Library

Scientific paper • 2014

Latin America and De-Growth: A Chance to Finally Overcome Underdevelopment

Abstract: Latin America has experimented with two different development strategies: an “outward-oriented” program based on exports of primary commodities and, alternatively, a domestic industrialization from within strategy. A consensus that both models failed to achieve sustainable development in Latin America opened space for rethinking development theory and policy in the beginning of the...

Scientific paper • 2014

Sharing is the new owning – subjectivities of the maker culture

By: Karin Bradley

Abstract: In recent years what is termed “the sharing economy” has grown, i.e. sharing and swapping of tools, clothes, spaces and services. Sharing practices are indeed not new but have been reinvented in contemporary contexts characterized by economic decline and/or environmental concerns, often facilitated through the use of digital technologies. This paper deals with the rationales of...

Scientific paper • 2014

Post-Extracivism and De-Growth: Two Sides of the Same Perspective?

By: Ulrich Brand

Abstract: Post-Extracivism and De-Growth: Two Sides of the Same Perspective? There are at two continents two thrilling debates taking place. In Europe, the degrowth perspective pushes a dynamic political and scientific debate in Europe which started some years ago in order to develop alternatives to the business-as-usual strategies. Since the beginning of the economic crisis, those strategies...

Scientific paper • 2014

Growth, Domination and Democracy. Shortcomings of the (De-)Growth Debate

By: Ulrich Brand

degrowth, domination, democracy, Marxism, feminism

Scientific paper • 2014

Socio-Cultural Construction of Reality and Ecological Overshoot

By: Sebastian Brand

Abstract: Current social and cultural constructions of reality are a co-cause of ecological overshoot, i.e. the way we think and perceive the world’s ecosystems and their resources is a major reason why we as a species exceed the ecological limits to growth. These socio-cultural "Ways of Worldmaking" (Goodman) are therefore a major obstacle for a more ecological economy and a more sustainable...

Scientific paper • 2014

Are The Inherent Limits in the Process of Industrialization? A Study on the Seed Sector in the U.S. and in Germany

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...

Scientific paper • 2014

financial crisis explained by the theory of Freigeld

By: Peter Brass

Financial crisis explained by the theory of Freigeld

Scientific paper • 2014

Prospective modeling for Degrowth: Investigating macroeconomic scenarios for France

By: François Briens, Nadia Maïzi

Macroeconomic modeling, Prospective, Degrowth scenarios

Scientific paper • 2014

Work and the Economy: The Decline Of Unions And The Role Of Worker Cooperative

By: Tenille Brown

labour law; unionized context; worker cooperatives; amateur economy; secure employment

Scientific paper • 2014

CULTURE OF POVERTY, POPULAR CULTURE AND BUEN VIVIR

By: Thierry Brugvin

Abstract: The working class and poor can set an example to the richest in the context of their cultural practices based on voluntary simplicity. This sobriety is usually constrained in the lower classes, but it can become a way of virtuous life to personal, social and ecological buen vivir or the happy sobriety. Between the excesses that are charitable or liberal policies on the one hand and...

Scientific paper • 2014

Educationism, may facilitate the understanding of the Degrowth proposal.

By: Cristovam Buarque, João Luís Homem de Carvalho

Abstract: The end of the 20th century showed the failure of ideologies. The ideologies of industrial civilization - capitalism, socialism and developmentalism - became prisoners of production and of income distribution, plundering the environment and offering, without delivering, accessible consumption to the masses. The failure of industrial-civilization utopia suggested that the very sense of...

Scientific paper • 2014

Worktime Reduction and Rebound Effects

By: Johannes Buhl

Abstract: Worktime reduction is considered to be essential when it comes to theories and models of de-growing economies. So far, productivity gains are re-invested in favor of economic growth. Consequently, rising opportunity costs of time per growing national income lead to time rebound effects, since time savings become as precious as economic life speeds up. This comes with resource...

Scientific paper • 2014

Defamiliarizing experiences in a center for degrowth

By: Corinna Burkhart

norms, normality, practical defamiliarization, cross-normality experience, change

Scientific paper • 2014

Convivial Conservation: Degrowth and the quest of overcoming Capitalist Conservation

By: Bram Büscher

Abstract: A growing body of literature is exploring the intertwined histories and current dynamics of global capitalism and global conservation. One of the major arguments in this literature is that the development of global conservation is directly related to the development of global capitalism, and thus to capitalism’s sine-qua-non, economic growth. This paper reviews these intertwined...

Scientific paper • 2014

Ecological monetary economics: A post-Keynesian critique

By: Louison Cahen-Fourot, Marc Lavoie

Ecological macroeconomics ; Ecological monetary economics ; post-Keynesian economics ; steady-state ; degrowth

Scientific paper • 2014

Agency is not enough: obstacles to back-to-the-land and agri-food downscaling

By: Rita Calvario

Back-to-the-land, agri-food downscaling, degrowth transition

Scientific paper • 2014

Eco-communities: implementing degrowth from the grassroots

By: Claudio Cattaneo

Abstract: Eco-communities are specifically planned and set up for people to come and live together with the goal of living and working according to ecological principles by promoting a degree of sharing (see also work-sharing) and pursuing well-being through more sustainable life-styles, direct democracy and a degree of autonomy. Participative DIY non-monetary practices are applied for...

Scientific paper • 2014

Basic Income and Degrowth?

By: Claudio Cattaneo

Abstract: The paper starts from a literature review on the relationship basic income and degrowth and then develops some criticisms for which basic income might not be an adequate degrowth policy. It finally discusses the extent for which basic income might be a plausible degrowth proposal, but only as a social policy related to economic crisis (unwanted degrowth) therefore only of temporary,...

Scientific paper • 2014

Human Scale Development – the case of energy cooperatives.

By: Salina Centgraf

Abstract: Energy cooperatives (EC) are an increasingly important player for the transformation processes of current energy systems towards sustainability and decentralization in Germany. In 2012 approximately 750 EC existed which mostly produce wind and solar energy. The democratic organisation of EC, related to the source of their financial assets, makes them a special actor for creating...

Scientific paper • 2014

A post-growth society for the 21st century - Does prosperity have to wait for the return of economic growth?

By: Lucas Chancel, Damien Demailly, Henri Waisman, Céline Guivarch

Abstract: A post-growth society for the 21st century - Does prosperity have to wait for the return of economic growth? To respond to this dissatisfaction with the current political and media discourse on growth, this report attempts to answer – as far as possible – the two following questions: 1. Can we have any certainty about the future of growth? 2. Assuming that the coming decades will be a...