Library

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020: Reflections upon the conference and how to move forward – Part I

By: Viviana Asara

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Via radical social reforms towards a counter-hegemony?

By: Ulrich Schachtschneider, Frank Adler, Jana Flemming, Barbara Sennholz-Weinhard, Ellen Ehmke

Special session How could counter-hegemony become realistic, which is necessary for a democratic transition? Our thesis: We need a bundle of “non-reformist reforms” (Gorz) which tie on everyday social needs and problems (time pressure, fears of future or descent, deficient recognition etc.) and propose alternative ways of their satisfaction or solution. The chances and barriers of this...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Book launch: Degrowth in Movement(s)

By: Nina Treu, Brototi Roy, Matthias Schmelzer, Tadzio Müller, Julianna Fehlinger, Corinna Bukhart

Special session Degrowth as an emerging social movement overlaps with radical activism for systemic change such as anti-globalization and climate justice, commons and transition towns, basic income and Buen Vivir. The book “Degrowth in Movement(s). Exploring Pathways for Transformation” (Zer0 books, June 2020) reflects on the current situation of social movements and their relationship to...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Agrowth, Degrowth, Postwachstum…Was!? Eine Einführung

By: Maria Paulitsch, Sven-David Pfau

Workshop In diesem Einführungsworkshop machen wir uns mit den Steigerungszwängen der kapitalistischen Gesellschaftsordnung und dem Denken von wachstumskritischen Ansätzen vertraut. Was sind die Ursprünge, Eigenheiten und Ziele der verschiedenen Strömungen? Dabei schauen wir auf Gefahren und Potentiale der verschiedenen Perspektiven für einen emanzipatorischen Wandel zum Guten Leben für Alle!...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Limits, Ethics, Unsustainability and Change

By: Michael Deflorian, Karoline Kalke, Roberto Sciarelli, An, Pandian, Oxana Lopatina

Standard session (discussion following 4 presentations) The Awesome Life: Why Degrowthers Need to Talk about the Feeling of Entropy - video Critical views of consumerism are widely shared among degrowthers. However, there is a risk of overlooking a particular affective dimension of consumption: the ‘entropic feeling’. The latter is triggered when we surpass the biophysical limits of our...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - The Awesome Life: Why Degrowthers Need to Talk about the Feeling of Entropy

By: Michael Deflorian, Karoline Kalke

Presentation [part of the standard session "Limits, Ethics, Unsustainability and Change"] Critical views of consumerism are widely shared among degrowthers. However, there is a risk of overlooking a particular affective dimension of consumption: the ‘entropic feeling’. The latter is triggered when we surpass the biophysical limits of our human body and come to enjoy the pleasures of dense...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Connecting degrowth to Epicurean hedonism: pleasure as a political ethics of limits

By: Roberto Sciarelli

Presentation [part of the standard session "Limits, Ethics, Unsustainability and Change"] The session will explore the relations between Epicurean hedonism and degrowth, showing how such connection has the potential to enrich and refine degrowth transformative proposal of a frugal society based on shared simple pleasures, relational goods and friendship, leisure, idleness and...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Dépense as a degrowth strategy

By: Oxana Lopatina

Presentation [part of the standard session "Limits, Ethics, Unsustainability and Change"] This presentation will discuss the usefulness of both the concept and the practice of dépense for the degrowth project, and will make suggestions on how to frame proposals based on it for the purposes of informing a transition to a degrowth society. Presenters: Oxana Lopatina (Autonomous University of...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Participatory system-mapping for Degrowth

By: Alexandra Köves

Workshop System maps are a good visualization of mental constructions different groups hold on Degrowth. Based on our previous research results we propose 30 factors that we deem the most important in a Degrowth transition. In this workshop we involve the participants in a participatory system mapping exercise where they can arrange and rearrange the components of a potential Degrowth society...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Theories of Transformation

By: Max Koch, Andro Rilović, Julia Tschersich, Mira Pütz

Standard session (discussion following 4 presentations) Structure, Action and Change: A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Preconditions for a Degrowth transition - video A deprioritization of economic growth in policy making in the rich countries will need to be part of a global effort to re-embed economy and society into planetary boundaries. However, societal support for a degrowth...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Structure, Action and Change: A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Preconditions for a Degrowth transition

By: Max Koch

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] A deprioritization of economic growth in policy making in the rich countries will need to be part of a global effort to re-embed economy and society into planetary boundaries. However, societal support for a degrowth transition remains for the time being moderate, and it is not well understood as yet why this is the case....

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Applying insights from transformation research for a strategy for the Degrowth movement

By: Julia Tschersich

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] This paper applies insights from a review of research on social-ecological transformations, in particular a framework developed to bridge process-oriented and structural approaches, to the Degrowth Movement. It derives suggestions for a common strategy, while embracing the movement‘s diversity. Presenters: Julia...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Citizens’ Assemblies: A Lever for Political Change

By: Mira Pütz

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] In order to develop and implement socio-ecological (economic) policies the processes and structural conditions of representation in democracies today need to be rethought, re-imagined and changed. Citizens’ assemblies can help us to do just that, starting now. Presenters: Mira Pütz (Sciences Po) Language: English with...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Anarchism and degrowth: two sides of the same coin

By: Andro Rilović

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Transformation"] This paper will demonstrate why, when envisaging degrowth transitions and strategies for achieving them, it is essential to seriously engage with arguments concerning the limitations of the State in enacting radical systemic change, emanating from the long and fruitful history of anarchist thought. Presenters: Andro...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Theories of Degrowth Practices

By: Ruth Falkenberg, David Fox

Standard session (discussion following 2 presentations) Social Work, Ecoanxiety, and Peer Pressure Ecoanxiety is a significant component of the global climate crisis; yet it is mostly absent from collective understanding regarding the Grand Challenge to create social responses to the changing environment. Social work has an opportunity to employ positive peer pressure throughout the...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Enacting (de)growth in research practices

By: Ruth Falkenberg, David Fox

Presentation [part of the standard session "Theories of Degrowth Practices"] In this session we explore how growth logics are embedded in research practices. Then, we critically discuss perspectives from Science and Technology Studies and from the Degrowth community on how to enable the practice and organisation of science that is required for socio-ecological transformations. Presenters:...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020: Reflections upon the conference and how to move forward – Part II

By: Viviana Asara

This is part two of a piece reflecting on the Vienna degrowth conference and considering how to move forward based on the inputs and insights from the conference. You can read part one (focused on the conference) here.

Misc • 2020

Police abolition and other revolutionary lessons from Rojava

By: Hawzhin Azeez

Democratic confederalism, the ideological framework organizing society in Rojava, outlines the features of a post-revolutionary justice system.

Misc • 2020

A swimming commons

By: Joe Herbert

For many of us, swimming will have provided a temporary relaxing escape from the pandemic and searing heat in the recent summer months. In this piece republished from Undisciplined Environments, Elliot Hurst suggests the activity holds more radical potential than one might think.

Misc • 2020

Book review: 'Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World' by Jason Hickel

By: Joe Herbert

Degrowthers may remember 2020 as the year their ideas entered the mainstream, or at least the edges of it. As the coronavirus pandemic has prompted a renewed societal conversation around alternative futures, discussions of degrowth are increasingly popping up in surprising and high-profile outlets around the world. Whilst these appearances on major news sites are