Library

Scientific paper • 2016

Degrowth and Capitalism

By: Dennis Eversberg, Barbara Muraca, Eric Pineault

Modern western societies stabilize themselves through economic growth. As long as growth is maintained, stability is continuously, yet dynamically restored. It is getting increasingly obvious that this dynamisation logic is reaching its limits, triggering negative effects for the socio-economic, political and cultural reproduction of capitalism. In industrialized countries, further growth seems...

Scientific paper • 2016

Economic values, capital accumulation and degrowth

By: Mikael Malmaeus

Historically, value theories used to be at the heart of critiques of capitalism. However, contemporary economists rarely focus on value theories, and the labor theory of value has not been discussed in relation to macroeconomic growth or in the context of degrowth. In this article it is theoretically and empirically demonstrated that economic values at the macroeconomic level are fundamentally...

Scientific paper • 2016

Engaging with the Plutocene: moving toward degrowth and post-capitalist futures

By: Kristoffer Wilén, Marko Ulvila

In our study, we take a closer look at the ‘Anthropos’ (i.e. the humans) who have caused the processes and changes in the environments, which then have led to the “Anthropocene”. The “Anthropocene” narrative is predominantly presented as something that the entire humankind, the human species, is responsible for. But what happens when you apply a class perspective to the analysis? Hence, we will...

Scientific paper • 2016

From Capitalism Towards Degrowth

By: Steffen Lange

Several recent contributions have discussed the feasibility of establishing a non-growing or a degrowth society within capitalism (Brand, 2014; Foster, 2011; Hahnel, 2012; Klitgaard, 2013; Magdoff & Foster, 2010). These analyses come to the conclusion that capitalism and degrowth are not compatible. A first set of reasons is connected to central dynamics of capitalism, in particular market...

Scientific paper • 2016

From capitalist accumulation to a solidarity economy

By: Barbara Muraca

In her keynote speech, Barbara Muraca will outline the key strategies for degrowth, specifically reflecting on the following topics, which are also the guiding topics of the third day of the conference: -Changing networks of production and consumption and driving political action -Degrowth as a fundamentally social challenge, involving structural changes of social practices, institutions and...

Scientific paper • 2016

How to construct the alternative to capitalism? Discovering the commons in the environmental justice movements

By: DEFNE

Environmental justice movements are taking place at an ever accelerating rate through out the world. Through mobilization of people with diverse societal backgrounds, race, ethnicity, age, gender and income levels, they not only challenge the existing state-society-economy spectrum but also contain important clues about an alternative to capitalism. As crisis vocabulary has become a chronic...

Scientific paper • 2016

Rethinking Degrowth with Diverse Economies (Panel 1)

By: Phedeas Stephanides, Esra Erdem, Esra Erdem, Bianca Elzenbaumer Fabio Franz, Lise Skou

Rethinking Degrowth with Diverse Economies (Panel 1): Narratives and visions of actually-existing degrowth praxis As there seems to be no alternative to the capitalist status-quo, the task of overcoming capitalism through degrowth appears daunting. This implicates that degrowth concepts become confined to either pre-capitalist cultures or a future society. How, then, might we escape this...

Scientific paper • 2016

Rethinking Degrowth with Diverse Economies (Panel 2)

By: Phedeas Stephanides, Tuomo Alhojärvi, Tuomo Alhojärvi, Bronwen Morgan

As there seems to be no alternative to the capitalist status-quo, the task of overcoming capitalism through degrowth appears daunting. How, then, might we escape this impasse and build an emancipatory narrative? This two-part session brings together researchers affiliated with the international Community Economies Research Network (CERN) to start this dialogue. Analyses inspired by locally...

Scientific paper • 2016

Solidarity organizations

By: Matthias Rätzer

Within a general orientation towards growth, ecologic (Meadows et al. 2004), economic (e.g.Martinez Alier 2009) as well as social (Hirsch 1976) problems remain unsolved. Modern approaches seek applicability in reduction of emissions (see Kyoto protocol, COP 21 2015) and Green-New-Deal-trade-offs to cope with a globalized village. The maxim is to produce, act and be ‘sustainable’ – but – within...

Scientific paper • 2016

The fanciful capacity of capitalist culture to buffer our existential fears : a review and a plea to release

By: Sarah Koller

Despite the repeated questionings of economic growth and the development of alternative economic theories, the growth imperative seems to remain unaltered. How can we understand this situation ? Would there be, beyond the institutional explanations, anything inside us that unconsciously agrees to preserve this dynamic ? An increasing body of studies in existential psychology explore...

Scientific paper • 2016

Understanding capitalism. Marx meets degrowth

By: Elke Pirgmaier

This paper is a theoretical contribution to the economics of degrowth. It is motivated by the fact that degrowth proponents attack capitalism for its drive for accumulation which relates to a range of socio-ecological crises. The emphasis on growth translates rather quickly into the development of concrete degrowth proposals. While the activist spirit is admirable, a profound understanding of...

