Library

By: Joëlle Saey-Volckrick, Simon Tremblay-Pepin, Krystof Beaucaire

The integration of environmental issues into democratic economic planning models is the object of ongoing debates. Environmental factors cannot be reduced only to economic indicators, rendering economic models unable to properly account for ecological limits. By focusing on our societies’ biophysical needs, the concept of social metabolism opens new avenues to answer such problems. This paper p...

By: Gibran Vita

Presentation [Part of the standard session "Practicing Degrowth"] The present work aims to contribute in three major ways- 1) By connecting fundamental human needs by Max-Neef et al to global carbon emissions and their satisfaction. 2) By employing an Environmentally Extended MultiRegional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) to assess the outcomes of massive consumption-related lifestyles changes envisio...

By: David Barkin, Mario Enrique Fuente-Carrasco, Ricardo Clark-Tapia

The Mexican neoliberal political regime created a hegemonic governance model (top-down) which has tried to impose a single definition for the rules of the distribution of the costs and benefits (environmental and economic) related to the appropriation of “natural resources” (fossil fuels, forests, mineral, water, genetic). Social metabolism is a framework that highlights the contribution of i...

By: Anke Schaffartzik, Arnim Scheidel

Degrowth and environmental justice movements share overarching aims of sustainability and justice and pursue them through radical social change and resistances. Both movements are diverse and comprised of groups that originate and operate in different contexts. The ever-growing metabolism of the world economy presents an obstacle to both movements' aims, while a socio-metabolic perspective un...

By: Lilian Pungas

Abstract: Agriculture is not only an essential nexus between society and nature but in its current industrial form also a possible threat to ecological stability. This article explores how a supplement to the conventional agrifood system alleviates the negative consequences of the industrial food production system that manifest through the metabolic rift (Marx, 1981). During fieldwork in Eston...

By: Federico Demaria

Keynote speech by ecological economist Federico Demaria at “Well-being beyond GDP growth? Panel Discussion on Post-growth in the Era of Multiple Crises.” Organized by the European Commission (Brussels, 22nd February, 12.30).

By: Federico Demaria

Introduction: Academic FEDERICO DEMARIA will be addressing staff at the European Commission today in a keynote speech about the crucial issues of economic growth and environmental degradation. He asks, is the well-being of the individual, societies and nations possible beyond economic growth?

By: Alevgul H. Sorman, Zora Kovacic, Marcello Spanò, Samuele Lo Piano

Abstract: This paper investigates the empirical and theoretical basis of the decoupling between energy throughput and economic growth, with a critical view of the use of the decoupling concept as a policy priority. We provide an analysis of the historical trends of the metabolic pattern of European economies over a period of 18 years focusing on the changes in energy throughput and financial as...

By: Tiziano Gomiero

Keywords: Degrowth; Agriculture; Farming system analysis; Societal metabolism; Appropriate technology; Convivial tools

By: Marc Germain

Keywords: Degrowth; Steady state economics; Pollution tax; Intergenerational equity

By: Stephan Hankammer, Robin Kleer

Keywords: Degrowth; Collaborative value creation; Technology

By: Giorgos Kallis

Keywords: degrowth, dematerialization, decarbonization

By: Emanuele Leonardi

carbon markets, carbon commodities, financialization, cognitive capitalism, carbon trading dogma, second order abstraction

By: Francisco Valenzuela, Steffen Böhm

post-growth, circular economy, waste management, sustainability, politics, discourse analysis, fetishism, Marx, Lacan, Apple

By: Willi Haas, Eva Fraňková, Ines Marco Lafuente, Juan Cadillo Benalcazar, Eneko Garmendia

During the last century, we have witnessed an unprecedented growth in both global food production and associated environmental, social, and economic problems connected to the increasingly industrialized and globalised food production system; projections for the future foresee a continuation of the rising food demand. While sustainable food production is a global challenge, it has an inevitable ...

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: Tomislav Medak

I'll broach the degrowth transition from the combined perspective of social construction of technology and world system theories. I'll seek to demonstrate how dominant technological complex functions to integrate yet thwart the advancement of semi-periphery. Narratives of a socially more just and ecologically more sustainable future would frequently have us believe that exising technologies l...

By: Mladen Domazet

Social attitudes and behaviours research on nationally representative samples often presents the European semiperiphery (and especially Eastern Europe) as an obstinate laggard stuck in the selfish unrealised growth hopes and unsacrifical individualistic distrust with respect to ecological transformation (cf. EVS and ISSP surveys), even when comparative understanding of the current and historica...

By: Alex Jensen

From the text: . . . One incontrovertible conclusion of all this, it seems to me, is that it is precisely the increasing scale of economic activity – of ‘the economy’ – that is the heart of the multiple interlocking crises that beset societies and the earth today. The relentlessly expansionist logic of the system is inimical to life, to the world, even to genuine well-being. If we wish to inste...

By: Eric Pineault

Abstract: The paper aims to deepen our understanding of advanced capitalism's drivers of growth by drawing on some theoretical insights from radical political economy and ecological economics. Through an institutional analysis of the structure of advanced capitalism as a monetary production economy, it is possible to propose a theory of accumulation that explains the tight coupling of overprodu...