Library
After the Anthropocene: A Degrowth Perspective on the Shortest Geological Period of all Times
By: Andre Reichel
Abstract: The narrative of the »anthropocene« is gaining traction. On the bandwaggon we find classical environmentalists who are using the term as the starkest form of warning against human self-destruction, as well as technological optimists of a Kurzweilian kind eager to accelerate the path of human technological domination of nature. Regardless if there truly »is« something like the...
Degrowth, youth and utopia: understanding the roots of distress in order to take ownership of our future
By: Jean-Louis Aillon, Elena Dal Santo
youth, utopia, degrowth, future, distress, nihilism
Cultural Recovery Plan though architectural and urban elements: relations between Lorca and Leipzig
Immaterial Heritage, urban planning, identity, collective memory, know-how
Re-imagining reality and the making of post-growth worlds
By: Jeppe Graugaard
Abstract: If visions and strategies for a post-growth world are to be effective they will have to engage with the ways in which our sense of reality is imagined and produced symbolically, narratively and cognitively. This involves engaging with the way particular worldviews are constituted through a web of metaphors, cultural myths and social conventions, and brings into play the foundational...
A spatial Anthropology of the Changing Use of Urban Spaces in Tokyo, Japan
By: Heide Imai
Abstract: Cities like Tokyo face recently new, complex urban challenges. However, responses to the changing urban space are often reflected in the emergence of new cultural revivals or the forging of unknown, hybrid subcultures, which can be understood when studying the diverse ways people (re-) interpret small urban places in relationship to their changing lifestyles. This paper will discuss...
"A Degrowth Project in Hungary"
By: Vincent Liegey
Abstract: In 2011 a first book about Degrowth was published in Hungary: Latouche S., Farewell to Degrowth (Savaria). In January 2014, a second one was published, Liegey V. and Al., A Degrowth Project (Eszmelet). In this article, I will try to analyse the reception of Degrowth and in particular both these books among academics, medias, activists, and the public in the Hungarian context. This...
What have traditional hunter-gatherers got to say about happiness?
By: Aili Pyhälä
Abstract: The last few decades have witnessed a rapid increase in the number of studies addressing the concept of “happiness”. However, the existing literature is highly biased to a) income-related studies; b) modern, industrialized societies; and c) single case studies. There is scarce research on cross-cultural understandings of happiness, particularly from small-scale, preindustrial...
The threat of (not) being exploited: How inequality promotes growth dispositions
By: Tilman Reitz, Tine Haubner
Abstract: In discussions about the main growth drivers in our societies, two explanations often collide: a cultural account of growth dispositions and an economic account of capitalist growth imperatives. The planned contribution aims at bridging the gap between these accounts. Its central idea is that flexible global capitalism increasingly binds exploitation to the relative weakness and...
Societal Relations with Nature and Mental Infrastructures - A critical glance from Buen Vivir and Theravāda-Buddhism
Mental infrastructures; Societal relations with nature; Nature-culture-dualism; Buen Vivir; Theravāda-Buddhism
Culture and communication of a de-growth project. Some lessons from the case of the Brazilian Fora do Eixo Circuit
Abstract: Culture and communication are areas under the all-embracing infinite growth and development discourse, like the popular "creative industries" approach. However, such frameworks generate in many developing countries dynamics against de-growth projects, because they favor concentration and cultural dominance of small regions over larger ones. This justifies the need to increase research...
Economic versus ecological world view – ontologies as reality blinder
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...
THE FETISHISM OF PEDAGOGY AND THE REVOLUTION OF LOVE
Abstract: Our society shares a deep faith, an unquestionable belief that education is something good by its very nature. What I want to "dialogize" is that the education systems around the world, and schools in todays Super-Capitalism are the (1) depositories and reproducers of the structural injustice (2) the instruments of institutionalized dehumanization and (3) the manifestations of the...
Convivial and Emancipatory Technologies – suitable conceptions for Technology in a Degrowth Society?
