Poster Tours (Saturday 27th)

Transcription

1 Abstract Book

2 Poster Tours (Saturday 27th) PT 1. Work and Employment Location: 102A Posters: Valeria Andreoni: A labour model in a degrowth oriented approach Paul Jones: Quantifying a Meaningful World of Work Samuel Michalon: Panser le Travail Linda Nierling: A sustainable working model on degrowth changing the relationship between paid and unpaid work Héctor Sanjuán: Redondo Decrecimiento, trabajo y Renta Básica Tom Walker: Rethinking the "lump of labor" as a CPR PT 2a. Degrowth: Theory and Ideas I Location: 103A Posters: Jan Otto Andersson: The global ethical Trilemma, growthmania and the idea of Degrowth Iris Borowy: Possible Health Benefits of Degrowth: Lessons of Past Example Gustavo Brito: Le Mythe de la Décroissance Entesa pel decreixement: La Xarxa pel Decreixement (Degrowht Network in Catalonia) and the Local Cooperation Meetings as a network building experience Lucia del Moral Espín: Changing money: opportunities and challenges in relation with degrowth Joana Filipa Dias Vilão da Rocha Dias: Are current international policies on Intellectual Property Rights consistent with socially sustainable economic degrowth? Joan García González: Contribuciones de la termodinámica de los procesos irreversibles en los temas del decrecimiento y de la sostenibilidad Clive Hambridge: Degrowth of military industrial complex: issues around reduction of arm trade and production Donald C. Maclurcan: The struggle for degrowth: Harnessing the peripheral, overcoming the sensational Arnau Matas Morell: Hacia un decrecimiento noviolento Volker Mauerhofer: Social capital, capacity and carrying capacity: exploring basics of socially sustainable economic degrowth PT 2b Degrowth: Theory and Ideas II Location: 104 Posters: Thomas Pongo: Economie et existences modernes. Matthias Schmelzer: Redistribution or growth? Degrowth and social movements Léa Sébastien: The role of attachment to non humans for a sustainable degrowth Harris Topalides: De growth as a contemporary strategy for the sustainable managment of economic development Marko Ulvila: Class, degrowth and transition to a just society Midred Gustack Delambre: Étude empirique et théorique au sein de quatre associations André Lucca: Recommendations for a socio ethical and sustainable approach to the industrial design François Diaz Maurin: The degrowthpedia initiative development plan Marko Ulvila: Transformations to sustainability Combined Responses to the Interconnected Crisis of Ecology and Economy Michela Guerini: Less consumption more wellbeing: evidences from the policies of Italian Virtuous Municipalities Association PT 3. Climate change and energy Location: 108 Posters: Frano Barbir: Role of Renewable Energy in De growth Future Emanuele Campiglio: Economic Growth and the Transition to Renewable Sources of Energy: a two economy model Claudio Cattaneo: Auto producción y autonomía energètica: el caso del Centro Social Okupado Kan Pasqual Amaya Martínez Gracia: Energy degrowth or defossilization? Josep Puig i Boix: Decreixement i energies renovables Stefano Sirilli: CO2 reduction: a dangerous friend Petra Wächter: The Degrowth of Energy Pinar Ertor Akyazi: Time for Change? The Analysis of Public Preferences for Alternative Energy Sources in Turkey 16

3 PT 4. Resources and waste Location: 102B Posters: Jaume Delclós: La mercantilització de l aigua: redueix possibilitats de democratització i augmenta el consum del recurs Laia Domènech: Alternative water resources, democracy and degrowth: a critical appraisal of rainwater harvesting, water reuse and desalination Georgiana Galiussi: Economic growth and dematerialization on the light of the first and the fourth law of thermodynamics: issues and problems Ignasi Puig Ventosa: Instrumentos económicos para incentivar la reducción de residuos Alicia Valero Delgado: Depleting the great mine Earth PT 5. Degrowth beyond Europe and the West Location: 105 Posters: Karen Bell: Degrowth What Can We Learn from Cuba? Gaia Calligaris: Alternatives au développement venant du Sud (Agro écologie, souveraineté alimentaire et décroissance) Francesca Chianese Qamiri: What lessons can be learnt from indigenous peoples? David Llistar: Anticooperació i decreixement, complements per l'equitat Florent Marcellesi: La cooperación internacional a la luz del decrecimiento Elena Masferrer Dodas: Does consumption of market goods relates to well being? An empirical test in the Bolivian Amazon Ricardo Neder: The movement for social technology in Latin America (its meaning for the research about degrowht and ecological sustainability) Juan Alonso Neira Simijaca: Economic degrowth, an option for Latin America Jorge Eduardo Rulli: Los desafíos del descrecimiento en América Latina Bob Thomson: An Indigenous Approach to Degrowth PT 6. Degrowth Economics, the crisis and businesses Location: 203 Posters: Saamah Abdallah: Differential relations between income and aspects of well being Francisco J. Aceves: Degrowing economically might help significantly to reduce the daily aggravation of the actual crisis. Rein Ahas: Tourism and the quality of visits in destination, an Estonian case study Gisella Colares Solidary: Popular bank: compatible practical with the paradigm of the degrowth Jampel Dell'Angelo: Closed cycle criterion: how to eliminate the conditions for the rebound effect Nadia Johanisova: Economic degrowth and New Economic Structures Kent A. Klitgaard: Secular Stagnation, the Failed Growth Economy, and Three Dimensions of the Current Crisis Lisi Krall: Institutional Ambiguity in Ecological Economics Stephan Wolf: Non Growth Market Economies Entesa pel decreixement: El NAP del Camp. A contra hegemonic economy practice in Tarragona Jacques Lauriol: L Economie de la Fonctionnalité: Une voie nouvelle pour une «décroissance soutenable Jin Xue: Arguments For and Against Economic Growth PT 7. Food and agriculture Location: 103B Posters: Sofia Boza Martínez: Los sistemas participativos de garantía como expresión de la agroecología y parte de un programa hacia el decrecimiento: la experiencia andaluza Entesa pel decreixement: La Repera. Meeting point among organic producers and consumers in Catalonia Juan Infante Amate: Agricultura y decrecimiento. Un análisis del ciclo de vida del sistema agroalimentario español (año 2000) Lucia Piani: Alternative circuits on agrifood markets Jean Marc Salmon: Un moratoire des agrocarburants dans les pays tempérés? Bruno Scaltriti: The food short supply chain: a socioeconomic perspective Yves Bonnardel: Les aberrations de la viande: et si on en parlait? 3

4 PT 8. Knowledge, education and technology Location: 112 Posters: François Diaz Maurin: Don t forget the rich: A strategy proposal for spreading the idea of degrowth Adolfo Estrella: Innovación decrecentista Nicolas Lechopier: Science and degrowth: contreproductivity vs democratization of scientific research Tommaso Luzzati: Growth mania and environmental degradation as a product of fast information: learning from H. Simon and W. Wenders Sebastiao Rodrigues: Placing Metal Sensitivity as a pedagogic necessity for social movements Claudio Vitari: The Free/Libre/Open Source Software: an inspiring success for other concrete alternatives Bernard Iaccarini: La Pédagogie de la Décroissance PT 9. Politics and democracy Location: 111 Posters: Isa Gama: Key information conductors : Civil Society Organizations Vincent Liegey: The Political Snail s Strategy Desiree Lucchese: Participative/direct democracy: What forms of 'deep' democracy for a society that degrows? Christos Zografos: Democracy and degrowth: conceptual issues and real life experiences Alfonso López Rojo: Municipalismo y decrecimiento PT 10. Indicators and methods Location: 113 Posters: Simao Dias: Sustainable Economic Well Being in Portugal ( ) Marco Duriavig: A spatial model for local systems definition Wolfgang Fellner: Economic growth and sustainable welfare. Myths and Measurement Anthony Friend: Nonlinear System of National Accounts (SNA): the database for transition policies from growth to steady state Laurent Lievens: Transitory indicator for paradigm shift Nick Meynen: Estimating the ecological debt of an industrial plant in Hoboken, Belgium Fakhri Issaoui: Modèle Optimal de Développement en Afrique : (Approche par les Capabilités) / Optimal Model of Development in Africa (Capabilities Approach) Sibylle Wursthorn: Characterization of the development of European manufacturing industry based on disaggregated decoupling indicators for different environmental impacts PT 11. Transport and cities Location: Sala de Graus Posters: Rein Ahas: The influence of the economic crisis on commuting: Lessons for degrowth strategies in urban planning Luigi Bonatti: Mobility systems and economic growth: A theoretical analysis of the long term effects of alternative transpotation policies Gian Carlo Delgado: Urban metabolism, climate change and poverty, the case and challenge for Mexico City Elisabeth Lorenzi : Usa la bici todos los días, celébralo una vez al mes. Bicicrítica, movilidad urbana sostenible y la importancia de las articulaciones sociales. // Bike every day, celebrate it once a month. Critical Mass, sustainable urban mobility, and the importance of social articulations. Enrique Ortega: Eco units as pradigm to recover world climate Emmanuel Pezrès: Architecture et décroissance? Isabel Martínez Cap a una organització responsable col.lectiva d'habitatge 4

5 Oral Presentations (Sunday 28th ) OS 1.Managing degrowth: Employment, Security and the Economy under a Degrowth trajectory Location: 102A Chair: Gjalt Huppes Presentations: : Blake Alcott: Degrowth and unemployment : Guaranteed jobs? : Colin C.Williams, Richard White: Transcending the depiction of market and non market labour practices: implications for degrowth : Dirk Löhr: Zero growth and zero interests rate: Revival of an old idea : Gjalt Huppes: Degrowth with an aging population; increasing leisure for improving the environment. The key role of pensions and their funding : Richard Douthwaite: Why the global debt burden means there will be no recovery : Common Discussion OS 2. Beyond Sustainable Development: Sustainable Degrowth towards a Steady Location: 103A Chair: Dan O Neill Presentations: : Brian Czech: The Chicken/Egg Spiral: "Reconciling" the Conflict Between Economic Growth and Environmental Protection with Technological Progress : Daniel W. O Neill: Measuring progress towards a steady state economy : David Gee, Sybille van den Hove, Jacqueline McGlade, Jock Martin, Jean Louis Weber: Common Causes, Consequences, and Solutions to the Financial/Economic, Energy/Climate, and Ecosystems Crises : Ernest Garcia: Sociology and de growth: social change, entropy and evolution in a way down era : Nicholas A. Ashford: Pathways to Sustainable Development: Co optimizing Economic Welfare, Environment, and Earning Capacity in a Time of Diminishing Economic Growth and Increasing Population Growth : Common Discussion OS 3. Degrowth, Capitalist Institutions and Democracy Location: 104 Chair: Pascal van Griethuysen Presentations: : Barbara Muraca: Degrowth and Justice: a scrutiny of ethical and anthropological assumptions in degrowth theories and practices : Frederik Blauwhof: Limits to Growth vs. Capital Accumulation: Radical Analysis and Solutions : Joachim Spangenberg: Wealth is the problem! Revitalising the public sector is a condition for a degrowth economy : Konrad Ott: Variants of degrowth and deliberative democracy : Pascal Van Griethuysen: Implementing Degrowth: An Evolutionary Economic Perspective : Common Discussion OS 4. Growth is unsustainable. Long live degrowth? Location: 105 Chair: Simone D'Alessandro Presentations: : Roefie Hueting: How to correct wrong information about economic growth : Christer Sanne: If there is no turnaround...? : Joaquim Sempere: Degrowth: Proposals and Questions : Mario Giampietro: Metabolic patterns of societies : Ennio Bilancini, Simone D'Alessandro: Happy Degrowth vs Unhappy Growth : Common Discussion OS 5. Production, consumption and the degrowth transformation. Location: 108 Chair: Leida Rijnhout Presentations: : Thomas Schauer: Limits to growth and Degrowth. The view of the Club of Rome : Josh Ryan Collins: The Great Transition 22 5

6 11.40: 12.00: Miriam Kennet: How far is technology a hindrance or a help in achieving Degrowth? : Mauro Bonaiutti: The age of declining marginal returns. Global trends and future scenarios : Willem Hoogendijk: From supply back to demand. Back to an economy geared to demand : Common Discussion OS 6. Making it real. Practical transformations towards degrowth. Location: Sala de Graus Chair: Matthieu Lietaert Presentations: : Richard Register: Roll back sprawl a de paving strategy to replace the city of cars and consumption with ecocities and restored open spaces : Anne D'Orazio: Towards a Third Sector Housing in France: symptom of sustainable degrowth? : Dick Urban Vestbro: Saving by Sharing. Collective Housing for Sustainable Lifestyles : David Barkin: Constructing alternative degrowth strategies: Experience from rural communities in Latin America : Jшrgen S. Nшrgеrd: Sustainable Degrowth through a more amateur economy : Common Discussion 6

7 First Author Index: ABDALLAH, SAAMAH, 10 ACEVES, FRANCISCO JAVIER, 11 ADAMAN, FIKRET, 12 ADAMS, JACK, 13 AHAS, REIN, 14 AHAS, REIN, 14 ALCOTT, BLAKE, 15 ANDERSSON, JAN OTTO, 16 ANDREONI, VALERIA, 18 ANDREONI, VALERIA, 18 ASHFORD, NICHOLAS A., 19 BARBIR, FRANO, 20 BARKIN, DAVID, 20 BATISTA, FRANCISC, 21 BAYOD, ANGEL A., 22 BELL, KAREN, 23 BERNARDO, GIOVANNI, 23 BILANCINI, ENNIO, 24 BLAUWHOF, FREDERIK, 26 BOFFI, MARCO, 27 BONAIUTI, MAURO, 29 BONATTI, LUIGI, 30 BOROWY, IRIS, 30 BOZA MARTÍNEZ; SOFÍA, 31 CALLIGARIS, GAIA, 32 CAMPIGLIO, 33 CATTANEO, CLAUDIO, 34 CHIANESE, FRANCESCA, 34 COHEN, MAURIE J., 35 COLARES, GISELLA, 36 CRABREE, TIM, 37 CZECH, BRIAN, 38 D ORAZIO, ANNE, 39 DELGADO RAMOS, GIAN CARLO, 40 DELL ANGELO, JAMPEL, 40 DIAS VILÃO DA ROCHA DIAS, JOANA FILIPA, 41 DIAZ MAURIN, FRANÇOIS, 42 DOUTHWAITE, RICHARD, 42 ENTESA PEL DECREIXEMENT, 43 ESTRELLA CABRERA, ADOLFO, 44 FELLNER, WOLFGANG, 45 GAMA, ISA, 45 GARCÍA GONZÁLEZ, JOAN, 46 GARCIA, ERNEST, 46 GEE, DAVID, 47 GIAMPIETRO, MARIO, 48 GONZÁLEZ DE MOLINA, MANUEL, 48 HOOGENDIJK, WILLEM, 49 HUETING, ROEFIE, 50 HUPPES, GJALT, 50 IACCARINI, BERNARD, 51 ISSAOUI, FAKHRI, 51 JONES, PAUL, 52 KENNET, MIRIAM, 52 KLITGAARD, KENT A, 53 KRALL, LISI, 54 LA REPERA, 55 LAURIOL, JACQUES, 56 LIEGEY, 60 LIEVENS, LAURENT, 61 LLISTAR, DAVID, 62 LÖHR, DIRK, 62 LÓPEZ ROJO, ALONSO, 63 LORENZI, ELISABETH, 58 LUCCA, ANDRÉ, 64 LUCCHESE, DESIREE, 65 LUZZATI, TOMMASO, 65 MACLURCAN, DONALD C., 66 MARCELLESI, FLORENT, 67 MARCH, HUG, 68 MARTÍNEZ, AMAIA, 68 MASFERRER DODASA, 69 MASTAS MORELL, ARNAU, 70 MAUERHOFER, VOLKER, 71 MEYNEM, NICK, 71 MICHALON, SAMUEL, 72 MILDRED, GUSTACK, 73 7

8 MURACA, BARBARA, 73 NAP DEL CAMP, 58 NEDER, R.T., 74 NEIRA, 75 NICOLAS, LECHOPIER, 60 NIERLING, LINDA, 75 NØRGÅRD, JØRGEN S., 76 O'NEIL, DANIEL W, 77 ORTEGA, E., 78 OTT, KONRAD, 79 PEZRES, 79 PIANI, LUCIA, 80 PIRGMAIER, ELKE, 81 PONGO, THOMAS, 82 PUIG I BOIX, JOSEP, 83 PUIG VENTOSA, IGNASI, 83 REGISTER, RICHARD, 84 RODRIGUES, SEBASTIAN, 84 RULLI, JORGE EDUARDO, 85 RYAN COLLINS, JOSH, 90 SALMON, JEAN MARC, 90 SANJUÁN REDONDO, HÉCTOR, 91 SANNE, CHRISTER, 92 SCALTRITI, BRUNO, 93 SCHMEIZER, MATTHIAS, 93 SCHNEIDER, FRANCOIS, 94 SÉBASTIEN, LÉA, 95 SEMPERE CARRERAS, JOAQUIN, 95 SIRILLI, STEFANO, 96 SPANGENBERG, JOACHIM H, 97 THOMSON, BOB, 98 TOPALIDES, HARRIS, 98 ULVILA, MARKO, 99 URBAN VESTBRO, DICK, 100 VAN GRIETHUYSEN, PASCAL, 101 VITARI, CLUADIO, 102 WÄCHTER, PETRA, 102 WALKER, TOM, 103 WILLIAMS, COLIN C., 104 WOLF, STEPHAN, 104 WURSTHORN, 105 XUE, JIN, 106 ZOGRAFOS, CHRISTOS, 107 8

9 ABDALLAH, SAAMAH ; THOMPSON, SAM: DIFFERENTIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN INCOME AND ASPECTS OF WELL BEING The relationship between life satisfaction and income within a national population has been laboured over since the Easterlin Paradox (Easterlin, 1974; Stevenson & Wolfers, 2008; Lora & Chaparro, 2008; Clark et al., 2008). The relationship at a given point in time is clearly not linear and it appears that it is at best logarithmic, and at worst flat beyond a certain level of income (Layard et al. 2008; Kahneman et al. 2006). Several reasons for this have been given, including the suggestion that increasing income is only able to satisfy our intrinsic needs indirectly and therefore is an inefficient means to improve life satisfaction (Ryan et al. 2008). However, concerns have been raised about whether Life Satisfaction, the measure upon which much of the extant research is based, is a sufficiently nuanced indicator of overall well being.this paper represents the first attempt to systematically unpick this relationship by looking at different aspects of well being. Using individual level data from the European Social Survey 2006 well being module, structured based on the National Accounts of Well being (Michaelson et al., 2009), we compare the differential effect of income on 11 aspects of well being, including negative emotions, positive emotions, satisfaction, vitality, psychological resources, competence, autonomy, engagement, meaning and purpose, supportive relationships, and trust and belonging. We find that, at the individual level, income is most strongly and linearly related to engagement and satisfaction, and least strongly or linearly related to autonomy, trust and belonging, and supportive relationships. Meanwhile, at the national level, GDP per capita has weakest relationships with engagement, supportive relationships and meaning and purpose. Whilst causal conclusions cannot be drawn, this research suggests how different aspects of well being may be affected by shifts in income structures, and hence where the most effort will be needed to mitigate any negative effects. The fact that the positive effect of income on life satisfaction is more substantial than on most other aspects of wellbeing also supports the relative income account of the Easterlin Paradox, which claims that income differences in life satisfaction within countries beyond a certain level are due to relative income effects rather than absolute effects wealthier people feel more satisfied because they compare themselves with others who are less wealthy. It also suggests that relationships between income and well being may be slightly exaggerated by focussing exclusively on life satisfaction. References: Clark A, Frijters P & Shields M (2008) Relative income, happiness and utility: An explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and other puzzles Journal of Economic Literature 46: Easterlin RA (1974) Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence in David PA and Melvin WR (eds) Nations and households in economic growth (Palo, Alto, CA: Stanford University Press) Layard R, Mayraz G & Nickell S (2008) The marginal utility of income Journal of Public Economics 92:1846 Lora E & Chaparro J (2008) The conflictive relationship between satisfaction and income Inter American Development Bank, Working Paper #642 9

10 Kahneman D, Krueger A, Schkade D, Schwarz N & Stone A (2006) Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion Science 312: nef) Michaelson J, Abdallah S, Steuer N, Thompson S & Marks N (2009) National Accounts of Well being (London: Ryan R, Huta V & Deci E (2008) Living well: A self determination theory perspective on eudaimonia Journal of Happiness Studies 9: Stevenson B & Wolfers J (2008) Economic growth and subjective well being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox Prepared for Brookings Papers on Economic Activity ACEVES, FRANCISCO JAVIER; JIMÉNEZ LÓPEZ, ELOHIM: DEGROWING ECONOMICALLY MIGHT HELP SIGNIFICANTLY TO REDUCE THE DAILY AGGRAVATION OF THE ACTUAL CRISIS......as soon as the empowered decision makers the owners of the globalized corporations and their accomplices, the governors of wealthy states recognize the critical panorama that was originally generated in the domains of pretended advanced societies due to the insertion of commercial transactions that aimed at manipulating the national and the foreign sociological interactions among them. Gradually, along the last relatively few millennia, the extended commercialism, maneuvered successfully by brilliant minds of every high society constituted, became the pathway to follow for making more and more profitable affairs; it happened similarly everywhere after being announced that it would impulse and even assure the progress of human living (individually and collectively). In fact its evolvement, empirically conducted, drop by drop made necessary to conceive and construct diverse kinds of new systems needed for organizing the manageability of the additional actions brought into existence by the flourishing commercial affaires. It occurred without being noticed that the commercialization cannot continue growing ad infinitum, though being apparently strengthen by the increasing profits, the minds that were taking advantage of the gains did care only on the immediate future; therefore they continue organizing business that may provide preferably quicker, but always higher gains. «Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.» Kenneth Boulding And suddenly, as most people did not expected it will happen, the consolidation of economic relations that are generated by larger capitals emerged through the extended use of the commercialized dynamics of civilizing processes. Since then, until today, empowered groups conducted by intelligent fellows, systematically conceive, design and maintain the economic interactions usually rather violently that may assure the functionality of these processes in order to satisfy the needs of the members of the high societies constituted in every land. 10

