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The Emergence and Development of Degrowth Initiatives: a Case Study of Dublin

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The Emergence and Development of Degrowth Initiatives: a Case Study of Dublin Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Geographisches Institut M.Sc. Geographie Projektseminar M4: ‚Dublin between Boom and Crisis‘ Dozentinnen: Prof. Dr. Britta Klagge & Katja Thiele Sommersemester 2016 The Emergence and Development of Degrowth Initiatives: A Case Study of Dublin Submitted by: Sandra Schmid Email: [email protected] Sophia Brückner Email: [email protected] Christina Drescher Email: [email protected] Bonn, 05.12.2016 Content List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………………………....I 1 Degrowth Initiatives in Dublin: An Introduction ................................................................... 1 2 Theoretical Background ...................................................................................................... 2 2.1 The Concept of Neoliberalism ..................................................................................... 2 2.2 The Concept of Degrowth ........................................................................................... 3 2.3 Degrowth Initiatives of the Voluntary Sector ............................................................... 5 2.4 Case Study: Degrowth Initiatives in Dublin ................................................................. 5 2.5 Analytical Framework .................................................................................................. 7 3 Methodology: Data Acquisition and Analysis ................................................................... 10 3.1 Research Design ....................................................................................................... 11 3.2 Criteria and Sampling ................................................................................................ 11 3.3 Semi-structured Interviews with Experts and Initiatives and semi-structured Walking Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 12 3.4 Online Survey with Participants of Initiatives ............................................................ 14 4 Assessing Degrowth Initiatives in Dublin: Results ........................................................... 15 4.1 Types of Degrowth Initiatives .................................................................................... 15 4.2 Characteristics of Members ....................................................................................... 18 4.3 Social and Economic Contexts.................................................................................. 20 4.3.1 Environmentalism ............................................................................................... 20 4.3.2 The Economic Crisis 2008 ................................................................................. 23 4.3.3 Obstacles and Challenges ................................................................................. 25 4.3.4 Stakeholders and Networks ............................................................................... 27 4.4 Participants’ Motivations ............................................................................................ 28 4.4.1 Social Dimension ................................................................................................ 29 4.4.2 Ecological Dimension ......................................................................................... 30 4.4.3 Economic Dimension ......................................................................................... 31 5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 32 List of References .................................................................................................................... 34 Appendix in digital form List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Research Design (Source: authors` design) ............................................................ 11 Figure 2: Map of degrowth initiatives in Dublin city (own design & data) ................................ 16 Figure 3: New Initiatives founded per year (1984-2016) (own data and figure) ..................... 18 Figure 4: Participants` occupation (own data and figure) ........................................................ 19 Figure 5: Participants` level of education (own data and figure) ............................................. 19 Figure 6: Participants´ household income per year (own data and figure) ............................. 19 Figure 7: Age groups in degrowth initiatives in Dublin (own data and figure) ......................... 22 Figure 8: Aspects of Life affected by economic crash 2008 (own data and figure) ................ 24 Figure 9: People´s motivation to participate in degrowth activities (own data and figure) ..... 29 Table 1: List of Interview partners in Dublin ............................................................................ 13 Table 2: List of Degrowth Initiatives in Dublin based on online research ............................... 17 I 1 Degrowth Initiatives in Dublin: An Introduction During the golden age of capitalism (~1945 - 1975) – marked by high prosperity – economic and political decision-makers followed the leading paradigm that economic growth and a rising gross domestic product (GDP) positively contribute to the social and economic development of nations. Since the 1970s, however, the strong advocacy for the capitalist system and economic growth as wellbeing-improving mechanisms has been increasingly challenged by critical voices from all parts of society (BIERL 2015: 345). This growth criticism was further triggered by the report ‘the Limits to Growth’, which was published by the Club of Rome in 1972 and highlighted that many of our natural resources are finite and that the earth’s capacity is limited by planetary boundaries (DEMARIA et al. 2013: 195). Following anti- globalization and ecological movements, activists developed a new concept during the 2000s (BIERL 2015: 348), which is based on the assumption that infinite economic growth is not possible and therefore the (global) society should move towards a (sustainable) ‘degrowth’ instead (SCHNEIDER et al. 2010). This new concept has gained increasing interest and attention by scholars and the media, but also by economists and politicians. Proponents argue that a lower focus on formal work, material prosperity and consumption, but a higher emphasis on social values and (informal) voluntary work lead to a higher wellbeing and life satisfaction. Specifically within the civil society many grassroots initiatives emerged that favor ecological, social and/or local aspects and aim to lower individual consumption (ANDREONI & GALMARINI 2013; D’ALISA et al. 2015) in the sense of ‘small is beautiful’ (BIERL 2015: 346). In this regard, scholars observed that many of those bottom-up initiatives – seeking an alternative development – emerged in countries that were severely hit by the economic crisis in 2008 (e.g. CALVÁRIO & KALLIS 2016: 2). Dublin – the capital of Ireland that was heavily affected by the financial downturn in 2008 – hence, serves as a suspenseful example to examine the emergence of degrowth initiatives in a European city against the background of the economic crash. To carry out the Dublin case study, a suitable theoretical approach is the degrowth theory. A principal objective of this research project is to investigate the social and economic contexts in which degrowth initiatives in Dublin emerge(d) and how this setting has shaped the development of these initiatives. A major focus will be on the economic crisis in 2008. In this regard, it will be evaluated whether degrowth initiatives were actually influenced by the crisis and if yes, how they were shaped. By taking a closer look at the context of emergence, the focus is to investigate the types of degrowth initiatives that can be found in Dublin and how they can be characterized. A further research question is aimed at the motivations of people to participate in degrowth initiatives in order to find out whether they have social, ecological and/ or economic motives and if those motives can be related to the crash in 2008 or to a broader socioeconomic crisis. 1 Case Study Dublin – Structure of the Report This report based on the case study of Dublin is structured as follows: The second chapter deals with the theoretical background as an introduction to the principal concepts relevant in this project: Neoliberalism, degrowth and the voluntary sector (or civil society; see chapter 2.3). The following section introduces the case study of Dublin. The last section (2.5) contains the analytical framework, which is based on the derivation of the research questions from the theories. The applied methodology will be elaborated in the third chapter. The fourth chapter comprises the analysis and assessment of the empirical results with the inclusion of the theoretical concepts in order to draw more general conclusions on the emergence and development of grassroots degrowth initiatives in Western societies. The fifth chapter contains the overall conclusion and relates this research project to the context of the broader degrowth research. 2 Theoretical Background The upcoming chapter deals with the background concept of neoliberalism, which is followed by the concept of degrowth that serves as the principal framework for alternative development initiatives. Afterwards, those degrowth initiatives will be further classified as voluntary sector actors. The second part of chapter two describes
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