Library

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Co-operatives, Work and Degrowth

By: Patrik Gažo, Philipp Chmel, Dirk Raith, Jéssica Chainho Pereira

Standard session (discussion following 4 presentations) Degrowth Cooperatives as Alternative to the Development Paradigm: The Case of the Integral Minga Cooperative The session will start by explaining the objectives of the study, the theoretical framework on post-development, degrowth and cooperativism. Then, the studied cooperative and the methodology used will be explained. Finally, the...

Misc • 2020

Eco-productivism: Ecological transition is a political issue

By: Louison Cahen-Fourot

In a recent op-ed published in Le Monde, French economist – and Emmanuel Macron’s economic program inspirer – Jean Pisani-Ferry argued that economic growth was necessary to fight against climate change and called for eco-productivism. The following op-ed is a reply to Pr. Pisani-Ferry that was originally published in Le Monde (in French).

Misc • 2020

Farmers and a degrowth economy in Russia

By: Teodor Shanin

Perspectives from Eastern Europe and particularly Russia are so far underrepresented in degrowth debates. Translated from its original Russian, the piece below showcases an interview with a prominent Russian academic, Teodor Shanin, discussing degrowth in the Russian context through the lens of agriculture. Accordingly, it enables new audiences to gain an insight into this underrepresented

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - A framework to move policy-making in the EU beyond growth

By: Jonathan Barth

Presentation [part of the standard session "Institutional Change 2"] The session introduces an online toolbox to guide policy-making beyond growth. Based on a literature review, we structure post-growth policies along 17 objectives, 101 transformative changes and 260 instruments. The framework shows what means other than economic growth can achieve political ends. Presenters: Jonathan Barth...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - A Green New Deal without growh

By: Riccardo Mastini

Presentation [part of the standard session "Institutional Change 2"] The Green New Deal offers a powerful vision for how to deploy industrial policies to coordinate the overhaul of a country’s energy system and decarbonize its manufacturing and agricultural sectors. However given the elusiveness of absolute decoupling degrowth policies must accompany this transition. Presenters: Riccardo...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Buen vivir in Germany

By: Timmo Krüger

Presentation [part of the standard session "Regional Transformations"] Buen Vivir goes beyond criticism and rejection. It has an utopian surplus. European activists adopted it to make positive visions thinkable and expressible. The fluctuating relevance of Buen Vivir can be traced back to the course of political struggles both in the Andean countries and in Europe. Presenters: Timmo Krüger...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Strategies for Transformation: Agency and Alliances in Rural Alternative Movements in Japan

By: Norie Tamura, Hein Mallee

Presentation [part of the standard session "Regional Transformations"] Embedding human lives again into the local ecosystem may help to reverse overexploitation and to foster degrowth lifestyles. To discuss transition strategies for alternative lifestyles, we analyze two niche developments in Japan: the fishery-forest movement and the self-employed forestry movement. Presenters: Norie Tamura...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Transformation, Design and Utopias

By: Bernd Sommer, Antonia Ney, Joy-Fabienne Lösel

Standard session (discussion following 2 presentations) Sustainability, transformation & utopias The presentation discusses the role of positive visions for a transformation towards a more ecologically sustainable and socially just society. Firstly, it is argued that in the context of modern societies something like ecological sustainability can already itself be regarded as a stark...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Transformation by design?

By: Antonia Ney, Joy-Fabienne Lösel

Presentation [part of the standard session "Transformation, Design and Utopias"] The central question of socio-ecological transformation is whether it will take place “by design” or “by disaster” (Sommer/Welzer 2014:27). In the discourse this question is rhetorically answered with “by design”. But what role does design play in social-ecological transformation? The lecture will present...

