Library

By: Silja Samerski

Keywords: Degrowth; Technology; Ivan Illich; Conviviality; Disembodiment

By: Mathieu Le Dû

In 2012, the NGO Virage-énergie Nord-Pas de Calais started a research project focused on energetic, societal and economic transitions within the Nord-Pas de Calais region in France, in partnership with two academic laboratories: TVES (University of Lille 1 - Science and Technologies) and Ceraps (University of Lille 2 - Health and Law). The aim of this research was to evaluate, using data models...

By: Vincent Liegey, Francois Schneider, Francois Schneider, Adrian Despoisse

Roundtable & Assembly on Open-Localisation Alternative to globalisation or closure (we want neither indirect nor direct barbarity!). Everybody is invited to intervene on this important theme. Society is closing : closed borders or doors, accusations of immigrants, votes for anti-immigrants parties. People want to « preserve their lifestyles » supposedly to defend their culture. But isn't it...

A central aspect of degrowth-narratives is a postulated incommensurability between an infinitely expanding economic process and “limits” - in particular absolute, material limits. However, the recourse to such limits within the contemporary degrowth-debate is criticized by Onofrio Romano for failing to transcend the logic of “life for life's sake” that expresses the very “neutralist” heart of t...

By: Christian Kerschner, Salvador Pueyo, Arpita Bisht, Benjamin

This is the third of a planned ‘trilogy’ of sessions on the contentious relationship between degrowth and technology. It represents the third of three subthemes of a special issue on technology and degrowth, which is currently being edited for JCP. The aim of this special session is to analyse potentials of technological developments, which entail normative aims like democratisation, devise fra...

By: Eva Fraňková, Claudio Cattaneo

During the last century, we have witnessed unprecedented growth in both global food production and associated environmental, social, and economic problems connected to the increasingly industrialized, globalised and commodified food production. In reaction, the issues of food security, food sovereignty and, more generally, sustainable food production have gained momentum within the academic deb...

By: Escher City

The near-global hegemony of motorized transport has dramatically disrupted traditional use of public space, and in turn has impacted the opportunity for social and economic co-evolution and self-determination. The violent history of this radical change of life illustrates how unnatural and disruptive motorization has been. One arm of the institutionalization of a humanity contained within the m...

By: carmine arvonio

Linking Europe on two wheels “The bicycle is a chance for a way of life in which respect for others and joy of living are priorities. This offers us a great hope: Cycling as a new Humanism!” This quote from M. Augé synthesizes our approach. We started CicloPoetica in Firenze, Italy, connecting different fields: pedagogy, sport, ecology, sustainability. Our focus is Bike culture, which fo...

By: Tuuli Hirvilammi, Ingo Stamm, Aila - Leena Matthies, Kati Närhi

Work sharing, work time reduction, basic income and job guarantee are often referred ideas in degrowth-literature as alternatives to present models of work and income. Also various grassroots innovations, such as local organic food networks or community currencies are examples in which people are already developing production and consumption structures based on community empowerment and wellbei...

By: Volker Mauerhofer, Nicholas Ashford, Nicholas Ashford, Joachim Spangenberg

While degrowth debates have been centered (1) on ways to abandon GDP and productivity as drivers of a throughput economy, (2 ) on acknowledging that some very important attributes of a just society are not captured in markets, and (3) on ways to address wealth and income inequality, changing and challenging the economic paradigm has dominated the debate. This session argues that law and legal i...

By: Christopher Laumanns

Vom 19. bis 23. August 2016 findet die 2. Degrowth-Sommerschule auf dem Klimacamp im Rheinland statt. Unter dem Motto “Skills for System Change” wird es mit einem vielfältigen Programm um gelebte Alternativen zum aktuellen Wirtschaftssystem gehen. Nachdem die Sommerschule zu Ende gegangen ist, beginnt auf dem Klimacamp das “Aktionslabor”, das vom 24.-29. August geht. Was

By: Gábor Bertényi

HÁZIKÓ is an agricultural-social enterprise launched in 2014, and it is one of the very few players of the alternative agro-food domain in Hungary that has managed to become an acknowledged market player while preserving its original social, environmental and quality principles. The company’s mission is to enhance the market participation of small-scale agricultural enterprises, while providing...

By: Adrien Labaeye, Jon Richter, Gualter Baptista

As commoning practices become part of mainstream conversations on forms of social organisation, cultivating the right conditions for a thriving commons still presents unresolved challenges and underdocumented territory. Participatory infrastructure is not neutral, and minimal infrastructure - digital, legal and financial - is often required to support the co-production process of a shared resou...

By: Iqbal

Shrimp farming plays an important but controversial role in the economic development of many countries in Asia because of high economic returns and often catastrophic environmental impacts of production in coastal region. Bangladesh is one of the leading shrimp producing countries in the world. Bangladesh enjoys advantages of natural setting for shrimp culture. 90% of crop land has been convert...

By: Matthias Schmelzer, Mladen Domazet, Jagoda Munić

The Paris Agreement is a very specific document, that was substantially revised between the proposal at the start of the conference and the final text, reflecting a very specific response to a set of globally crucial issues concerning rapid climate change in this century. Our closing point is a question of whether orientation on growth of the type suffused through the Agreement text and most c...

By: Olivier Vardakoulias

Can our economies keep growing? If not, what next? Kirsty speaks with Olivier Vardakoulias, economist at NEF. The talk is about the current (2016) economic situation in the UK and beyond. Growth has been going down, politics should not build on growth, since there is no growth to be expected. Also mainstream mayor economists speak of stagnation. The talk goes into detail of theories which ar...

By: Joan Martinez-Alier

The growing metabolism of the world economy implies increasing ecological distribution conflicts. The economy is not circular, it is entropic. A non-growing industrial economy would still require “fresh” supplies of fossil fuels and of other materials. In the EJAtlas (www.ejatlas.org) we are mapping many of those ecological distribution conflicts on extraction, transport, and waste disposal. L...

By: Rajni Bakshi

Water, Traditional Cultures and a Degrowth Future: the quest for a steady-state economy By Rajni Bakshi Degrowth as a concept does not sit well in most societies today. But water is a key to fostering new imaginaries and new visions that will be not merely acceptable but inviting. By 2040 an estimated 33 countries, including USA, China and India, will face severe water scarcity. India has a...

By: Olli Tammilehto

The global growth society is rapidly destroying its ecological base and consequently also itself. Crushing one's own foundation is surely a mark of stupidity. The madness in question, however, is of societal quality, not reducible to the properties of individuals. On the contrary, according to many opinion polls individual human beings widely recognize the absurdity of economic growth and the i...

By: Christiane Kliemann

Von Felix Holtermann 1972 erschien „Grenzen des Wachstums“, der erste Bericht an den Club of Rome. 45 Jahre später ist seine Wachstumskritik aktueller denn je. Während die Industriestaaten immer langsamer wachsen, erlebt die Wachstumsskepsis eine beispiellose Renaissance – in der Forschung, in den Medien, im gesellschaftlichen Diskurs. Eine Sphäre aber bleibt außen vor: die Politik. Wachstumsk...