11 These groups are exclusively interested in being enjoyed continually, but are distracted from time to time when they decide to invent another privilege which will be assigned to themselves thinking quite probably in updating their civilized way of life. How could be generated and are maintained these dangerous circumstances? Some lighten may arise recognizing the validity of the argument expressed by Gordon Childe man makes himself, which in 2010 obliges the present generation of humans to organize their performances realizing the consequences of all what have been done by our ancestors and all what we are doing and also even what we are planning to do tomorrow. Therefore this recognition lead us to accept that we are enjoying and suffering the effects of the actual crisis after accepting that it is the RESULT of human performances that have been structured in accordance with the features of the Western Civilization, which prevails de facto all around the Human World. Consequently, under the assumption that most people alive at present is sufficiently motivated to perform for making possible the presence of our descendants along several millennia ahead, we must encourage ourselves to accept as an indispensable challenge the need of learning to remake ourselves as humans exclusively interested in humanizing each one on her/his own; aiming to humanize as well the civilized environment after recognizing that the civilizing trends has dehumanized the living of the vast majority of human beings. However, to degrow economically must not be implemented as if it were the infallible panacea that may allow humanity to overcome the actual crisis, though it may help a lot for making evident that the facilities that Nature and Gaia offer for the presence of life in time and in space are limited being impossible to increase them for satisfying limitless ambitions. To degrow economically may help also to notice many scientific and technological facts and events that have been the result of abuses and misuses of means of assumed resources taken arbitrarily from one or another natural ambient. In truth the various aspects of the actual crisis must be holistically identified, which means that the ways they are de facto interacting require to be explicitly identified for making feasible to examine how each one needs to be tackled. ADAMAN, FIKRET; ERTÖR AKYAZI, PıNAR; ÖZKAYNAK, BEGÜM; ZENGINOBUZ, ÜNAL: TIME FOR CHANGE? THE ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC PREFERENCES FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES IN TURKEY Despite hopes for dematerialisation of economies, Turkey, as a developing country, with a growing population and economy, finds it difficult to avoid moving towards the use of higher levels of direct material and energy inputs, one manifestation of which is her highest CO2 emissions growth rate in the world. Yet, the Turkish government, instead of attempting to reduce the energy demand and restructure its energy supply towards renewable sources (such as solar and wind), seems to be headed for nuclear energy, as an attractive solution with added connotations of modernization, scientific advancement, and energy independence. 11

12 It is a truism that in any attempt to restructure the energy supply towards renewable sources and facilitate people s adaptation towards them, it is of importance to know well people s alternative energy preferences. Motivated by this, we aim to explore and explain the energy preferences of urban population in Turkey through a survey with a size of 2,400, where respondents were first asked to specify their most and least preferred energy sources and then questioned whether they would change their answers after being informed about the possible negative consequences of their choices (such as higher energy bills and environmental impacts). The analyses of the results together with respondents answers to follow up questions about the underlying reasons of their choices enhance our understanding of energy preferences of the public at large. As such, the survey results are hoped to provide inputs in developing a bottom up policy making style for energy restructuring/reform for countries similar to the case of Turkey. ADAMS, JACK; BOYD, SORAYA; HAMBIDGE, CLIVE: DEGROWTH OF MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: ISSUES AROUND REDUCTION OF ARM TRADE AND PRODUCTION This paper explores the arm, fist and 'muscle' power of the USA, its veins and sclerotic arterial networks between the financial, political and military elites and the international banking system that control Main Street, Wall Street, Congress, the White House, extending to old media, and increasingly, new media, this on a global scale, all, in the name of growth and progress. The oversight, coming from the military industrial complex, ultimately aims to dominate all systems of human interaction. This, a clear and developing pathology for failure, can only lead to incalculable human suffering and cataclysmic environmental disaster. The on going politicisation and militarization of every field of human endeavour has resulted in de growth, and, encouragingly the sustainable solution, namely de growth. Even though the authors accept that the USA is not alone in spinning webs, those webs have a dominant spider, and that spider has the stars and stripes on its thorax. This paper submits that self sustainability removes the predatory nature of expansionism and leads to peace: the notion then of might replaced by the truth of strength in cooperative and creative experiment. This paper will further submit that America has seen the rise of Third World Conditions resulting in the immiserization of Americans, 30 million of which endure deep hunger, whilst, the state year by year allocates ever greater sums to the military budget ($570 billion for 2008, $52.4 billion of which spent on nuclear weapons). America must attest to then embrace through necessity, the ideas of de growth, thereby becoming a model of and for sustainability. This paper will highlight selected events that seemingly protected, then, projected America and the world into the present day crisis by means of forced liberalization linked to gross breaches of human rights and International Law, aid dependency, and a continuum of elitist and factional governments often dictatorships. Crucially, the Volker Recession which undermined and effectively ended the Carter Administration and inaugurated the Reagan Doctrine and the so called Reagan Revolution which espoused the attacking of small nations for strategic resources whilst 12

13 placing them under the control of the international banking community and corporate conglomerates inter alia and America, de facto. This crisis for change calls for the reclamation of the moral and democratic high ground for those that would survive. May this new way be in the ascendancy of humanity s consciousness and its collective actions. AHAS, REIN ; SILM; SIIRI; SALUVEER,ERKI: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS ON COMMUTING: LESSONS FOR DEGROWTH STRATEGIES IN URBAN PLANNING Cities have become islands of economic prosperity, and their economic capacity is often expressed in the size and strength of their commuting areas. We have mapped the commuting areas of Estonian cities since 2006 with the precision of one calendar month, using mobile telephone positioning data from operators. The locations of home, work and other important anchor points have been determined for each commuter using a special model. The anchor points of 350,000 respondents over a period of 39 months have been included in the research. In the analysis, we reveal how the economic boom that peaked in 2007 and the crisis that had become increasingly severe by the end of 2009 influenced cities commuting areas. Has the crisis caused a reduction in commuting, because there is a shortage of resources and work? Has the crisis conditioned the increase in the commuting, because people are searching for work farther and farther from home, and are willing to spend more on travelling? Are changes noticeable at all, or are urban regions more complex systems, which are not immediately influenced even by external impacts? Results of analysis are used for developing degrowth strategies for urban planning as home work relation is one of the most permanent axis in the human activity space. Estonia is a good example for such exercise, because thanks to its small and open economy, the boom and crisis have had a particularly radical influence. AHAS, REIN; AASA, ANTO; TIRU, MARGUS: TOURISM AND THE QUALITY OF VISITS IN DESTINATION, AN ESTONIAN CASE STUDY The flow of foreign tourists into Estonia has been an indicator and initiator of economic development. Tourism has been an engine that has generated success for cities and the Estonian economy as a whole. After Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the number of foreign visitors who stayed overnight in Estonia rose from 594,000 in 1994 to 3,020,000 in Since 2006, however, a decrease has taken place in the number of foreign visitors, and the duration and purposes of visits have started to change. The objective of this presentation is to determine how the quality of tourism changed in Estonia after boom. Are quick one day visits being replaced by longer, more varied stays? Is the geography of visits changing? Is it step towards more sustainable tourism practices? We will analyse tourists space time movements within destination, with the aim of determining whether the quality of visits has increased over quantity: a) time: duration and loyalty of visits; b) geography: places, objects and visiting patterns. The results help one tounderstand how to measure quality and sustainability of tourism in destination and to develop strategies for degrowth in this sector. 13

14 ALCOTT, BLAKE: DEGROWTH AND UNEMPLOYMENT : GUARANTEED JOBS? A shrinking economy (defined in terms of material energy throughput) under real world institutional circumstances is accompanied by increased unemployment. How should policy react, if at all? Society could simply accept that full employment is in theory secured by falling real wages, and at most remove institutional hindrances thereto such as minimum wage laws and some aspects of labour union power and remove whatever barriers to selfemployment and the informal economy that may exist. It could on the other hand leave nothing to chance and establish a right to paid work: a person could count on some job, at some wage. Judging whether state guaranteed paid work is desirable or not depends on social contexts, expectations and definitions of work : In the OECD, a job is by definition within the formal economy, its loss accompanied by psychological pain, social isolation and the spectre of geographical displacement. If society however provides purchasing power safety nets (first unemployment payments then the dole), job loss does not lead to abject poverty. The costs consist of lack of activity, loss of status, loss of social embeddedness and a feeling of mooching, not paying one s way, etc. In the rich world, moreover, unemployment itself is variously defined, and the political units responsible for solutions vary in size. Concerning perceptions in non OECD societies this paper must resort largely to conjecture: Is the informal economy, somehow defined, open and large enough to render conscious employment policy during and after degrowth superfluous? Is paid work either defined differently and/or less important? Are self esteem and social embeddedness less bound to paid employment? Is policy even meaningful for societies which, under any scenario of fair world wide degrowth, should not or cannot shrink? Under contraction and convergence for example at least half the people must not reduce their throughput. Reduced economic activity elsewhere in the world could, nevertheless, have employment consequences anywhere. In richer economies, at least, the case is made that two of the social problems arising from economic shrinkage should be approached politically instead of, as is customary, economically. These are 1) income inegality and 2) worklessness. [ Egality is an attempt to avoid the absolutism of equality and denotes narrowing the gap between richest and poorest; quality of work is here ignored.] In politics, press, academia and common parlance full employment and economic growth are almost indistinguishably cemented together and somewhat less so economic growth and income disparity. Decoupling them from the size, resp. growth, of the economy is imperative. In the nineteenth century Owen, Say, McCulloch, Marx and even Sismondi recognized that it isn t machines that destroy jobs: job distribution is a political question. Regarding guaranteed income we needn t re invent the wheel, but literature is thinner regarding guaranteed jobs. The paper thus collects a few examples such as the experience of former communist bloc nations, of India since the December, 2004 enactment of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, of municipalities such as Zürich that have begun offering paid employment to those whose unemployment insurance has ended, or the Sheffield 14

15 Employment Bond (home of The Full Monty ). If society wishes to secure benefits going beyond maintained purchasing power and material welfare justice, schemes for guaranteed paid work must be developed. Finally, concerning the social marketing of degrowth, ecological goals shouldn t be sacrificed on the altar of full employment. As I experienced in many Greenpeace actions, workers in fishing, nuclear power, tropical lumber and automobile transport immediately cry foul when their sectors are threatened: Our jobs! The paper attempts a map, or general conceptualisation, of this issue. Literature: Alcott, Blake, At > gerecht (in German) Atkinson, A.B., 1995/2004. Public Economics in Action. Oxford U. Press, Oxford. Paris. Bastiat, Frédéric, Ce qu on voit et ce qu on ne voit pas, ou, l Économie politique en une leçon. Guillaumin, Echeverri Gent, John, Guaranteed employment in an Indian state: The Maharastra experience. Asian Survey Vol. VIII (12): Jochimsen, Maren, & Ursula Knoblauch, Making the hidden visible: The importance of caring activities and their principles for any economy. Ecological Economics 20 (2): Mellor, Mary, Women, nature and the social construction of economic man. Ecological Economics 20 (2): Mena, Ramiro, and Blake Alcott, Discussions/interviews regarding the Zürich program of guaranteed paid work. Siegel, Richard Lewis, Employment and Human Rights. Pennsylvania U. Press, Philadelphia. Squire: H.pp.9.S.2 Steensland, Brian, The Failed Welfare Revolution: America s Struggle over Guaranteed Income Policy. Princeton U. Press, Princeton. Wood, E.M., Democracy against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism, Cambridge University Press, New York. ANDERSSON, JAN OTTO: THE GLOBAL ETHICAL TRILEMMA, GROWTHMANIA AND THE IDEA OF DEGROWTH There are three goals that most of humankind subscribes to prosperity, justice and sustainability but to combine the three goals on the global level is a challenge that is hard to confront. Let us discuss this global ethical trilemma with the help of the following figure. 15

16 The global ethical TRILEMMA Pick two ignore the third Mass consumption Prosperity Global social democracy Eco efficient capitalism Global justice Ecological sustainability Red green planetarism The corners of the triangle correspond to the three components often included in the definitions of sustainable development: the ecological, the economic and the social dimensions. The difficulty to achieve all three on a global level is an enormous challenge for all who see sustainable development as the central political goal of our age. We shortly describe three growth mechanisms: profit driven capitalism, status driven consumerism, international rivalry, and their interconnections. We shall also present some ideas for degrowth that is curtailing the urge to grow. Which possibilities do we have to reverse the current trends and make a transition to a just and ecologically sustainable economy? We shall discuss the concept of prosperity, outline the conditions for sustainable macroeconomics and emphasise the need for a global ethic. A change of the Zeitgeist the spirit of the time in the direction of degrowth would affect the three growth mechanisms presented above. Since the positional competition between individuals is largely dependent on the dominating social values it would probably be directed into modes that are less damaging to the environment. The rivalry between nation states is less sensitive to new values, but the insight that we have only one planet that we must care for together if humanity is to prosper, would certainly be more widespread and influential. Even if the establishment of a democratic world government seems to be a utopian project, a reduction of growthmania would improve the chances of a resolute international cooperation on global environmental issues. 16

17 ANDREONI, VALERIA; DURIAVIG, MARCO: A LABOUR MODEL IN A DEGROWTH ORIENTED APPROACH In the last years, many movements of degrowth emerged in western societies. Oriented to reduce the human pressure on environment and go beyond the profit centred economic approach based on ever increasing consumption, they propose alternatives based on small scale, self production, conviviality and sharing. The groups of purchasing, the time banking or the co housing are some practical experiences that emerged in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain. Despite more and more people are beginning to question about an alternative economic theory of socioenvironmental sustainability, the neoclassical economic approach considers degrowth idea as a simple sum of alternative practises relegated to small groups of persons and unable to relate with economic realities and theory. That is because, the concept of degrowth has not been formalized in a specific economic theory. Since degrowth is not an aim in itself but represents a choice of life, generated by a questioning about values, principles and priority, the formalization in terms of economic theory is not needed. However, conventional economic approach can be used to represent the alternative economic paradigm proposed by degrowth. In this paper we present a degrowth approach to the labour. Using a macro foundation theoretical model based on the traditional production theory and the Solow growth model, we present a model to maintain the quantitative growth (production) in a steady state level and translate technological improvement to a labour substitution, from paid work to reciprocity work. The expected impacts of this approach are: (1) reduce the environmental impacts of economic activities, both maintaining the quantitative production in a steady state level and promoting small scale and self producing activities; (2) improve the social relationships based on reciprocity work, conviviality and sharing and consequently maintain a constant level of life quality in the de growth sense. ANDREONI, VALERIA; DURIAVIG, MARCO: A SPATIAL MODEL FOR LOCAL SYSTEMS DEFINITION Based on thermodynamic laws and mass balance principle, Bioeconomy acknowledges that, in a finite ecosystem, an infinite economic growth is impossible and it enforces ecological constraint to societies. According to Bioeconomics paradigm, we think that economy can no longer ignore the biophysical constraint. Economic and political science has to take into account that immutable laws of nature exist and a degrowth process from our patterns of resources use is necessary to aim at sustainability. Moreover, we consider that sustainability is not an issue of maximisation but an issue of scale. Social economic systems should have an optimal 17

18 scale relative to the total ecosystem. For this reason, we propose a scale approach for sustainable degrowth. We believe that the degrowth process should be aimed to reduce the scale of consumption and production. In terms of consumption, the degrowth process has to decrease the quantitative scale of exploitation of natural resources (material and energy), while, in terms of production, it has to reduce the spatial scale of productive systems. To achieve both these objectives, it s strictly necessary to give birth to new social economic systems mainly based on local production that can generate, as first positive result, the reduction of international trade pollution and environmental load displacements. Based on this idea, many degrowth s experiences are starting to spread in different countries (e.g. Italy, France, Spain). These initiatives are mainly based on the idea of local system for production consumption processes. This approach aim to i) improve product s quality, ii) reduce costs, iii) decrease CO2 emissions, iv) support local economy and v) promote solidarity at the same time. Nevertheless many difficulties still exist to identify the suitable spatial scale of local systems. In this paper we present a simple spatial model to support the definition of local systems. Using GIS tools we combine production and consumption aspects to delineate potential degrowth s local systems. ASHFORD, NICHOLAS A.: PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: CO OPTIMIZING ECONOMIC WELFARE, ENVIRONMENT, AND EARNING CAPACITY IN A TIME OF DIMINISHING ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INCREASING POPULATION GROWTH Those that argue that the industrialized state whether developed or developing is currently unsustainable emphasize a number of problems. One central problem reflected in the concept of economic welfare is the failure of government and the private sector to provide needed goods and services for all its citizens. These goods and services include manufactured goods, food, housing, transportation, and information and communication technology (ICT), among others. The environmental problems include toxic pollution, climate change, resource depletion, and problems related to the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. The environmental burdens and efforts to ameliorate them are felt unequally within nations, between nations, and between generations, giving rise to inter national, intranational, and intergenerational equity concerns that are often expressed as environmental injustice. The environmental problems stem from the activities concerned with agriculture, manufacturing, extraction, transportation, housing, energy, and services all driven by the demand of consumers, commercial entities, and government. In addition, there are effects of these activities on the amount, security, and skill of employment, the nature and conditions of work, purchasing power associated with wages, and earning capacity of the world s citizens. An increasing concern is economic inequity stemming from inadequate and unequal earning capacity within and between nations and for the workers and citizens of the future. Whether solutions involving education and human resource development, industry initiatives, government intervention, stakeholder involvement, and financing can resolve these unsustainability problems depends on correcting a number of fundamental flaws in the characteristics of the industrial state: fragmentation and inadequacy of the knowledge base leading to myopic understanding of fundamental problems and the creation of single purpose or narrowly fashioned solutions by technical and political decision makers; the inequality of access to economic and 18

19 political power; the tendency towards gerontocracy governance of industrial systems by old ideas leading to both technological and political lock in; the failure of markets both to correctly price the adverse human and environmental consequences of industrial activity; the failure of markets to deal sensibly with effects which span long time horizons for which pricing and markets are inherently incapable of solving; and the failure to engage individuals (workers and citizens) in the society to realize their human potential. While these defects are well understood and solutions have been proposed it has increasingly been suggested that the most fundamental flaw is the expectation that economic growth can and must continue. As the world experienced almost unprecedented economic slowdown and contraction in the last year, the most immediate challenge is how to fashion a more sustainable economic system in a period of no, little, or even negative economic growth and positive population growth. It is towards this challenge that the presentation is directed. BARBIR, FRANO: ROLE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN DE GROWTH FUTURE It is relatively easy to envision a future based on renewable energy. Present day renewable energy technologies could technically replace the existing fossil fuel based technologies. Electricity could be produced by solar and wind power plants. Fuels could be produced from biomass or from electricity. Heat could be produced by solar panels or from electricity. There would be no pollutants and greenhouse gases emissions. However, energy in such a future would be far more expensive than it is today. This would have dramatic effects on global economy, social order and everyday life, and therefore on the patterns of energy use. The question is whether such a system would be still better than the clearly unsustainable present system continuing in the future with all its problems (such as volatile prices, global warming and climate change, wars over remaining scarce resources, etc.) which in the future would only get worse. Such a question could only be answered with a help of complex energy and economic models that attempt to simulate the future, and only with a great deal of uncertainty associated with such a complex task. Even if the results indicate that such a system would be better it would be impossible to impose and implement the transition to an energy system that should have such dramatic and unforeseeable consequences. This paper will evaluate the use of renewable energy technologies in a future where they do not simply replace the existing technologies in both quantity of energy and the type of services they provide, but in a future where they satisfy the basic needs of individuals and sustainable communities. Transition to such a system would be possible but only on individual and local levels. BARKIN, DAVID; CONSTRUYENDO ESTRATEGIAS ALTERNATIVAS PARA EL DECRECIMIENTO: LA EXPERIENCIA DE LAS COMUNIDADES RURALES EN AMÉRICA LATINA Aunque las sociedades Latinoamericanas están en crisis, actualmente importantes grupos de sus pobladores rurales están forjando nuevos entornos que les prometen una mejor calidad de vida y una cierta autonomía de los embates del neoliberalismo. Su praxis refleja un rompimiento histórico, un abandono de procesos de colaboración y acomodo en el proceso de modernización globalizante mediante su participación en los programas oficiales. Frente a la 19

20 política de integración internacional y modernización urbano industrial que ha forjado estructuras de marginalización, sustanciales segmentos de la sociedad rural están proponiendo sus propias estrategias alternativas, una nueva ruralidad comunitaria que insiste en sustituir al mercado para definir como asignar recursos, como garantizar un nivel de vida digna para todos sus miembros y respeto a las exigencias ambientales. Esta nueva comunalidad hace posible una verdadera sustentabilidad, fincada en los atributos de responsabilidad social y ambiental. Sus experiencias nos enseñan algo muy significativo: para que estas sociedades tradicionales sobrevivan, para que puedan definir y realizar sus propios modelos, tendrán que seguir innovando; la milenaria experiencia de innumerables pueblos ha enseñado que la tradición sólo puede mantenerse con vitalidad a través de un proceso de cuidadosa y continúa innovación. Estas estrategias y experiencias constituyen lecciones claves para debatir sobre las posibilidades del decrecimiento, su carácter y su viabilidad en un mundo dominado por procesos de integración económica internacional. Hoy en día, estas comunidades están implementando nuevas propuestas para producir las condiciones necesarias para su propio progreso social y económico un progreso alejado de los valores mundanos de un mundo de consumo y derroche fincado en una vida comunitaria y un respeto para los ecosistemas de que dependemos todos. Sus respuestas contribuyen a forjar otros mundos, resultados de ambiciosos esfuerzos de importantes grupos de comunidades colaborando entre sí o construyendo alianzas para apropiarse de los territorios de estos pueblos y sus recursos. El documento propuesto para esta conferencia ofrece un análisis de este nuevo movimiento, ejemplificado con varios proyectos en proceso de operacionalización; es una propuesta de cómo diversos grupos sociales están logrando disfrutar algunos de los beneficios de un nuevo modelo, incluyendo los de una mejor calidad de vida y de manejo ambiental más equilibrado, así como algunos nuevos productos y servicios que ofrecen para el disfrute de pueblos dispuestos a entrar en relaciones solidarias de apoyo e intercambio con los productores. BATISTA, FRANCISC; BRITO, GUSTAVO: LE MYTHE DE LA DÉCROISSANCE Cet article propose comme thématique de communication la question de la décroissance, en considérant ces définitions, en analysant le paradigme brésilien de croissance et en proposant la construction d un concept mythique de décroissance. Le concept de décroissance est souvent présenté comme ce qu'il n'est pas, en dévoilant une compréhension fragile de ce qu'il peut être ou de ce qu'il pourrait signifier. Cette absence de sens rationel justifie le dévelopement d'une perspective différente de connaissance du monde, d'un angle plutôt magique (croyance). Suite à la constatation de l insufisance des définitions sur le sujet, nous avons entrepris une recherche bibliographique sur l état de l art du concept de décroissance (chez des auteurs comme Georgescu Roegen, Latouche, Illich, Grinevald, Gras et autres), de manière à exposer le caractère rationaliste des définitions qui s opposent au mécanicisme de la croissance actuelle, nous amènant à considérer le scepticisme comme résultante dans la société. Inseré dans une réalité de crise climatique, énergétique, de ressources naturelles et croissance démographique, le débat autour des alternatives à la socíété thermo industrielle et aux modeles de bien être n'est fertile que dans une 20

