Library

By: Mario Pansera

Abstract: The process of technological innovation is widely considered to be crucial to enable human development and to guarantee environmental sustainability. However, the process of development in the so-called Global South has delivered controversial outcomes in terms of social and environmental sustainability. Does this setting present new forms of sustainable futures or is it rather absorb...

By: Petra Wächter

Abstract: Energy as the basis for daily activities on an individual level and for economic activities on a societal level gives fundamental importance to our lives. Individual decisions on the consumption of goods and services not only determine the energy use but also have impacts on the overall performance of economic structures. As economists point out energy use and economic growth are mutu...

By: Andrea Immendoerfer, Markus Winkelmann, Oliver Parodi, Collette Waitz

energy technologies, renewable energy, energy efficiency, sufficiency, neighbourhoods, rebound

By: André Reichel

system theory; technology; co-evolution; sustainability

By: Andrea Vetter, Bettina Barthel

Abstract: A degrowth society, like all human societies that ever existed, will need technology. But which conceptual frameworks could be suitable to denote such a “degrowth technology”? We look at two different proposals: first the idea of “Convivial Technologies”, coined in the 1970ies by the dissident thinker Ivan Illich and recently newly adapted in the “manifest for conviviality” written by...

By: Christian Kerschner, Melf-Hinrich Ehlers

Abstract: The way our society sees and relates itself to technology is crucial for the debate on economic degrowth. Latouche and others have recognized this and propose, a highly critical if not pessimist attitude. A position which goes back to Georgescu-Roegen but more importantly to Ivan Illich and those authors which describe technological systems as autonomous social systems; most prominent...

By: Petra Wächter

Abstract: Energy use in the context of degrowth goes beyond the claim for dematerialization and energy efficiency improvements. Although we can observe a decoupling of energy from growth in the past decade, absolute energy consumption is still increasing worldwide. Energy efficiency improvements are not sufficient to overcome an exploitation of energy resources and enhance the rebound-effect to...

By: Felix Ekardt

Abstract: This article broaches the legal treatment of the non-substitutable nutrient phosphorus, which is indispensable for life. We not only address the case of a highly important resource problem that has hitherto received little attention in the political discourse, but also focus on the excessive and wasteful entry of phosphorus in the environment. It is the sum of multiple minor actions o...

By: Barbara Brandl

Abstract: The development of seeds is essential for a sustainable and socially adapted type of agriculture. This relationship has been widely discussed and is usually invoked by natural scientists. However, a social science perspective on the connection between plant breeding research and agricultural production allows a broader perspective. In order to explore the effects of seed production on...

By: Michel Bauwens

Abstract: Corporate R&D communities design for scarcity with planned obsolescence not as a bug but as a feature. Open design communities design for inclusion, modularity, bio-degradability, the shared use of machinery and combined with distributed microfactories, prefigure a demand-based economy 'of scope' that aims to replace a suppy-driven economy 'of scale'. This intervention will offer ...

By: Degrowth Conference 2014

In the run-up to the conference monthly videos were published on the conference homepage, dealing with different aspects of degrowth.

By: Sven Eberlein

Shareable's guide to setting up a repair café.

By: Giorgos Kallis

Students at MIT ask questions about Degrowth to Giorgos Kallis.

By: Alyn Ware

Die Nutzung von Kernkraft zur Energiegewinnung sei in vielen Ländern weltweit eng mit der Option zur Entwicklung von Atomwaffen verknüpft, so Alyn Ware. Auch die Atomprogramme von Deutschland und Schweden sollten ursprünglich die Möglichkeit zum Bau der Bombe offen halten – bevor beide Länder 1969 davon Abstand nahmen. Aber auch für die zivile Nutzung sei Atomkraft die größte denkbare Fehlinves...

By: Benjamin Best, Gerolf Hanke

Abstract: In diesem Artikel diskutieren Gerolf Hanke und Benjamin Best die Energiewende aus wachstumskritischer Sicht. Der gegenwärtige Versuch, eine nachhaltige Energieversorgung vorrangig mit technischen Lösungen zu ermöglichen, die das wirtschaftspolitische Wachstumsparadigma und die damit verbundenen, auf materielle Wohlstandssteigerung ausgerichteten Lebensstile und Konsummuster unangetats...

By: Laia Domènech, Hug March, David Sauría

Urban water management; Degrowth; Social multi-criteria evaluation; Non-conventional water supply; Decentralisation; Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

By: Oksana Udovyk, Johan Hedren

Key words: uncertainty, REACH, environment, de-growth, utopian thought

By: Oliver Parodi

From the introduction: Work, economy and growth nowadays are fundamentally linked to technology, technological progress and the handling of our world by and through technology. If we are talking about degrowth as a passage of civilization we have to keep in mind that our (modern/Western) civilizations are technological ones: At present, we all are living in a world which is strongly formed and ...

By: Corinna Burkhart, Can Decreix

From the text: “This museum was founded in 2012 when some people did not know where to put the fridge, which was unneeded and was taking needed space in the kitchen. So where to put it? Where does it belong? Of course, in the museum and so the museum of unneeded and questionable things was born. . .”

By: Ralf Fücks, Gunter Pauli, Antonia B. Kesel, Peter Sloterdijk, Kerstin Andreae, Hermann E. Ott, Barbara Unmüßig, Andreas Poltermann, Thomas Fatheuer, Nick Reimer, Martin Jänicke, Steven Sorrell

Das aktuelle Heft erörtert die Utopie einer „ökologischen“ Moderne aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Peter Sloterdijk z.B. diskutiert die Alternativen eines auf Selbstbeschränkung zielenden grünen Puritanismus und einer Erweiterung der Grenzen der Natur durch eine Verschmelzung der Biosphäre mit der Technosphäre. Weitere Beiträge beziehen sich auf die weltweite Jagd nach Rohstoffen, die Lekti...