Library

Misc • 2015

Die Plünderung der Erde - Anatomie einer Ökonomie der Ausbeutung

Jahr für Jahr werden zwischen 3.000 und 30.000 Tier- und Pflanzenarten ausgelöscht - wir befinden uns mitten im größten Artensterben während der letzten 65 Millionen Jahre. Zugleich übersteigt jedes Jahr (!) die Zahl der Menschen, die durch die Folgen von Armut, Hunger, unzureichendem Zugang zu Wasser etc. getötet werden, die Zahl aller Soldaten, die während der sechs Jahre des Zweiten...

Scientific paper • 2015

Wir produzieren Zeitwohlstand

By: Jana Gebauer, Gerrit von Jorck

Herausgeber_innen: „Zeit ist Geld.“ Aber am Arbeitsmarkt ist Zeit eine flüchtige Währung. Unter steigendem Rationalisierungs- und Wettbewerbsdruck fällt ihr Kurs zusehends. Und wir alle, die wir noch die letzten Zeitreserven einsetzen, tragen dazu bei. Dass es auch anders geht, zeigen uns Zeitpioniere und Postwachstumsunternehmen.

Misc • 2015

"Mehr oder weniger?" - DIE LINKE im Wachstumsdilemma

By: Tadzio Müller, Hans Thie, Steffen Kühne

Podiumsdiskussion auf der Linken Woche der Zukunft mit Steffen Kühne, Tadzio Müller und Hans Thie Beschreibung der Veranstalter*innen: Die Linke/DIE LINKE steckt in einem Dilemma: einerseits drängt sich in der sozial-ökologischen Krise die Wachstums- und mithin Kapitalismuskritik – zusammengefasst: es kann auf einem endlichen Planeten kein unendliches Wachstum geben – förmlich auf....

Presentation • 2015

Giorgos Kallis ESEE2015 Plenary: Degrowth Economics

By: Giorgos Kallis, Dan O´Neill, Rupert Becket

Plenary address by Giorgos Kallis Question & Answer Session with Giorgos Kallis and Dan O´Neill, moderated by Rupert Becket Plenary address and Question & Answer Session at the 2015 European Society for Ecological Economics Conference at the University of Leeds in July 2015.

Scientific paper • 2014

“’Sustainable Development’: the International Struggle over Wealth, Distribution and Limits”

By: Iris Borowy

Abstract: The concept of sustainable development emerged in the early 1980s when existing theories proved unable to provide convincing models of how to satisfy the seemingly contradictory developmental demands of simultaneously increasing wealth, of keeping production and consumption within global environmental limits and of providing an equitable distribution of material goods and...

Scientific paper • 2014

The misunderstanding of “Growing Growth”

By: Kay Bourcarde, Karsten Herzmann

Abstract: The paper addresses a core assumption of economic policy, namely, the assumption growth by steady high rates being typical to economies. In the seventies such exponential growth has been criticized in the bestseller “The Limits to Growth” to be a hazard to the environment and to mankind as a whole. However, as the paper demonstrates, almost all western economies show mere linear...

Scientific paper • 2014

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

By: Ulrich Brand

degrowth, domination, democracy, Marxism, feminism

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

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...

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

The scientific work of Richard Douthwaite

By: Hans Diefenbacher

Abstract: The first contribution to the special session on the legacy of Richard Douthwaite is an attempt to carve out his most important heoretical findings to show to what extent the work of Richard Douthwaite can be seen as a convincing foundation to a degrowth strategy, and how this foundation can be used to develop practical suggestions towards its political realization. The contribution...

Scientific paper • 2014

Economic growth and human needs satisfaction across-socio economic groups in Peru. An illustration using the Human Scale Development Approach

By: Monica Guillen

human needs, international development, wellbeing, economic growth, values

Scientific paper • 2014

Green Capitalism: The God that failed, by Richard Smith

By: Bruno Kern

Abstract: The article shows, how the oroject of a green capitalism of green technology, green taxes, eco-conscious shopping, profit seeking with environmental goals and the like clerly failed. Maximizing profit and saving the planet are inherently in conflict and cannot be systematically aligned. The possibilities for "dematerializing" production are severely limited. The only way to prevent...

Scientific paper • 2014

A Christian Criticism of the Society of Growth

By: Martin KOPP

Abstract: Does the Christian faith question the society of growth? This short paper argues that it indeed contradicts its productivist social imaginary. First, a renewed theology of creation opposes the anthropocentric view of humankind rightfully ruling and exploiting nature. Second, the evangelical ethics of sobriety and sharing is in conflict with the materialistic view of life. Through...

Scientific paper • 2014

DEGROWTH AND THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

By: Emanuele Leonardi

Abstract: The paper aims at constructively criticize Degrowth's reliance on the physical limits to growth as a discursive tool to undermine the growth-oriented attitude of mainstream economics. By recuperating the critique of political economy, the paper investigates the shift in the value/nature relationship which has occurred since the environmental crisis has emerged as a political problem....

Scientific paper • 2014

From “The Limits to Growth” to “Degrowth”: Discourses of Critique of Growth in the Crises of the 1970s and 2008

By: Maria Markantonatou

Abstract: The presentation examines two discourses of growth critique that arose during the crisis of the Keynesian growth model in the 1970s and during the current economic crisis respectively. It analyzes in particular how these discourses deal with questions of labor, population and society in the context of the two crises. Compared are the debates surrounding the publication of The Limits...

Scientific paper • 2014

Critique and the Organization of Production

By: Nina Pohler

New Spirit of Capitalism, Artistic Critique, Social Critique, Growth Critique, Coordination of Work Strategies for transformation

Scientific paper • 2014

Current Contradiction between sustainable development and degrowth

By: Hermilo Salas

Abstract: If the basic contradiction is in current economic models, what is the right path to solve it and thus avoid the crisis of the environment and of life itself? It is evident that our current lifestyles are part of economic models that are unsustainable. How can we avoid that catastrophic growth? The basis of the proposal presented here is in showing the contradictions of growth to find...

Scientific paper • 2014

‘Expand or die’. The historical foundations of the economic growth paradigm

By: Matthias Schmelzer

Abstract: ‘Economic growth’ is widely regarded as a key goal of economic policy, not only across the political spectrum but also in all countries. How did the pursuit of growth become the essential goal of policy-making and a key priority taken for granted among social scientists, politicians, and the general public? This contribution to the special session "Degrowth and History" takes up this...

Scientific paper • 2014

Economic versus ecological world view – ontologies as reality blinder

By: Joachim H. Spangenberg

Abstract: The standard economists’ worldview comprises an ontology according to which the environment is as part of the economic system, implying a distinction between useful and not useful nature (as today frequently in ecosystem service discussions), an anthropology of selfish individuals and an axiology of utilitarism. This worldview determines the “solutions” developed: no limitation to...