21 confrontation avec un cas réel. Comment imaginer les populations amazoniennes en répondant à des perspectives rationelles ou même économicistes? Dans ce sens, nous avons étudié le cas brésilien, spécifiquement la croissance brésilienne basée sur une rationalité économique et sur un imaginaire d'ordre et progrès présents soit dans le drapeau national (choisi par les positivistes fondateurs de la République au Brésil), soit dans les politiques publiques des dernières années. En recconaissant les limites des définitions opposées à la rationalité cartésienne caractéristique du monde machine, nous proposons dans cet article une forme mythique de connaître et d être au monde, pour établir une société solidaire et adapté à la décroissance. C est un cas concret à travailler et un thème que nous pensons inscrit sans faute dans les propositions de cette Conférence sur la Décroissance à Barcelone, de 26 à 29 Mars BAYOD, ANGEL A.; MARTÍNEZ; AMAYA: ENERGY DEGROWTH OR DEFOSSILIZATION? The global population on the Earth by 2050 is estimated to reach million people. Even today, a great part of the population is deprived of elementary services such as electrification and fresh water supply. Developing countries have to improve their situation and look up the rich countries for a better status It probably means to rise their energy consumption. Another key issue, the potable water supply to these people also will demand an important amount of energy to desalination. Sustainability and equity within democratic frameworks are identified as important goals and conditions of degrowth, but it would not be fair asking the developing countries to higher efforts than the rich countries, which have been depleting their resources. Then, the reduction of energy consumption in a global perspective is a very difficult task. Besides education in the importance of the limitation of use of limited resources and the need of social equity, a better use of these energies is a must. Obviously, the first effort must be aimed to reduce the individual and collective demands and more efficient measures (avoiding the rebound effect) must be taken in consumption and transmission, distribution and generation systems. For instance, lighting with more efficient lamps is an activity that permits directly the reduction of the demand. Improvements in electrical motors, in more efficient transformers, distribution systems, or in control systems are other examples. In spite of these opportunities, the global energy demand is expected to grow. The cost of growth in production and consumption clearly outweigh its benefits, but there still exist a long way to be walked before reaching the equilibrium. On the other hand, what energy degrowth means? It is clear that the stored resources in our planet are finite (fossil). During millenniums the energy has been accumulated and in some centuries we could burn it to smoke. The use of these resources impacts negatively the environment and risk and problems of security of supply and geopolitical stress may arise. But, what about the possibility of use energy that has not been ever accumulated, virtually unlimited, and that is continuously arriving and that currently we do not take advantage of it, simply return to space? Renewable energies are, by definition, naturally replenished. From them, we can obtain both electricity and heat. Almost every area on the Earth receives enough energy for its development. Solar energy on the Earh is

22 times more than our current consumption. Wind has an important potential too. In the renewable energy systems, every kwh invested in their construction, operation and maintenance, considering even the recycling and restoration processes is returned multiplied by 10, 15, 20, (the so called Energy Return Factors) without harmful environmental consequences. Therefore, instead of energy degrowth, the situation is ameliorated, with a wide social support, by means of the reduction of fossil energies (defossilization). Right sizing at the world level is the key factor. In this paper the compensation mechanism, by which, every new unit of consumption must be accompanied by a new renewable generation is presented. Together with the theoretical background, the situation of Spain is presented under this perspective. The evolution of the electrical consumption and generation is presented and the foreseen trend of consumption and a better scenario taking into account compensation measures. BELL, KAREN: DEGROWTH GHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM CUBA? As part of my PhD fieldwork, I recently spent four months in Cuba, assessing policies and programmes in relation to environmental justice the human right to a healthy and safe environment. I specifically chose to look at this country because it has been able to operate largely outside of capitalism for the last 50 years. My theory is that environmental justice is lacking in the world as a result of capitalism, which produces intense ecological harm as well as extensive social hierarchies, primarily that of race, class, gender and nation. This harm is a result of capitalism s need for infinite economic growth, requiring incessant production and consumption. A constant stream of new commodities is necessary to maintain profits and be competitive against rival firms. The environmental consequence of this system is that natural resources are depleted to feed the system and increased waste products are produced. These consumption patterns can only be maintained through appropriation and destruction of the resources of the poorer nations and communities. In Cuba I found that much of their public policy is already operating along the lines advocated for degrowth: localised production and consumption; a low dependence on fossil fuels; a small ecological footprint; and a strong emphasis on human health, education, security and happiness. During the fieldwork period, I observed and interviewed government officials, social workers, neighbourhood groups, agricultural workers, popular power delegates, students and environmental NGO activists; collecting material on democracy, equality, social provision and environmental quality. I discovered that, though their situation is far from perfect, and they may be about to take a dangerous direction in terms of becoming a consumerist society, there is much we can learn from them. My presentation will outline the evidence for this. BERNARDO, GIOVANNI; D ALESSANDRO, SIMONE: MANAGING WITHOUT GROWTH: ITALIAN SCENARIOS An increasing number of contributions show the existence of a stationary level of subjective wellbeing in developed country. This evidence opens the possibility to reduce consumption, without undermining levels of wellbeing (Jackson, 2008). Victor and Rosenbluth (2007) investigate how no and low growth scenarios for Canada in a 22

23 dynamic simulation model can impact macroeconomic and environmental variables (income, poverty, unemployment, government expenditure, and greenhouse gases emission). Their results are rather strong: without relying on economic growth Canada may keep a relatively low level of unemployment and induce a reduction of the human poverty index, together with a significant reduction of GHG emission. As the authors pointed out in the conclusion, their contribution is primarily a starting point for a discussion. We pursue this research by adapting the LOWGROTH model to the Italian case. The main goal of the paper is to verify its robustness in a different developed country. Italy can be seen as a puzzling case in the low growth perspective, since in the last two decades has been characterized by very low rate of growth. Nevertheless, growth has been always considered the main policy objective, and the political debate has never discussed other possibilities. Preliminary results of the model seem to confirm Victor and Rosenbluth s results. In the last part of the paper we also explore a different scenario including the effect of a consistent substitution of renewable energy for fossil fuels imports, following D alessandro et al. (2009). This inclusion fosters the reduction of GDP growth, but substantially improves the indicators of unemployment and GHG emissions. References D Alessandro, S., Luzzati, T. and M. Morroni (2009). Energy transition towards economic and environmental sustainability: feasible paths and policy implications, Journal of Cleaner Production, forthcoming. Jackson, T. (2008). Where is the wellbeing dividend? Nature, structure and consumption inequalities. Local Environment, 13(8), pp Victor, P. and G. Rosenbluth (2007). Managing without growth, Ecological Economics, 61, pp BILANCINI, ENNIO; D'ALESSANDRO, SIMONE: HAPPY DEGROWTH VS UNHAPPY GROWTH Economic growth is at the centre of economic analysis, the political agenda and public debate. Positive rates of GDP per capita growth (that is, exponential growth) are taken as a physiological feature of contemporary economies. Slowdowns cause serious concerns, bolstering fears that the economy cannot bear them without turning into recessions. The present crisis shows that a zero growth income rate does not seem to be an attractor of our economies. The importance attributed to growth is based on a number of considerations. An increase in income per capita is regarded as a widening of the set of choices available to individuals, that is, an increase in individual freedom of choice. GDP growth makes it possible to offset the decrease in the demand for labour resulting from the effects of technical change on productivity. Economic growth provides resources for basic research and R&D. Firms tend to invest if they forecast an increase in demand for the goods and service they supply. Expansion of GDP can reduce conflicts in income distribution and facilitate redistribution policies, the provision of public goods, reimbursement of 23

24 private and government debt, and payment of the interest due on it. GDP growth makes resources available to cope with the increasing burden of pension and health systems springing from soaring life expectancy. All these things are supposed to rise the well being of individuals, which is maintained to be the ultimate goal of economic development. However, in recent years we have begun to understand that income does not buy well being of human beings so easily. The most quoted finding in this regard is the so called Easterlin Paradox (Easterlin, 1974, 1995), but several others exist (e.g. Blanchflower and Oswald, 2004). The basic idea is that beyond a certain income level, say about ten thousands (current) dollars per capita, further income growth adds little to people's well being. This is because beyond that level most basic needs are already satisfied so that further growth adds to life individuals' satisfaction only insofar as it does not generates itself new needs and desires to be satisfied. There is now plenty of evidence that the latter perverse mechanism might be at work in affluent societies. Basically, it can two qualitatively different forms which however brings about a similar result. The first form is the rise of aspirations which is the outcome of either hedonic adaptationor social comparisons (e.g. Ferrer I Carbonell, 2005; Stutzer, 2004; Layard, 2009; Clark et al. 2008). The second form is the destruction of a common stock of resources induced by economic growth which generates new needs to be satisfied that feed back on economic growth (Bartolini and Bonatti, 2002, 2003, 2008). An important example in this regard is constituted by relations goods, i.e. those relationships among individuals that are not traded in the market (e.g. Bruni and Stanca, 2008). These kinds of goods are typically provided socially and, since they do not entail any payment, they do no concur to GDP. Nevertheless relational goods have been shown to be of great importance to people's well being (e.g. Barolini et. al, 2008; Becchetti et al. 2008). Furthermore, in the last decades doubts have been raised both about the feasibility unlimited growth. A wide range of proposals has emerged in response to the increasing need to reconcile economic goals with environmental limits and social issues (see e.g. Victor and Rosenbluth, 2007). These proposals, focusing on the decoupling both of welfare from economic growth and of matter from economic output proposals, have been presented under the labels of de growth, dematerialization, sustainable development, steady state economy, eco development, serene downscaling, qualitative development versus aggregate quantitative growth, and so forth. The present paper seeks to contribute to the debate by showing that de growth of GDP may well go with the growth of welfare if we allow for externalities stemming from aspirations dynamics and social interactions. Interestingly, externalities in preferences turn out to play a similar role to externalities in production in traditional endogenous growth theory. More precisely, we present an endogenous growth model where individuals, once basic needs are satisfied, obtains their utility form: (i) the comparison of their current material situation with their aspiration, and (ii) the consumption of relational goods. We prove that the optimal path of the economy is one of asymptotic GDP de growth and welfare growth. We also prove that this cannot be obtained under a lassez faire policy since each economic agent has the incentive do accumulate and, hence, foster GDP growth. References Bartolini S., Bilancini E., and Pugno, M., 2008 American Declines of Social Capital and Happiness: Is There 24

25 Any Linkage?, mimeo, University of Siena S. Bartolini, L.Bonatti Endogenous growth, decline in social capital and expansion of market activities, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 67 (3), p , S. Bartolini, L.Bonatti Endogenous growth and negative externalities, Journal of Economics, 79, pp , S. Bartolini, L.Bonatti Environmental and social degradation as the engine of economic growth, Ecological Economics, 41, pp. 1 16, Becchetti L., Pelloni A., Rossetti F., (2008). Relational Goods, Sociability and Happiness, Kyklos, 61 (3), 343 Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., "Well being over time in Britain and the USA," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7 8), pages , July. Bruni, Luigino and Stanca, Luca, (2008) "Watching alone. Happiness, Relational goods and television", Journal of Economic Behavoir and Organization, Volume 65, Issues 3 4: Ferrer i Carbonell, Ada, "Income and well being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect," Journal of Public Economics, vol. 89(5 6), pages , June. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, "Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles," Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 46(1), pages , March. R. Easterlin, "Will Raising the Incomes of All Increase the Happiness of All?" Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 27:1 (June), 1995, R. Easterlin, "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?" in Paul A. David and Melvin W. Reder, eds., Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz, New York: Academic Press, Inc., 1974 R. Layard, G. Mayraz and S. Nickell, 2009, Does relative income matter? Are critics right?, mimeo Stutzer, Alois, "The role of income aspirations in individual happiness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages , May. P. Victor and G. Rosenbluth, Managing without growth, Ecological Economics, vol. 61, pages BLAUWHOF, FREDERIK: ECONOMIC DEGROWTH FOR ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL EQUITY 25

26 Infinite economic growth on a finite planet is not possible. But economic history shows that capitalist economies periodically lapse into crisis and recessions. This results in unemployment, wage cuts, public spending cuts and social want. Crises happen independently of the limits to growth, but economic growth is necessary under capitalism to sustain capital accumulation and maintain social provision at the same time. Does this mean that social provision and environmental sustainability are necessarily at odds with each other? In my paper I will go beyond conventional ecological economics and argue that social sustainability and environmental sustainability are necessarily incompatible under and because of the foundational social relations of capitalism. Production for profit, competition amongst capitalists and the resulting logic of capital accumulation under conditions of degrowth will experience demand deficiency and result in crisis only resolvable though growth. Without growth, the profit rate will tend to 0, which necessitates cuts in social provision to keep companies competitive and governments budgets balanced. Ecological sustainability and social provision will therefore require addressing and resolving the class antagonism in companies between shareholders and managers on the one hand, and workers on the other. I will present three practical proposals based on this analysis. On the small scale of the individual company, the class antagonism between capital and labour can be overcome through establishing cooperatives. While setting up new cooperatives might not be a practical problem, converting existing companies into cooperatives has historically required and will require varying degrees of struggle. From a broader political perspective I advocate an alliance between labour unions, socialists, anarchists and environmentalists to fight for cooperatively organized green industry. Together, these social forces stand more chance to intervene at crucial junctures like bankruptcies and plant closures of vital industries. I will draw practical lessons the examples of the struggle around the closure of the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wright and president Obama s missed opportunity that was the bankruptcy of General Motors. In the final analysis, I will argue that the intricate political economic puzzle posed by the various limits to growth will not be solvable through market solutions nor through government regulation of capitalism. The imperatives of degrowth, managing and genuine recycling of scarce resources, combating crisis and maintaining social provision will necessitate some form of democratic control and planning of the economy. BOFFI, MARCO; GUERINI, MICHELA: LESS CONSUMPTION MORE WELLBEING: EVIDENCES FROM THE POLICIES OF ITALIAN VIRTUOUS MUNICIPALITIES ASSOCIATION Degrowth proposes a series of principles aiming to foster equality, social relations and the reduction of ecological footprint (Latouche, 2004, 2007; Flipo & Schneider, 2008). Contrasting also with a model of Sustainable Development, degrowth claims that the economy should not be used as a general system of representation of reality (Fournier, 2008). The proposal of such cultural shift unveils the reification that the economy has undergone (Georgescu Roegen, 1977) and offers the opportunity for an individual reflection that can produce an increased selfawareness and personal growth. Indeed, Kasser (2006) describes from a psychological perspective the price that western societies have to pay for this way of living in terms of personal, social and ecological costs. In conformity with 26

27 such criticism, Inghilleri (2003) claims that the materialism promoted by the consumerist model contrasts with the Eudaimonic wellbeing. The capability to foster Eudaimonic wellbeing is a further surplus value that we ascribe to degrowth and not to the paradigm of Sustainable Development. In Italy two different networks promote degrowth: the Associazione per la Decrescita ( more interested in discussing theoretical aspects and the association Movimento per la Decrescita Felice MDF ( rooted in the society and proposing concrete actions of degrowth attracting social actors at several levels (NGO, public institutions, enterprises, individuals). This paper focuses on the spread of degrowth proposal into Italian politics referring to Virtuous Municipalities' Association VMA ( a network of several Italian municipalities that since 2007 officially adopted policies of degrowth inspired by the MDF. We analyzed territorial and political dimensions collecting data with sheets analysis and interviewing the representatives of each municipality belonging to VMA; moreover we run a focus group with the town councillors of Mezzago (Milan). The results of the interviews show the efficacy of enacted policies in promoting social cohesion, environmental protection and citizens wellbeing, achieved by individual fulfilment and empowerment (Eudaimonic Well Being). ). These are the key elements that enable politicians and citizens to persevere in their activities. This activism is also promoted by subjective wellbeing, which is the result of intrinsic motivation that allows individuals to experience a state of selfdetermination and a sense of competence (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Other results outline that the activity of the local administration is bound to stimulating and listening to citizens, promoting their active role. In conclusion, the spread of degrowth proposal into Italian politics is due to an individual process, characterized by personal self empowerment and self determination, and to an activation endorsed by the public administration. Municiaplities policies, while reducing products and energy consumption, foster social and individual wellbeing. References Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, Is., (1988), Optimal Experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Flipo. F. & Schneider, F., (2008), Economic De Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, Proceedings of the First International Conference, Paris, April. Fournier, V., (2008), Escaping from the economy: the politics of degrowth, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 28(11/12), pp Fredrickson, B. L., (2001), The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden andbuild theory of positive emotions, American Psychologist, 56,

28 Georgescu Roegen, N., (1977), Inequality, limits and growth from a bioeconomic viewpoint, Review of Social Economy, 35, pp Guerini, M., & Boffi, M., (in press), From Sustainable Development to Degrowth. Italian Municipalities on the road to Well Being. Inghilleri, P., (1999), From Subjective Experience to Cultural Change, Cambridge University Press, New York. Inghilleri, P., (2003), La Buona Vita. Per l'uso Creativo degli Oggetti nella Società dell'abbondanza, Guerini e Associati, Milano. Inghilleri, P., Riva, E., Guerini, M., Boffi, M., (2008), New Practices for a Better and Fairly Life between Responsible Citizenship and Well Being Development, Paper presented at 4th European Conferente on Positive Psychology, Rijeka 1 4 July. Kasser, T., (2006), Materialism and its alternatives, Csikszentmihalyi M. & Csikszentmihalyi I. S. (Eds.), A life worth living: Contributions to positive psychology, pp , Oxford University Press, Oxford. Latouche, S., (2004), Survivre au Développement. De la Décolonisation de l'imaginaire économique à la construction d'une Société Alternative, Mille et une nuits, Paris. Latouche, S., (2007), Petit Traité de la Décroissance Sereine, Mille et une nuits, Paris. Peterson, C., & Seligman, M.E.P., (2004), Character Strengths and Virtues. A Handbook and Classification, APA Press and Oxford University Press, Washington, D.C. Riva, E., Boffi, M., (2009), Psicologia e decrescita. Le Origini Psicologiche dei Comportamenti di Consumo Contro Culturali, Newletter di Psicologia Positiva, 14. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well being, American Psychologist, 55, Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L., (2001), On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well being, Annual Review of Psychology, 52, pp Ryff, C.D., & Keyes, C.L.M., (1995), The structure of psychological well being revisited, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, pp BONAIUTI, MAURO: THE AGE OF DECLINING MARGINAL RETURNS. GLOBAL TRENDS AND FUTURE SCENARIOS According to Joseph Tainter increasing investment in social complexity reaches a point of declining marginal returns (Tainter, 1989). Following a systemic approach, the paper intends to investigate how in contemporary Human Ecological Systems (HES, Ruskin, 2009) positive and negative long run feedback processes interact, in order to explain the present declining global trends. The analysis deals with some specific institutions, such as bureaucracy, multinational corporations, R&D systems so to offer empirical evidence on how these complex organizations beyond 28

29 certain scale threshold exhibit declining marginal returns. Starting from this framework, different future scenarios can be analysed. BONATTI, LUIGI; CAMPIGLIO, EMANUELE: MOBILITY SYSTEMS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION POLICIES In advanced countries, essential education, health and transportation services are typically made available at relatively cheap prices through subsidized systems that are often directly managed by the government, or alternatively at higher prices through systems to which people can have access by paying a larger fraction of their total cost. As a matter of fact, each country is characterized by its peculiar way to combine these two modalities in providing education, health and transportation services. This paper argues that in general the peculiar mix characterizing a country has effects on its long run growth and welfare. In particular, our model intends to offer a simplified treatment of an economy where transportation services are provided by a collective transportation system or by the use of private vehicles on public roads. Individual choices concerning the transportation modes are influenced by government investment in infrastructures that favour mobility systems hinging on private vehicles or that promote the use of collective transportation networks. The main result of the paper is that keeping unchanged the fraction of public resources invested in transportation infrastructures governments can boost long run growth by investing more in private mobility systems. This is because, by shifting public investment from collective to private transportation systems, governments alter the households demand for transportation services in favour of private modalities of transportation, which are those that require relatively more private expenditures. In its turn, this change in the composition of the households demand raises steady state growth by inducing the households to increase their labor supply so as to afford larger expenditures in transportation. The analytical setup presented here offers a formal explanation of why the rapid development of transportation modes based on the mass diffusion of the automobile played a crucial role in driving economic growth in advanced countries. One may observe that the same pattern of development is occurring in developing countries all over the world. It is well known, however, that transportation systems can have detrimental side effects on environmental assets. Therefore, it is not surprising that the long term welfare effect of government policies aimed at favouring private modalities of transportation may be negative, in spite of their positive impact on long run growth. A policy favouring the use of private vehicles induces the households to spend more and to increase their market work, thus stimulating private investment and leading to a faster growth of the demand for transportation and the emission of pollutants. BOROWY, IRIS: POSSIBLE HEALTH BENEFITS OF DEGROWTH: LESSONS OF PAST EXAMPLES 29

30 It is beyond doubt that in many parts of the world poverty is the main impediment to better health. However, in the developed world and an increasing part of the developing world as well the public health benefits of economic growth have become negligible or are being outweighed by the harmful effects of growth. Conversely, public health may profit from a shrinking economy, though this is not inevitably so. Recently, Lancet addressed this aspect with a series of articles outlining the presumable public health consequences of measures aimed at mitigating climate change. This paper argues that planning for future policies which combine environmentally useful degrowth measures with improved health is served by looking at past experience in that field. It therefore analyzes three case studies where economic decline during the 1990s affected public health in different ways: Cuba, where the severe economic crisis lowered death rates due to diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke; Japan, where rising life expectancy continued to rise after the onset of economic turmoil; Russia, where economic decline coincided with decreasing life expectancy and where this trend continued even after the economy had recovered. Clearly, above a certain level the economic development can have strikingly different effects on public health depending on other factors. This raises the question of what these factors are, in how far they are related to a growing or shrinking economy and how they can be optimized. At the same time, the issue presents a challenges to define suitable indicators by which to measure health. Using indicators such as life expectancy, mortality and where available morbidity rates this papers tests factors such as community life, lifestyles, healthcare provision and social networks. Comparing circumstances in the three model cases, this paper seeks to analyze those factors and to develop policy recommendations on that basis. BOZA MARTÍNEZ; SOFÍA: LOS SISTEMAS PARTICIPATIVOS DE GARANTÍA COMO EXPRESIÓN DE LA AGROECOLOGÍA Y PARTE DE UN PROGRAMA HACIA EL DECRECIMIENTO: LA EXPERIENCIA ANDALUZA La evolución que ha tenido la legislación sobre agricultura ecológica en los últimos años a nivel europeo, principalmente en materia de certificación de productos, no ha convencido a un importante segmento perteneciente al sector. Se ha llegado a considerar que la burocracia y los costes necesarios para acceder a los sellos oficiales por parte de los interesados pueden incluso desincentivar la conversión hacia la agricultura ecológica, sobre todo de los pequeños productores. Esta realidad ha llevado a que diversas asociaciones del sector traten de potenciar la investigación y puesta en marcha de alternativas al sistema de certificación oficial de productos de agricultura ecológica. Estos sistemas no tratan de sustituir a la certificación oficial, sino complementarla cuando los canales comerciales son cortos, ahorrando costes y medrando en el proceso de aprendizaje que emana de la participación en el movimiento orgánico. Los Sistemas Participativos de Garantía (SPG) son un caso específico dentro de un marco de certificación participativa en red. Ésta se centra en la implicación de todos los agentes relacionados con la producción, comercialización y consumo de los alimentos ecológicos en su proceso de verificación; por lo que la generación de 30

