Library

Understanding the organisational dynamics and ethos of local degrowth cooperatives

By: Giovanni Cunico, Sebastiaan Deuten, I-Chun Huang

Scientific paper • 2020

Transition within a transition: how cooperative platforms want to change the sharing economy

By: Giorgos Kallis, Joël Foramitti, Angelos Varvarousis

Scholars have argued that the sharing economy represents a transitional pathway to sustainability. The growth, however, of multi-national giants, such as Airbnb or Uber, has created new environmental, social, and economic problems and led many to question the dominant form of the sharing economy. In this paper, we study a transition within a transition—that is the emergence of a new niche of...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - How can the concept of democratic ownership contribute to a social-ecological transformation?

By: Philipp Chmel

Presentation [part of the standard session "Co-operatives, work and degrowth"] The study explores how the concept of democratic ownership can contribute to a bottom-up, workers-led social-ecological transformation of the Austrian aircraft sector, targeting the Viennese airport in particular. Therefore, the study will involve qualitative interviews with workers and workers’ councils, following...

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Cooperative growth strategies for businesses beyond growth

By: Dirk Raith

Presentation [part of the standard session "Co-operatives, work and degrowth"] “Post-growth organizations” do face a dilemma: Growth allows them to increase their good impact. At the same time, it may have bad effects on themselves, as organizations. Against that background, we discuss various “cooperative growth strategies beyond growth” that promise to resolve that dilemma. Presenters: Dirk...

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...

Scientific paper • 2019

Watercooler Democracy: Rumors and Transparency in a Cooperative Workplace

By: Katherine Sobering

Abstract: This article examines how rumors impact democracy and transparency in a cooperative workplace. Although literature on rumors generally analyzes them as negative to workplace culture, the author argues that rumors constitute a critical aspect of democratic participation. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in a worker-recuperated business in Argentina, the author shows how...

Scientific paper • 2018

Common Good-Oriented Companies: Exploring Corporate Values, Characteristics and Practices That Could Support a Development Towards Degrowth

By: Jasmin Wiefek, Kathrin Heinitz

At present, little is known about the corporate characteristics that support a socio-economic development towards degrowth. Addressing this research gap, we conducted interviews with companies which have joined the Economy for the Common Good, a social movement which identifies the common good as the purpose of economic activity. Our analysis was guided by Latouche’s (2009) eight ‘R’s which, he...

Presentation • 2018

First North-South Conference on Degrowth-Descrecimiento, México City 2018 - Retos para el surgimiento de las cooperativas en la Ciudad de México: Modernidad liquida vs ethos barroco

By: Gerardo Luvián

El objetivo de este documento - presentado durante el primer día de la Conferencia bajo la temática "Supervivencia" - es analizar qué tipo de cooperativismo está surgiendo en la Ciudad de México, retos y posibilidades de expansión, a través de una revisión contrastada del comportamiento social que analiza Bauman (2000) y Echeverría (2011).

Presentation • 2018

First North-South Conference on Degrowth-Descrecimiento, México City 2018 - Mujeres en Movimiento en la perspectiva ecofeminista: descrecimiento y economía solidaria en Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil

By: Verônica Maria Bezerra Guimarães, Marise Massen Frainer

El diálogo entre descrecimiento y economía solidaria revela una potencialidad creativa de cambios a nivel local y regional, actuando en la microeconomía por la vía del ecofeminismo. Tal experiencia señala la imposibilidad de que exista libertad, si los medios de producción están enganchados a cualquier forma de explotación, colonización o subordinación del otro, incluidas ahí las mujeres.

Scientific paper • 2016

Assessment of the potential of Renewable Energy Sources Cooperatives (RESCoops) in Spain towards Sustainable Degrowth

By: Iñigo Capellán Pérez

The transition to renewable energies is at the heart of the Sustainable Degrowth (SD) proposals due to its potential to relocalize and democratize the energy generation in a sustainable way. In this paper, we review the development and current situation of RESCoops in Spain, assessing their strengths, barriers and opportunities as a means towards SD. This is an interesting case study since,...

Report • 2015

Vegetable Cooperative "Rote Beete"

By: Marc Menningmann

Short video about the vegetable cooperative "Rote Beete" and how they grew vegetable for the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig 2014.

Report • 2015

Is Europe staring at a second Renaissance?

By: Ashish Kothari

The publisher: Across Europe, as economies find themselves tottering in the face of deepening financial and social crises, various alternative initiatives are gaining ground, providing hope for a different future. Ashish Kothari writes on some of these.

Misc • 2015

Resist! Against a Precarious Future

By: Ray Filar (ed)

On the book by Rhiannon Colvin: Imagine that it’s 2025 and the world of work has changed. Today, we do labour out of passion, not obligation. Nobody has a low-paid job or has to balance multiple jobs just to make rent. Work gives us meaning and direction, but it does not define who we are. The three day working week means we have time to spend with friends and family, to contribute to our...

Scientific paper • 2015

Collective ownership in renewable energy and opportunities for sustainable degrowth

By: Conrad Kunze, Sören Becker

Community energy, Remunicipalisation, Energy cooperatives, Energy geography, Degrowth, Renewable energy, Energy transition

Report • 2015

Gemüsekooperative Rote Beete

By: Marc Menningmann

Kurzes Video zur Gemüsekooperative Rote Beete und wie diese für die Degrowth Konferenz in Leipzig 2014 Gemüse angebaut hat.

Misc • 2015

The Promise of “Open Co-operativism”

By: David Bollier

From the text: Is it possible to imagine a new sort of synthesis or synergy between the emerging peer production and commons movement on the one hand, and growing, innovative elements of the co-operative and solidarity economy movements on the other? That was the animating question behind a two-day workshop, “Toward an Open Co-operativism,” held in August 2014 and now chronicled in a new...

Scientific paper • 2014

Work and the Economy: The Decline Of Unions And The Role Of Worker Cooperative

By: Tenille Brown

labour law; unionized context; worker cooperatives; amateur economy; secure employment

Scientific paper • 2014

Human Scale Development – the case of energy cooperatives.

By: Salina Centgraf

Abstract: Energy cooperatives (EC) are an increasingly important player for the transformation processes of current energy systems towards sustainability and decentralization in Germany. In 2012 approximately 750 EC existed which mostly produce wind and solar energy. The democratic organisation of EC, related to the source of their financial assets, makes them a special actor for creating...

Scientific paper • 2014

Between Daily Practices and Political Action

By: Markus Flück

Abstract: My starting point is that the “green revolution” and free trade policies haven’t been successful towards solving hunger problems and might even endanger the nutrition system of the whole human society. On the consumption side, especially in the north, but also in the wealthy social classes in the south, feeding habits need more and more energy and produce too much rubbish. A hopeful...

Scientific paper • 2014

Cooperative Labor Beyond Growth

By: Jukka Peltokoski

Abstract: Economic growth in capitalism is structurally tied to the organization of labour as wage work. In capitalism an employee produces surplus for an employer to fulfill the economic anticipation invested in the firm. This 'growth imperative' is built inside the form of wage work. In the contemporary era of permanent economic and ecological crisis, the capitalistic growth has to be...