Read the full version of the open letter here
The current economic downturn is not Degrowth, even if some people misleadingly call it that. Degrowth means ensuring everybody's basic needs are met by transforming our societies. With policies in place to do that, we could shut down much of the economy for months and everyone would still have enough food, shelter, and healthcare. In a Degrowth society, with relocalized economies, a pandemic like COVID-19 would be less likely, would spread less, and would cause less suffering. The economic crisis triggered by the pandemic is related to our dependence on growth. All interested individuals and organizations are invited to engage in an open debate to re-envision economy and society in the wake of the corona crisis. From May 29 to June 1, the (now online) international conference “Degrowth Vienna 2020: Strategies for a Social Ecological Transformation” will be held, and the Global Degrowth Day on June 6th.Catalan Croatian Danish Dutch French German Greek Hungarian Italian Korean Mandarin Portuguese Russian Slovenian Spanish Swedish Turkish
The following text is an excerpt from “Towards an Ecology of Care: Basic Income Beyond the Nation-state (unpublished). Even though the degrowth movement has shown the limits of our civillization’s obsession with growth, and has promoted and proposed complementary currencies, the degrowth critique has yet to consider the role that money/credit creation plays more explicitly. Ecological ec...
Call for participation On 7 and 8 July 2017, the Leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) will meet in Hamburg. This self-styled club of 19 of the most powerful economies in the world and the EU claims to fight global crises. However, reality reveals a different picture: The G20 defends a system that exacerbates social disparities instead of leading policies against deprivation and hunger and...
By Corinna Burkhart Humans get used to quite a lot of things and live their daily life through a set of what we can call habits. Everyday experiences are not much worth a thought as long as everything is like it always is. This can be driving by car to town, only to get stuck in the usual traffic jam, or something very simple like flushing the toilet or using knife and fork to eat a grilled pi...