31 confianza es muy importante. Los Sistemas Participativos de Garantía basan su control en una serie de normas y procedimientos establecidos. Puede darse el caso de que dichas normas técnicas se vinculen al cumplimiento del reglamento con vigencia legal en el lugar donde se implanta el SPG, a los estándares sobre agricultura ecológica de algún organismo internacional, o sean definidos por y para el propio Sistema. En el año 2005, la Dirección General de Agricultura Ecológica de la Junta de Andalucía toma la determinación de desarrollar en la Comunidad un proyecto piloto de certificación mediante Sistemas Participativos de Garantía. Dicha iniciativa se realizó de manera simultánea en tres zonas: Serranía de Ronda (Málaga), Sierra de Segura (Jaén), Castril y Castilléjar (Granada). Su elección no fue casual, sino que agricultores de estas áreas habían expresado previamente sus dificultades para poder hacer viable su acceso a la producción y comercialización de productos de agricultura ecológica. El análisis de esta experiencia, pionera no sólo en el Estado español sino dentro del contexto europeo, resulta de especial interés a fin de considerar la pertinencia de su posible extensión y reconocimiento legal (este último aún pendiente). Todo ello dentro de una estrategia de fomento de los canales cortos de distribución, la participación comunitaria y la agricultura tradicional, acorde con los principios de la agroecología y por extensión de un programa de decrecimiento económico CALLIGARIS, GAIA: ALTERNATIVES AU DÉVELOPPEMENT VENANT DU SUD (AGRO ÉCOLOGIE, SOUVERAINETÉ ALIMENTAIRE ET DÉCROISSANCE) Cette recherche naît d une étude de cas conduite sur un institut ghanéen, KITA, qui s occupe de développement rural et qui a une vision du développement très loin de celle classique. A partir de là, on essayera une induction au niveau global pour démontrer comme, tout en respectant les spécificités et les cultures des différentes Pays et régions, un modèle réellement soutenable du point de vue écologique et social et basé sur le local est non seulement possible et souhaitable mais aussi nécessaire. L objectif de KITA est de créer des systèmes fondés sur le modèle Modular Organic Regenerative Environment. Modular signifie en pratique qu il s agit d un système d agroforesterie, où on intègre différents modules appartenant aux trois catégories d arbres, animaux et végétales de façon qu ils se soutiennent réciproquement (par exemple, très simplement, on nourrit les animaux avec les plantes et ces dernières avec le fumier produit par les animaux). Ainsi faisant, on réduit les gaspillages, l empreinte négative sur l environnement et les inputs et l énergie nécessaires et on augmente l efficience. A cela il faut ajouter la possibilité d utiliser des sources renouvelables d énergie et l utilisation combinée de technologies traditionnelles et technologies soutenables modernes adaptées au milieu. Organic signifie qu on n utilise rien de chimique ni de génétiquement modifié. Regenerative est le terme préféré à soutenable; un tel système, en éliminant les pratiques nocives et les components chimiques et en introduisant un système intégré, non seulement n endommage pas les ressources naturelles, mais est aussi capable de restaurer un environnement abîmé (par exemple en utilisant certains arbre qui ont la propriété d enrichir les sols d azote et donc de les rendre plus fertiles). 31

32 En conclusion, il s agit d un approche systémique qui mime les comportements naturels, et donc de permaculture. Ce système devra garantir aux paysans la sécurité alimentaire, centrale dans le discours de KITA mais, au moins pour les paysans résidentes dans les aires périurbaines, aussi un petit surplus commercialisable et donc un sustainable self reliant sufficient revenue qui pourrait garantir une amélioration nette dans leur vie, en leur permettant d épargner pour des nécessités futures, d investir en leur activité et en l éducation de leurs enfants et aussi d acheter ce dont ils ont besoin et qu ils ne produisent pas. De façon enchaînée, cela devrait permettre aux paysans de dessiner leurs propres plans de développement au niveau de communauté et basés sur les ressources disponibles. Au delà des urgences théoriques, je crois que cette vision croise très harmoniquement élans idéalistes et nécessités réalistes. CAMPIGLIO: ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE TRANSITION TO RENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY: A TWO ECONOMY MODEL The debate over the introduction of a backstop technology i.e. a renewable source of energy able to substitute for increasingly scarce fossil fuels has been going on for more than 30 years. Economic models on the topic have typically analyzed how different policies are likely to affect the probability of the discovery, and subsequent oneoff adoption, of the backstop technology. Some recent authors (e.g. Tsur, Zemel, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2003; Tahvonen, Salo, European Economic Review, 2001) have instead allowed for a simultaneous use of nonrenewable and backstop resources. This approach appears to be more consistent with the empirical dynamics of energy production, in which the adoption of cleaner technologies (wind, solar, biomass and others) takes place gradually, progressively substituting for fossil fuels. With a similar theoretical structure, a growth model was developed (D alessandro et al., Journal of Cleaner Production, 2010) with the intention of analysing the sustainability of the potential transition paths leading to the adoption of the backstop technology. The focus is put particularly on the level of resources to be devoted by the economy to technological improvement so as to avoid physical capital idleness and consumption collapse when nonrenewable sources of energy terminate. The aim of this paper is to build on the theoretical framework sketched above and analyze the case of two economies at different stages of development (North and South) sharing the same non renewable energy source. The speed at which the resource is depleted, as well as the progressive adoption of the backstop technology and the consequent sustainability of the system, will depend on the rate of growth of the two economies, the share of product devoted to R&D expenditures (and hence diverted from capital accumulation) and the transfer of technology from North to South, if any. After parameter calibration and software simulation, the expected result would be a model of contraction and convergence. In order to ensure sustainability and an equal level of per capita consumption between the two economies, the most effective strategy would entail a high rate of R&D expenditure undertaken by the North (with a 32

33 subsequent reduction of growth rates, possibly to negative levels) and technology transfers to the South, which at the same time has to be allowed to increase its per capita consumption, converging to the North levels. CATTANEO, CLAUDIO; GAVALDÀ, MARC; POMAR, ADOLF: AUTO PRODUCCIÓN Y AUTONOMÍA ENERGÈTICA: EL CASO DEL CENTRO SOCIAL OKUPADO KAN PASQUAL. Este trabajo presenta el caso de cómo Kan Pasqual, una finca rural okupada al norte de la sierra de Collserola, está implementando medidas de autoproducción de energia a través del desarrollo de algunas soluciones tecnológicas y un estilo de vida de bajo consumo. La vivencia colectiva desconectada de la red eléctrica convierte a Kan Pasqual en una experiencia pionera de transición social posible hacia modos de vida no crematísticos. Desde 1996, el colectivo que habita y participa en Kan Pasqual, se ha reafirmado a través de la puesta en práctica de herramientas de baja tecnología y escaso costo económico buscando la emancipación energética y material. La autogestión práctica implementada desde una concepción holística ha sido el camino para evitar o disminuir los insumos materiales y económicos del mercado. En este sentido, la electricidad es generada a partir de paneles fotovoltaicos y un aerogenerador, la calefacción es alimentada con biomasa, se calienta agua con energía termosolar. Las huertas producen una parte significativa de los vegetales consumidos y se emplean métodos tradicionales de acopio del agua pluvial. Existen otras propuestas tecnológicas experimentales como un digestor de biogas. La metodologìa del presente estudio sigue la observación participante, ya que algunos de los autores viven en el lugar y han dinamizado en primera persona los procesos de autoproducción y auto suficiencia. En este contexto metodológico se ofrece una perspectiva histórica de las diferentes fases de desarrollo, así como unos datos numéricos relativos a: 1.las técnicas empleadas y el uso de recursos (humanos, energéticos, materiales y monetarios) en las fases de construcción e instalación. 2. los flujos de energía y materiales de Kan Pasqual. Caracterizándose como un proceso de aprendizaje, se presentan los principales fallos e imprevistos ocurridos en las fases de instalación y funcionamento así como se identifican los casos puntuales en los que se recurre al consumo de fuentes energéticas no renovables. El objetivo de los autores es la divulgación de una experiencia práctica que ha hecho posible la autonomía energética. Se hace también referencia a literatura académica relevante. El marco teórico se encuadra en el pensamiento de los movimientos sociales en búsqueda de alternativas locales, en la literatura relativa al decrecimiento y en la autonomía energética. Finalmente, se muestra cómo dentro de una economía local de baja intensidad energética y material se puede conseguir el bienestar, evitando la dependencia de combustibles fósiles y aparatos administrativos estatales. CHIANESE, FRANCESCA ; DELL ANGELO, JAMPEL: QAMIRI: WHAT LESSONS CAN BE LEARNT FROM INDIGENOUS PEOPLES? 33

34 The aim of this paper is not to lecture the decadent western world on the myth of the bon sauvage, but to acknowledge the centrality of nature in indigenous peoples worldview. Contrary to the dominant western perspective and way of living, indigenous peoples perspective of societies well being is based on equilibrium and harmony based on the values of reciprocity, diversity, solidarity, accountability and harmony with nature. They deploy an integral, multi dimensional system of values and practices, which derive from a traditional, community wide, and rituallysanctioned way of life based on a substantial body of indigenous knowledge which relates the people to the land, forest and wildlife, as well as to the spiritual world. This paper argues that indigenous peoples worldview, knowledge, values and perspectives are a global heritage which can serve as a pool to improve relations between mankind and nature and find a positive diffusion and enrich the debate in the degrowth community. The second focus of the paper is related to indigenous peoples development of resource management and ecological awareness in a context of struggle, resistance, injustice, and vulnerability. For example the environmental crisis leads to environmental discrimination towards indigenous peoples who are the worst affected by climate change and are expected to carry the heaviest burden of adjustment. Due to their relation with the land and the environment, any change in the ecosystem adversely impacts their traditional livelihoods, their knowledge and their control over the lands, territories and resources. The issues that surround climate change and indigenous peoples are therefore issues of equity, social justice, ecological sustainability, environmental justice and human rights. Despite world crisis and the worsening environmental conditions not only do traditional livelihoods still exist but indigenous knowledge and management systems have been revive demonstrating effective adaptation and adjustment strategies. Some suggestions on possible interventions on the diffusion and valorization of indigenous knowledge as well as on the level of the inclusion and reinforcement of indigenous peoples in the decisional mechanisms and institutions will be made in final analysis. COHEN, MAURIE J.: DEGROWTH AS A CHALLENGE TO SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION The past decade has seen growing interest in reforming consumer practices to reduce the volume of energy and materials required to maintain affluent lifestyles. Much of the discussion during this time, both in terms of academic debate and public policy activity, has coalesced around the notion of sustainable consumption and has focused on pragmatic measures like energy efficiency, consumer education, ecological labeling, institutional procurement, and other relatively weak strategies. Proponents have generally been careful to elide the distinction between consuming greener and consuming less. During the past two years, the release of the European Commission s anemic sustainable consumption plan, the onset of the global financial crisis, and the intensification of international pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has prompted a discernible shift in the field of sustainable consumption toward more structural analyses. This turn toward political economy has led to the articulation of stronger policy prescriptions that accord with the concept of degrowth. This paper reviews several recently published documents and details this process of evolution. 34

35 The aim is not to evaluate the technical viability of degrowth inspired expressions of sustainable consumption, but to view them as constituting an insurgent policy discourse. This apparent move toward a more radical sustainable consumption agenda holds a variety of risks. It is, after all, relatively uncontroversial to put forward policy measures that encourage individual consumers to voluntarily exercise greater care when making household purchases. It is another matter entirely to give voice to ideas intended to reduce absolute levels of consumption and to purposefully restrain economic growth. The recent embrace of degrowthist ideas in sustainable consumption scholarship will likely lead to an unbridgeable schism between microoriented researchers focused on the encouragement of household level adjustments and macro oriented analysts attuned to resurgent debates on biophysical limits to growth. This cleavage will pose significant challenges for policy makers who will be forced to confront the trade offs between incremental behavior change and macroeconomic transformation. COLARES, GISELLA; NASCIMENTO, ELIMAR:SOLIDARY: POPULAR BANK: COMPATIBLE PRACTICAL WITH THE PARADIGM OF THE DEGROWTH The present work considers that the solidary economy can be an alternative policy for the degrowth. The range of perceptions and definitions of solidary economy can harm the potential contribution of some of these practices to the paradigm of the degrowth. This contribution can be risen from the point where diverse theories comply with the questioning of the auto adjustable market as the only legitimate and efficient institution to satisfy human beings necessities. This means to put in question the limitless and unrestricted economic growth as a premise. In a practical perspective, this agreement consists on the proposal of subordination of the individual interests to the collective interest or, in other words, to perceive the economy as a dimension of a bigger system, the social system, woven by ethical, political, social and ecological questions. Moreover, there are practices of solidary economy that aim to rescue the social links destroyed by the monetary relations of exchange. These relations imply immediate liquidation of what could be a social link and solidary economy allows the establishment of social and local self management segments. In north eastern of Brazil there is an interesting experience of solidary organization in the Conjunto Palmeiras in Fortaleza. The experience began with the formation of a popular bank with the credit policy based on the social control and communitarian endorsement. However, the bank coordinates a series of activities that fortifies the local net of solidary economy. They are examples of these activities: the collective creation of a used local currency in the club of exchanges, collective purchases, mapping of the production and local consumption aiming to fortify the local productive succession, local incubator of women in situation of risk, exchanges of services without monetary intermediation, cooperatives, etc. These practices are compatible with the local ecological democracy and the relocalization aspiring local autonomy. These self management can constitute a reality level, using quantum logical, where the way of social institution of economic relations are plural and make possible a bottom up transformation of the dominant paradigm. Undoubtedly, this transformation also needs a intervention in the level of reality of global market, therefore, where the 35

36 economic relations are instituted only in the market. However, we can conclude that the degrowth and this conception of solidary economy have positive retroaction, bringing more quality of life with less consumption of natural resources. CRABREE, TIM; FRAŇKOVÁ, EVA; JOHANISOVA, NADIA: ECONOMIC DEGROWTH AND NEW ECONOMIC STRUCTURES Economic growth is fuelled by many factors, but prominent among them is the structure of a typical for profit company, based on share ownership, profit maximisation and a one dollar one vote governance structure. Such companies, operating within an unforgiving market system and forced to maximise profit, have no choice but to pander to (and create via advertising) effective demand for spurious products, thus often missing real and basic needs in communities, if unbacked by purchasing power. At the same time, they squander resources and cripple communities by operating world wide and externalising their costs (Korten 1995). Thus growth continues while basic needs go unmet. It is important therefore to identify an alternative to this prevailing economic model of needs satisfaction. The first step is to accept the idea of not just one, but several economies (see also e.g. Henderson 1999, Cahn 2004). Besides the fully monetised public sector and market economies, there is the householding/subsistence sector and, though made almost invisible by the neoliberal ideology, the mutuality/volunteering and reciprocity sector. We emphasise the need for a new social economy, which would involve voluntary/community initiatives, social enterprises, and co operative and ethical businesses, and straddle the market economy and the mutuality/reciprocity/volunteering economies. These organisations are typically owned and managed locally, have a one member one vote governace structure, and are not committed to maximising returns or production (Johanisova 2005). One of us has been instrumental in helping to create such an economy in South West England. Essentially, such an economy has three levels: 1. Direct provision of goods and services which meet local needs (e.g. food and housing). Existing English examples include a producer led company, which distributes local food from producers to households and via village shops, or a community owned trust offering affordable housing for local residents. 2.Secondary social enterprises. These organisations support the primary social enterprises engaged in direct provision of services. In South West England, they provide managed workspaces, educational centres, training kitchens, retail units nad rental of office space and work space. Ideally, they should be supported by the primary enterprises. 3. Trusteeship of non market capitals. We believe that resources such as land, financial capital and knowledge are not true commodities, but are rather assets to be held in trust for current and future generations. Such fictional commodities (Polanyi 2001/1944) need to be embedded in innovative institutional stuctures (Bruyn 1992), some of which are already in place in South West England. Literature: Bruyn, S., 1992: A new direction for community development in the United States. P in: Ekins, P. and M. Max Neef (eds): Real life economics: Understanding wealth creation. Routledge, London Cahn, E., 2004: No more throwaway people: the co production imperative. Essential Books, Washington, D.C. Henderson, H., 1999: Beyond globalization: shaping a sustainable world economy. Kumarian Hartford, Connecticut Press, West 36

37 Johanisova, N.,2005: Living in the cracks. NEF, Feasta, Dublin Korten, D., 1995: When corporations rule the world. Earthscan, London Polanyi, K, 2001: The great transformation. Beacon Press, London (First published 1944) CZECH, BRIAN: THE CHICKEN/EGG SPIRAL: "RECONCILING" THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION WITH TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS The basic conflict between economic growth and environmental protection is widely understood in academia and largely acknowledged in political circles. However, in neither venue is there a unified response to this conflict. For example, especially in political circles, the environmental Kuznets curve is posited to solve the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. In academia, however, and especially in the natural or transdisciplinary sciences, the environmental Kuznets curve has been deemed fallacious in macroeconomic scenarios and largely irrelevant to many environmental issues, most notably biodiversity conservation. In academia and politics, the other common response is that the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection (including biodiversity conservation) may be resolved with technological progress, in particular by the use of new technologies that increase productive efficiency. An inspection of this prospect reveals two major barriers, one political and the other technical. The first is that a technological regime tends to reflect macroeconomic goals; e.g., if the goal is economic growth, reconciliatory technologies are less likely to come online. This barrier could conceivably be surmounted with adequate public education about the negative effects of biodiversity decline, followed by copious political effort and action. However, principles of political economy make this outcome highly unlikely, because progrowth interests systemically accrue resources for defeating educational and political campaigns. The other, technical barrier is the tight linkage between technological progress and economic growth at current levels of technology. To use a publicly resonant metaphor, technological progress and economic growth at current levels of technology form a chicken and egg spiral in which the order of production ( chickens or eggs?) is less important than the fact that the two phenomena run concurrently and concomitantly. Surplus production in existing economic sectors, the aggregation of which expands at the competitive exclusion of non human species in the aggregate, is required for conducting the research and development necessary for bringing new technology to market. The prospect that a future technological regime, put in the service of economic growth and evolving from a proliferation of past and current economic sectors, will reconcile the conflict between the growing human economy and the economy of nature with it s non human species and other aspects of environmental protection cannot be proven, has not been compellingly argued, has no precedent in history; i.e. the prospect requires a leap in faith. The almost certainly insurmountable technical barrier coupled with the established formidable political barrier indicates that environmental protection (and therefore longterm economic sustainability) ultimately requires an alternative to economic growth; i.e., economic degrowth or a steady state economy. 37

38 D ORAZIO, ANNE: TOWARDS A THIRD SECTOR HOUSING IN FRANCE: SYMPTOM OF SUSTAINABLE DEGROWTH? Over the past few years in France, we have witnessed a scattered series of initiatives launched by citizen groups, associations or local authorities aimed at building alternative accommodation both in terms of the mode of occupation and the design and management approaches used. We could mention inter alia eco housing developments, cooperative housing societies, sustainable neighbourhoods, alternative nucleated settlements and collective accommodation for the elderly. These projects are a response to numerous objectives: a wish expressed in other spheres of everyday life to control one s choices and, in this case, one s lifestyle; to share values such as sustainability and a quest for innovative solutions, the search for a dream house or apartment or a solution for growing old. All of these cases stand apart from traditional forms of housing production management such as private market driven or regulated public sector housing production models. The search for an alternative housing production model is not new and is part of a long standing debate in France and Europe over public housing policy. In particular, in France as in other European countries, the 1970s and 80s witnessed a surge of innovation and experimentation in the wake of the zeitgeist of 1968 that drew on the ideology of self management. However, these experiments were actually carried out in a different context that was imbued with social and ecological criticism. Based on research into several such initiatives, we wish to tackle three series of questions. Are these experiments part of the same movement or are they a response to various different imperatives? To what extent have they remained marginal and do they point to the organisation of a third sector housing rooted in the traditions and dynamics of a social, solidarity based economy? What are the underlying social and political dynamics? At a time when the social contract is being renegotiated in light of the withdrawal of central government and pressure on the society of wage earners, when citizens wish to have more direct control over the production of their own lifestyles, when social housing management objectives are caught between contradictory aims such as housing the most distressed sections of the population and implementing the principle of social mix, is the debate over the third sector not to the forefront of the agenda once again? Does France have place for a parallel housing sector and under what conditions? What can we learn from other countries experiences in this respect? These various projects in progress claim to draw on both ecology and sustainability. And while technical approaches in terms of energy or building materials are present in many projects, are we dealing with an opportunistic approach that seeks to make the most of specific certification labels or funding, or are we witnessing a very real transformation in design and management approaches and lifestyles? To what extent are other aspects especially social sustainability raised in reflections concerning the modus operandi of the group, its social make up and means of reproduction? Are these coupled with values of solidarity, social justice or degrowth? Does the reflection concerning sustainability extend beyond the scale of project or settlement to include the neighbourhood or even the city? 38

39 DELGADO RAMOS, GIAN CARLO: URBAN METABOLISM, CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERTY, THE CASE AND CHALLENGE FOR MEXICO CITY Urban metabolism helps to better understand the size and complexity of urban consumption of energy and materials as well as of urban generation of all kind of wastes. A general approach to an urban metabolism analysis is considered necessary in order to have a better approximation to the severity of the current situation of Mexico City s case. This is relevant since it is well known that, for example, cities consume two thirds of the world s energy and contribute with at least four fifths of global emissions. Urban population in Mexico accounts for approximately 80% of the total population, being Mexico City one of the most important urbanizations not only in the country but of Latin America. In addition, geographic concentration of Mexican urban population and its associated environmental costs are too high since it occupies just the 0.4% of the national territory but its ecological footprint is estimated to be several times that space. Considering the above, a theoretical and empirical exercise is thus proposed with the objective of contrasting it and evaluating it with climate change implications for a city of the size, nature and particularities such as the ones of the case proposed. This includes dealing with the rapid sprawl progression (estimated at a rhythm of one hectare per day); with the escalation of poverty; and with the creation of bigger slum like urbanizations with a population density in the range of millions of people. The analysis of the case will allow an empirical corroboration of the limits of a mere technological solution approach. Since mega cities are in principle unsustainable, actions to mitigate climate change within a context of poverty, obligates us to think at the same time on other types of political, societal, economical and even cultural measures and transformations. For example, on the need of a deep environmental consciousness encouragement; a cultural appropriation of mitigation and other alike actions; on the design of a viable, real and progressive urban degrowth scheme (starting with a policymaking frame of action); among other issues. DELL ANGELO, JAMPEL; NASO, VINCENZO; ORECCHINI, FABIO: CLOSED CYCLE CRITERION: HOW TO ELIMINATE THE CONDITIONS FOR THE REBOUND EFFECT William Stanley Jevons in his The Coal Question (1865) was the first to investigate the phenomenon that the technological improvement introduced by the more efficient coal fired steam engine, in fact led to increased, instead of decreased, overall coal consumption in England. The rebound effect that Jevons first described is now a central issue of debate in the studies on the relationship between technological improvements and environmental degradation and in the scientific literature on the trade off between economic growth and the environment. For this reason, the rebound effect is particularly relevant in the debate on degrowth. In this debate, it is pointed out that an increase in technological efficiency that brings an initial decrease in the consumption of the used resource can eventually produce primary and secondary rebound effects, in other words, efficiency can generate a revenue that stimulates consumption of the same resource as well as other commodities. 39