Presentation • 2016

Capitalism and (de)growth

By: Susan Paulson, Jennifer Hinton, Daniel O`Neill, György Pataki

The discussion of the plenary "Capitalism and (de)growth" is outlining the key degrowth challenges, such as the internal contradictions of capitalism, exiting growth and comparing the transition experiences and potentials in the parts of the world where they originate from. Speaker: Jennifer Hinton, Daniel O`Neill, Susan Paulson Facilitator: György Pataki 31/08/2016, Degrowth Conference...

Misc • 2016

Adieu, Wachstum! Das Ende einer Erfolgsgeschichte

By: Norbert Nicoll

Norbert Nicoll liefert eine reichhaltige, kritische Darstellung der kapitalistischen Wachstumsidee. Er macht anschaulich, wie diese historisch entstanden ist, wie sie einen kleinen Teil Privilegierter reich gemacht hat und uns nun in eine Klima-, Energie- und Ressourcenkrise führt. In einer Tour de Force bringt er uns Fakten aus Ökologie, Ökonomie, Soziologie, Geologie, Geschichts- und...

Presentation • 2016

Degrowth Conference Budapest, 2016 - Between revolution and reform. A critical reflection of the degrowth discourse

By: Jan C. Zoellick

Presentation by Jan C. Zoellick Degrowth is a conglomerate of several streams of thought offering a variety of sometimes conflicting positions (Demaria et al., 2013). Some of these tensions smoulder inexplicitly below the surface of celebrated diversity. This proposal explicates the tension between conservative and reformist approaches on the one hand and revolutionary approaches driving for...

Presentation • 2016

Degrowth Conference Budapest, 2016 - Alternatives to Enculturation of Children into Consumers

By: Madalina Balau

Presentation by Madalina Balau In Romania all parents want to offer their children a better life and a better future, sometimes with their own sacrifice, yet the years following communist regime have brought unsustainable development, present in environmental degradation and social insecurity. After living in communism and knowing how bad it was, people have been accustoming for the last 26...

Scientific paper • 2015

The growth imperative revisited: a rejoinder to Gilányi and Johnson

By: Mathias Binswanger

Abstract: In Binswanger (2009) it was shown that in a simple circular flow model of a pure credit economy, positive growth rates are necessary in the long run in order to enable firms to make profits in the aggregate. If the growth rate falls below a certain positive threshold level, firms will make losses. Certain aspects of this model are challenged by the papers of Zsolt Gilányi and Reeves...

Interview • 2015

Sind wir noch zu retten?

By: Alexander Jung, Hor, Knaup, Samiha Shafy, Bernhard Zand

Titel “Story” des Spiegels “Der verheizte Planet" im Februar 2015. Es geht um den Klimawandel. Anlass für den Artikel ist das zeitnah veröffentlichte Buch von Naomi Klein “This changes everything”. In diesem Kontext taucht auch die “Degrowth Bewegung” im Artikel auf. Der Spiegel 9/2015, S.56 – 64 Zur Titelstory gehört auch ein Interview mit Naomi Klein: "Der kaputte Planet"

Interview • 2015

Die Grenzen der Megamaschine: Globale Krisen und der Kampf um echte Demokratie

By: Fabian Scheidler, David Goeßmann

Your browser does not support the video tag. Mit Fabian Scheidler, Buchautor ("Das Ende der Megamaschine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation"), Mitbegründer von Kontext TV Kontext-TV über den Beitrag: Nach mehrjähriger Recherchearbeit hat Kontext-TV-Redakteur Fabian Scheidler sein Buch "Das Ende der Megamaschine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation" vorgestellt. David Goeßmann...

Presentation • 2015

Naomi Klein: Capitalism vs. Climate

By: Naomi Klein

Kontext-TV: Naomi Klein: Canadian Journalist, best-selling author and activist, correspondent of "The Nation". Her latest book is called: "This Changes Everythin. Capitalism vs. The Climate". She is also author of "No Logo" and "The Shock Doctrine". Quelle: www.kontext-tv.de Original post on Kontext-tv.de

Presentation • 2015

Naomi Klein: Kapitalismus vs. Klima

By: Naomi Klein

Kontext-TV: Naomi Klein: kanadische Journalistin, Bestseller-Buchautorin und Aktivistin, Korrespondentin des US-Nachrichtenmagazins "The Nation". Ihr neues Buch ist vor Kurzem auf Deutsch erschienen: "Die Entscheidung. Kapitalismus vs. Klima". Bekannt wurde Naomi Klein durch Bücher wie "No Logo" und "Die Schock-Strategie. Der Aufstieg des Katastrophen-Kapitalismus". Einleitung: Die kanadische...