Library

Scientific paper • 2014

Availability Cascades & the Sharing Economy – A Critical Outlook at Collaborative Consumption

Abstract: In search of a new concept that will provide answers to as to how modern societies should not only make sense but also resolve the social and environmental problems linked with our modes of production and consumption, collaborative consumption and the sharing economy are increasingly attracting attention. This conceptual paper attempts to explain the emergent focus on the sharing...

Scientific paper • 2014

Degrowth and Climate Engineering

By: Frederike Neuber, Barbara Muraca

viable technologies; conviviality; Climate Engineering; climate change;

Scientific paper • 2014

Education in Sustainability – A Case of Business Administration

By: Farley Nobre

Sustainability, Business Administration, Design Thinking, Experiential Learning, Social Constructivism

Scientific paper • 2014

The delusion of decoupling, and policy options for mitigating the rebound effects and the environmental impact.

By: Jorgen Norgard

Abstract: When analyzing environmental problems, it is useful to apply the following simple equation for the environmental impact ‘I’, here representing energy consumption: I = P·A·T, With ‘P’ representing population, ‘A’ affluence per capita, and ‘T’ resource intensity, i.e. energy per affluence ‘A’. All three factors are in the equation coupled to ‘I’, and in general we should avoid using the...

Scientific paper • 2014

Conflicts over infrastructure and mega-projects in Europe: who, how and why?

By: Alfred Burballa Noria

Abstract: Infrastructure and urban projects in advanced capitalist societies have been contested by opposing movements for years mostly at a local and regional scale. However, the last years have seen the emergence of opposing movements which have become of national or even international concern and now seek to constitute alliances at an international level. By analysing 22 infrastructure and...

Scientific paper • 2014

The Conservation-Extraction Conundrum: The commodification of nature across vertical boundaries

By: Timothy Norris

private conservation, Peru, extraction, property institutions, de-growth

Scientific paper • 2014

Degrowth and Unemployment: The Implications of Okun's Law

By: Daniel O'Neill

Unemployment, Okun's law, degrowth, steady-state economy, labour productivity

Scientific paper • 2014

Systems of Finance in Transition

By: Silke Oetsch

Abstract: In this contribution I try to develop a typology of „progressive“ and „conformist“ systems of finance in projects of transition aiming at providing a set of criteria for civil society projects and preventing the political exploitation of progressive movements by conformist forces. By progressive I mean projects that promote the logic of provisioning, whereas conformist indicate those...

Scientific paper • 2014

THANCS – a process to address tensions that emerge in/with a transition towards sustainable development

By: Ines Omann, Felix Rauschmayer

ustainability transition, needs, tensions, sustainable lifestyles, quality of life

Scientific paper • 2014

Degrowth, Eco-socialism and Communitarian Organization

By: Enrique Ortega

Abstract: It seems necessary and urgent to establish a research net to integrate collaborative efforts between scientists concerned with degrowth and social and ecological recovery. We must develop a new Economic Science for critical analysis of global, macro-regional, national and micro-regional systems able to combine traditional parameters with new parameters needed to interpret new factors...

Scientific paper • 2014

SOCIAL CURRENCY AS AN INSTITUTION NEEDED FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

By: Ricardo Orzi

Abstract: The present work tries to recognize the importance of social-complementary currency systems for the sustainability of a social and ecological economy. The official currency and the current monetary systems promote an approach of perpetual growth, the predominance of the relation of competition in opposition to cooperation, and a mechanistic paradigm of society like a sum of...

Scientific paper • 2014

Microcapitalism- the end of compulsory growth (revised final version)

By: Walter Oswalt

Abstract: Inequality by Semi-Liberalism . Power-Equality by Radical Liberalism -Any step towards egalitarian power distribution will reduce the pressure for economic growth. Microcapitalism maximizes individual freedom and minimizes concentration of economic power and abolishes the compulsion to economic growth. This proposal for an egalitarian market economy without growth compulsion is one...

Scientific paper • 2014

The Forest Transition theory under scrutiny. Towards a Degrowth-inspired Land-Change Science

By: Iago Otero

Abstract: As an emerging new paradigm, degrowth is influencing and being influenced by different research fields and theoretical frameworks. In this paper I explore how degrowth may engage with land-change science. I focus on the Forest Transition (FT) framework, one of the main theoretical bodies of land-change science, and use it to illustrate some of the conceptual and empirical weaknesses...

Scientific paper • 2014

Saving (on) Water. Living in EcoSan Communities

By: Birke Dorothea Otto

Abstract: This case study explores how decentralised sewage infrastructures (also referred to as Ecological Sanitation) change the city. These low and high-tech eco-innovations in several urban building communities in Germany save water by recycling and reusing waste water and were installed as a critique of resource depletion and the wastefulness of urban life. This presentation focuses on two...

Scientific paper • 2014

The social housing. Government capital to private capital

By: Fernando Palma, Licenciado Eduardo Josué Pérez

Abstract: The increase in population and the steady exodus to the big cities, is a typical manifestation of modern cultural globalization based on the mobility of capital and workers in the capitalist mode of production. Every day more numerous human nuclei that are installed in cities and transforming them into great metropolises mega cities where they hope to find better job opportunities...

Scientific paper • 2014

Retooling for degrowth of cities in CEE countries, challenge and potential directions for action.

By: Lukasz Pancewicz

Abstract: Despite relatively mild effects of the world financial and economic crisis on Central and Eastern European cities, in the long run they face similar challenges that its western counterparts - falling birthrates and ageing populations, growing pressure of global economic competition that push for lower wages and increasing job insecurity as well as significant environmental challenges....

Scientific paper • 2014

The social construction of green and social inclusive technological discourses in the Global South: evidence from India and Bangladesh

By: Mario Pansera

Abstract: The process of technological innovation is widely considered to be crucial to enable human development and to guarantee environmental sustainability. However, the process of development in the so-called Global South has delivered controversial outcomes in terms of social and environmental sustainability. Does this setting present new forms of sustainable futures or is it rather...

Scientific paper • 2014

Degrowth, Democracy and the Mafia. How do we face the issue?

By: Giusy Pappalardo, Candidate Giusy Pappalardo, Filippo Gravagno, Mirko Maccarronello

Abstract: We question how groups aimed at implementing degrowth practices have to face social systems that are influenced by mechanisms of Mafia. We argue that anti-mafia practices are necessary steps in order to nurture degrowth. Specifically we tell about a metropolitan context and a rural context in Sicily, IT, being the first a marginalized satellite city and the second a derelict landscape...

Scientific paper • 2014

Degrowth Europe in a Convergent World: Differential Degrowth towards Equity within Planetary Boundaries

By: Jenneth Parker

Abstract: This paper will draw on the findings of the EU P7 CONVERGE project in ‘Re-thinking Globalisation’ in the light of Contraction and Convergence TM. In particular it will build upon ideas proposals developed at an international conference on a ‘New Social Contract for Sustainability’ which focussed on a new sustainability vision for Europe. The paper will argue that in order to pay due...

Scientific paper • 2014

Bhutan: Between Happiness and Horror

By: Lorenzo Pellegrini, Luca Tasciotti

Abstract: This study juxtaposes the congratulatory rhetoric surrounding Bhutan’s efforts to promote happiness and the gross violations of human rights that coincide with the happiness project. The academic debate has not reflected on the Janus-faced nature of the Bhutanese regime and the literature is replete with references to the Bhutanese happiness search. From these acclaims, it appears...