40 The problem of the increase in consumption is related to the fact that most of the production and consumption patterns and human activities in general are part of an open cycle that consumes resources and produces waste starting from a state of environmental balance and ending with the creation of conditions of environmental imbalance. In this paper it is argued that the closed cycle criterion should represent the starting point for technological innovation and efficiency improvements and that the rebound effect can be eliminated if this criterion is applied. The definition of the closed cycle criterion aims to delineate the theoretical framework for a production and consumption system that does not consume non renewable resources and that does not produce non reusable waste. This starts from the principle that the closed cycle criterion can represent a measurable definition of sustainable development. The definition is compared with the weak and the strong paradigms of sustainability and the conditions that bring to the rebound effect are explored. The final part of the paper describes the application of the closed cycle criterion to the energy sector, which is crucial in regards to the relationship between economic activity and environmental degradation. This paper highlights the feasibility of the application of the closed cycle criterion to the energy sector and its theoretical guiding role. DIAS VILÃO DA ROCHA DIAS, JOANA FILIPA: ARE CURRENT INTERNATIONAL POLICIES ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS CONSISTENT WITH SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEGROWTH? Although the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issue is assuming a growing importance in national and transnational policy agendas and is frequently considered as a crucial element for development, the IPR international regime seems to favor almost exclusively (some) producers from (some) developed countries. Thus, it is crucial to analyze the IPR model implications and to re think governance and innovation management strategies, so they can effectively contribute to support the diverse actors interests. From an institutional economics and a science & technology management approach, the research to be undertaken intends to analyze the role of national and international governance institutions on promoting the balance between innovation and knowledge and rights public and collective dimensions. In this sense, it would be relevant to explore whether and/or how IP public policies are/could be attuned with socially sustainable economic degrowth. Considering that the IPR governance global system does not give an adequate response to the current needs of promoting innovation respecting the different stages of development of diverse countries, several experts are underlying the need to revert the geographical disequilibrium of influence of the IPR international governance agendas. In which concerns the IPR implementation in the Global South, traditional knowledge (TK) is been particularly controversial: the IPR regime is apparently based in a bias which tends to protect the intangible assets of companies through a predatory protection of inventions derived from TK, in detriment of the indigenous communities interests concerning TK. By enlarging the scope of IPRs and by not clarifying the limitations in sensitive questions such as 40

41 biotechnology and TK, the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS) is contributing to intensify and legitimate this situation at a global scale. It is commonly accepted that TK has played (and still plays) a crucial role in noteworthy areas such as food security and the development of agriculture, particularly in the Global South. In this sense, efforts to preserve the biodiversity and knowledge associated to traditional agro ecosystems should be investigated, particularly the inherent challenges, in which concerns governance and regulation, having in mind the crucial relevance of grassroots interventions and participatory mechanisms to achieve a socially and economically sustainable development. DIAZ MAURIN, FRANÇOIS: DON T FORGET THE RICH: A STRATEGY PROPOSAL FOR SPREADING THE IDEA OF DEGROWTH How to spread the idea of degrowth and make it accepted in the society? This question appears as easy to express as difficult to answer since it could be analyzed through so many different ways. The paper deals with this question focusing on the role of individuals and especially individuals from the upper class of the Western countries. The general consensus is that the rich should act in priority in favor of a transition toward a socially sustainable economic degrowth. On the other hand, it is often explained that this necessary transition should come from initiatives that create co operation between individuals. These two approaches could be considered as principles of a strategy for spreading the idea of degrowth at the individual scale. But, it is never explained how the rich could actually accept this idea. Moreover, ongoing initiatives in favor of degrowth, such as the voluntary simplicity, do not include the participation of the rich as we define them in the paper, including the wealthy people and the upper middle class individuals. Nevertheless, it seems that we could obtain their support in favor of a socially sustainable economic degrowth if we follow a strategic path. The proposal for a strategy will be developed through three steps. First, it will be explained why a strategy intending to change directly the way rich people think will not be efficient, even counter productive. Instead, we suggest giving them some tools, such as concrete initiatives, the use of which could lead to actually change their mind. Second, it will be detailed how some levers could be activated to attract upper class individuals in order to make them participating in such concrete initiatives. These levers have been identified especially at the level of their specific motivations. Lastly, we recommend that these concrete initiatives emphasize on vertically oriented social interaction, between the upper class and lower class individuals, which should result in improving the co operation. Such an interaction necessarily requires the voluntary participation of individuals from both classes. It should also rely on a non material approach in order to reinforce the intrinsic value orientation of the upper class individuals. Once these three steps are achieved, we expect upper class individuals becoming less reluctant to accept the idea of a necessary transition, and then more likely to support a socially sustainable economic degrowth. DOUTHWAITE, RICHARD: "WHY THE GLOBAL DEBT BURDEN MEANS THERE WILL BE NO RECOVERY" 41

42 One difference between de growth and collapse is time. A collapse happens quickly when a key element in the economic system fails. De growth is slower and happens because one or more elements in the economic system has changed. There is no scope for de growth at the moment. The global economic system is on the brink of collapse because a key element its banks put money into circulation by lending it against assets. Much of this new money was spent on buying assets. This put up asset prices, thus providing the collateral for further lending. As a result, debt levels and asset prices rose far above the ability of incomes to support. Most money is created on the basis of debt. If debts have to be written down to a level which the borrowers' incomes can support, then the amount of money in circulation has to be reduced by the same amount too. This is likely to happen as a result of bank failures, and because banks are inter linked, a chain of failures is likely to be set off. This will disrupt world trade because exporters will not trust letters of credit. The failure of trade will reduce incomes and thus further reduce asset values. So much debt needs to be written off that governments do not have the resources to prop up banks and prevent the choin of failures. Their only option is to act now and to use quantitative easing to create non debt money to give to those in debt so that their loans are repaid. This is most unlikely to happen and the collapse could begin any day. ENTESA PEL DECREIXEMENT (LOCAL GROUP FOR DEGROWTH IN BARCELONA): LA XARXA PEL DECREIXEMENT (DEGROWHT NETWORK IN CATALONIA) AND THE LOCAL COOPERATION MEETINGS AS A NETWORK BUILDING EXPERIENCE This abstract is about the experience and the actual situation of the Degrowth Network in Catalonia. It pretends to give a fast panoramic over the question, and an example of a concrete project as a tool of awareness raising and action guiding process. The Degrowth Network in Catalonia has been growing the last three years, and at the present time it is formed, mostly, by: Local groups. People that work locally on their projects. They know their local context. Experimental projects. Appear in the network as a result of common work of different groups. Participant collectives. They have their own action apart from the degrowth network and collaborate either in goals or projects Support groups. Are common and transversal to other groups. During October 2009 there were different territorial meetings with the goal of promoting projects and actions in Catalonia. These meetings were held in Camp de Tarragona, Pallars Ribagorça, Girona region, Penedes region, Barcelona, Valencia, Valles, Ponent and Osona. The organizers used participative methodologies in order to expose different issues and promote different projects. In all the regions, the projects that emerged had to do with: Economy: exchange networks, NAP (Autonomous Public Nucleus), social currencies 42

43 Housing: empty houses account, exchange work for house, urban housing, housing cooperatives, repopulation Inclusive democracy: study groups Food sovereignty: agroecology, field reclaiming, work exchange Degrowth awareness rainsing: training, talks, workshops, debates ESTRELLA CABRERA, ADOLFO: INNOVACIÓN DECRECENTISTA Resulta evidente el desperdicio de talento y de capacidades, individuales y colectivas, de imaginación y creación, debido a la falta de cauces sociales para que estos puedan expresarse. Es evidente también la vergonzosa infrautilización de energía y creatividad social en nuestra autocomplaciente sociedad tecnológica que, paradójicamente, quiere ser definida por la innovación, la imaginación o la aventura creativa. Vemos con malestar la deriva de ese talento y de esas capacidades hacia territorios banales, hedonistas y egoístas de creatividad, lejos de los objetivos de bienestar colectivo. Malestar también por la falta de contenido que caracteriza a los discursos de los especialistas en innovación con sus infaltables referencias a la sociedad del conocimiento, la globalización, la productividad, el capital humano etc. Discursos circulares, redundantes y autocomplacientes la mayoría de ellos. Los modelos de innovación aparecen por doquier. Estos modelos, meramente descriptivos y retóricos florecen y se superpone unos a otros. Sin que haya habido tiempo para que se desarrollen los anteriores, las modas traen nuevas teorías, modelos y modelitos. De teorías lineales de la innovación se pasa a otras que destacan la retroalimentación. De aquellas que subrayan los factores tecnológicos a otras que apuestan por el capital humano; de 43

44 iniciales compromisos con innovaciones de productos y procesos se pasa a las innovaciones organizativas y de marketing etc. El management y las burocracias de la innovación se han adueñado del concepto y limitan las prácticas posibles a partir de él. Pero siempre detrás de esos análisis y propuestas está la reducción del sujeto de la innovación al actor empresarial mercantil. Esto significa una importante limitación de la innovación a sus variantes productivistas y mercantilistas despreciando el amplio espacio de la creatividad y la imaginación distribuida en todo el campo social y cultural. Por eso es necesaria e impostergable la apropiación social y comunitaria de la innovación. Proponemos en esta ponencia vincularla a los objetivos de las propuestas decrecentistas, un cauce político y cultural con vocación de sustituir al productivismo hegemónico. Aquí se deben estimular las prácticas que incorporen como sujetos de la innovación a todos aquellos con capacidad y ganas de inventar nuevas formas de convivencia y desarrollo colectivo. En este contexto, proponemos el concepto de innovación decrecentista. Este trabajo, en gran parte, estará basado en los análisis y reflexiones que surgen de un una investigación empírica actualmente en curso dirigida por el proponente, en el espacio de la economía solidaria en Madrid. Este espacio está constituido por diversas cooperativas, empresas de trabajo asociado etc. con fines no mercantilistas y con objetivos de bien común. Interesa caracterizar los atributos y condiciones diferenciales de la innovación en este espacio en comparación con aquellos mercantilizados. FELLNER, WOLFGANG: ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE WELFARE. MYTHS AND MEASUREMENT. The paper gives on overview of economic and ecological indicators of sustainable economic welfare. The Gross Domestic Product and the Index of Sustainable Welfare are discussed as potential indicators of welfare. While there was an intense debate on the fusion of the ecological, social and economic dimensions of sustainable welfare already 20 years ago, in the past ten years the ecological and economic approaches have parted ways. A renewed effort to develop integrated indicators is urgently necessary. GAMA, ISA; ZAMPRONIO MEIRELLES, MARIANA: KEY INFORMATION CONDUCTORS : CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS Development is the key word for Mozambique and many other countries suffering from poverty and social inequality today. The Development model enrolled in rich countries not only fulfilled basic needs of life, but also led to a surplus of goods that generated new unnecessary needs and increased consumerism. However this model entered in crisis, but it is still being implemented in developing countries as the best or only known model of development. Today we live in a world of contrasting parallels: rich countries with much consumption, and worried about the Earth's environment, while poor countries want to enrich and aspire the level of consumption that is being questioned. So how 44

45 to think about development for the poorest countries taking into account the concern with consumerism, and discussions about degrowth? Degrowth at this moment is viable only for rich countries (or rich contexts), which have already grew a lot and reached extreme level of consumption that greatly exceeds the basic needs. But in the poorest countries the degrowth proposal is unsustainable simply because they did not grow, and most people are deprived of goods and services. This article attempts to give some evidences about the role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as key actors to disclose information and increase awareness in 2 directions: Degrowth to situations in which consumption is exaggerated; Sustainable development to situations where growth did not arrive. Actually some CSOs currently perform advocacy activities, and all of them follow the 7th Millennium Development Goal: Environmental sustainability. Hence, we argue that CSOs are important institutions to guide sustainable development and to advocate degrowth because they own important weapons to play this important political and social role: straight relationship with the poor population and the potential for convincing local and international politicians for making appropriate policy decisions. We propose that CSOs should acquire more space in the political discussions to be more emphatic in implementing sustainable development. On the other hand, as a bridge between rich and poor countries, (international) CSOs should have more voice within donors to pressure on them regarding degrowth, in order to achieve an equilibrate world society GARCIA, ERNEST: SOCIOLOGY AND DE GROWTH: SOCIAL CHANGE, ENTROPY AND EVOLUTION IN A WAY DOWN ERA This papers returns to an old and endlessly debated issue: the relationship between sociology and evolution. It returns to this issue in a specific context: that of the current debate on natural limits to growth and the perspective of a way down era, a de growth one. First of all, it comments some basic differences and similarities between evolution and history, and then introduces on this basis the notion of social evolutionism. Next it maintains that social evolutionism is based on a fallacy, consisting of the assertion that the conditions which require taking into account the evolution (the existence of strong environmental constraints) apply to all technological, institutional and cultural changes, whatever the conditions in which they occur. Following it, it is assumed that humanity is entering a phase of economic and demographic de growth, as a consequence of having unnecessarily accelerated the entropic degradation of the environment, exceeding thus the limits to growth: a phase, therefore, strongly conditioned by environmental constraints. Different visions of the de growth phase are then summarized. And it is argued that the way to define evolution as well as human nature is crucial to assess these visions. In conclusion, the paper states that an evolutionary perspective supports that there are some potentials for conscious social change, but it does not justify the belief in a particular only line of history. This conclusion does not satisfy the desire of knowing the future; nevertheless it may be the only one possible. The future is not written. Neither in history nor in evolution; not even in the mixture of history and evolution that conforms us as inhabitants of the Earth. GARCÍA GONZÁLEZ, JOAN: CONTRIBUCIONES DE LA TERMODINÁMICA DE LOS PROCESOS IRREVERSIBLES EN LOS TEMAS DEL DECRECIMIENTO Y DE LA SOSTENIBILIDAD 45

46 La termodinámica clásica, a pesar de la limitación de investigar sólo los estados en equilibrio, ha facilitado el estudio de los flujos energéticos y de materiales, tanto en los sistemas inertes como en los organismos vivos. Pero en estos últimos no lograba explicar toda una serie de fenómenos como los de su complejidad creciente. Más recientemente la termodinámica de los procesos irreversibles en sistemas no lineales y lejos de las condiciones de equilibrio, nos ha facilitado valiosas herramientas para abordar el estudio de los organismos vivos y por extensión nuestros sistemas socioeconómicos. Aquí presentamos la propuesta de utilizarla para investigar el tema del decrecimiento y las pautas de sostenibilidad. Esta nueva formulación utiliza la propiedad de que los seres vivos operan como estructuras disipativas. En la biosfera esto se logra a través de degradar permanentemente la radiación electromagnética recibida del Sol. Aparte de ordenar nuestros balances energéticos, también nos ofrece pautas para organizar nuestra sostenibilidad dentro de unos estados denominados estables, o estacionarios. Aquí recogemos este último calificativo por corresponder a la denominación que se emplea en la termodinámica, donde se configuran según unas condiciones entrópicas singulares. (En los sistemas lineales, corresponde a una minimización de producción entrópica). Se emplea el calificativo de estacionarios en plural porque pueden darse, vía procesos bifurcativos, distintos estados estacionarios sucesivos por medio de fluctuaciones desestabilizadoras. En los sistemas socioeconómicos, estos estados deberían estar ligados a ecoinnovaciones tecnológicas y cambios de estilos de vida, pues de no ser así el efecto rebote dificultaría la sostenibilidad. Tras decrecer pues hemos superado la capacidad de carga del planeta nos estabilizaríamos sosteniblemente en los citados estados estacionarios. Por otra parte, hay que superar el modelo del equilibrio clásico en economía, donde siempre se vuelve al mismo atractor, pues se manejan criterios conservativos. De ahí que la homeostasis ya no es vàlida, salvo para pequeñas perturbaciones, y será sustituida por la resiliencia presente en las transiciones estacionarias. Además, al explicar la aparición de nuevas estructuras por autoorganización en los puntos bifurcativos, nos puede llevar a reflexionar sobre la posibilidad y conveniencia de actuar sobre ellos mediante planificación. De este modo, el comportamiento humano ya no sólo se limitaría a transformar el medio ambiente, sino que se enfrentaría a la posibilidad de pilotar plenamente el planeta Tierra. Tal eventualidad plantea profundas reflexiones sobre cómo llevarlo a término GEE, DAVID; VAN DEN HOVE, SYBILLE; MCGLADE, JACQUELINE; MARTIN, JOCK; WEBER, JEAN LOUIS: COMMON CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND SOLUTIONS TO THE FINANCIAL/ECONOMIC, ENERGY/CLIMATE, AND ECOSYSTEMS CRISES This paper argues that the three current crises the financial and economic crisis, the energy and climate crisis, and the ecosystems crisis have some strikingly common causes and consequences. These point to common avenues for solutions. We identify ten common causes: (i) disregard of early warnings and history; (ii) strong imbalances between stocks and flows; (iii) socially malign incentives; (iv) a misplaced faith in models; (v) ill understanding of complex systems and bi directional causality; (vi) ignorance of thresholds and tipping points; (vii) creation of debts and risks then passed on to distant others; (viii) misleading market prices that exclude many costs 46

47 and risks; (ix) non transparent transactions and impacts; and (x) not accounting for what matters. Some common consequences of these crises directly bear on the system in crisis, such as the destruction of different types of capital (financial, human, social, natural), while others relate to the societal context such as: an increase in economic and social insecurities; an exacerbation of inequities and injustices; a meltdown in trust in political, financial, business or scientific elites; the creation of an ideological vacuum; and the emergence of opportunities for radical economics and politics. Beyond these commonalities of causes and consequences, there are also some key differences between the crises. While the financial/economic crisis is mostly reversible, operates over a relatively short time scale and has consequences that can often be experienced in quasi real time, the other two crises have irreversible consequences that operate over much broader time spans and are, for the most part, not immediately felt. This analysis leads to potential common solutions and governance options to address the crises. These include: (i) consumption of flows while maintaining the quality and quantity of stocks; (ii) internalisation of risks and debts into market prices; (iii) environmental tax reform; (iii) transparent transactions; (iv) accounting for what matters; (iv) learning from early warnings; (v) institutional change to allow action on "inconvenient truths"; (vi) precautionary action; and (vii) community level initiatives. GIAMPIETRO, MARIO: METABOLIC PATTERNS OF SOCIETIES, THE MYTH OF PERPETUAL GROWTH AND PEAK OIL A famous line of Kenneth Boulding says: anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. As a matter of fact, when adopting a bio economic approach to describe the process of economic development, one is forced to acknowledge the complete unsustainability of present trends of economic growth against existing biophysical constraints. Implementing the conceptual fund flow model developed by Georgescu Roegen to characreize across scales the metabolic pattern of material and energy flows in modenr societies, it becomes possible to establish a relation between economic growth, forced changes in structures and functions of society, and the resulting environmental impact. When adopting a biophysical analysis of the metabolic pattern of modern societies, it becomes evident that peak oil entails a copernican revolution in our choice of narratives about progress. World economy will have to move, and very soon, from a model of development based on the metaphor of a group of people eating an expanding pie to a model of development based on the metaphor of a group of people eating a shrinking pie. The implications of this new situation are huge, especially when considering the feasibility of maintaing large socio economic systems operating at a high level of indebtedness. In fact, within a shrinking economy it becomes impossible to repay the existing debts, let alone making more. GONZÁLEZ DE MOLINA, MANUEL; INFANTE AMATE, JUAN: AGRICULTURA Y DECRECIMIENTO. UN ANÁLISIS DEL CICLO DE VIDA DEL SISTEMA AGROALIMENTARIO ESPAÑOL (AÑO 2000). Los sistemas agrarios tradicionales proveían a la humanidad de alimentación, combustible, vestimenta o materiales de construcción cubriendo de esta manera la mayoría de las necesidades básicas que el hombre demandaba. 47

48 Estos sistemas requerían a su vez bajos insumos de materiales y energía organizándose, pues, de un modo eficiente y sostenible. La industrialización y el desarrollo de los mercados globales en los dos últimos siglos han transformado radicalmente el papel de la agricultura tradicional que hoy en día ha reducido su función casi en exclusiva a producir alimentos perdiendo así buena parte de las funciones tradicionales que antes realizaba aunque, a su vez, el nuevo sistema consume más energía y materiales que nunca, vierte más residuos y ha abandonado las prácticas de reciclaje. En suma, el tránsito de los sistemas productivos tradicionales hacia el agrobuisness puede leerse como el tránsito de un tiempo donde el sector primario recibía bajos niveles de input, cerraba sus ciclos mediante el reciclaje y proveía un output diversificado hacia otro modelo donde los input son crecientes, los vertidos irreversibles son algo habitual y el output que arroja se ha reducido solo a la producción de alimentos de baja calidad. Este estudio pretende evaluar la sostenibilidad del actual sistema agroalimentario español atendiendo no solo a la producción agraria sino también al resto de la cadena productiva, de la cuna a la tumba o, mejor dicho, de la tierra a la mesa. Proponemos un Análisis del Ciclo de Vida agregado para el caso español y que contemple los insumos realizados en todo el proceso de producción agroalimentaria desde la transformación, el transporte, el envasado, la conservación hasta el consumo final. Las metodologías del Metabolismos Social o el Análisis del Ciclo de Vida rompen con el tradicional enfoque crematístico para incluir en el análisis económico aquellas cargas ecológicas que no atraviesan los filtros del mercado pero que sin embargo comprometen la sostenibilidad. A partir de ellas construimos un modelo agregado con el objeto de identificar la mochila ecológica de la alimentación española, la incorporación de recursos no renovables así como las partes de la cadena que consumen más materiales y energía. Hoy sabemos que un creciente consumo de energías no renovables puede comprometer elementos básicos para la sustentabilidad: acidificación, cambio climático, agotamiento de recursos Entendemos que nuevos hábitos en el consumo o diferentes prácticas productivas pueden ayudar a reducir los costes ambientales del actual sistema agroalimentario. Una reducción efectiva de los consumos intermedios mediante la promoción de alimentos locales, de temporada, vegetales o ecológicos pueden representar un proceso de decrecimiento agrario en tanto en cuanto la cadena alimentaria reducirá sus insumos energéticos y materiales a la vez que nos proveerá de una alimentación más saludable y más justa HOOGENDIJK, WILLEM: FROM SUPPLY BACK TO DEMAND. To save the Earth and make humanity more social, capital should be tamed and put under democratic control. The economy is to be calmed down and made more flexible, based on an ecologically sound demand, replacing the current, money driven economy of supply and push. In each country or region a democratic domestic sector with full and flexible employment could already be set up under the globally oriented & directed and rather destructive official economic sector. Our current leaders should be replaced by a more intelligent and socially committed generation. 48

