Library

Scientific paper • 2016

Technologies for a Degrowth Transition

I'll broach the degrowth transition from the combined perspective of social construction of technology and world system theories. I'll seek to demonstrate how dominant technological complex functions to integrate yet thwart the advancement of semi-periphery. Narratives of a socially more just and ecologically more sustainable future would frequently have us believe that exising technologies...

Scientific paper • 2016

Technology and Innovation for the 22th century

By: Andrea Vetter, Karin Bradley, Petra Wächter, Petra Wächter, Stephan Hankammer

This is the second of a planned ‘trilogy’ of sessions on the contentious relationship between degrowth and technology. It represents the second of three subthemes of a special issue on technology and degrowth, which is currently being edited for the Journal of Cleaner Production. This special session focuses on practical implementation of technological development and innovation, which is...

Scientific paper • 2016

The contribution of traditional mountain livestock grazing to a sustainable food system.

By: Eneko Garmendia

Globalization of the food system, changes in rural lifestyles and new policies (e.g. CAP) are shaping the rural landscape threatening traditional activities like sheep farming in mountain areas. In this context, it becomes critical to assess the contribution of these activities to rural development, the provision of high quality food, conservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage, in order...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Co-Production of Energy Sufficiency

By: Martin Schweighofer

Energy consumption is deeply embedded in social practices of everyday life. Knowledge is a constitutive element of these practices and its purposeful production can be a way of governing their necessary transformation towards energy sufficiency. Knowledge production can be understood as a struggle for meanings, in which diverse actors engage with their epistemic work (Alasuutari & Qadir,...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Craft Utopia of William Morris

By: Dr. Laurence Davis

The Craft Utopia of William Morris William Morris (1834-1896) was one of the leading poets and prose writers of his day, and a pioneering designer and craftsperson. He was also a democratic socialist who, well in advance of the rise of modern ecologism, articulated a powerful and original utopian vision of a decentralist, stateless, directly democratic, and non-productivist form of socialism....

Scientific paper • 2016

The degrowth side of post-development (and vice versa)

By: Tzekou Eirini-Erifyli, Gritzas Giorgos

The degrowth side of post-development (and vice versa) Although it's been over 20 years since the first edition of "Development Dictionary" (Sachs, 1992), which marks the beginning of the debate on the end of the era of development and the transition to the age of post-development, and about 15 years since the emergence of the degrowth discourse as an activist slogan (Demaria et al, 2013), and...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Digital DIY phenomenon: challenge or opportunity for degrowth?

By: Marco Fioretti

Digital Do-It-Yourself (DiDIY) is a set of DIY activities and mindsets made possible by the availability of low cost software, digital communication networks and digital fabrication devices. Today, the most popular examples of DiDIY are 3D printing and the “Makers Movement”. DiDIY, however, is a much bigger phenomenon, with potentially huge effects on the economy and the environment. So far,...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Eastern-European gardening tradition through the lens of degrowth

By: Lucie Sovová

The post-socialist transition led the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries not only towards democracy but also towards capitalist economy. However, there have been some domains left intact by the processes of marketization and commodification. I will use the example of food self-provisioning and specifically urban gardening in the Czech Republic to describe the position of such...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Economy for the Common Good: an approach to alternative company practices in accordance with degrowth?

By: Jasmin Wiefek, Josefa Kny

The Economy for the Common Good (ECG) is a social movement as well as an alternative economic model that views the common good as the purpose of economic activity. Monetary profits are seen as a mere means. Enterprises participating in the ECG compile so-called common good balance sheets, which assess to which extent the company acts according to values, such as ecological sustainability and...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Emergence of Local Cooperatives and Social Enterprises in Peripheralized Areas in Germany – Motives, Actor Constellations and Institutional Context Conditions

By: Stefan Haunstein

The presentation aims to give insights into the emergence of local cooperatives and social enterprises in peripheralized areas in Germany, where both the profit-oriented economy and the public sector are failing to solve urgent needs and local people are implementing new economic approaches based on participatory and solidary principles. In this sense, the founders of such cooperatives and...

