This book results from the 2019 ANZSEE conference, which explored appropriate approaches and techniques for re-balancing the human–nature interactions that are central to the study and practice of ecological economics — solutions now and in the future. Escalating impacts of climate change and ecological crises have created an urgency to address significant local to global environmental and social problems — degrading forests and agricultural land, polluted waterways and oceans, and dislocated social and cultural systems. A number of presenters to the conference including executives on the board of ANZSEE have contributed chapters to the book.
“Men in power have rationalized all those forms of domination by claiming that they facilitate economic development, which is purportedly great for people and nature. Sound familiar?”
After decades on the defensive, the left has once again started to embrace positive visions of the future.
Conferencia de la Plenaria del Martes por Homero Aridjis: “Supervivencias de un mundo mágico”
An archaeologist’s perspective on degrowth.
Nicht gescheitert, aber falsch erzählt. Was Degrowth vom Demokratischen Sozialismus von Corbyn und Co. lernen kann.
The COVID-19 crisis shows what degrowth in the global tourism industry could look like. But it would need much more concerted planning to address the social impacts of this transition.
Donnie Maclurcan Ph.D. and Crystal Arnold from the Post Growth Institute (http://postgrowth.org) explore how the coronavirus is affecting both global and local economies, and what you can do to help to ensure we manage this moment wisely. Short presentations are followed by questions and answers.
Aaron Timms shares his impressions of the Degrowth Summer school, and life at Can Decreix in Cerbère.
This article appeared in The New Republic, on January 27th 2020
A new podcast by “Political Economy for the End Times”, interviewing Gareth Dale. The topics discussed are capitalist time vs. ecological time, catastrophism and civilisation collapse, ideologies of economic growth, green growth, socialist techno-utopianism, degrowth, and the Green New Deal.
This working paper presents a stock-flow consistent (SFC) simulation model of a national economy, calibrated on the basis of Canadian data. LowGrow SFC describes the evolution of the Canadian economy in terms of six financial sectors whose behaviour is based on ‘stylised facts’ in the Post-Keynesian tradition. A key feature of the model is its ability to provide a systematic account, not only of economic and financial variables, but also of key environmental and social dimensions of the economy. In particular, it tracks the evolution of carbon emissions and the distribution of incomes over time, under various policy assumptions.
A dramatisation of Jonathon Porritt’s book The World We Made—adapted for the stage by CUSP fellow Beth Flintoff—received its ‘world premiere’ at the Change Festival in October 2019. The play takes a retrospective look (from the year 2050) of the changes that took (will have taken) place to combat climate change and achieve sustainability. With support from the ESRC and local citizen groups, the production is taken on tour across the UK as a stimulant to discussion and debate.
Radical action on climate change is at last on the agenda. The emphasis is on urgency and action and – for XR notably – ‘truth.’ Questions of long-term strategy are less clear, but strategy platforms have been advanced. Foremost among them are the Green New Deal (GND) and degrowth. This article provides a comparison and sketches lines of convergence
Chair: Guillaume Balas, MEP (S&D)
Panellists: Viktorija Smatko-Abaza (Principal Adviser, European Commission, Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion), Monika Kiss (European Parliamentary Research Service), Pascal Lokiec (Sorbonne University, Author of “Il faut sauver le droit du travail !”), Aida Ponce (European Trade Union Institute, Senior Adviser)
Many of the benefits anticipated from technology in the 1960s remain unrealized today. Alongside the optimism that drives technological development, more sceptical views that regard the promises of technology with reflection, mistrust, and even hostility, have emerged within Western societies. One such group is the Degrowth community, a heterogenous group of researchers and activists who question technological advancements that contribute to environmentally and socially harmful economic growth. In this vein, the movement critically observes the current hype surrounding digital technology, which seems to reflect a mantra of “the more digital technology, the better”. This paper presents perspectives that emerged from a dialogue among members of the Degrowth community, who were asked to imagine wise and unwise futures of digitalisation in 2068. Key concerns of unwise futures include increasing disconnection of humans from the natural environment and from one another as individuals, the use of digital technology for optimising the allocation of scarce resources to the benefit of the wealthy few, and authoritarian governance of technologies and life itself. Wise technological futures, in turn, allow people to freely access digital technologies that are convivial, just, environmentally sustainable, and guided by democratic deliberation. It remains controversial how far digital technologies and the interests and skills surrounding them can facilitate the principles of Degrowth, and the extent to which the harmful effects of digital technologies are already shaping social, ecological and technological futures. However, the dialogue clearly emphasised the need to develop more detailed socio-technological imaginaries that provide practically feasible alternatives.
Futures, vol. 114, December 2019