49 HUETING, ROEFIE: HOW TO CORRECT WRONG INFORMATION ABOUT ECONOMIC GROWTH All economic action is directed to the satisfaction of wants, or in other words: to welfare. Welfare is defined as the satisfaction of wants derived from our dealings with scarce goods. It is a category of personal experience and not measurable in cardinal units. Therefore we have to make do with indicators that are measurable in cardinal units and that are arguably influencing welfare. The cardinal indicator and the ordinal welfare have, of course, to develop in the same direction. Economic growth is generally defined as increase of national income (NI) (or GDP) as a measure of production. However, according to the subject matter of economics economic growth can mean nothing other than increase in welfare. Welfare is dependent on more factors than solely production. It is also dependent on employment, income distribution, labour conditions, leisure time and the scarce possible uses of the non human made physical surroundings: the environmental functions. These objectives or ends are often conflicting. Therefore welfare can increase with decreasing production. The narrow minded, theoretical wrong definition of economic growth is especially threatening the current and future availability of environmental functions, the most fundamental scarce and consequently economic goods at the disposal of humanity. These fall outside the market and outside the measurement of NI. Correct information is decisive for the coming into being of the preferences of individuals and institutions and consequently for the decision making process. Therefore it is of the utmost importance to correct the current misleading information. In the paper four relatively simple ways are discussed to correct the wrong information about growth. The author hopes that the conference will officially recommend countries to carry out estimates of NI ex asymmetric entries and of environmentally sustainable national income (esni). HUPPES, GJALT: DEGROWTH WITH AN AGING POPULATION; INCREASING LEISURE FOR IMPROVING THE ENVIRONMENT. THE KEY ROLE OF PENSIONS AND THEIR FUNDING Environmental quality can be improved by three basic mechanisms: 1. Types of products and technologies in production and consumption; 2. Volumes of consumption; 3. Spatial distribution of activities. Spatial planning is left out of account here. The pressure on the environment can hardly be resolved by bending technology alone, as through ecoinnovation, though improved eco efficiency is essential. A reduced volume of consumption, and hence production, is required. That is degrowth, here measured as reduced consumption per head of population, relative to the growth potential due to technological progress. Degrowth can have severe consequences if not embedded properly. To be avoided are: involuntary unemployment; undersaving (US, GR) or oversaving (CA, JP, DE, NL), now a global issue; and distressed public finances. Degrowth for environment and human happiness has to reckon with such consequences. Pension politics now go in a totally wrong direction: forcing people to work more instead of less, to compensate for 49

50 aging. The pension funding problem will be aggravated by degrowth; working less means producing less, means consuming less. That is the essence of degrowth. Pension funding systems will have to adapt to degrowth, in the Western world but in developing and emerging countries as well. The typical situation to be considered and strived for is that of increasing labour productivity, reduced by the shift from innovation to eco innovation, combined with a balanced decrease in life time working hours. We assume that pension funding paid and pensions received balance, though how this balancing comes about may differ, depending on the public or private basis for funding and on the capital based (Nl, GB, JP) or current earnings basis for pensions (FR, DE, US). Pensions have a substantial insurance element: some people die early and some live long. Without the insurance, all wise persons would have to save for their chance on longevity, leading to substantial oversaving and overinvestment. A scenario computation can show the combined consequences of eco innovation, aging and reduced working hours. In brackets is the one generation 35 years effect. We have productivity growth of 1.5% per year, down from 2.5 due to shifts towards environmental technologies. We have reduced life time working hours of 1% pa ( 30%). There is an aging population, constant before retirement and increasing by reduced mortality after retirement age, with increased life expectancy of 0.5% pa. The receiving group grows by ~0.8% pa (+25%). Consumption per head of population will go down by 0.5% ( 16%). The productivity growth is not enough for leisure and ageing. If workers, or pensioners, get more, or less, is a redistribution issue, not one of growth and pension payment capacity. The harsh conclusion from this analysis is that substantial degrowth in an aging population implies a substantial increase in pension fund payments or tax( like) payments, or a substantial reduction in the welfare of retired people, and probably a mix of both. Individual choice can cope with such developments best. It is fully clear that working less means earning less and means having a reduced pension after retirement. The choice for reduced weekly hours or earlier retirement does not make much of a difference: shorter week means lower pension contributions and a earlier retirement means shorter payment and a longer receiving period. There is no free lunch and there are no free pensions. The contribution of more leisure to environmental performance is substantial: an impact reduction of 30%! IACCARINI, BERNARD: LA PÉDAGOGIE DE LA DÉCROISSANCE Le développement équitable entraine l'intelligence de la conscience collective dans un savoir visionnaire revivifiant pour notre Planète. L'élaboration d'une force sereine qui transmet les valeurs de l'écologie par la formidable complémentarité des différents courants, se reconvertir, se former et former les autres à l'objection de croissance afin de répondre à la détresse d'un Monde pollué ainsi que d'une croissance qui manipule les consciences. L'abondance soutenable appartient à tous. ISSAOUI, FAKHRI: OPTIMAL MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA (CAPABILITIES APPROACH) 50

51 This article tries to explain why the structural adjustment plans have not allowed the development of African countries despite all efforts and the enormous social costs supported by the most vulnerable. Our thinking takes us back to say that the old programs were inadequate to the reality of African countries and therefore, Africa requires a new adjustment more just and appropriate to its socio economic conditions. The new programs should not only dictate the measures to be applied but must provide the means for States to implement and capabilities for individuals to escape their negative effects. JONES, PAUL; WHITE, RICHARD: QUANTIFYING A MEANINGFUL WORLD OF WORK Work should be meaningful and shared amongst those capable and willing to work. In order to measure to what extent such a world exists, what progress is being made towards its achievement, and to make comparisons of countries or provinces, we need a working metric(s). But what are these metrics and what factors should be included? Three related strands of literature offer insights and avenues for investigation. These relate to (a) the economics of happiness; (b) alternative measures of economic activity such as green Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ; and (c) the future world of work. These three strands are reviewed with a particular focus on how they can provide framework(s) for developing a metric for quantifying a meaningful world of work. Existing metrics are reviewed. New aspects of metrics of meaningful world of work are considered including aspects of distribution of hours of employment, industry and occupation of work. The paper is relevant to the Indicators for degrowth theme. KENNET, MIRIAM: HOW FAR IS TECHNOLOGY A HINDRANCE OR A HELP IN ACHIEVING DEGROWTH? How far is technology a help or a hindrance in achieving degrowth? This paper argues that technology development is being mis used in order to promote continuing economic growth as symbolised by GDP, and by the stimulus packages. However, what is actually needed is a change in lifestyle which will provide quick wins easily and could slow down the speed of climate change. In order to meet the carbon climate challenges of the next 40 years, it is important that methods of saving carbon are adequately explored and made easy for people to achieve and the implementation and use of Degrowth to achieve this is proposed. Eco Technology is being promoted as last ditch attempt to avoid the limits to growth and degrowth. Such methods such as CCS, geo engineering and Green IT, sucking carbon from the air with giant filters, in addition to the dangers of greenwash, comprises unintended consequences which could make matters far worse and resource depletion may even be speeded up. Little attention has been given in the literature to quick wins of life style changes which can deliver carbon savings easily and which would deliver a degrowth scenario.(francois Schneider, Martin Alier, Latouche, Daly, Jackson, Baster) 51

52 This paper explores some of the quick wins with regard to degrowth that the public can achieve without any special technology or equipment and that can be done by individuals. It concentrates on several main areas of personal responsibility without pain. Firstly the issue of transport and travel. The experience of using slow travel (McGrath, Sanders) in order to meet professional obligations, including transport avoidance by using skype in all kinds of imaginative ways and the detailed experience of using video conferencing and new ways of conducting meetings and how to maximize their benefit so that they become a realistic and practical alternative to some business travel. The use of slow travel as an alternative to flying and how to use this effectively as part of professional work. That is: all travel that is not aviation based. However it is much more than that and affects the relationship we have with space and time and our environment and surroundings. It reconnects us with the earth in particular and local and diversity of cultures. The paper describes a project on Stonehenge in which ancient patterns of travel are used as in pre history as a means of meeting people and doing trade in a less destructive way than today, and where people met at fairs but walked to get there, the journey being part of the experience and people stayed away longer, and could not carry back vast quantities of goods and so did not lead necessarily to high mass consumption of resources and goods. (Rostow). Additionally the role of green IT and the aspects of greenwash within it are explored in the paper. However, the saving of energy in IT is essential and the new simple ideas such as switching it off when its not in use, as well as virtualisation and other technological developments to save carbon and to recycle the components. The issue of the exploitation of resources from less developed countries and blood computers is explored and the alternatives considered, as well as the latest developments from that industry. Geo engineering the latest developments in eco technology are analysed as many of them are frought with unintended consequences or a knee jerk panic reaction to current over use of carbon and could lead to worse problems. Finally it considers the possibilities for limiting personal carbon usage, and also reducing populations by empowering and educating women so that the overall number of users of carbon is reduced and the overall per capita consumption is also reduced. These strategies of degrowth are proposed as being far more effective than the carbon trading mechanisms so far in the Kyoto Protocol which have not so far produced effective reductions in carbon usage. (Stern, Chichilnisky, Dasgupta, Heal). KLITGAARD, KENT A.: SECULAR STAGNATION, THE FAILED GROWTH ECONOMY, AND THREE DIMENSIONS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS Ecological economic analysis is predicated on the conflict between a growing economy and a finite and nongrowing planet. While a great deal of excellent theoretical and empirical work has been done in establishing the limits imposed by natural systems, much less has been done on the internal dynamics of a mature globalized economy. This paper is an attempt to understand theoretically these underlying economic dynamics by developing the idea of the failed growth economy within the context of the stagnation thesis. 52

53 The idea of long term, or secular, stagnation was advanced in the waning years of the great depression by the Harvard (USA) economist Alvin Hansen and developed more fully in the post World War II period by Domar, Harrod, Sweezy and Magdoff. Its main contention is that the direction of a mature, monopolized, economy is not towards vibrant growth, but to long term decline. This decline has been arrested only by epoch making innovations as well as war and its aftermath. In this context of a dynamic towards stagnation the mature economy faces three sets of limits. The first is an external set posed by the finite and non growing character of the biophysical system. The economy also faces a set of internal grounded in the inability to find adequate spending outlets for the economic surplus generated by technological change and improvements in productivity. Finally another set of political limits exists in which powerful individual interests are vested in business as usual strategies. Periodically these limits arrive at a historical conjuncture. These times are characterized by recessions and depressions. The immediate postwar period gave rise to an institutional structure that produced growth and to a set of institutional structures by which economic growth was the driving force behind other social goals. These structures crumbled in the 1970s falling victim to both stagflation and the peak of US oil production. Reliance on growth results in a dilemma for humankind. The economy has grown so rapidly on an absolute basis that we have overshot our biophysical limits by all conceivable measures. However relative growth has been insufficient to provide for full employment. The only respite from the dilemma is to find a set of institutions that can allow degrowth while simultaneously finding a method to perpetuate full employment and reduce poverty. KRALL, LISI; KLITGAARD KENT: ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS The promise of ecological economics (EE) is that it will lead to an understanding of how to reconcile the economy with the biophysically limited planet in a way that other economic paradigms have not. The great insight of EE is to place the human economy within a broader biophysical system, subject to nature s laws, and to assert that we must limit human economic activity to the capacity of the earth to provide resources and to assimilate material and heat waste. Moreover if humans have overshot the limits of the biophysical system a theory is needed to guide the transition to a smaller economy. Despite its revolutionary rhetoric, ecological economics has been limited in its ability to guide economic change and economic policy. More specifically, the question of how to effectively limit the scale of economic activity remains ambiguous in EE. We assert that this ambiguity is caused by inattention to the institutional context in which economic activity occurs and an incomplete understanding of capital accumulation and economic growth. Ecological economics is removed from a broader institutional context. It does not explain fully the fundamental dynamic and evolution of the growth economy. It acknowledges insufficiently the distinction between the complicated interaction of price formation and accumulation. It separates allocation, scale and distribution as if they were not institutionally interconnected. Ecological economics leaves undeveloped the question of what constitutes a good life, and does not address fully or accentuate the fundamental problem of employment and job security. Ecological 53

54 economics does not explore fully the role that economic growth plays in the modern economy in terms of employment, poverty reduction, opportunities for the young, and old age security. The discussion of scale needs to be brought into sharp focus so that we can speak directly to our historical moment. Our economy is plagued with the recurring crisis of stagnation but it is also threatened with ecological collapse and the need to limit growth. Continued growth pressures the planet s already stressed biophysical sources and sinks yet growth is necessary to job creation, economic security and poverty reduction. The roots of ecological economics need to be expanded into institutional economics and political economy rather than merely offering a critique of neoclassical economics. In order to achieve desirable social goals while reducing the size and growth rate of the economy will require a large scale institutional transformation and we need to focus on what that will be. LA REPERA: LA REPERA. MEETING POINT AMONG ORGANIC PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS IN CATALONIA. La Repera is an experience of a meeting point among agroecological consumers and producers in Catalonia. This abstract is about this experience, raised from the agroecological social movement. La Repera stands for social and ecological criteria regarding production and consumption. Since two years ago it has been a space of thinking and gathering of agroecological consumers and producers. In this meetings there has been different ways of considering the practice of agroecology, emphasizing on awareness raising, experience exchanges and common decision making about projects and/or actions. Along the meetings, there were 4 main issues: Shared responsibility about production and consumption (how to assume production risk or investments, how to compromise consumers consumption) Distribution or how to improve ecological efficiency on transportation and logistics Participative guarantee stamp or how to guarantee the agroecological status of production (both organic and social), further than official certification, and based on confidence, close relationship producer consumer and a network of consumer producers for monitoring agroecological production Activism or how to promoto the agroecological discourse and visibilize the need to participate on actions or platforms that work towards agroecology in the social movements locally and globally 54

55 LAURIOL, JACQUES: DECROISSANCE SOUTENABLE Le Développement Durable apparaît aujourd hui comme le principal attracteur des controverses et disputes relatives aux logiques qui prévalent actuellement en matière de développement économique et social. Ces controverses, actualisées par la crise financière que nous connaissons aujourd hui, interrogent la nature même du développement, souvent assimilé ou réduit à la notion de croissance économique. Un certain nombre de traits communs émergent de ces débats, qui pourraient structurer de futurs arrangements et compromis: La nécessité de rompre avec des logiques imposées par l obligation, présentée comme incontournable, de s insérer dans une dynamique de globalisation ou de mondialisation qui s imposerait naturellement à tous. Ces logiques, dont les bénéfices se mesurent à l aune de la croissance d un Produit National Brut, génèrent également une croissance des inégalités entre pays, territoires et groupes sociaux, tout autant qu une exploitation irraisonnée de ressources planétaires qui se raréfient. Un réexamen de l acception contemporaine de la valeur, des modalités de sa création et du «monisme actionnarial» qui l encadre. La création de valeur actionnariale, attachée à des droits de propriété dont bénéficie l actionnaire, ne peut plus constituer le seul critère de mesure de la performance. Le développement implique et concerne bien d autres parties prenantes que le seul actionnaire; il est donc légitime qu elles puissent revendiquer une conception de la valeur de nature différente et le droit de participer à la gouvernance de ses dispositifs de production. Ces controverses autour du Développement Durable, tendent à poser de nouveaux enjeux stratégiques pour un développement qui soit soutenable. Ils doivent être situés dans le cadre de la dynamique de transformation progressive des systèmes productifs à l œuvre depuis la fin des années 70. Une des dimensions principales de ces transformations se situe dans le poids croissant occupé par les savoirs et les activités immatérielles dans l activité économique (Ruth 55

56 2006). Dans un contexte de croissance ralentie, les entreprises développent aujourd hui une offre fondée sur l innovation servicielle qui consiste à intégrer un éventail croissant de services articulés avec leur offre de base. Cette stratégie de migration de la valeur vers la production de nouvelles fonctionnalités associées à des produits transforme profondément la configuration des systèmes productifs. Cette évolution progressive d une économie de produits à une économie de fonctions (Bressand et al, 1988) n est pas sans conséquences en termes de Développement Durable. Elle contribue en effet à l émergence d une «nouvelle économie» de la fonctionnalité, fondée sur un modèle économique qui privilégie la valeur d usage d un bien plutôt que sa valeur d échange. On passe ainsi d une logique d exploitation de ressources destinées à fabriquer des produits dont le volume de ventes détermine un chiffre d affaires, à une logique du «prendre soin» (Heurgon, 2006); elle consiste à préserver la ressource et à en optimiser l exploitation et la valorisation pour produire une offre servicielle dont l usage durable est à l origine de la création de valeur. Par ailleurs, cette dynamique de transformation suscite également d importantes évolutions de nature institutionnelle. Les controverses autour du Développement Durable contribuent à l évolution des règles et conventions qui encadrent et régulent les relations économiques et sociales. Elles participent ainsi à la création de représentations renouvelées en matière de relation à l environnement, de normes de consommation (Gaglio, 2008) ou encore des impacts et conséquences planétaires desinteractions et externalités créées par l activité économique. Ces évolutions de nature institutionnelle forment alors un nouveau contexte qui interroge les logiques d action des entreprises ainsi que leur légitimité. Ce contexte peut être caractérisé par son indétermination, du fait du caractère encore non résolu des controverses qui s y expriment, mais également par ses dimensions contraignantes. Il exprime en effet la sensibilité accrue de ce qu il est convenu d appeler la société civile, aux enjeux posés par le Développement Durable et plus largement, par un intérêt croissant porté aux problématiques structurées par l idée de décroissance. De même, l activisme d ONG et du mouvement altermondialiste exerce des pressions croissantes sur les firmes, en menaçant ainsi les réputations, images et positions établies (Descolonges et alii, 2004). Les entreprises ne peuvent ignorer ces évolutions, du fait même des menaces qu elles font peser sur leurs activités, mais aussi parce qu elles peuvent contribuer à dessiner de nouvelles opportunités pour leur développement (Brown, 2003, Porter et al, 1995, Porter et al 2006). C est donc de questions de nature stratégique dont il s agit ici. Quelles sont les stratégies les plus appropriées pour faire face à un contexte très évolutif, encore largement indéterminé, à la fois contraignant tout en étant porteur d innovations potentielles qui pourraient se révéler fructueuses à terme? C est de ces questions dont nous traiterons ici, en nous attachant plus spécifiquement aux incidences stratégiques engendrées par l Économie de la Fonctionnalité, qui, en tant que projet visant à produire une offre servicielle fondée sur de nouveaux usages, y apparaît comme une nouvelle figure de la stratégie adaptée aux enjeux posés par le Développement Durable et peut être comme une voie pour envisager des logiques fondées sur une «décroissance soutenable». 56

57 LORENZI, ELISABETH; MARTÍNEZ, MIGUEL: BIKE EVERY DAY, CELEBRATE IT ONCE A MONTH. CRITICAL MASS, SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL ARTICULATIONS. Critical Mass is a worldwide urban movement which has developed along the last two decades as a promotion of bicycle in cities. Its most frequent public expression is through spontaneous meetings of cyclists once per month in such a manner that the motorized flow is interrupted. What is striking about it is that any of those meetings requires a specific social organization and adaptation to the particular characteristics of the city. Hence, the straight proposal of these activists in favour of sustainable urban mobility must deal with particular social and urban issues. Our research is focused on the city of Madrid, one of the Spanish cities where this collective action is the best known and the most crowded (average of 1,500 cyclists every call). Bicicrítica is the established label under which activists and sympathisers are gathered monthly. We have found, first, that the success of this movement is based on the party & protest and do it yourself like paradigm. That is to say, every meeting gathers a wide diverse range of people who daily use bicycle and now have a regular date where to interact, have fun, reshape their meanings about urban space, and manifest their demands for a more bicycle friendly city. Secondly, this is a direct challenge to the public policies which have not modified the dominant model of motorized urban mobility. Thus, a new and increasingly emergent collective conscious about urban sustainability and economic degrowth is quickly spreading due to this social actor. Finally, the monthly encounter is very close linked to an internet network of fluent communication and a spatial network of workshops located in squatted and self managed social centres. These are places of mutual aid, common learning about recycling and how to make bicycles work. Many of them are placed within buildings which were empty for many years before they were squatted and socially reused. We shall argue, then, that degrowth initiatives such the Critical Mass gets their optimum potential as an articulation with other sustainable experiences in the urban structure (housing and buildings) and with autonomous social networks promoting mutual ways of living, exchange and creation of collective knowledge. NAP DEL CAMP (WORKING GROUP OF XARXA PEL DECREIXEMENT CEGROWTH NETWORK): EL NAP DEL CAMP. A CONTRA HEGEMONIC ECONOMY PRACTICE IN TARRAGONA. This abstract is about an experience about contra hegemonic economy, done by some members of the Degrowth Network in Catalonia. In catalan, it is called NAP del Camp (Turnip of the field), doing a word game. In the present document we try to explain briefly how it is conceived and does it work. This project has been done by activist involved in the Contra hegemonic Economy Group of the Degrowth Network in Catalonia, and it is been implemented for the last months in the region of Camp de Tarragona. An Autonomous Public Nucleus (NAP) is a way of satisfying needs, alternative to the actual system, creating a parallel economy where no money is needed in order to exchange goods or services, allowing a non direct exchange through a network. Its main characteristic is the use of time as value of change. In order to make it work we do need a group of people that describe what they are able to do. Since we understand that time passes for everyone, the value exchanged is the working time. Creating a NAP community, there 57

58 are common needs that can be reached through a time joint fund, from everyone s balance. Thus collective projects decided by the assembly could be financed, in order to achieve communities needs as creating new services, education or social assistance. NAP emerges as a way of solving some problems that exist in some alternative or parallel economy models, as complementary currencies or time banks. Some of these problems is the lack of compromise in the attachment and collective spirit and community economy, and the continuity of the added value that products acquire when talking about complementary currencies, and also the lack of services and products related to more professional activities (when we talk about time bank). In order to solve it, NAP has certain ways of acting: The conversion of products to its price in time is stimulated. There is a periodical assembly, open to all NAP members, where decisions over collective needs and expenses need to be taken by consensus. There will be a follow up of global and individual balance. The main tool in order to work with NAP is NAPIA, a virtual computer tool. All members have access to it through their personal account. There is an exchange of offers and demands, and the balance of each participant. This tool allows to pay, see the balance, check last movements and ask for some service. 58

