Library

By: Eugen Pissarskoi

Most of the basic societal institutions which had been established during the post-war period within the early industrialized affluent societies rely for their proper functioning on economic growth. Current environmental challenges – as for example the concept of planetary boundaries makes them apparent – might require that these institutions become independent from economic growth. However, tr...

By: Peter Wells

Keywords: Automobility; Degrowth; Small scale; Corporate governance; Car industry; Technological innovation

By: Francois Schneider

In their degrowth vocabulary publication, Giacomo et al. (2015) propose “dépense” as important concept to define degrowth. In French dépense means “expenditure”, but following Georges Bataille they give it the meaning of ritualised destruction of community surpluses. Their proposal points out the importance of parties and non­rationality (degrowth is not just about consuming less). The communit...

By: John Szabo

Insuring European energy security in a degrowth environment, is essential in maintaining current levels of well-being. To transition toward a sustainable economy, the current, heavy reliance upon hydrocarbon imports needs to be tuned down and substituted with domestic energy production from renewable resources—primarily solar and wind—, leading to a substantial decrease in emissions emitted, wh...

By: Jason N. Meggs, M.C.P./M.P.H.

Artificial cooling such as refrigeration and air conditioning have grown to an increasingly global scale in less than a century, primarily with regard to food preservation and comfort cooling. As world industrial growth continues, this shift to artificial cooling is projected to increase as much as 33-fold by 2100. Multiple harmful feedback loops associated with climate change and urbanization ...

By: Fabian Scheidler

Vortrag vom 23.9.2016 bei der Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Systemische Therapie an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/M. Der Vortrag fasst den zweiten Teil des Buches "Das Ende der Megamaschine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation" in sieben Punkten zusammen: 1. Das Verhältnis von Markt, Staat und ideologischer Macht im modernen Weltsystem 2. Der Mythos des Westens 3....

By: Xiaorui (Rae) Wang

Presentation by Xiaorui (Rae) Wang Basing on Polanyi’s (cf. 2002 [1944], 1957) insights that are particularly pertinent to the arguments that have centred ecological economics, this paper sets out to investigate the Chinese context within which this kind of trade-offs have been made. The findings indicate that, the so called “socialist market economy” in China implies above all the State’s s...

By: Tzekou Eirini-Erifyli

Although it's been over 20 years since the first edition of "Development Dictionary" (Sachs, 1992), which marks the beginning of the debate on the end of the era of development and the transition to the age of post-development, and about 15 years since the emergence of the degrowth discourse as an activist slogan (Demaria et al, 2013), and despite the many similarities shared by the two discour...

By: Mark Joób

Presentation by Mark Joób Generally, there is not enough awareness of the central role the monetary system plays with regard to sustainability. One of the main reasons is that for several decades economics has been dominated by a monetary theory that gives a false description of the monetary system and the role of money in the economy. Assuming that money on the macroeconomic level is basica...

By: Miklós Antal

Presentation by Miklós Antal Language use and cognition are generally underappreciated topics in alternative economics, even if effective communication is essential for social and political impact. To challenge the economic growth paradigm, the concept and term degrowth has recently been embraced by various activists and scholars. Drawing on a body of evidence from cognitive science, psycholog...

By: Students of the Summer School on Degrowth, Environmental Justice

A sketch by students of the Summer School on Degrowth and Environmental Justice

By: Dennis Eversberg, Matthias Schmelzer, Matthias Schmelzer, Federico Demaria, Anne-Laure Pailloux

The degrowth movement, uniting grassroots initiatives of various kinds and drawing on the Southern European tradition of décroissance, has in recent years become a common point of reference for a broadly techno-skeptical left in many European countries. Yet, little is known about what social groups these movements recruit themselves from and about their similarities and differences in terms of ...

By: Adrián Beling, Julien Vanhulst

Since the early 70's three approaches to development thinking have emerged to criticize and try to overcome the dominant perspectives of "economic development" and "economic growth". These include the ideas of Degrowth, Human Development and Buen Vivir. Proponents of Degrowth aim to create a post-growth society based on material sufficiency, individual and collective well-being and ecological s...

By: Sarah Koller

Despite the repeated questionings of economic growth and the development of alternative economic theories, the growth imperative seems to remain unaltered. How can we understand this situation ? Would there be, beyond the institutional explanations, anything inside us that unconsciously agrees to preserve this dynamic ? An increasing body of studies in existential psychology explore experiment...

By: Åsa Callmer

Sufficiency as a mind-set - as in “good enough” rather than voluntary simplicity - is indeed a challenging thought in a society of consumption-driven individuals taught to equate materialistic accomplishments with status as well as with identity. However, to upgrade the value of sufficiency in the affluent society brings about potential for a reorientation towards sustainability. This paper aim...

By: Elke Pirgmaier

This paper is a theoretical contribution to the economics of degrowth. It is motivated by the fact that degrowth proponents attack capitalism for its drive for accumulation which relates to a range of socio-ecological crises. The emphasis on growth translates rather quickly into the development of concrete degrowth proposals. While the activist spirit is admirable, a profound understanding of t...

By: Marion Drut

This paper investigates the mechanisms through which shared modes lead to degrowth strategies and help reduce major spatial and environmental issues related to mobility in urban areas, namely road congestion, rivalry of use for parking spaces and air pollution, as well as the number of goods in the economy. In this article, I use gross space consumption estimations for different transportation ...

By: Sarah Niklas

The transition to a degrowth society should consider the notion, type and purpose of an electricity supply system and comprehend its interrelations within current capitalist systems. With the beginning of the energy transition in 2011, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions gradually decoupled from economic growth, by 2014 worldwide economic growth occurred alongside the reduction of energy-related GHG...

By: Nina Aukenthaler

In the last years we can witness an increasing number of different initiatives, which try to develop more ecological ways of living in the city. Working on and with these initiatives has to be an intrinsic part of our discussions on degrowth, not at least because these initiatives fight the disastrous economical as well as ecological insanities and campaign for degrowth on a practical level in ...

By: Beata Sirowy

This paper focuses on public spaces within the cities as an arena for a de-growth transition, addressing in this context the role of social capital – a term which most generally refers to social connectedness and individuals’ engagement in a community. In most urban theory, as well as in policy and planning strategies, the implicit assumption is the transitory character of public spaces – they...