The reversed energy-community
A thought experiment to envision a degrowth energy community by Maxime Jobin Context In Québec, private firms producing and distributing electricity were nationalized in 1944 to create Hydro-Québec, a public utility that became the sole distributor of electricity, with 94% of it generated throughhydropower¹. For this reason, and because hydroelectricity can be considered a renewable […]
Transport Planning Principles for Degrowth
by Sofia Buhrgard As a transport planner working in Stockholm, I have been reflecting on what the principles of degrowth mean for transport planning. The following concepts are some I feel most relevant to consider in a degrowth context. The best trips are the ones not made The first step of transport planning is to […]
Fruits and Vegetable Markets in India and US
by Kajal Patel I recently moved to the US from India. My close encounter with fruit and vegetable trade in both countries made me realize how countries like India are much better off in fresh produce retailing. In the US, most fruits and vegetables are sold at supermarkets like Walmart and Publix, while farmer’s market […]
A political ecology perspective on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic
by Viktor Humpert Most research efforts connected to the COVID-19 outbreak are dominated by the field of natural science, mainly employing medical and epidemiological perspectives and explanations. Hence, in the common perception, the ongoing pandemic is rendered a “natural” disaster or phenomenon, thus a process “coming from nature”, yet principally external to human activity. However, […]
Safety, Risk, and Compliance in COVID Pandemic
Even though faded, the stories of epidemics ravaging continents are still present in our collective memory. Coming from a city whose XVIII century plague-infested population, was locked down within the city walls and left there to die [1], I listen with suspicion to anyone offering measures aiming to reduce the impact of the latest outbreak. […]
Degrowth, positionality and decoloniality: reflections from the Masters on Political Ecology and Degrowth
In the Political Ecology & Degrowth Master, readings and topics for the classes often initiate recurrent discussions amongst the students and teachers, touching upon the class material with different critical lenses. Amongst the discussions that come up the most, there is the following question; how to get out of the development discourse and enhance Degrowth […]
Aggregate material footprint as a proxy for environmental pressures: A response to Max Roser
by Lorenz Keyßer (Twitter: @LorenzClimate), Post-Growth Zürich (postgrowthzurich.org) On 2nd February, Max Roser tweeted the following text: “Material Footprint’ is a terrible metric, but it is unfortunately used as one of the indicators of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. A metric that allows you to offset the use of a ton of coal by using […]
An essay on decoloniality and degrowth
by Jolena Pang My grandfather migrated from China to Hong Kong in his younger years. The 40’s and 50’s were spent making ends meet on stolen streets, British soldiers berating his poor English and foreign appearance. They beat him up on one occasion, and so he learned better how to deal with the oppressor. He […]
Foundations of Degrowth: Internal Colonialities
Lucía Cano, Aunindo Ghosh, Viktor Humpert, Ciara Leonard, Aeve Ribbons & Andrew Moore As a child, my grade school classmates and I walked west through a predominantly black neighborhood in Philadelphia. Martin Luther King had been assassinated just seven years earlier. As we walked, our little white bodies drew attention. We absorbed sideways glances, […]
The knots of our past
Author: Laura Chica Castells, Contributions: Zhaona Zhaona, Xenia Leito, Luke Deries-Glaister, Morena Hanbury Lemos, Nicolas Makeiew Imagine the world in the 60’s. What you imagine will be completely different depending on your positioning. In Mongolia, Juna’s grandparents were on the move, they moved from current Mongolia to inner Mongolia for work. When it was time, […]