Degrowth and Educative Deconstruction of the Neoliberal Subject: Alternatives to Build up a Sustainable Society
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Durham Research Online
Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 01 January 2015 Version of attached le: Published Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Chatzidakis, A. and Larsen, G. and Bishop, S. (2014) 'Farewell to consumerism : countervailing logics of growth in consumption.', Ephemera : theory and politics in organization., 14 (4). pp. 753-764. Further information on publisher's website: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/farewell-consumerism-countervailing-logics-growth- consumption Publisher's copyright statement: Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk the author(s) 2014 ISSN 1473-2866 (Online) ISSN 2052-1499 (Print) www.ephemerajournal.org volume 14(4): 753-764 Farewell to consumerism: Countervailing logics of growth in consumption Andreas Chatzidakis, Gretchen Larsen and Simon Bishop Introduction The logic of growth is dominant in the contemporary political economy and in various notions of social and cultural prosperity (e.g. -
'Relocalization and Prefigurative Movements
1 ‘RELOCALIZATION AND PREFIGURATIVE MOVEMENTS’ AS SOCIAL NETWORKS AGAINST GLOBALIZATION: THE CONSTRUCTION OF LOCAL ALTERNATIVES TO GLOBAL CAPITALISM Michail Psimitis email: [email protected] Associate professor full address: Ioustinianou 3 Department of Sociology 81100 Mytilene University of the Aegean tel: (+30)22510-36514 & 23597 ABSTRACT Drawing upon an older periodization concerning worldwide social movements, we can say that the current decade is the first one of a period characterized by the strong presence of ‘relocalization and prefigurative social movements’. While earlier forms of organized collective actions either remained almost exclusively confined to the limits of the nation state (labor movements and new social movements) or explicitly rejected the nation state as the objective of their presence and chose a global action (global movements), modern relocalization movements reject both types of action and prefer an action focused directly against globalization. They act outside and away from the state and focus on territorial regeneration of the local autonomy as the cornerstone of self-governed and direct-democratic communities, with strong egalitarian social ties and a propensity for coequal participation. 2 These contemporary movements appear as forms of local resistance to globalization, but they are not showing trends of spatial or social isolation or marginalization, as happened, for instance, to most old communes and intentional communities of the past century. Instead, these are cosmopolitan communities that -
Green Growth Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: the Alternative Solution for Achieving the Balance Between Both the Natural and the Economic System
sustainability Editorial Green Growth Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: The Alternative Solution for Achieving the Balance between Both the Natural and the Economic System Diego A. Vazquez-Brust 1,2 and José A. Plaza-Úbeda 3,* 1 Portsmouth Faculty of Business and Law, Richmond Building, Portland Street, Portsmouth P01 3DE, UK; [email protected] 2 Production Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis 88040-900, SC, Brazil 3 Economics and Business Department, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain * Correspondence: [email protected] 1. Introduction “We are ethically obliged and incited to think beyond what are treated as the realistic limits of the possible” (Judith Butler, 2020) The existence of an imbalance between our planet’s reserves of resources and the conditions necessary to maintain high levels of economic growth is evident [1]. The limitation of natural resources pushes companies to consider the possibility of facing critical situations in the future that will make it extremely difficult to reconcile economic Citation: Vazquez-Brust, D.A.; and sustainable objectives [2]. Plaza-Úbeda, J.A. Green Growth In this context of dependence on an environment with finite resources, there are Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: growing interests in alternative economic models, such as the Circular Economy, oriented to The Alternative Solution for the maximum efficient use of resources [3–5]. However, the Circular Economy approach is Achieving the Balance between Both still very far from the reality of industries, and the depletion of natural resources continues the Natural and the Economic System. undeterred [6]. It is increasingly necessary to explore alternative approaches to address the Sustainability 2021, 13, 4610. -
Degrowth ‘From Below’? the Role of Urban Social Movements in a Post-Capitalist Transition
_ Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute Degrowth ‘from below’? The role of urban social movements in a post-capitalist transition Research Paper Degrowth ‘from below’? The role of urban social movements in a post-capitalist transition Research Paper No. 6, March 2019 MSSI’s Research Papers series is aimed at showcasing new and exciting sustainability knowledge. The papers are referenced and are subject to an internal academic review process. The Institute hopes this scholarship will stimulate thought and discussion within the University of Melbourne and in the broader community. Authors Dr Samuel Alexander is a Research Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and a lecturer with the Office for Environmental Programs, University of Melbourne. He is the author of thirteen books, including Degrowth in the Suburbs (2019, co-authored with Brendan Gleeson), Wild Democracy (2017), Prosperous Descent (2015) and Sufficiency Economy (2015). Professor Brendan Gleeson is the Director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, at the University of Melbourne. Brendan has made significant scholarly contributions in urban and social policy, environmental theory and policy. He is the author or editor of fourteen books, three of which have won national and international prizes, and numerous journal articles. Acknowledgements Thanks to John Wiseman and Robert Perey for sharing very helpful feedback on a draft of this paper. Cover Image Photo credit: permablitz.sintra 02 17042011 121/flickr/creative commons Citing this paper Please cite this paper as Alexander, S. and Gleeson, B. 2019, Degrowth ‘from below’? The role of urban social movements in a post-capitalist transition, MSSI Research Paper, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of Melbourne. -
Art Schools Burning and Other Songs of Love and War: Anti-Capitalist
Art Schools Burning and Other Songs of Love and War: Anti-Capitalist Vectors and Rhizomes By Gene Ray Kurfürstenstr. 4A D-10785 Berlin Email: [email protected] Ku’e! out to the comrades on the occupied island of O’ahu. Table of Contents Acknowledgments iv Preface: Is Another Art World Possible? v Part I: The One into Two 1 1. Art Schools Burning and Other Songs of Love and War 2 2. Tactical Media and the End of the End of History 64 3. Avant-Gardes as Anti-Capitalist Vector 94 Part II: The Two into... X [“V,” “R,” “M,” “C,”...] 131 4. Flag Rage: Responding to John Sims’s Recoloration Proclamation 132 5. “Everything for Everyone, and For Free, Too!”: A Conversation with Berlin Umsonst 152 6. Something Like That 175 Notes 188 Acknowledgments As ever, these textual traces of a thinking in process only became possible through a process of thinking with others. Many warm thanks to the friends who at various times have read all or parts of the manuscript and have generously shared their responses and criticisms: Iain Boal, Rozalinda Borcila, Gaye Chan, Steven Corcoran, Theodore Harris, Brian Holmes, Henrik Lebuhn, Thomas Pepper, Csaba Polony, Gregory Sholette, Joni Spigler, Ursula Tax and Dan Wang. And thanks to Antje, Kalle and Peter for the guided glimpse into their part of the rhizomes. With this book as with the last one, my wife Gaby has been nothing less than the necessary condition of my own possibility; now as then, my gratitude for that gift is more than I can bring to words. -
Recognition of Unpaid Work from the Perspective of Degrowth
Ecological Economics 84 (2012) 240–246 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Ecological Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon “This is a bit of the good life”: Recognition of unpaid work from the perspective of degrowth Linda Nierling ⁎ Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany article info abstract Article history: The decommodification of work activity is central for conceiving work from a degrowth perspective. Yet per- Received 9 January 2011 sonal dependence on paid work is very high, whereas unpaid work activity, such as providing care, commu- Received in revised form 28 October 2011 nity service and subsistence, continues to be neglected by individuals and society. By using the analytical Accepted 31 October 2011 approach related to recognition as employed by Axel Honneth, I argue on the basis of empirical findings Available online 17 February 2012 that unpaid work can play a significant role in one's personal well-being at the individual level. With regard to the transition process towards a society of degrowth, however, a key seems to be a change in the norma- Keywords: Degrowth tive paradigm concerning work at the individual level. Unpaid work © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Recognition Sustainability End of work Qualitative case study research 1. Introduction Challenging in this respect is the question of how these benefits can be introduced in society and in households. A major factor Following the conceptualisation of “degrowth”1 summarised in seems to be the organisation and the societal conception of work. -
Sustainable Consumption Transitions Series Issue 6
