Library

The Threat of Rent Extraction in a Resource-constrained Future

By: Beth Stratford

Ecological economists aim to transform our economic institutions so that society can flourish within planetary boundaries. The central message of this article is that private rent extraction forms a key barrier to the realisation of that goal. I define rent as an economic reward which is sustained through control of assets that cannot be quickly and widely replicated, and which exceeds...

Public health and degrowth working synergistically: what leverage for public health?

By: Marie-Jo Ouimet, Pier-Luc Turcotte, Louis-Charles Rainville, Yves-Marie Abraham, David Kaiser, Icoquih Badillo-Amberg

The climate crisis represents the biggest public health threat of our time. It interacts with the rising inequalities, chronic diseases and mental illness widely associated with our dominant economic system. Though degrowth and public health approaches differ, both share common values. The former proposes a new paradigm intended to halt the destruction of life-supporting systems by infinite...

Die partizipative Marktwirtschaft

By: Jens Mayer

Was haben systematische Steuervermeidung durch sämtliche DAX-Konzerne, Josef Ackermanns Geburtstagsfeier im Kanzlerinnenamt oder die Legalität von Hochfrequenzhandel und Schattenbanken mit „sozialer Marktwirtschaft“ noch zu tun? Jens Mayer legt zunächst in der Analyse den Finger in die Wunde der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft, die nur noch zum Teil als Realität existiert, danach skizziert er konkrete...

From sustainable development to degrowth: philosophical and educational strategies for sustainability

By: Yurii Mielkov

The article is dedicated to analyzing the philosophical and educational grounds for the sustainable development of humankind. The growth of human civilization is already recognized to have its strict natural limits, and that has resulted in the formulation of the concept of sustainable development as a strategy for the future of humankind. However, there is some discrepancy noted in the concept...

Misc • 2019

A blog series on strategy in the degrowth movement

By: Nathan Barlow

My colleagues and I wrote an initial blog post arguing that the question of strategy has received too little attention in the degrowth movement, and by degrowth scholars. Further, we observed that the discourse on strategy in degrowth was excessively plural, being open to all strategies in all contexts, rather than considering case-appropriateness (spatially, temporally,

Misc • 2019

On strategies for socioecological transformation

By: Panos Petridis

Misc • 2019

A regular conference is a convivial powwow that the degrowth community relies on

By:

In 2008, a few years after the birth of “décroissance” in France, we organized the first International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Paris. Only ten years later, in 2018, we promoted three large international events in the same year: the 6th International Degrowth Conference in Malmö – following Barcelona, Venice, Leipzig

Misc • 2019

Before strategy, who is strategising?

By: Jocelyne Sze, Omar Saif

This article is part of a series on degrowth.info discussing strategy in the degrowth movement. The introduction to the series and an ongoing list of contributions can be found here. In the article “Beyond visions and projects…”, by Herbert, Barlow, Frey, Ambach, and Cigna, the authors persuasively set out the case for a more explicit

Misc • 2019

Degrowth and transformation: a reflection

By: Christos Zografos

This article is part of a series on degrowth.info discussing strategy in the degrowth movement. The introduction to the series and an ongoing list of contributions can be found here. In a previous piece in this blog series, Joe Herbert and colleagues pointed out the “how to move towards a degrowth society” gap in degrowth

Scientific paper • 2019

Bringing Class Analysis Back in: Assessing the Transformation of the Value-Nature Nexus to Strengthen the Connection Between Degrowth and Environmental Justice

By: Emanuele Leonardi

The article aims at showing the relevance of understanding the transformations of class composition for strengthening the connection between degrowth and environmental justice (EJ). In particular, I suggest the heterodox line of Autonomist Marxism as enabling factor of such connection. From an ecological perspective, the changing components of the working-class can be grasped by assessing the...

Misc • 2019

What happens to wellbeing when economies do not grow?

