Library

Scientific paper • 2014

Alternative capital for alternative development: Investigation of possible development transition using capital method

Abstract: How to move from current unsustainable pattern of development to a sustainable one? Here we make an attempt to propose a possible route of transition in the perspective of capital. That is to focus on the investment of human capital and of social capital. The strategies for transformation will be also based on the shifting the resources to human-centered investment. Although the plan...

Scientific paper • 2014

Commodity frontiers and degrowth

By: Marta Conde, Mariana Walter

Abstract: ‘Commodity frontiers’ are a result of the increasing social metabolism of industrialised economies that is pushing the search for raw materials into new lands. This expansion is creating social and environmental degradation at these frontiers and fostering socio-environmental conflicts. We review the concept of ‘commodity frontiers’ analyzing its roots through Jason Moore’s theory...

Scientific paper • 2014

From commodity to commons: analysis of experimentation of collective appropriation of agricultural lands

By: Elsa Costanzo

Abstract: We propose an institutional analysis, based on a field research, of an emergent French initiative called Terre de Liens (TdL) that intends to take out agricultural lands from the speculative market, contributes to their de-commodification and governs them as a commons. We will wonder to what extent TdL may turn agricultural lands into a commons, following Elinor Ostrom’s definition....

Scientific paper • 2014

Working Less: Policies for Fairness in the Sharing of Liberated Time

By: Mark Cramer

Abstract: The degrowth vision of working less to enjoy life more is reserved primarily for people who possess certain material or philosophical tools. From Epicurus to anti-consumerism, overworked masses have indirectly subsidized lovers of idle conviviality. Therefore, opposition to wealth inequality should feature a struggle for justice in the realm of leisure time. The idle Thoreau, walking...

Scientific paper • 2014

Tax internationally traded commodities to safeguard biodiversity

By: Michael Curran, Laura de Baan, Thomas Koellner, Carlo Rondinini, Piero Visconti, Stefanie Hellweg

Biodiversity loss, agriculture, ecological tax, compensation

Scientific paper • 2014

Social welfare programs in Brazil and in France: assistencialism or emancipation factor?

By: Sandrine Cuvillier, Prof. Rogerio Valle

Abstract: Basic Income and its distribution is today a very disputed question. Social programs oriented to the guarantee of a minimum revenue are currently being implemented in different countries, in order to assist the very poor fractions of the population. This paper describes the origin and the evolution of some proposals and analyzes the main concepts and values defended. Successful cases...

Scientific paper • 2014

The Proposal of Degrowth and the Energy Issue: A Fabulist Presentation of the Literature Review

By: Sandrine Cuvillier

Abstract: This article revisits the famous fables of Jean de La Fontaine to illustrate key concepts and proposals of degrowth and its close ties with the energy issue. Through the curiosity of a hummingbird, we question the dominant paradigm reflected in unsustainable existing patterns of energy production and consumption. We introduce, in a simple way, the main ideas and references of current...

Scientific paper • 2014

What Kind of Growth, What Kind of Degrowth: The Case of Croatia Reconsidered

By: Vladimir Cvijanovic, Tomislav Tomasevic

Abstract: This contribution is a part of Degrowth in post-socialist European Countries Special Session. It outlines the development path Croatia has pursued (that has not produced desirable results) and will argue that the country should pursue sustainable degrowth. We identify potentials Croatia has in ecological agriculture, utilisation of forests as well as other potentials in renewable...

Scientific paper • 2014

The social and economic consequences of Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SAEP)

By: Simone D'Alessandro

Abstract: The repeated failures of global agreements for GHG emissions abatement call for a new strategy that involves local communities in implementing effective transitions to sustainability (the Warsaw Climate Change Conference in November 2013 is the last example). This paper investigates the environmental, social and economic consequences of Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SAEP) at the...

Scientific paper • 2014

Education for well-being

By: Jochen Dallmer

Abstract: Well-being is an important concept for revisiting ideas of a what a good life is and finding pathways towards a less materialistic and hence less production/consumption oriented society. But how and where do we learn about well-being? In education the concept of well-being is almost completely absent. Singular educational concepts work on happiness and well-being and give some...