In cooperation with Sustainable Consumption Transitions Series Issue 6 SCORAI Europe Workshop Proceedings Sustainable Consumption and Social Justice in a Constrained World SCORAI Europe Workshop August 29/30, 2016, Budapest, Hungary In collaboration with: Resource Cap Coalition Ombudsman for Future Generations, Hungary SCORAI Steering Committee: Julia Backhaus, Maastricht University, NL Janis Brizga, NGO Green Liberty & University of Latvia, Latvia Frances Fahy, NUI Galway, Ireland Audley Genus, Kingston University, UK Sylvia Lorek, Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Germany Henrike Rau, University of Munich, Germany Marlyne Sahakian, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Edina Vadovics, GreenDependent Institute, Hungary Workshop organizing team: Klára Hajdú, Resource Cap Coalition, Hungary Sylvia Lorek, Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Germany Barbara Muraca, Oregon State University Marlyne Sahakian, IPTEH, The University of Lausanne, Switzerland Edina Vadovics, GreenDependent Institute, Hungary Philip Vergragt, Tellus Institute & Clark University The workshop was organized with the financial assistance of the European Union within the project "Time for change: Promoting sustainable consumption and production of raw materials in the context of EYD 2015 and beyond". The contents of this event are the sole responsibility of organisers and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. Please cite as: Lorek S., Vadovics E. (Ed.) (2016). Sustainable Consumption and Social Justice in a Constrained -
Money, Work, and Mass Extinction: Transformational Degrowth and The
MONEY, WORK, AND MASS EXTINCTION: TRANSFORMATIONAL DEGROWTH AND THE JOB GUARANTEE A DISSERTATION IN Economics and Social Sciences Consortium Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by BJ UNTI B.A., Portland State University, 2006 Kansas City, Missouri 2020 MONEY, WORK, AND MASS EXTINCTION TRANSFORMATIONAL DEGROWTH AND THE JOB GUARANTEE BJ Unti, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2020 ABSTRACT This dissertation is composed of three independent essays. Each essay traces social and ecological crises to capitalist institutions and proposes how a job guarantee (JG) can be adapted to resolve them in the context of degrowth. The first essay focuses on the relationship between economic growth and ecological destruction. In a monetary production economy, there is a trade- off between employment and the environment. To reconcile social and ecological goals it is necessary to decouple employment from growth. A JG makes this possible. The outlines of a simple two-sector model show how a JG can be used to maintain full employment and facilitate a reduction in aggregate output. The JG offers individuals a way to opt out of monetary production and thus, presents a pathway to fundamentally transform the economy. The second essay considers the diverse variety of strategies and policies that have emerged in the degrowth movement. These are classified into two categories. Top-down approaches insist that centralized policies relying on government control are necessary. Bottom- up approaches insist that transformation must stem from the decentralization of power and the expansion of individual autonomy. -
Local Interpretations of Degrowth—Actors, Arenas and Attempts to Influence Policy
sustainability Article Local Interpretations of Degrowth—Actors, Arenas and Attempts to Influence Policy Katarina Buhr 1, Karolina Isaksson 2,3,* ID and Pernilla Hagbert 3 1 IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Climate and Sustainable Cities Unit, 10031 Stockholm, Sweden; [email protected] 2 VTI, the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, Division of Mobility, Actors and Planning Processes, 10215 Stockholm, Sweden 3 KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Planning and Environment, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +46-766-334-328 Received: 3 May 2018; Accepted: 4 June 2018; Published: 6 June 2018 Abstract: During the last decade, degrowth has developed into a central research theme within sustainability science. A significant proportion of previous works on degrowth has focused on macro-level units of analysis, such as global or national economies. Less is known about local interpretations of degrowth. This study explored interpretations of growth and degrowth in a local setting and attempts to integrate degrowth ideas into local policy. The work was carried out as a qualitative single-case study of the small town of Alingsås, Sweden. The results revealed two different, yet interrelated, local growth discourses in Alingsås: one relating to population growth and one relating to economic growth. Individuals participating in the degrowth discourse tend to have a sustainability-related profession and/or background in civil society. Arenas for local degrowth discussions are few and temporary and, despite some signs of influence, degrowth-related ideas have not had any significant overall impact on local policy and planning. -
After the New Social Democracy Offers a Distinctive Contribution to Political Ideas