Misc • 2020

How to degrow amerikkka: Reflections after the 2020 U.S. presidential election

By: KC Legacion

It’s been about a week since the 2020 presidential election in the United States was called for former-Vice President Joe Biden, and the dust has anything but settled. As a new presidential administration prepares to replace the current one (which has openly declared its refusal to leave), where does this leave the degrowth movement in

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Bursting Platform

By: Maša Hawlina, Asja Hrvatin, Nicoleta Nour, Sara Pistotnik, Lana Zdravković, Ajda Pistotnik

Special session Bursting Platform is bringing under a spotlight feminization of politics and exploration of possibilities of co-creating and opening a new political space – a platform for building stronger connections between various initiatives, places, women activists covering diverse, but relevant topics that bring into effect needed new alliances. Five themes will be presented by five...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Civil disobedience as a strategy for degrowth

By: Sarah Fromm, Simon Schöning

Workshop Civil disobedience is emerging as a key element employed in the fight for environmental and climate justice and for raising awareness about some of the most urgent crises. The aim of the session is to develop a better understanding of civil disobedience and how it may be used strategically in the degrowth process. Nonviolent protest played a fundamental role in the anti-apartheid...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Knowledge production for degrowth

By: François Briens, Fabrice Flipo, Camille Besombes, Maura Benegiamo, Madina Querre, Paul Lacoste, Simon Grudet, Aude Lapprand, Maëlle Frétigné

Workshop We offer a workshop focused on our needs in terms of knowledge production in a society turned towards degrowth. We will highlight the work of fifty researchers, activists and students on the production of an alternative research scenario, called Horizon Earth. The workshop will revolve around four phases of presentation and discussion : The research scenario’s development and...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Effective Strategies towards the Good Life for All within planetary boundaries

By: Dirk Holemans, Andreas Novy

Workshop Based on a thesis paper inspired by Polanyi´s reflections on “freedom in a complex society” the workshop discusses effective strategies for a Good Life for All within planetary boundaries. The thesis paper proposes three new pillars for more effective strategies: (1) acknowledging the importance of a strong state that enables public-civic partnerships, (2) overcoming the focus on...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Towards a City of Solidary Degrowth

By: Timmo Krüger, Anton Brokow-Loga, Frank Eckhardt, Evelyn Markoni, Kris Krois, Viola Schulze Dieckhoff, Christian Lamker

Special session Book presentation: How do we want to live, work, relax today and tomorrow? How do we create a good life for everyone in the city? While niche initiatives are already beginning to answer these questions, there is still a lack of comprehensive concepts and approaches to transformation that would outline a fundamentally different, solidarity-based city. The Degrowth City...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Good Housing for All: Strategies for Social Ecological Transformations of the Housing Sector

By: François Schneider, Gabu Heindl, Anton Brokow-Loga, Willi Hejda

Panel discussion The COVID-19 crisis reveals once more that housing is a matter of social distribution of wealth and privileges. The current situation stresses the need to find a common understanding of strategies to realise a social ecological transformation towards degrowth in the context of housing. Overcoming unaffordable, anti-social and unsustainable housing policies and practices in...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Strategies for the Transformation of Work – Degrowth perspectives

By: Juliet Schor, Will Stronge, Anna Daimler, Nikolina Rajković

Panel discussion This panel assembles experts from research and practice to discuss strategies for a degrowth transformation of work, spanning the whole flourishing degrowth repertoire: Work time reduction and work-sharing, UBI and UBS, social infrastructure, cooperatives, workers’ self-management, just transition and trade union perspectives, sectoral transformation and selective degrowth, as...

Scientific paper • 2020

A degrowth perspective on the coronavirus crisis

By: Constanza Hepp, Joëlle Saey-Volckrick, Joe Herbert, Nathan Barlow, Nick von Andrian, Andro Rilović, Jacob Smessaert

This letter will consider three points in detail: first, how the COVID-19 crisis is by no means degrowth; second, how COVID-19 shows that degrowth is needed; and finally, why COVID-19 indicates the potential for a degrowth transformation. Visions for Sustainability, vol. 14, december 2020

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Degrowing the food sector: how to build democratic food policies

By: Julianna Fehlinger, Olivier De Schutter, Genevieve Savigny, Armin Bernhard, Line Rise Nielsen

Panel debate The aim of the panel is to develop a common understanding of how a socially and ecologically sustainable food systems can look like. To achieve this, we draw on existing practices and strategies of local and regional initiatives which promote sustainable food systems. There exists already a variety of collectives, networks, and food system approaches, which create opportunities...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 – Work

By: Timothée Parrique, Gabriel Trettel Silva, Andre Cieplinski

Standard session (discussion following three presentations) Work time reduction in a degrowth context: for the North or for all? Currently, most of the calls for work time reduction in a degrowth context focus on the global North and disregard the global South. I argue that advocating for work time reduction as a shared interest between North and South socio-environmental movements could...