Library

Interview • 2012

Der Kampf ums Wasser

By: Der Kampf ums Wasser Maude Barlow, Wenonah Hauter, Oscar Olivera, Mary Ann Manahan, Olcay Ünver, Gerlinde Schermer

Noch immer haben fast 900 Millionen Menschen weltweit keinen Zugang zu sauberem Wasser. Gegen die Aneignung und Zerstörung von Wasserreserven hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren international Widerstand gebildet. Auf dem Alternativen Weltwasserforum (FAME), das vom 14. bis 17. März 2012 in Marseille stattfand, kamen AktivistInnen, WissenschaftlerInnen und VertreterInnen von...

Scientific paper • 2012

Family relationship: a way to Equity, Ecology and Sustainability

By: Isabella Landi

Introduction: From private to political: The premise of my contribution is the pedagogical attention to the educative and care work, a constant of my public and private life. For more than twenty years I've professionally taken care of minors and their families, starting from the kinder garden and continuing with adolescents and young adults, in particular those with the risk of delinquency and...

Scientific paper • 2012

Feminism and degrowth: Parallelisms and Intersections.

By: Paola Melchiori

The contribution of feminism to the economy of degrowth. Introduction: The questions I will propose here are the following: has feminism still something to contribute, in the actual historical conjuncture, to a movement like the degrowth movement? Will the same characteristics of this movement guarantee that the main contents of feminism are already incorporated? The reason for these questions...

Scientific paper • 2012

Men-Women Relationship - Ecology Gender Identity and Equal Opportunity Culture

By: Cinzia Mion

Introduction: The topic we are about to discuss is not easy and it does not appear to have much appeal. Indeed, as is often the case, the number of people attending debates on these issues is small. The interest for gender identity appears in the mid twentieth century. Simone de Beauvoir stated that “One is born male or female, one becomes a man or a woman”. This implies that the passage from...

Scientific paper • 2012

Degrowth and buen vivir (living well): a critical comparison

By: Ernest Garcia

Introduction: A dialogue on the concepts of degrowth and living well [“buen vivir”, “vivir bien”] seems necessary and could be very informative. Such a dialogue should explore what both concepts have in common (particularly their critique of development: skepticism regarding its promises and its presumed universalism), as well as the specific and most important characteristics of each...

Scientific paper • 2012

Out of financial dictatorship

By: Andrea Baranes

Introduction: Too much welfare? Some European countries, namely the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) have lived beyond their capabilities. Too much welfare and too many social expenditures led to an increasing public debt. It is now time to impose some discipline over these “spendthrift” states, in order to force them to tighten their belts and put order into their public...

Scientific paper • 2012

Decrescita. Crisi del finanziamento delle economie pubbliche e monete (co- me sistemi di credito) locali.

By: Maurizio Ruzzene

Contribution to the 3rd International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Venice in 2012. - only available in Italian

Scientific paper • 2012

Why the lock-in of financialisation could further delay a low carbon and just transition beyond the growth paradigm

By: Antonio Tricarico, Elena Gerebizza

Introduction: We live in a time of finance capitalism, when trading money, risk and associated products is more profitable and outpaces trading goods and services for capital accumulation. That is in short what people often refer to as “financialisation” of the economy. This has huge implications for where capital is invested and the everyday exposure of people to capital markets, as more and...

Scientific paper • 2012

Public debt, economic crisis and happy degrowth

By: Maurizio Pallante

Introduction: Analysis of the situation and premises The gravity of the problem of public debt has not been underestimated. It is the foundation on which growth of the present historical period is built, indispensable for the purposes of increasing production of commodities. It is a choice pursued knowingly and unanimously by governments of the right and left in all industrialized countries....

Scientific paper • 2012

La crisi dell’attuale modello produttivo-consumistico

By: Graziano Naressi

Contribution to the 3rd International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Venice in 2012. - only available in Italian

Scientific paper • 2012

Forme, saperi e valori dell’economia solidale. Un possibile percorso di transizione verso il distretto di economia solidale.

By: Ferruccio Nilia, Saverio Senni, Paolo Tomasin, Giuseppe Rizzardo

Contribution to the 3rd International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Venice in 2012. - only available in Italian

Scientific paper • 2012

Building a collective sense of responsibility to redefine the concept of justice

By: Jean-Louis Aillon, Elena Dal Santo

Abstract: In 2000, 189 nations committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals, namely a promise to free people from extreme poverty and deprivations. Unfortunately, UN reports and estimates show that MDGs are far from being achieved. Although the objectives are certainly ambitious, the lack of improvements in the basic life conditions of the world population is strictly connected to...

Scientific paper • 2012

Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA): A tool for equity and dignity

By: Vincent Liegey

Abstract: In the last four years, inside the French Degrowth movement*, a social and economic tool able to initiate and support a democratic transition towards sustainable and desirable societies based on Degrowth has been developed. This discussions and thinking were made around the idea of basic income, resource caps, open relocalisation, free access of a “good” use of resources, etc. and...

Scientific paper • 2012

The opportunities of the blue economy

By: Graziano Pini

Premise: Years ago some small innovative companies began to replace the petrochemical surfactants with biodegradable ingredients, fatty acids of palm oil. All the major manufacturers utilized the biodegradability with the result that huge areas of rainforest have been converted to intensive cultivation of oil palm. These activities taking out the orangutan habitat, chimpanzees and many other...

Scientific paper • 2012

Sustainable job growth

By: Ole Busck

Economic degrowth and job growth can and should go hand in hand. What is the role of trade unions in a degrowth economy? It may be difficult to imagine trade unions fighting for something else than economic growth, since they have always done so - with some success at least for a time. However, if their core business really is to secure jobs the present situation calls urgently for an...

Scientific paper • 2012

Bathing waters in cities - a scenario to combine today’s social wants and ecological needs of tomorrow

By: Helmut Lehn, Melanie Oertel, Katharina Stork

Keywords: Bathing waters, Chile, Germany, sustainable development, water quality, water scarcity

Scientific paper • 2012

(De)Growth, Welfare States and Path Dependency

By: Paolo Ermano

Abstract: Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, especially in U.K., several programs had passed to help and assist the poor workers through a redistributive mechanism managed by the State. We call these programs Welfare State and they still represent one of the main achievements of modern society. In the hypothesis of a degrowth society on one hand it would be difficult finding...

Scientific paper • 2012

A more caring and equitable society requires linking local engagement in support of Global Policies for Health

By: Eduardo Missoni

Abstract: The health care industry is is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries and healthcare spending is rising faster than economic growth, consuming around 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of most developed nations. However volume and increase of spending do not relate directly with population's health improvement. In many countries, the increase of health care...

Scientific paper • 2012

The Act of Care: A Good Opportunity.

By: Maurizio Venezi

Introduction: Ever since my father’s death from epatocarcinoma I have been interested in the psychological aspects of cancer patients. The ideal adjective which best describes my personal experience of that death is DEVASTATING. Nevertheless, I feel profound gratitude towards my father, who allowed me to be part, for the first time, of this parting from life. A few months prior to this event,...

Scientific paper • 2012

Medical students for Degrowth

By: Cecilia Ferrari

Introduction: Unlike other sciences, e.g. IT or Physics, whose experts’ high level of specialization is regarded as the major key to success, Medicine actually maintains the prerogative of a traditional knowledge, in which a deep understanding is reachable only with practice in at least several of its branches. Besides, since it affects the whole of life of people devoting to it, Medicine is...