Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach, Julia Tschersich

A fundamental transformation towards sustainability in face of complex social-ecological challenges needs to initiate deep changes of those incumbent system structures that support unsustainable trajectories, while at the same time encouraging a diversity of alternative practices. A review of transformation approaches towards sustainability shows that these do not (sufficiently) link processe...

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: 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: 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: Hubert Buch-Hansen

Keywords: Crisis, Critical political economy, Institutional change, Degrowth, Paradigm shift, Political projects

By: Silvio Cristiano

Conferencia de la Plenaria del Miércoles por Silvio Cristiano: "Culturas, entre Norte y Sur Global. Reflexiones sistémicas hacia una transición socio-económica"

By: Bárbara Muraca

Conferencia de la Plenaria del Jueves por Bárbara Muraca: "Deshaciendo el neoliberalismo: el decrecimiento como una alternativa radical a la crisis global"

By: Gustavo Esteva

Conferencia de la Plenaria del Miércoles por Gustavo Esteva: "Caminos de autonomía bajo la tormenta"