59 NICOLAS, LECHOPIER: SCIENCE AND DEGROWTH The term cotreproductivity was introduced by Illich in the late 1970s to criticize the tools or institutions which, past a certain treshold, perform the opposite function from that assigned to them. In the capitalist economies of the northern countries, based on growth and competitiveness, the contemporary scientific institution may in some ways be seen as counterproductive. The mainstream scientific management of the "knowledge society" homogenize the knowledges and limitate their appropriation by the actors and concerned communities. In other words, the scientific production grows strongly and continuously in quantity, but the significance of knowledge decreases. In this contribution, we will argue and illustrate that democratic control of science, through real participatory tools at the level of funding, would probably lead to avoid these contreproductive effects and would provide a degrowth kind alternative to cognitive capitalism. LIEGEY: THE POLITICAL SNAIL'S STRATEGY We propose to present and debate about the Political Snail Strategy developed in France by several activists, politicians, intellectuals and citizens based on alternative experiences, analysis of the failure of the French Degrowth Party and also interesting political initiatives: The growth society dramatically combines all the crises: the energy crisis, the environmental, social, economic, cultural and political crisis. Fundamentally it is the expression of one and only one madness: a world became inhuman, as if the belief in «always more» was enough to make sense. To the radicality of those crises the Snail s Strategy opposes another consistency: the immediate exit from capitalism and productivism through all the practical alternative ways of life, already existing or still to create. That strategy does not want any other development, any other growth, any other consumption, or any other productivism but to leave behind the religion of growth, which increases inequalities, exhausts resources, wipes out the biodiversity and denies human dignity. Even if an infinite growth in a finite world was possible, it would still be absurd. How to open paths to other worlds? In contrast with the classical strategy of power overtaking as a prerequisite of any change, the radicality and consistency of the Snail s Strategy. Degrowth is not only the aim of such a project, it is also its path and its method. The political strategy of Degrowth is a strategy of break off, in opposition with the strategies of accompaniment. This Snail s Strategy firstly implies to give up the illusion that the power overtaking whether it is reformist or revolutionary is a prerequisite of any change of the world. The snail strategy does not want to «overtake the power» but to act against the dominations by weakening the various powers; and to create, without any delay, the conditions enabling the people to give full meaning to their lives. 59

60 The Snail s strategy is the critical mass and requires being present on the political scene and through all the Political dimensions of the individual and social emancipation, without any exception: The non electoralist presence in the traditional political field, through demonstrations, petitions, election campaigns, critical and occasional support to political majorities so as to gain ground and perpetuate social, ecological and political successful field trials. The experimental projects and the immediate exit from capitalism, through practical alternatives and counterpower. The political project, through the various utopian branches tuned together into coherence. LIEVENS, LAURENT: POLITICAL SCIENCES AND ECONOMICS Current environmental degradation and resource depletion challenge our societies in their fundaments. Scientific evidence show that the negative impacts of our economies are growing, while wellbeing doesn t seem to follow this trend. Degrowth theories i.e. a transitional period to reach global sustainability tries to solve the ecological and social crisis through a shift in our socio economic paradigm. To support political and societal decision making processes, some indicators could be helpful. In all societies, the agricultural world can be seen as the most important sector of production. We are not completely reinstituting Physiocrats view, but agriculture is well presented as the foundation of the activities, due to many implications in others sectors. Our way to be farmer can determines the quality of soils, water and food. Health is strongly related to what we eat. More, here we can find precious indications about our relation with Nature and the way we consider it: fight or collaboration. The global crisis occurring in the farmer world plenty of farms disappear every year around the world is not a detail. Optimistically, many considerations are dedicated on tomorrow agriculture: it should be free from petrol use (as inputs and energy), extensive, local and environmentally sound. Farmers have to live directly from what they produce but this sector should be away from global profit focus. We can see it as a public service, providing many implications in other sectors and pushing them into the transitional period. Another application of the precautionary principle is the upholding of GMO on laboratories. This kind of seeds is directly linked with an intensive, centralized and profit oriented agriculture. In this article, we propose a set of indicators focused on the agricultural world in a degrowth transition period. These indicators could next be aggregated in one index, able to launch the debate and its appropriation by the Civil Society. We propose to construct such an index with a kind of pyramidal approach, highlighting a gradation inside the different levels. The current paper represents the begi nning of a work in progress. The indicators are submitted to the debate, in a way to underline his abilities to engage the paradigm shift. 60

61 LLISTAR, DAVID; MIRÓ, PAU: ANTICOOPERACIÓ I DECREIXEMENT, COMPLEMENTS PER L'EQUITAT Decreixement i anticooperació focalitzen aspectes distints de la realitat global contemporània, però es complementen amb l'objectiu de lluitar per la justícia i l'equitat mundial. L'anticooperació deriva de cooperació al desenvolupament, un concepte que s'associa a totes aquelles accions del Nord que ajuden el Sud d una manera o de l altra. Sense entrar en si això últim és encertat o no, és intuïtiu definir el contrari, anticooperació, com tota aquella acció que es genera al Nord i que interfereix negativament en el Sud. Aquestes interferències parteixen, generalment, de decisions polítiques preses al Nord Global, clarament vinculades amb la necessitat dels actors del sistema capitalista d expandir se (creixement) i d autoconservar se (seguretat) en un ambient hostil d alta competitivitat. Son els efectes col laterals de decisions i actituds la lògica dels quals és créixer materialment i energèticament, per sobre dels drets de tercers. Si analitzéssim tot allò que pot qualificar se d anticooperació, descobriríem que es produeix justament a conseqüència d aquesta lògica crematística, d aquesta cultura del creixement i de la competitivitat en què ens trobem submergits empreses privades, estats capitalistes i consumidors/treballadors. L arrel de l anticooperació del Nord Global és amb seguretat el creixement econòmic. Aleshores i de manera simplificada, en un escenari de decreixement sostenible potencial, és de preveure que també decreixi el nombre i la profunditat d interferències negatives transnacionals. Tendir, per exemple, envers economies de circuit curt al Nord contribuiria a recuperar la sobirania alimentària al Sud o a evitar una sobreemissió de diòxid de carboni. Altrament dit, identificar, denunciar i abolir l anticooperació ens condueix inevitablement a lluitar per un decreixement sostenible del Nord Global, i com proposem alguns autors (Latouche S. 2006, Mosangini G. 2007), a produir el trencament de la dependència del Sud vers el Nord. Per tant, ambdós conceptes ens encaminen a generar i crear les condicions per aconseguir un mon més equitatiu I una relació mes hermosa amb el nostre planeta. LÖHR, DIRK: ZERO GROWTH AND ZERO INTERESTS RATE: REVIVAL OF AN OLD IDEA Every Euro or Dollar growth causes a trace of energy consumption, waste production, land use and water problems etc. The usual approach is looking for technical answers such as eco efficiency and consistency, another is dematerialization of growth. All these approaches have limited success. Another idea is to ask for a cultural change. However, a cultural change must be accompanied by institutional reforms. Under existing conditions, economy needs growth. Politicians have the choice between either the ecological or the social and economic collapse. In order to see what institutions have to be changed, the sources of growth have to be analysed. Regarding the components GDP, growth is caused either from net investments (investments, extension of the capital stock) or increases of productivity. 61

62 As a result of a successful cultural change the increases of productivity could be transferred into more leisure time. Though, net investments continue to increase the endowment with machines and other capital. How to reduce the net investments to zero, in order to achieve a zero growth? Not to forget the savings: If savings are not reduced at the same path as net investments, the economy would get in trouble (because savings exceed net investments). A theoretical and practical solution could be provided, if the rate of net investments is considered as a function of profitability of real assets (such as factories etc.) and according to neoclassical assumptions the saving rate as a function of interest rate. Finally let s regard the profitability of real assets and the interest rate on savings as being connected. Under these conditions, we can show for a closed economy that a sustainable net investment rate of zero can only be reached together with a saving interest rate of zero. Hence, the whole income of the economy will be consumed (consumption rate = 100%, rate of savings = 0%, rate of net investments = 0%). Under the present economic conditions such a vision cannot be set in place, because due to the liquidity premium of money (Keynes) the interest rate is always significantly higher than zero. But there are ways that lead out of this problem: During the financial crises, some prominent academics such as Prof. Buiter or Prof. Mankiw suddenly discussed old proposals, that seem to be forgotten. The most prominent representant of these proposals was the German currency reformer Silvio Gesell. Even in a situation of low real asset profitability and low interest rates, he wanted to press the money into the circulation. Idle money should be punished by a kind of tax. Gesell wanted to reduce the interest and profitability level down to zero; nevertheless, a high velocity of money circulation and a reliable demand should be granted. Keynes was very excited by the proposals of Gesell. But Keynes was right to critizise that Gesell did not see a lot of further obstacles, that have to be taken by institutional reforms. Despite Gesell was not concerned directly about ecological problems, his basic approach seems worth to be discussed. LÓPEZ ROJO, ALONSO: MUNICIPALISMO Y DECRECIMIENTO La exploración de la municipalidad desde la perspectiva del decrecimiento es, en primer lugar, un intento de explorar la propia dimensión política que se encuentra latente en la apuesta decrecentista. Sobre esta base, el municipio debe concebirse como la unidad comunal básica que puede facilitar que el logos común fluya y adopte formas de democracia directa y de verdadera convivencialidad. Una concepción, pues, cuya condición de posibilidad se encuentra sobre todo en la necesidad de redescubrir colectivamente la política en su sentido genuino de preocupación por los asuntos de la polis. Observando el decrecimiento como un movimiento transversal en el que pueden confluir las aportaciones de distintas ideologías, es fácil observar como la relocalización de la economía pensada y programada desde una perspectiva de potenciación de la dimensión local a todos los niveles no solo es el principio más aceptado en todas las tentativas teóricas que el decrecimiento viene generando, sino que hasta la fecha se ha convertido en la única 62

63 alternativa posible a la falsa lógica del crecimiento ilimitado. Bien se puede decir por ello que, el municipio, en tanto célula u organización social de base llamada a propiciar la vida económica y social de las comunidades, puede contribuir al nuevo programa decrecentista con el mismo grado de coherencia que lo hizo en las sociedades del pasado. Desde la polis griega al municipium romano, o desde los concejos abiertos de las pequeñas comunidades medievales a los municipios libres concebidos en la tradición libertaria, los ejemplos históricos se suman bajo el común denominador de la descentralización política, económica y territorial como el principal eje fundacional. No es difícil, por otra parte, desglosar las analogías que en muchos aspectos se pueden encontrar entre las alternativas que se barajan en los foros decrecentistas con los presupuestos básicos que el pensamiento libertario defiende con lucidez desde el siglo XIX. Baste citar la obra Campos, fábrica y talleres (1898) de Kropotkin paraobtener el ejemplo de la concepción de una economía descentralizada que sitúa a las comunidades humanas en armonía consigo mismo y con la naturaleza. En este mismo sentido, municipalismo y decrecimiento se propone valorar y actualizar el legado que el pensador y activista Murray Bookchin elaboró desde una perspectiva comunalista y que acabaría por hacer del municipalismo libertario la política de la Ecología Social. Explorar las alternativas esbozadas por Bookchin, como la que significativamente llamaría la municipalización de la economía, pueden ser útiles en un momento como el actual en el que cada vez son más las voces que reclaman abrir caminos hacia una economía de proximidad. Una economía, pués, que solamente puede ser producida desde una democracia de proximidad como la que los municipios pueden potencialmente generar. LUCCA, ANDRÉ: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A SOCIO ETHICAL AND SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN The essence of industrial design is the planning of goods and services aimed at improving man's activities. Design materializes in the logic of mass production of these artefacts. The designer takes part in the decisions supporting production choices, that is technology, resources and product functionality. Sustainability in industrial design has been interpreted in different ways. The choice of eco friendly resources, the introduction of the concept of product life cycle and the eco effective system innovation are the most implemented principles. Industrial design research has only recently started the debate about a possible role of the profession with respect to social equity. Even if eco effective approach is used in advanced industrial societies, it proves not to be suitable for developing countries, as it increases the existing social imbalances. These countries are characterized by the symbiosis of areas with different levels of development. These symbiotic areas, firstly represented by urban and rural outskirts, suffer heavier social pressure because of the problems related to the lack of public utilities. The research objective is to propose metadesigning instruments based on a critical theory of sustainable development, in order to steer industrial design operations aimed at promoting local autonomy, life quality improvement and political participation in the outlying communities in the south of the world. 63

64 The word metadesign indicates the interdisciplinary designing activity whose purpose is to manage the data collecting and analysis process and to steer the project formalisation. This activity expresses, therefore, the meaning of theoretical reflection that leads to the designing stage, preparing its development process even before the idea is shaped into an object. The investigation has been defined as a qualitative theoretical bibliographical research, with a case study for the problem analysis, hypothesis testing and experimentation of the proposed instruments. The case study refers to two outlying communities in the south of Brazil. The article shows some metadesigning indications which are the first instruments arisen from the author's ongoing Ph.D research in Design Sciences, at the University IUAV in Venice. The instruments presented are the result of the analysis of the problems that emerged from the case study. Such problems refer to the lack of treated water, to pollution and salinization of available sources, to health problems due to the consumption of infected water, to the lack of sewage systems and to social marginalization of these communities deriving from their poverty and exclusion from local political life. These instruments promote the designing intervention by proposing activities to carry out in order to make the product or service reach the desired social environmental aims. They refer to the Governance and the Empowerment, to the local autonomy and environmental sustainability of these communities. LUCCHESE, DESIREE; LESTER, RODNEY: PARTICIPATIVE/DIRECT DEMOCRACY : WHAT FORMS OF 'DEEP' DEMOCRACY FOR A SOCIETY THAT DEGROWS? When proposing not only reform but a fundamental restructuring of complex social and economic systems towards environmental Sustainability, it is of vital importance to understand the definitions of, and limits to, the existing concepts and theories in the Development discourse. Conflation of words and ideas such as sustainability, democracy, human development and governance confuse the layperson, politicians, business leaders and academics. Therefore, a broader and viable approach to Development is required. The climate predicament calls for unprecedented levels of cooperation to gear up for the transition to a low carbon economy, if not for survival itself. This applies to climate mitigation and adaptation strategies in a society where the conventional growth model is being proven uneconomical by excluding the true costs of natural capital loss (Herman Daly: 2010). This also applies to Development Aid where human and social welfare gains are not thoroughly accounted for. LUZZATI, TOMMASO: GROWTH MANIA AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AS A PRODUCT OF FAST INFORMATION: LEARNING FROM H. SIMON AND W. WENDERS. Some important reasons can be alleged to justify growth as a policy goal. Growth mania is however less justified. As Georgescu Roegen emphasised, in spite of our addiction to the comfort of the exosomatic energy and 64

65 instruments, there is room for reducing dissipation of the rich economies. This would both improve the quality of natural environment, thereby enhancing our welfare, and help justice, both at intra and inter generational level. In traditional rational choice terms, the persistence of growth mania can be easily conceptualised as stemming from unregulated greediness in the presence of market failures (free riding, free appropriation of open access resources ). A complementary explanation rests on how people actually choose. The 1978 Nobel Prize for economics Herbert Simon, who dedicated his life to the study of decision making, highlighted that both time and attention are needed to process information. Similarly, the film director Wim Wenders argued against crowded and quick scenes which provide an information overload that the spectator is unable to process. This paper highlights the similarity between the ideas of Simon and Wenders. Their contributions are used to offer an explanation to growth mania and environmental degradation: the quick speed of our life together with the information overload we are exposed to, make us scarcely aware of the consequences of our life styles. Fast information becomes then an obstacle for using reason and science for the exploration of goals and as a basis for judgements as to the kind and direction of action to be followed (Kapp 1965). MACLURCAN, DONALD C.: MAKE PROSPERITY GLOBAL: A HOLISTIC APPROACH BEYOND GROWTH (400) The literature increasingly points to a need for various forms of de growth in the global North in order to facilitate a steady state world economy in which prosperity could be more equitably distributed. Corporate globalization is often viewed as the major ideological barrier to the de growth movement, however, I believe a tougher challenge is presented by the ideology of large scale campaigns to solve the world s environmental, health and poverty problems, driven by well intentioned citizens from the Global North. As case studies, I explore the Make Poverty History campaign and its offshoot, the Global Poverty Project. I argue that these efforts ignore central elements of the alter globalisation and de growth critiques and that prosperity can exist beyond growth. I see these examples as indicative of a dangerous approach to sustainability in which movement leaders claim the moral high ground and promote single issue agendas and solutions whilst naively perpetuating North South paternalism on the basis of the arguments made by ecological modernization. Such approaches, I believe, are in danger of further minimising hope of productive coherence between the various global justice movements. However, I believe that the ideology of de growth offers a unique opportunity to unite a range of critiques and movements: Marxist, post colonial, gender based, indigenous, peasant and environmental, providing a desperately needed philosophical rallying point. To do so, I argue, will require promoting more holistic approaches for just transitions to sustainable futures. A multiplicity of critical, yet positively framed avenues for engagement will be needed as well as a new concept to replace that of development. Here I present the idea of reflexive pluralisation : a process of increasing the sociocultural, technological and resource autonomy of communities whilst effectively considering the importance of external change and critique. However, to increase engagement with these concepts and avoid their cooption by movements pushing unsustainable agendas, I conclude by proposing we first work with less sensational, peripheral movements, 65

66 such as those relating to free and open source software, transition towns, people s science and people s health. Through this process we can continue to collect blueprints and case studies that refute the mainstream arguments presented be de growth opponents whilst strengthening the platform on which the market model may be conspicuously co opted from the position of a people centered paradigm that acknowledges the limits to growth. MARCELLESI, FLORENT: LA COOPERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL A LA LUZ DEL DECRECIMIENTO Esta propuesta de comunicación se basa en el estudio de Florent Marcellesi e Igone Palacios, «Integración de consideraciones de sostenibilidad en la cooperación para el desarrollo», (Bakeaz, 2008) con la dirección científica de Roberto Bermejo y Miren Onaindía (ambos profesores de la UPV EHU). Preservar el planeta y garantizar una justicia ambiental y social tanto en el Norte como en el Sur, debería ser un objetivo prioritario de las políticas públicas en general y de la cooperación internacional en particular. Sin embargo, por un lado, la teoría determinista del desarrollo de Rostow (un modelo universal de crecimiento por etapas, desde el estado original de subdesarrollo de las sociedades tradicionales hasta la etapa deseada de consumo de masas de los países industrializados) sigue influyendo en las formas de hacer cooperación. Por otro lado, constatamos que a pesar de la existencia de nociones como la del desarrollo humano sostenible, no se da dentro de la cooperación internacional y de la lucha contra la pobreza una reflexión acabada y una materialización sistematizada de políticas que introduzcan la huella y la deuda ecológica, el vivir mejor con menos, la redefinición del concepto de riqueza, la interdependencia ecológica Norte Sur, la visión intergeneracional, una clara relación entre el bienestar humano y los servicios de los ecosistemas, etc... En este sentido, la cooperación internacional debería desempeñar un papel fundamental a la hora de construir alternativas que posibiliten la evolución hacia un modelo de contracción y convergencia. En otras palabras, una teoría y una praxis de la cooperación que permita en el Norte un decrecimiento selectivo y justo, de modo que se aliente, a través de vías únicamente democráticas, la contracción donde resulte necesario y el crecimiento donde sea posible y deseable, principalmente en el Sur para que éste converja con el Norte decrecentista. Tras analizar el marco teórico conceptual, la comunicación cuestionará tres dimensiones de la actual cooperación internacional: La cooperación Norte Sur: repensaremos la cooperación tanto de forma sectorial comohorizontal para que el Sur escoja vías que eviten el mal desarrollo del Norte en cuanto al respeto de los límites biofísicos y la justicia ambiental, y que el Norte pague su deuda ecológica. La cooperación Sur Sur: cómo pensar y permitir una relocalización de los procesos de (pos)desarrollo a través de una cooperación reforzada a nivel regional, entre periferias autónomas del centro? La cooperación Sur Norte: analizaremos en qué medida y cómo este nuevo flujo de cooperación a la inversa que directa o indirectamente realizan las poblaciones del Sur a las poblaciones del Norte pueden facilitar a éstas últimas otras formas de relacionarse entre sí y con su entorno. 66

67 MARCH, HUG; DOMÈNECH, LAIA; SAURI, DAVID: ALTERNATIVE WATER RESOURCES, DEMOCRACY AND DEGROWTH: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF RAINWATER HARVESTING, WATER REUSE AND DESALINATION. Mediterranean Europe is facing increasing water scarcity problems both physically and socially induced. In that context, the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, one of the most important urban conurbations of that region, with nearly 5 million people, is not an exception. The equilibrium between water supply and water demand in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona has been historically fragile and critique. Several episodes of water scarcity have taken place during the 1990s and the early 21 st century. Water scarcity in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (MRB) became evident in 2008 when the area suffered an acute drought that resulted in water restrictions for a number of uses, and the area was just days away of possible domestic cuts. At the same time, this crisis opened an interesting debate around the real needs of Barcelona s water metabolism and whether the region water scarcity responded to physical or social factors. While the urgent needs of more water were hegemonic and repeated as a mantra, there was an intense debate on how to provide these extra flows. Against the backdrop of a never ending transition from a Hydraulic paradigm, based on building dams and transfers, to a demand side management framework, some alternative water sources are gaining prominence in the public debate. Concretely, in Spain, four non conventional water sources, different from the more traditional surface water withdrawals or massive underground water extraction, are being promoted at different levels to mitigate the potential water deficit of the country. The central government is promoting desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast and considering the use of reclaimed water from wastewater treatment plants. In contrast, at the local level, several municipalities are promoting grey water reuse and rainwater harvesting systems through local regulations. Taking as case study the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, the objective of this paper is to compare by means of a Social Multicriteria Analysis these four non conventional water sources in order to highlight the main advantages and shortcomings of every water option and establish a preference grading. The main tenet of our paper is that the democratization of the control over water flows may be a critical step forward in advancing towards a more democratic and equal society. In the paper, we put forward that the use of decentralised and alternative water resources, such as rainwater could be an important step towards a more democratic society were environmental resources are controlled by the citizenry and used in a rational and renewable fashion. MARTÍNEZ, AMAIA; BAYOD, ANGEL A.: ENERGY DEGROWTH OR DEFOSSILIZATION The global population on the Earth by 2050 is estimated to reach million people. Even today, a great part of the population is deprived of elementary services such as electrification and fresh water supply. Developing countries have to improve their situation and look up the rich countries for a better status It probably means to rise 67