Scientific paper • 2014

State- prescribed (re)productivity? The Philippine Legislation on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Crisis

By: Janina Dannenberg

Abstract: (Re) productivity transports a concept of sustainable society where boundaries between different forms of work and productivity are subject to annulment. In the Philippines, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act recognizes the right to collective ownership of land and considers a broad variety of economic, social and cultural land uses. Even if not titled the same, the concept of...

Scientific paper • 2014

Changing Perspectives in Eastern Europe

By: Brian Davey

Abstract: Western Europe and the USA have held themselves up as models to be followed by the countries of Eastern Europe - democratic countries run according to the rule of law, with market based consumer societies, privatised key sectors and focused on economic growth. Joining the European Union and learning how to be like the "successful" western economies has been seen as Central and Eastern...

Scientific paper • 2014

A dialogue with feminisms: Mining, social movements and horizons of transformation

By: Mar Daza

Abstract: A new cycle of colonial expansion for the massive extraction of common goods is currently restructuring the relationship between humanity and nature, and thus the relationship between market, autonomous societies and State as well as the relations between global North and South and gender relations. This reality issues a complicated challenge to social movements seeking...

Scientific paper • 2014

THE RELEASE OF ‘FREE’ TIME? – DEGROWTH AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE COLONIZATION OF TIME BY THE LOGIC OF CAPITALISM

By: Thassio de Araújo, Cássio Aquino, Lina Raquel Marinho

Abstract: This paper presents a theoretical study in Psychology on the subject of time in contemporary capitalist societies and in a hypothetical degrowth society. Considering that the contemporary lifestyle and the acceleration of time (and the lack of time itself) have led to dissatisfactions and even to diseases, this study question what changes in the structure of social time could possibly...

Scientific paper • 2014

Peasant agriculture or agribusiness: what production model would lead to degrowth?

By: João Luís Homem de Carvalho

Abstract: There is a dispute between two agricultural models in Brazil: the agribusiness and the peasant agriculture. We need to discuss which agricultural model is more to our proposed degrowth. This paper aims to show that peasant agriculture in Brazil produces more food for the local population, occupies more manpower, uses fewer natural resources and emits lower amounts of greenhouse gases...

Scientific paper • 2014

Towards a re-evaluation of the land sparing vs. land sharing debate from the perspective of peasant farming systems

By: A. Cristina de la Vega-Leinert

Abstract: Worldwide agricultural land is a scarce and degraded resource, while the commoditisation of natural resources spatially decouples the environmental and societal impacts of production, trade and consumption. Sustainability, increasingly an explicit political and social desirable norm, seeks to reverse Nature'S degradation, while fostering human well-being in a fairer society. An often...

Scientific paper • 2014

The long way towards a social and ecological economy: how do we change the paradigm?

By: Michele De Rosa

Abstract: In order to transform the societal paradigm it is necessary to start with the elementary components of the society: the individuals. A critique of modern society begins with a critique of the critics themselves, in this case the scientific community. This investigation provocatively started with a critique of how the concept of sustainability and sustainable Degrowth are applied in...

Scientific paper • 2014

The Great Recession and Health: From Neoliberal Austerity to “Healthy De-Growth”

By: Roberto De Vogli

Abstract: Since the eve of the meltdown, global unemployment has increased by more than 30 million people, but has the financial crisis also affected our health? Evidence indicates that the Great Recession led to increases in unemployment and suicides rates both in Europe and in the United States. While financial crises are associated with rising unemployment, social instability and the rise of...

Scientific paper • 2014

Peoples Sustainability Treaties: A Platform for a Common Narrative, Agenda and Movement

By: Uchita de Zoysa

Abstract: Given the inequities and unsustainability of the present model of development, the world needs profound transformations in the fundamental values and organizing principles of society. The challenge is to recognize the legitimacy of the global polity as an outer layer of the nested system of affiliation that reaches across regions and places, and to build the processes of democratic...

Scientific paper • 2014

Contours of Environmental and Water Justice; anti dams movements and resistance challenging politics and imaginaries

By: Daniela Del Bene

dams, environmental justice, political ecology, social movements, energy