By: Andrew Fanning

Ten years ago G20 leaders committed a staggering $5 trillion of public funds to rescue the banks and restore growth during the largest economic contraction in modern times. The economies of an unprecedented number of countries — and their associated environmental footprints — experienced very low growth over the decade that followed.

Misc • 2019

Degrowing the population?

By: Kumar Bhattacharyya

The topic of population growth is often omitted from any debate regarding environmental impact in all academic circles ranging from classical to heterodox. While it is undeniable that the global population is increasing and will continue to increase for some time, no serious address towards the seemingly obvious relationship between population growth and environmental degradation

Misc • 2019

A Ideologia do Decrescimento

By: Arminda Sousa Deusdado

Episódio do magazine semanal Biosfera, que marca a agenda ambiental portuguesa "Vivemos a era da obsessão do crescimento económico infinito. Mas o planeta já está em sobrecarga. Aonde iremos buscar os minerais, água, solo e energia para sustentar uma sociedade que quer sempre mais? A ideologia do decrescimento apresenta-se como alternativa e quer reformular a economia de forma a não explorar...

Misc • 2019

Multiple perspectives on the March 15th, Global Climate Strike in Vienna

By: Nathan Barlow, Colleen Schneider, Nikolai Weber, , Frederik Amann

Organization and planning of the Strike by Colleen Schneider In January a coalition of activist groups in Vienna discussed potential collaborations. Considering what momentum could be generated and what activities it made sense to collaborate on – the Global Climate Strike in Vienna was thus planned for 15 March. 

Misc • 2019

Multiple Perspektiven des Weltklimastreiks in Wien am 15. März 2019

By: Nathan Barlow, Colleen Schneider, Nikolai Weber, und Frederik Amann

  1) Organisation und Planung des Weltklimastreiks von Colleen Schneider Die Planung des Weltklimastreiks begann bereits im Jänner 2019. Hier gründete sich eine Koalition verschiedener Aktivist_innengruppen in Wien, die die Potentiale  einer Zusammenarbeit auslotete und diskutierte welche Projekte und Aktivitäten umgesetzt werden könnten. So entstand die Idee, sich am Weltklimastreik...

Scientific paper • 2019

Complementarity between the EJ movement and degrowth on the European semiperiphery: An empirical study

By: Mladen Domazet, Branko Ančić

Abstract: Inspired by the thesis that an alliance between degrowth and environmental justice (EJ) movements is essential (Akbulut et al., this issue), this paper presents the findings of empirical research concerning the pitfalls and possibilities of such an alliance as understood by prominent Croatian EJ movement leaders. We outline the context of the Croatian EJ movement...

Misc • 2019

Manchester will host the next International Degrowth and International Society for Ecological Economics joint conference in 2020

By: Social Equity

The Support Group of the International Conferences on Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity met in Villarceaux, outside Paris, at the end of January. It was decided that the 7th International Degrowth Conference will take place in Manchester at the beginning of September 2020.

Misc • 2019

Introducing degrowth into economics

By: Matthias Schmelzer

A review of Giorgos Kallis’ new book Although the number of publications about degrowth has been exploding in the last decade – with hundreds of articles as well as dozens of edited volumes and special issues already published – until now there had not been a single academic monograph systematically outlining what degrowth is all

Misc • 2019

Time and catastrophism on the magic mountain

By: Gareth Dale

At the recent World Economic Forum (WEF), a gathering of business and political leaders in Davos, it was noteworthy that WEF Director, Klaus Schwab, attempted to integrate ‘time’ into his diagnosis of the ecological crisis. “Shorter terms of office cut time horizons for decision-makers. The urgent scientific message on climate change finds it hard to

Misc • 2019

Transformative economics on both sides of the Atlantic – Comparing the new economy movement and degrowth movement

By: Nathan Barlow

Two movements have emerged on either side of the Atlantic with the aim of transforming the economy in the U.S. and Europe –the new economy movement and the degrowth movement respectively. Both movements gained momentum after the financial crisis, and have since flourished nascent social movements composed of practitioners, academics, and activists loosely organized through