fitzpatrick cvr 8/8/03 11:10 AM Page 1 Social democracy has made a political comeback in recent years, After thenewsocialdemocracy especially under the influence of the Third Way. However, not everyone is convinced that this ‘new social democracy’ is the best means of reviving the Left’s social project. This book explains why and offers an alternative approach. Bringing together a range of social and political theories After the After the new new social democracy engages with some of the most important contemporary debates regarding the present direction and future of the Left. Drawing upon egalitarian, feminist and environmental social democracy ideas it proposes that the social democratic tradition can be renewed but only if the dominance of conservative ideas is challenged more effectively. It explores a number of issues with this aim in mind, including justice, the state, democracy, welfare reform, new technologies, future generations and the new genetics. Employing a lively and authoritative style After the new social democracy offers a distinctive contribution to political ideas. It will appeal to all of those interested in politics, philosophy, social policy and social studies. Social welfare for the Tony Fitzpatrick is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Sociology and Social twenty-first century Policy, University of Nottingham. FITZPATRICK TONY FITZPATRICK TZPPR 4/25/2005 4:45 PM Page i After the new social democracy TZPPR 4/25/2005 4:45 PM Page ii For my parents TZPPR 4/25/2005 4:45 PM Page iii After the new social democracy Social welfare for the twenty-first century TONY FITZPATRICK Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave TZPPR 4/25/2005 4:45 PM Page iv Copyright © Tony Fitzpatrick 2003 The right of Tony Fitzpatrick to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. -
Degrowth Journal of Cleaner Production
Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 519e522 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro Editorial Degrowth The publication of the proceedings of the April 2008 interna- Thesaurus, but the names aren't there to express this ‘cool down, tional conference in Paris dedicated to degrowth constitutes, as of take it easy, slack off, relax man’ included in the sense of degrowth. now, the richest and most complete collection analysing various ‘Decrease’ exists, but it is too exotic and essentialist (product more aspects of the subject. Though the matter has been mooted for quite than process) to capture the meaning. I sometimes ask myself if some time, the term Degrowth has only recently been used in terms like ‘decreasing, diminishing, moderating’ could not be economic and social debates, even if the origin of the ideas that it useful. ‘To grow or not to grow e that is the question!’ covers has a relatively old history. The expression does not appear ‘Moderate/Moderating Growth’? One could always quite simply as such in any dictionary of social sciences before 2006, where one leave ‘décroissance’ in the text, with an explanation in footnotes. I finds however entries on related themes such as “Zero Growth”, wonder whether the best translation would not be ‘decreasing “Sustainable Development” and of course “Steady State” [1]. While growth’” e that has the advantage of being at the same time passive the translation of the French Décroissance by Degrowth has still to (a simple fact) and active: it is, well, necessary to decrease; it is meet with unanimous approval, the project to which it answers necessary to decrease well; (here ‘decreasing’ would correspond already enjoys a relatively long and complex history and has not to a societal project or better still, to a true Social Project). -
Sustainability and Economic De-Growth
Brief for GSDR 2015 Sustainability and economic de-growth Maria Rita Guercio - University of São Paulo* A major problem that permeates human degradation of the environment happens development today are the limits that the only to meet the needs of the wealthier Earth's ecosystem imposes on efforts to half of the world population, while the persist in an increasing economic growth. poorest are suffering from environmental With the end of t the Cold War the degradation and are still priced out of environmental issue gained relevance but material blessings. The poorest countries the economic interests still speak louder. suffer from drought, soil desertification, The pattern of development based on the floods, dumping of toxic products and model of the Industrial Revolution still other environmental disasters. remains and is structured as unsustainable. Sustainability means, of course, social But this unbridled growth resulted in inclusion and rational use of natural speculative bubbles and crises which resources. further harm the ecosystem and do not cooperate in a sustainable and more Michael Renner says the Green Economy is equitable society. Michael Renner of World the tendency to ally development Watch Institute says: "In general, respecting the natural limits of the environmental governance was relegated ecosystem, creating social welfare reducing to the sidelines in search of economic environmental risks. Emerging countries globalization driven by corporate interests are somewhat resistant when carbon - a process that has been marked by emission containment measures are deregulation and privatization and the required, and may represent a limitation to relative weakening of political institutions their development. However, it is the task of the emerging countries, which have not national "(Renner, 2012).