Library

Scientific paper • 2016

Frugal Abundance in an Age of Limits: Envisioning a Degrowth Economy

Abstract: How would the ordinary middle-class citizen deal with a lifestyle of radical simplicity? Radical simplicity does not mean poverty, which is involuntary and full of suffering and anxiety, and thus universally undesirable. Rather, it means a very low but biophysically sufficient material standard of living. This chapter directly addresses the issue of “two types of austerity”, arguing...

Misc • 2016

Is being “punk as f*ck” really where it’s at?

By: Rob Hopkins

Rob Hopkins offers a Transition take on a recent blog by Sam Bliss, Aaron Vansintjan called ‘Degrowth Is Punk as F*ck‘. > Blog post ‘Degrowth Is Punk as Fuck‘

Scientific paper • 2016

Degrowth: A missile word that backfires?

By: Miklós Antal, Stefan Drews

Keywords: Growth-versus-environment debate; Degrowth; Language; Cognition; Snap judgment; Public understanding

Presentation • 2016

How Economism Became Our Religion

By: Richard Norgaard

Publisher: Economism pervades our political discourse even while it is obviously false: growing and globalizing the U.S. economy have not helped the poor, lower taxes have led to collapsing bridges and poorer schools, and reducing regulations have hastened environmental destruction. These and other beliefs, or economism, have been perpetrated in the name of economics and gained credence...

Misc • 2016

Decoupling: A Dangerous Fantasy

By: Robert Fletcher

Teaser: Decoupling offers a dangerous neoliberal fantasy that we can overcome environmental limits to indefinite economic growth. From the article: . . . While asserting the necessity of dramatic decoupling for any hope of genuine sustainable development within a growth-dependent economy, in short, UNEP simultaneously admits that: 1) there is virtually no evidence that decoupling works; 2) the...

Misc • 2016

Limits to growth: policies to steer the economy away from disaster

By: Samuel Alexander

From the text: . . . Others have shown why limitless growth is a recipe for disaster. I’ve argued that living in a degrowth economy would actually increase well-being, both socially and environmentally. But what would it take to get there? In a new paper published by the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, I look at government policies that could facilitate a planned transition beyond...

Misc • 2016

Keep Connecting Dots

By: TheRulesOrg

The publisher about the video: What do rising sea levels in Bangladesh, the break up of public utilities in Ghana and austerity in the UK have in common? They’re all part of the same global story. The story of one global economy that connects various economic, political, environmental and societal crises faced by communities around the world. By asking questions of this story - how is...

Misc • 2016

What will spark a degrowth movement in the USA?

By: Sam Bliss

Subtitle: Thinking smaller in a country where everything is big From the text: . . . Degrowth means downscaling the human enterprise to share the world nicely with other species and our grandchildren. Degrowth means distributing wealth equitably and prioritizing needs over wants. But why the word “degrowth” anyway? A lively, complex debate rages over whether the term is useful or harmful. I...

Misc • 2016

Der Schritt zur Seite

By: Marc Hieronimus

Der Verlag über das Buch: „Alles anhalten. Nachdenken. Und das ist keine traurige Angelegenheit.“ So lautete das Motto einer französischen Comic-Kolumne der Siebziger Jahre, als weltweit die letzten Utopien geschrieben wurden. Vierzig Jahre später haben sich Krempel und Rummel vervielfacht, und die Welt steht am Abgrund: Klimawandel, Verseuchung der Böden, der Meere, der Luft und das größte...

Scientific paper • 2016

Degrowth and Ecological Economics in 21st Century Spain: Toward a Posthumanist Economy

By: Luis I. Prádanos

From the text: ". . . In the next few pages, I will lead with the way Spanish authors I mentioned unveil some of the unscientific assumptions behind the neoclassical and neoliberal economics that currently dominate the global scenario in general, and the European Union debate in particular. I then will analyze the common ground within the alternatives proposed by these writers. [. . .] Finally,...

Report • 2016

Kontrollverlust: RWE und die Braunkohle im Rheinischen Revier

By: Karin de Miguel-Wessendorf, Matthias Holland-Letz

WDR 5: Der nordrhein-westfälische Energiekonzern RWE steht mächtig unter Druck. Jahrzehntelang produzierte er Strom aus Braunkohle – und entwickelte sich zu Europas größtem Erzeuger von klimaschädlichem CO2. Und nun? Der Riss geht mitten durch das Rheinische Revier, die Region zwischen Aachen und Köln. Auf der einen Seite stehen der Energiekonzern RWE und seine 9.000 Mitarbeiter, die weiterhin...

Scientific paper • 2016

Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?

By: Robert Costanza, James D. Ward, Paul C. Sutton, Adrian D. Werner, Steve H. Mohr, Craig T. Simmons

Abstract: The argument that human society can decouple economic growth—defined as growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—from growth in environmental impacts is appealing. If such decoupling is possible, it means that GDP growth is a sustainable societal goal. Here we show that the decoupling concept can be interpreted using an easily understood model of economic growth and environmental...

Scientific paper • 2016

New narratives for innovation

By: Mario Giampietro, Roger Strand, Andrea Saltelli, Kjetil Rommetveit, Silvio Funtowicz

Keywords: Sociotechnical imaginaries; Post-normal science

Scientific paper • 2016

Surrendering to growth? The European Union's goals for research and technology in the Horizon 2020 framework

By: Jan Pollex, Andrea Lenschow

Keywords: European Union; Research policy; Sustainability; Degrowth and policy; Information and communication technology; Horizon 2020

Scientific paper • 2016

Bike Kitchens – Spaces for convivial tools

By: Karin Bradley

Keywords: Democratisation of technology; Degrowth; Bike Kitchen; Conviviality; Low-tech; Do it yourself

Scientific paper • 2016

Tools for degrowth? Ivan Illich's critique of technology revisited

By: Silja Samerski

Keywords: Degrowth; Technology; Ivan Illich; Conviviality; Disembodiment

Misc • 2016

From neoliberalism to ecologism: what needs to happen next?

By: Nick Meynen

Teaser: The alternatives to neoliberalism - including a new community type of agriculture and community-owned green energy, local currencies, peer-to-peer networks and a sharing economy - are already here and unfolding right now. All we need is a revolution writes NICK MEYNEN

Misc • 2016

Theses on Saving the Planet

By: Richard Smith

Degrowth, green capitalism and the promise of ecosocialism From the article: . . . What to do? Mainstream economists have had two approaches. Economists such as Herman Daly, Tim Jackson, and Serge Latouche have advocated “degrowth.” The idea is that capitalism can be slowed down, made to run at a “steady state” or even to “degrow.” I have argued elsewhere that these theorists just don’t...

Misc • 2016

Why the Economy Should Stop Growing—And Just Grow Up

By: David Korten

Teaser: “How do we grow the economy?” is an obsolete question. Local initiatives across the world are looking for maturity instead as they rebuild caring, place-based communities and economies. From the text: . . . But children and adolescents grow. Adults mature. It is time to reframe the debate to recognize that we have pushed growth in material consumption beyond Earth’s environmental...

Misc • 2016

For a Politics of Conviviality

By: Frank Adloff, Andrea Vetter, Ina Kerner, Sérgio Costa,

From the text: . . . A convivial politics would have to lead—on behalf of the equality of all people—the fight against excessiveness on one hand, and inequality on the other hand. Concretely, this means the fight against poverty and extreme wealth. One possibility for this would be an unconditional, basic income and a maximum income limit. For example, public procurement contracts would be...