Scientific paper • 2016

The experience of the Italian Network for Sustainability and Health

By: Jean-Louis Aillon

Ivan Illich argued that a revolution in the health field is crucial and “integral to a society-wide criticism and restraint of the industrial mode of production”. Recently, in order to develop this stream of thought, several authors have tried to re-think health in the conceptual frame of degrowth and, in parallel, practical initiatives and networks have been developed. In this presentation,...

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

The interpretation of degrowth in local policy and planning

By: Katarina Buhr

A significant share of the literature on degrowth focuses on macro-level units of analysis such as the global or national economy, to discuss aspects such as market logics as a central organizing principle in society or the relevance of GDP as a welfare measure or as a barrier for long-term sustainable development on the global scale. Studies on degrowth that focus on the local scale, on the...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Luxury of not Having to Grow

By: Dr. Ulrike Solmecke

The paper addresses opportunities for degrowth concepts in East Asia and for diffusion pathways of social innovations between Europe and East Asia. Problems of jobless growth, social inequality, a seemingly irreversible trend of growing societal pressure to perform and an alarmingly deteriorating environment have given rise to a wide range of initiatives in East Asia in recent years. They are –...

Scientific paper • 2016

The “Movimento per la Decrescita Felice” (MDF)

By: Jean-Louis Aillon

MDF is a federation of 25 associations (“Clubs”) and 29 informal groups, spread in Italy both in urban and rural areas. MDF deems it is crucial to establish local roots, providing all interested people with the possibility to meet each other, discuss and work together for developing, practising and promoting a new cultural paradigm. The MDF local clubs are intended as means to achieve this...

Scientific paper • 2016

The need to reframe the notion of success of innovative technologies in capitalist systems

By: Sarah Niklas

The transition to a degrowth society should consider the notion, type and purpose of an electricity supply system and comprehend its interrelations within current capitalist systems. With the beginning of the energy transition in 2011, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions gradually decoupled from economic growth, by 2014 worldwide economic growth occurred alongside the reduction of energy-related GHG...

Scientific paper • 2016

The Notav Movement : toward a degrowth ecology ?

By: Grisoni

Since 1989, the Italian Notav movement, located in the Val di Susa (Piemonte) is opposed to the construction of a passing through a 57 km long tunnel railway line between Torino and Lyon. The corridor has been designed within the framework of the European Transportation Network, in the name of sustainability. But the Notav movement has never been only a local mobilization, such as so-called...

Scientific paper • 2016

Theoretical and historical perspectives on technology

By: Mauro Bonaiuti, Melf-Hinrich Ehlers, Mario Pansera, Pasi Heikkurinen, Lukáš Likavčan

This is the first of a planned ‘trilogy’ of sessions on the contentious relationship between degrowth and technology. It represents the first of three subthemes of a special issue on degrowth and technology, which is currently being edited for the Journal of Cleaner Production. The aim of this special session is to bring together different theoretical and historical perspectives on technology,...

Scientific paper • 2016

The possibilities of sufficiency

By: Åsa Callmer

Sufficiency as a mind-set - as in “good enough” rather than voluntary simplicity - is indeed a challenging thought in a society of consumption-driven individuals taught to equate materialistic accomplishments with status as well as with identity. However, to upgrade the value of sufficiency in the affluent society brings about potential for a reorientation towards sustainability. This paper...

Scientific paper • 2016

The razor's edge: Realist vs social constructivist conceptions of environmental limits

By: Tone Smith

When doing interdisciplinary science, we need criteria that can help us choose what to integrate. Not anything goes. Since interdisciplinary science does not have common concepts at the outset, researchers need to work from some other common denominator. If not, interdisciplinarity becomes too challenging. This paper argues that developing a consistent body of theory, while at the same time...