What to expect from the 2023 Beyond Growth Conference 2023
By Nele Adolphsen. The 2023 Beyond Growth Conference hosted by the European Parliament (EP) is approaching fast. The three days event taking place in Brussels from 15-17 May brings together an impressive array of high-level speakers including leading academic thinkers, EU officials, and activists. Research & Degrowth (R&D) is contributing to the event as an […]
“Estranging” ourselves from mighty monologues: Beyond developmentalism and ‘The Economy’
By Gisela Ruiseco. Most of us see the world, inevitably, through hegemonic lenses. Even if wanting, or rather needing,to create something new, it is difficult to discern when we are reproducing old logics, and when wecan disentangle from them, and to what point. Specifically, to imagine economies beyond thehegemonic narratives about “the economy”, including all […]
Modern Monetary Theory: a vehicle to/for change?
by Tim Linaberry and Jon Ward. Our addiction to fossil fuels threatens to transport us to a landscape inhospitable to humans as well as most other species. The literature on climate change is clear on the course corrections needed to slow our roll. Degrowth envisions a throughway to a world where industrial activity and […]
The Future is Degrowth – An Interview with Aaron Vansintjan
“The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to A World Beyond Capitalism” is an amazing new book enriching the degrowth discourse. Written by Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan and Andrea Vetter, it discusses why and how to break free from the capitalist economic system. Jana talked to Aaron, R&D member and co-author of the book, about theories […]
Residential Tower Blocks as a Solution for Degrowth Housing
by Emma River-Roberts. Alternative communities such as Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in America, Sunseed Desert Technology in Spain, and Narara Ecovillage in Australia show how radical creativity and conviviality can create spaces for housing solutions to emerge that are aligned with degrowth’s vision. But these living conditions are not feasible for everyone: people have existing social […]
AI portraits, metaverse fashion and killing robots: a natural catastrophe?
by Donatella Gasparro. Even before embracing degrowth and becoming generally critical of the mainstream conception of linear “progress”, I’ve always been sceptical about relentless unquestioned technological innovation. I thus do not necessarily attribute my allergic reaction to recent high-tech news and talks to my relatively fresh radicalization, but to a much older, maybe ancestral hunch, […]
Degrowth will be fun!
by Jean-Manuel Traimond from Collectif Passerelle. Degrowth is not a curse, not a bane, not a painful duty inflicted by long faced killjoys. It’s an opportunity. It’s not some dismal synod of preachers whose definition of a wild orgy is to nibble two radishes and half a carrot. No. It’s the best (actually the only) […]
The counterintuitive role of efficiency: implications for the ecological impact of health care
by Colin Sue-Chue-Lam, Elizabeth Shove and Edward Xie Health systems must decarbonise and, in rich nations, degrow their overall ecological impact if they are to operate within ecological limits.¹² This imperative has inspired a range of policies and practices for sustainable health care, including those focused on efficiency, defined here as measures that seek to […]
Degrowth will benefit the poor
by Jean-Manuel Traimond and Collectif Passerelle Capitalism creates winners and losers. Nothing new there. But the winning side, amazingly, manages to convince the losers that they, too, someday, somehow, shall win. Promised. How? Well, with a miracle. No, they do not recommend a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Just… Growth. Grrrrowth! As everybody knows, a rising tide […]
Beyond (against?) urban gardens
by Donatella Gasparro Despite the ambitious societal change that degrowth advocates for, degrowth proposals often bring as examples of “degrowth in practice” urban community–led food initiatives, most of which already exist under various other banners, loosely and variously related to “sustainability”, “healthy life styles” and other rather a–political slogans. Distinctly city–focussed, the most frequent examples […]