By: Andrea Vetter, Bettina Barthel
Abstract: A degrowth society, like all human societies that ever existed, will need technology. But which conceptual frameworks could be suitable to denote such a “degrowth technology”? We look at two different proposals: first the idea of “Convivial Technologies”, coined in the 1970ies by the dissident thinker Ivan Illich and recently newly adapted in the “manifest for conviviality” written by...
Transformationsdesign: Wege in eine zukunftsfähige Moderne
By: Bernd Sommer, Harald Welzer
Kritik der Wachstumsgesellschaft und Forderung einens radikalen Wandels dieser Gesellschaft. Der Verlag: "Was wir brauchen, ist ein komplett anderes Leben, nicht das Auswechseln altmodisch gewordener Technologien gegen andere", so die Autoren. "Wiederverwenden, umnutzen, mitnutzen" muss das Credo einer neuen, reduktiven Moderne lauten. Doch wie lässt sich eine Kultur des Weniger gestalten?...
Cultural Agency – potentials and limits of current civic movements
By: Friederike Habermann, Leonidas Martin, Michael Narberhaus, Luise Tremel
Panel discussion at the the 4th International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Leipzig in 2014. Speakers: Leonidas Martin, Michael Narberhaus, Friederike Habermann Facilitation: Luise Tremel From the conference programme: New forms of living, working, protesting as well as new economic and democratic practices develop form inside society and form...
Suffizienz vs. Gegenkultur
By: Harald Welzer, Uwe Schneidewind, Anja Humburg
Diskussionsveranstaltung auf der 4. Internationalen Degrowth Konferenz für ökologische Nachhaltigkeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit in Leipzig im Jahr 2014. Sprecher: Harald Welzer, Uwe Schneidewind Moderation: Anja Humburg Aus dem Konferenz Programm: Die deutsche Postwachstumsdebatte ist eng verknüpft mit der dritten Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie: Suffizenz. Doch während manche Autoren auf die...
Wachstum: Nachdenken über einen Begriff
By: Deniz Utlu
Untertitel: Warum Güter-Zunahme und biologische Reife ein identisches Wort beschreibt Der Begriff Wachstum wird durchdacht, die Methaper des Wirtschaftswachstums beschrieben und kritisiert. Zitat aus dem Text: "Eine literarische Metapher, die scheitert, zerstört allenfalls den Text. Eine politische Metapher, die scheitert, bringt womöglich die ganze Gesellschaft in Gefahr."
[untitled] a space for monsters, ghosts and animals
By: friendly fire
[gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="100336,100337,100338,100339,100340"] From the conference programme: In a performative audiowalk friendly fire explores together with the visitors individual and collective transformations in all their visionary, dreamy, scary, eerie, threatening, monstrous or incredibly funny facets. Stroll around in the conference area equiped with an audioguide to find...
The Waiting Room | The Degrowth Performance Project
By: friendly fire, Peter Stamer, Diego Agullò, Clément Layes, Dmitry Paranyushkin, Fräulein Bernd, Lukas Bugiel, Sylvia Kadur, Maix Mayer, Anna Pescke, Angelika Waniek, Laris Hemken, Beide Messies
[gallery link="file" columns="6" ids="105195,105196,105197,105198,105199,105200,105201,105202,105204,105205,105206,105207,105208,105209,105210,105211,105212,105213,105214,105215,105216"] Performance-project by and with Peter Stamer, Diego Agullò, Clément Layes, Dmitry Paranyushkin, Fräulein Bernd, Lukas Bugiel, friendly fire, Sylvia Kadur, Maix Mayer, Anna Pescke, Angelika Waniek, Laris...
Aufbruchtage - Schuld und Lohn ...
By: Schattenblick
Bericht von der Degrowth Konferenz 2014 in Leipzig zur Veranstaltung "Growth, degrowth, and (the critique of) capitalism" mit Eric Pinault. Aus dem Bericht: Éric Pineault, Professor am Department für Soziologie an der Université du Québec in Montréal, mit seinem Vortrag über "Eine politische Ökonomie des Degrowth: die Widersprüche des Spätkapitalismus und der Imperativ eines ökologischen...