Library

Scientific paper • 2016

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

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,...

Scientific paper • 2016

Back from a Degrowth future? Emergence of the “cuvee organisation” in a backcasting research

By: Judit Gáspár, Szandra Koves, Réka Matolay

This paper presents the concept of “the cuvee organisation” that emerged as a result of a 2016 participatory backcasting research. Backcasting belongs to the family of normative scenario building exercises that envision futures of social establishments. Its novelty lies in the fact that rather than using the current state of affairs as a starting point in envisioning potential futures, it...

Scientific paper • 2016

Back to the future: a debate among socialists at the dawn of industrialism

By: Hatice Çıvgın

The beginning of the 19th century is considered as the dawn of industrialism, economics and socialism. When J. B. Say proposed the concept of industrialism, Charles Fourier, the father of socialism, immediately challenged the term. Similarly, Simond de Sismondi was another thinker who contested the concept. Later, however, in this era, industrialism became the mainstream ideology of both the...

Scientific paper • 2016

Between revolution and reform

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 fundamental change on the other...

Scientific paper • 2016

Between the enlarged scope of neoliberalism and the socialism that mutates: The sustainability dilemma in China’s overheated market for ‘fictitious commodities’

By: Xiaorui (Rae) Wang

Although everyone agrees to the idea of sustainability, this unanimous good intention has difficulties to turn into action. From the perspective of anthropological economics, the reason could be put into a rather simple way: To make economic activities sustainable, humans need to accept some serious trade-offs; and that is where it hurts. Nowadays, the whole world seems to have found itself in...

Scientific paper • 2016

Biodiversity conservation and poverty: a study of rural communities in a protected área, Bahia, Brazil

By: Campiolo

The relationship between biodiversity conservation and poverty are frequent themes in political, social, economic and environmental discussions. Poverty is a complex and controversial issue, and has several ways measure, but monetary perpective the most commonly used, although research on poverty reveal the importance of evaluating it under a multidimensional perspective. Studies have shown...

Scientific paper • 2016

Can citizen energy become a new paradigm in the context of the ecological transition in Romandy?

By: Monica Serlavos

Current environmental and socioeconomic challenges request fundamental changes at the heart of our societies. How these transformations will take place and towards which direction(s) still remains something to be imagined and co-constructed. Departing from the biophysical limits, but not only, of the dependence of our systems on fossil fuels to satisfy our needs, a transition to an alternative...

Scientific paper • 2016

Can degrowth and maintaining energy supply security go hand-in-hand in Europe?

By: John Szabo

Insuring European energy security in a degrowth environment, is essential in maintaining current levels of well-being. To transition toward a sustainable economy, the current, heavy reliance upon hydrocarbon imports needs to be tuned down and substituted with domestic energy production from renewable resources—primarily solar and wind—, leading to a substantial decrease in emissions emitted,...

Scientific paper • 2016

Can degrowth transition contribute to the wellbeing of rural residents?

By: Takashi Hayashi

Currently, rural areas in Japan face severe threats to its sustainability. The economic policy called “Abenomics” (named after the prime minister) puts much emphasis on reinvigoration of local economies. However, authors believe that, compared to urban residents, wellbeing of rural residents is more likely to be affected by factors other than economic ones. If so, degrowth transition might...

Scientific paper • 2016

Can technologies help to reduce the physical and human degradation in transition towards a degrowth society?

By: Patty L'Abbate

This article outlines the role that technology has to play in order to enable human beings to move towards a degrowth society. Against the background of the problems we face today, the authors E.E. Schumacher, N.Georgescu-Roegen and others have been re-examined. This work also explains the concepts of entropy and emergy and the “fourth” principle of thermodynamics revised in the light of the...

Scientific paper • 2016

Capitalism and (de)growth

By: Susan Paulson, Daniel O'Neill, Jennifer Hinton

The panellists of the evening panel will be stimulated by an engaged facilitator to juxtapose their views on the key challenges for degrowth. The panellists come from different parts of the world, hence viewing the challenges from different socio-economic and cultural perspectives. Their discussion will meander along the key topics of the day, outlining the key degrowth challenges, such as the...

Scientific paper • 2016

Carework as Commons: Towards A Feminist Degrowth Agenda

By: Bengi Akbulut

While discussions on degrowth transitions have emphasized the centrality of care work in post-growth societies, these often lack an adequate analysis of how this work will be organized, by whom it will be performed, under which conditions it will be realized and how its fruits will be shared. A parallel silence can be spotted in the way that the notion of the commons is understood and...

Scientific paper • 2016

Caring in urban space

By: Sara

Caring in urban space: Children care-sharing in Barcelona, Spain Sara Pierallini*, Giacomo D’Alisa*^ * Institute of Science and Environmental Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona; Spain. ^Research and Degrowth (R&D), Barcelona, Spain Corresponding author: e-mail: sara.pierallini@yahoo.com; Abstract In contemporary capitalist society the celebration of individualism,...

Scientific paper • 2016

Challenges in the transition towards sustainable development in Bulgaria

By: Aneliya Paneva

Challenges in the transition towards sustainable development in Bulgaria Abstract: An understanding of the causes for changes of ecosystems at the local and national level is essential for initiating learning processes and for designing interventions to reduce adverse environmental impacts. However, transition economies have not been studied much in this context. Taking Bulgaria as a case...

Scientific paper • 2016

Challenging the Status Quo

By: Heidi Leonhardt

The importance of economic growth within the current economic and political debate is striking. Growth is believed to solve most problems in European states, including high levels of public debt, high unemployment, or a lack of global competitiveness and investment attractiveness. There is not much debate, however, asking why growth is so indispensable both for states and companies. Given the...

Scientific paper • 2016

Challenging Turkey’s Energetic Metabolism

By: Alev

In the last two decades Turkey has been facing a major expansion and extension of its societal metabolism. This period has witnessed the rise of energy, mining and construction sectors as the engines of growth, operationalized under an ever-increasing autocratic form of governance under the unquestioned commitment to economic growth. This process has not only taken place through the overall...

Scientific paper • 2016

Climate, labour and nationalism – Polish uneasy transition towards a carbon-free and just society

By: Iwona Bojadzijewa

Viewed from the energy production perspective, the transition from “socialist” PRL (People’s Republic of Poland) to capitalist/neoliberal Poland hasn’t been significant. Both political formations underline/d their devotion to coal as primary source of energy and guarantor of country’s energy sovereignty. Today more than 80% of electricity is produced by coal burning. Despite major brakes...

Scientific paper • 2016

Closing plenary

By: Mladen Domazet, Vincent Liegey, Szandra Koves

A short summary of conference will be provided by a group of people who closely followed the discussions at the conference, outlining the main open challenges for the future, both for degrowth research and action. A space for reflection, proposals, feedback from participants. This media entry was a contribution to the special session „Closing plenary“ at the 5th International Degrowth...

Scientific paper • 2016

Commoning against the crisis

By: A.Varvarousis

Plan C&D - Commons & Democracy – has been proposed as an alternative to austerity and stimulus for a degrowth future, but how and why does it emerge, and what challenges does it face? The proposed paper studies new commons in the context of crisis, using Greece as a case-study. Our research registered a substantial increase of commoning in health care, food provision, urban living,...

Scientific paper • 2016

Community as institution in managing Scotland's seas

By: Glen Smith

Scotland’s seas and coasts are busy places. Well established industries such as oil and gas production, fishing and tourism have been joined in recent years by rapid growth in marine renewable energy development and aquaculture. A system of marine spatial planning is being introduced to manage this complex web of maritime activities. In theory this system allows for unprecedented levels of...