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Scientific paper

Text

Flourishing in low-carbon just futures?

Author:
Eléonore Fauré

Entry type:
Scientific paper

Year of publication:
2016

Publishers:
Budapest 2016

Language:
English

Tags:

This paper describes how daily life could turn out 2050 in normative scenarios for developments beyond traditional GDP growth for Sweden. Four scenarios have been developed in a previous phase of a transdisciplinary project: 1) collaborative economy, 2) local self-sufficiency, 3) automatization for quality of life, and 4) circular economy in the welfare state. These scenarios all fulfill a GHG-target in order to keep global warming under 1,5° Celsius (corresponding to a maximum of 0,82 tons CO2 eq. consumptive emissions per capita per year). The aim of this paper is twofold; first to illustrate what a day could be like for a Swedish resident or groups of residents if the GHG target in Sweden is fulfilled, and then to discuss this from a degrowth and social-ecological justice perspective. Notions such as sharing and conviviality will frame the discussion and we will also reflect upon how different groups in society (depending on e.g. gender, socio-economic groups) may be affected. For the first two scenarios, interviews have been conducted with individuals who have already actively chosen to live in self-sufficiency or through sharing practices. For the other two, changes will be more top-down, and it was difficult to find interviewees already living close to the life depicted in the scenarios. We have instead interviewed people partly practicing an automatized lifestyle or using circular economic services. The intent is not an exact assessment of the feasibility of the goals but an attempt to connect so far theoretical climate goals to concrete examples of what daily life could look like and how it relates to important aspects of degrowth and social-ecological justice.


This media entry was a contribution to the special session „Flourishing in low-carbon just futures? “ at the 5th International Degrowth Conference in Budapest in 2016.

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