68 their energy consumption. Another key issue, the potable water supply to these people also will demand an important amount of energy to desalination. Sustainability and equity within democratic frameworks are identified as important goals and conditions of degrowth, but it would not be fair asking the developing countries to higher efforts than the rich countries, which have been depleting their resources. Then, the reduction of energy consumption in a global perspective is a very difficult task. Besides education in the importance of the limitation of use of limited resources and the need of social equity, a better use of these energies is a must. Obviously, the first effort must be aimed to reduce the individual and collective demands and more efficient measures (avoiding the rebound effect) must be taken in consumption and transmission, distribution and generation systems. For instance, lighting with more efficient lamps is an activity that permits directly the reduction of the demand. Improvements in electrical motors, in more efficient transformers, distribution systems, or in control systems are other examples. In spite of these opportunities, the global energy demand is expected to grow. The cost of growth in production and consumption clearly outweigh its benefits, but there still exist a long way to be walked before reaching the equilibrium. On the other hand, what energy degrowth means? It is clear that the stored resources in our planet are finite (fossil). During millenniums the energy has been accumulated and in some centuries we could burn it to smoke. The use of these resources impacts negatively the environment and risk and problems of security of supply and geopolitical stress may arise. But, what about the possibility of use energy that has not been ever accumulated, virtually unlimited, and that is continuously arriving and that currently we do not take advantage of it, simply return to space? Renewable energies are, by definition, naturally replenished. From them, we can obtain both electricity and heat. Almost every area on the Earth receives enough energy for its development. Solar energy on the Earh is 5000 times more than our current consumption. Wind has an important potential too. In the renewable energy systems, every kwh invested in their construction, operation and maintenance, considering even the recycling and restoration processes is returned multiplied by 10, 15, 20, (the so called Energy Return Factors) without harmful environmental consequences. Therefore, instead of energy degrowth, the situation is ameliorated, with a wide social support, by means of the reduction of fossil energies (defossilization). Right sizing at the world level is the key factor. In this paper the compensation mechanism, by which, every new unit of consumption must be accompanied by a new renewable generation is presented. Together with the theoretical background, the situation of Spain is presented under this perspective. The evolution of the electrical consumption and generation is presented and the foreseen trend of consumption and a better scenario taking into account compensation measures. MASFERRER DODASA, ELENA; RICO GARCÍA AMADOB, LUÍS; REYES GARCÍAS, VISTORIA: DOES CONSUMPTION OF MARKET GOODS RELATES TO WELL BEING? AN EMPIRICAL TEST IN THE BOLIVIAN AMAZON The intuition that sustainable degrowth might be the way to simultaneously reduce environmental pressures and improve human well being comes from the environmental and the social sciences. Environmental scientists have 68

69 found that, despite policies oriented to protect the environment, pressure on the environment continues to increase with economic growth. The finding implies that the model of economic growth would only exacerbate environmental pressures, which justifies the search for alternative economic models. Research in the social sciences suggests that economic growth and human well being are not necessarily linked, which allows for conceptualizing models that increase human well being without depending on economic growth. Here we contribute to the growing body of social science research supporting the viability of sustainable degrowth by examining the association between consumption (a standard indicator of economic growth), within group consumption inequality, and human well being (measured through a questionnaire on locally relevant events). Differently from previous research, mostly based on industrial nations, we use a unique body of data collected in a small scale foraging horticulturalist society in thebolivian Amazon, the Tsimane. Our data include measures of consumption of market goods and two measures of subjective well being from 355 women and 353 men. Using multivariate analyses, we found that, for this society in the early stages of integration to the market economy, consumption of basic goods increases well being while expenditures in market goods are not directly associated with any of our two measures of subjective well being. The finding questions the often assumed link between economic growth and well being, and as such, it reinforces the argument that consumption does not increase social well being, a premise for sustainable degrowth. Furthermore, we also found that village inequalities in consumption of luxury goods have negative effects to subjective well being. Specifically, we found that doubling the within village dispersion in expenditures in luxury goods would be associated to a 16% lower score in our measure of subjective well being. This research suggests that equitable consumption of basic goods can perfectly lead to sustainable, happy societies. MASTAS MORELL, ARNAU: HACIA UN DECRECIMIENTO NO VIOLENTO En un contexto global de creciente desigualdad y de crisis ecológica, muy a menudo se intentan resolver los problemas causados por la violencia utilizando más violencia. Del mismo modo, la grave crisis ambiental causada por las políticas de crecimiento económico un fetiche convertido en télos de la política pretende resolverse mediante más crecimiento económico. Y es que cuando nuestras únicas herramientas son los martillos tenemos tendencia a ver cualquier problema como un clavo. Por esa razón la noviolencia y el decrecimientp irrumpen como unas herramientas alternativas que nos permiten ver los conflictos de otro modo y nos abren nuevas posibilidades para transformarlos. Tanto la noviolencia como el decrecimiento ponen en cuestión algunos de los motivos centrales de nuestras sociedades: la violencia y el crecimiento económico, respectivamente. Por eso se convierten en una magnífica alternativa política y económica que pueden conducirnos hacia modos de vida más pacíficos con el resto de las personas y con la biosfera. La noviolencia y sus técnicas (no cooperación, desobediencia, etc.) tienen una tradición muy antigua, mientras que el decrecimiento es una idea nueva que aglutina toda una serie de prácticas que no son tan nuevas. Ambos enfoques gozan de numerosas ventajas para lleva a cabo el cambio social. Por eso resulta pertinente establecer un diálogo entre estas dos ideas y sus prácticas y preguntarse por la relación, hoy, entre decrecimiento y noviolencia. Qué 69

70 filosofía las sostiene? Cuáles son sus epistemologías? Son compatibles? Son aplicables los métodos y técnicas de acción noviolenta para construir sociedades en decrecimiento? Es posible y deseable caminar hacia un decrecimiento noviolento? Preguntas que nos revelan la necesidad de incorporar el bagaje de la lucha noviolenta a las propuestas decrecentistas, comenzando, así, una transición pacífica hacia formas de vida alternativas a la violencia propia del modelo del crecimiento económico. El decrecimiento, o es noviolento, o no será. MAUERHOFER, VOLKER: SOCIAL CAPITAL, CAPACITY AND CARRYING CAPACITY: EXPLORING BASICS OF SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEGROWTH. In order to contribute to basic issues for the further development of a coherent theory and practical implementation of socially sustainable economic degrowth, the paper aims to provide a more systematic and coherent view on social capital, social capacity and social carrying capacity under the roof of the environmental carrying capacity with regard to sustainable development in the sense of 3 D Sustainability such as described by Mauerhofer (2008). Therefore, based on an in depth literature review especially the relationship between social capital and human capital are assessed in more detail, the overlap between the social capacity concept and the capability concept (Sen 1987, 1999) are closer discussed and the use and meaning of social carrying capacity in science and practices is more intensively explored. The analysis shows with regard to the distinction between social capital and human capital as sources rather than consequences (Woolcock, 2001:70) that clear and wide overlaps exist and that the distinction is especially with regard to inherited personal characteristics rather of scientific interest than of practical usefulness in the discussion on degrowth. The term capacity appears already in its meaning in different languages to be closely connected to the word capability and in addition wide similarities of the two concepts of social capacity and capability when dealing with the sustainable development of the source social capital are found. The analysis further shows that the term social carrying capacity is hardly closer defined and used in science, although its current and especially future relevance with regard for example to future limits of population growth and restrictions on technical overload appears to be obvious. In summary, the results of the analysis provide for each of the three basic terms assessed a variety of possible contributions to the further development of policy proposals and research priorities with regard to a socially sustainable economic degrowth obeying the limits of the environmental carrying capacity such as described by 3 D Sustainability. MEYNEM, NICK; SÉBASTIEN, LÉA: ESTIMATING THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT OF AN INDUSTRIAL PLANT IN HOBOKEN, BELGIUM 70

71 In Hoboken, the suburb of Antwerp where UPMR (Umicore Precious Metals Refining) currently runs the world s largest precious metals recycling unit, the link between pollution and health is intriguing. The former desilvering plant has implemented substantial ecological modernisation since the 1970s, but 122 years of pollution has caused environmental liabilities. Soil levels of lead, arsenic and cadmium increase with proximity to the factory, as does the level of lead in the blood of toddlers and infants. Cancers are significantly more frequent in Hoboken than in Flanders or its most polluted city, Antwerp. Lung cancers, a cancer type more likely to result from the plant's activities, are double the expected amount for women. Since the early 1970s, local actors asked for cleaner air and decontamination. In 2004, the company finally paid 77 million for a big clean up operation and UPMR also drastically reduced emissions. However, claims of UPMRs management to have recognised the company s historic responsibility have so far translated mostly into cleaning up surface contamination in the nearest area. This paper sets the clean up operation of the company within a framework of the local ecological debt, calculating the minimum amount that UPMR owes to the environment and its nearby residents, with a focus on health damages and loss of capabilities. These are the major collateral damages inflicted by UMPRs direct and recognised environmental impacts. Our calculations start from the moment the company should know from scientific and official documents that their production causes hidden external costs. The best available studies on damage to health and crops in Hoboken are combined with existing and relevant calculations on the cost of illness, the value of human life and the economic value of gardening used elsewhere. Public and non public official registries and company records are combined with popular epidemiology. The results do not hide this diversity of sources and provide insights on how to apply the ecological debt concept to a single industrial plant. We formulate recommendations for actions to be taken by the chemical industry and by the government of Belgium. The concept of post normal science helps to explain why the difficult exercise of calculating the local ecological debt for a single industrial plant, despite its drawbacks on accuracy, is relevant and urgently needed. The final results are indicative of the scale of indirect damages to the real economy, through the study of direct damages to the environment and to inhabitants. MICHALON, SAMUEL; ROBIN, LILIAN: PANSER LE TRAVAIL Le collectif «Panser le travail» basé à Lyon est né de la volonté de remettre au coeur des débats citoyens la question du travail. Nous organisons principalement des ateliers de réflexion. En questionnant les expériences quotidiennes, le travail peut être cette transversalité qui permet d interroger les différentes facettes de la vie: besoins vitaux, consommation, perte des idéaux, rapport au temps, à la nature, aux autres. Se posent les questions de démocratie dans le travail, d environnement, de modèle de développement... Le travail, cheval de Troie d une réflexion plus globale? Nous en sommes convaincus. En conclusion, puisqu'il y a centralité du travail, qu'il y ait centralité du débat sur le travail. 71

72 MILDRED, GUSTACK; DIAS, JACQUES: Le présent rapport de stage est résultat d'un étude empirique et théorique au sein de quatre associations travaillant pour le développement et médiation de techniques écologiques et modes de vie respectueux de l'environnement. L'objectif de ce travail est d'analyser les enjeux de la médiation de connaissances environnementales au travers des pratiques et projets menés par ces associations et répondre à des questionnements liées aux parcours cognitifs de l'apprentissage sociale, l'efficacité des communautés de pratique dans ce processus, la fonction des médias conventionnelles dans la construction de liens entre la société et les valeurs écologistes, les défis et les solutions apportées par ces structures médiatrices. Il est introduit des concepts sur le mouvement des objecteurs de la croissance économique, le phénomène des écovillages, la permaculture et la transmission de connaissances. MURACA, BARBARA: DEGROWTH AND JUSTICE: A SCRUTINY OF ETHICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS IN DEGROWTH THEORIES AND PRACTICES In this paper I will focus on a critical analysis of ethical assumptions of growth and degrowth with respect to the question of inter and intragenerational justice and questions about the normative conditions for a good human life. Frame of the discourse: I. Assumption: Growth as a condition for justice. In terms of inter and intragenerational justice poor countries claim the right to reach the development standards of richer countries. Accordingly, economic growth is considered by mainstream scholars as a right of the poor and a necessary condition for intragenerational justice. Moreover, they hold that economic growth brings about also intergenerational justice (funds for investments in nature conservation in the future according to the Environmental Kuznet Curve ). Furthermore, some scholars claim that economic growth is a condition for the stability of democracies altogether. These assumptions have been already subjected to substantial critique, which I will briefly recall in the paper. II. Assumption: Growth as a threat for justice. Décroissance thinkers hold that the diktat of economic growth is at the very root of global injustice, both in terms of intergenerational and intrageneratonal justice. While some scholars argue for degrowth in northern countries and limited growth for poor countries, other scholars highlight that economic growth arose under the very condition of exploitation of other humans (slaves, women, peasants ) and of nature (so called no man s land in colonies ). According to them, growth is unthinkable without these forms of exploitation and domination for present and future generations. Especially post development scholars provocatively claim for a right of the South to poverty (a concept that they distinguish from destitution) and to degrowth. For them so called semi voluntary poverty in vernacular societies relies on social cohesion, local 72

73 knowledge, traditional economic structures and allows for self determination along paths not fixed by the cultural western domination. More generally, Décroissance envisions alternative paths towards a convivial social togetherness in a context of solidary reciprocity. However, this position is not free of dangerous outcomes in terms of human rights standards. Moreover, an ideological reading of these ideas risks bringing about radical forms of localisms. By drawing on Nussbaum s and Sen s capability approach I aim at developing a standard for inter and intragenerational justice that relies on a normative concept of a good human life without risking communitarian drifts into neo fascistic radicalism. This concept is as I think compatible with the essential anthropological and ethical assumptions of degrowth and can offer a helpful normative underpinning for further development in theory and practice. NEDER, R.T.: THE MOVEMENT FOR SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY IN LATIN AMERICA Latin America has part of its population facing chronic sanitation, water supply, energy, food and housing problems. Most of the region s countries show unsettling educational, social and economic indicators, showing diminishing, marginality, unemployment, poverty and social violence in a increase rate to be exacerbated. Large proportions of the population (around % in different countries and indicators) live in conditions of exclusion, marked by a large spectrum of deficits. The solution to these social problems is probably the biggest political and economic challenge for local governments. All these problems are part of the largest chronic and structural social debt of the region, and face them seems to exceed the current local governments capabilities to response. It would demands the utilization of resources equal to 50 % of the national gross product of these countries. The persistent resilience of social debts shows how inefficient the mechanisms of market and economic growth are to change the socio economic scenario. It is at stake one strategic dimension related with the technological solutions of the problems as a challenge itself. To include the excluded people by using conventional technology requires a prohibitive demand of energy, goods and raw materials which would have a huge impact on the environment and would cause social and political imbalances. It seems necessary to produce a strategic switch. It does not seem reasonable to face this challenge by multiplying the available technology without a careful analytical evaluation of other strategies. The importance of the technological dimension has not been properly addressed in the search for solutions of social development of the region. In this context, the study of Social Technology is a priority in order to plan strategies for democratization, socioeconomic development and social inclusion in Latin America. One of the obstacles associated with the lack of satisfactory theoretical tools is the absence of scientific empirical analyses. Most of the information about Social Technology is source books, guides of available resources and list of working groups specialized on the subject or, merely, inventories of experiences. There is a need for very few empirical studies based on satisfactory theoretical and methodological grounds. Therefore, this research seeks to contribute on the subject of the meeting as far as I wish to persuade those who are concerned with degrowth and 73

74 ecological sustainability that democratic institutions have to be engaged in constructive efforts to include technology as a social construction itself. The paper systematizes and analyse the existing reports and creating a special methodology in order to analyse initiatives and policies connected to Social Technology and make correlations with degrowth and strong sustainability. NEIRA: ECONOMIC DEGROWTH: AN OPTION FOR LATIN AMERICA Growth models, which support orthodox economics and have been illustrated in terms of the developed economies productivity during the second half of the twentieth century, are oriented primarily toward the increase in GDP. The countries production has become a purpose and the highest indicator of measurement in all nations. Nevertheless, Latin America has not experienced a true process of industrial revolution and, in recent history, it could not successfully accomplish the policy of import substitution industrialization. This territory is not characterized by an increase in capital formation, an industrial restructuring and a production surplus of secondary and tertiary economic sectors. Therefore, the assessment of its economic system places the region as a bloc of Third World countries. On the other hand, given the new paradigms of value (so accepted in the international arena nowadays), the countries of the Amazon ecoregion become a great power for the world. Its environmental richness and the value of its natural capital exceed any expectations of traditional measurement. In other words, the Latin American territory should not be the laboratory for growing combined strategies of commodities, oil supply and timber exports. The decrease in international demand for Latin American goods in times of crisis somehow reflects recessionary growth conditions and a justification for its poverty levels, inflation and social instability. However, this same condition represents a guarantee for the world, since the environmental richness of the region, expressed in its forests, jungles and biodiversity in flora and fauna, benefits the planet. Climate regulation, carbon sink, and all the environmental services, neither completely regulated nor even paid in today s international markets, could be new strategies for future growth in the region. The economic degrowth in Latin America can be viewed as the growth of environmental preservation and the best way to go into future negotiations on the sustainable development the world requires. This decrease, commonly seen as negative in conventional history, can become a positive growth, not quantitatively measured in GDP, but in the expression of natural capital wealth that is characterized by its scarcity and lack of commercial value nowadays. NIERLING, LINDA: A SUSTAINABLE WORKING ON DEGROWTH: CHANGING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PAID AND UNPAID WORK Facing actual globalisation trends which are still strongly oriented on economic growth and progress the individual and social dependence on paid work becomes reinforced in all industrialised countries. At the same time, in line of this development, fields of activities which are dedicated to unpaid work are loosing more and more in 74

75 importance. However, in a holistic approach which focuses on a sustainable concept of labour, these types of work seem to be likewise important for the society. This contribution argues, that especially in the perspective of degrowth, a focus on possibilities and challenges of unpaid work seems to be central to sketch future perspectives of working relations (Behrendt et al. 2007). In contrast to paid work which is strongly related to economic growth, unpaid work is not profit oriented and is organised on an individual basis. It allows to follow sustainable life styles and consumption pattern as well as political participation, because the field of unpaid work covers manifold reproductive activities like cooking, gardening, doing handicrafts as well as becoming involved into voluntary charity work or citizen engagement. A societal approach integrating unpaid work can furthermore allow social integration for those excluded from employment and create common welfare at the level of local communities (Biesecker 2000, Brandl & Hildebrandt 2002). This contribution focuses on the gap between strong societal orientations on paid work by simultaneously neglecting unpaid working pattern, which seem to be especially important for a perspective on degrowth. In the light of growing precarious working conditions, a perspective on unpaid work seems to be important to provide social integration and social equity. Hereby, recognition in the approach of Axel Honneth (Honneth 1994) is used to analyse in which way paid work in relation to unpaid work continues to be of such a high individual and societal relevance. On the basis of qualitative case studies in sustainable working concepts in Germany, in a first step prevalent recognition structures of paid work relations are compared with unpaid working patterns. In a second step, specific features of unpaid work are outlined in order to uncover intrinsic qualities and possibilities of individual and societal recognition of unpaid work. On the basis of this analysis, possibilities and constraints for a holistic concept of work are proposed allowing options to support degrowth within working models in a sustainable way. NØRGÅRD, JØRGEN S.: SUSTAINABLE DEGROWTH THROUGH MORE AMATEUR ECONOMY The purpose of the paper is to show by a simple, aggregate, descriptive model, how the role of labor input to the production sector has to be revised in a future aiming at an ecologically sustainable degrowth economy, here defined as all human activities involved in converting natural resources into human satisfaction. Some of the economy is categorized as professional economy, consisting of the activities driven by money and usually contributing to GDP. This is what is conventionally understood by the term economy. Another part of economy, here termed amateur economy, is, however, driven by love and affection like activities in the home, among friends, in various kinds of institutions, etc. Such voluntary activities play a large role in the economies of developing countries, while in industrialized countries much of the former amateur economy, as for instance child care, food preparation and gardening, have been taken over by the formal, professional economy, and thereby contributing to growth in GDP. 75

76 Shifting an activity from amateur economy to professional economy has good sides as well as bade ones. For instance it will increase productivity in the normal sense as goods or service output per hour worked, but when human satisfaction from the work is included, like when growing your own carrots, the balance is less obvious. If for environmental reasons society wants to limit production, this will imply a reduction in labor input in the production factor. This can take many forms, such as working fewer hours per year or lowering labor productivity. It appears difficult, but not impossible, to chose lowering labor productivity in the professional economy. But if annual working hours are reduced through a work sharing policy in the professional economy, as seems to be desired by majorities in many nations, this will leave time for more activities in the amateur economy with its lower labor productivity, but higher satisfaction, for instance cooking your own meals, painting your house or caring for your kids. This will tend to reduce GDP, but might increase satisfaction of the total economy. Environmental impact of such a change is not simple to analyze. In some cases do it yourself activities can be ecologically wasteful, in other cases the opposite, as will be illustrated by examples. Political means to promote a shift towards an equitable and more ecological amateur economy, such a tax systems, will be discussed. O'NEIL, DANIEL W.: MEASURING PROGRESS IN THE DEGROWTH TRANSITION TO STATE ECONOMY Although it seems unlikely that any modern day economies have achieved a steady state economy (SSE), I theorize that some economies are closer to this goal than others. In order to measure how close economies are to a SSE, I have created a new set of biophysical accounts the Steady State Economy Accounts (or SSEA) and an aggregated index based on these accounts. The starting point for the accounts is Herman Daly's definition of a steady state economy, which he defines as an economy with constant population and constant stock of capital, maintained by a low rate of throughput that is within the regenerative and assimilative capacities of the ecosystem. This is a biophysical definition, which may be divided into three components: stocks (the size of the economy), flows (the throughput required to support the economy), and scale (the size of the economy in relation to the environment). Following Daly's definition and the stock flows scale framework, I have constructed an idealized set of indicators that would be necessary to measure progress in the degrowth transition towards a SSE. These indicators include: Stocks: Flows: Population growth rate Built capital growth rate Material inputs growth rate Material outflows growth rate Energy use growth rate 76

77 Scale: Magnitude of material throughput in relation to the capacity of ecosystems to (1) regenerate materials, and (2) assimilate wastes. Some of these, such as the population growth rate and energy use growth rate, are simple indicators that may be easily calculated. Others, such as built capital and the relative scale of the economy, are fuzzier concepts, and are more difficult to quantify. Therefore, for each of the idealized indicators in the above framework, I have chosen a proxy indicator based on the best data currently available. I have calculated the set of indicators that make up the SSEA over a 10 year time period ( ), and present the results in two ways. First, in a non aggregated multi criteria form, as a table showing the individual indicator values for each country. Second, as an aggregated index, showing the distance that each country is from the goal of a steady state economy. Preliminary results indicate that there are as yet no steady state economies. However, some economies, such as Cuba and Germany, are closer to this goal than others, achieving good scores on the majority of the indicators. The results of the biophysical accounts may be further compared to social indicators such as life satisfaction, unemployment, and income distribution to help identify the conditions necessary to achieve a socially sustainable steady state economy for all countries. ORTEGA, E.; SOUZA, A.; COSTA, A. N. R.: ECO UNITS AS PARADIGM TO RECONVER WORLD CLIMATE It took to the Earth billions of years to isolate CO2 and CH4 from its atmosphere and millions of years to convert the biomass excess into petroleum, gas and charcoal; but it took only two centuries for the humanity to put all these sequestered carbon stocks into the air again. The release of these gases produced global warming. The reasons of this intensive use of carbon stocks were a false perception of ecosystems functioning (ignorance) and greed. New approaches are urgent to deconstruct the mental model taught by traditional science in the last three centuries in order to escape from the closed world of reductionism and move to the complexity of real world. The solution requires over passing the ideal of maximizing profit as unique criteria for investments and the adoption of the Systems Approach to understand the Biosphere and the role of anthropic ecosystems. Planning should consider renewability, natural productivity, environmental services balance and the sustainability corresponding to different life styles. The science integration (Ecology, Thermodynamics, Biogeochemistry, Psychology and History) would have to occur to create a new Economic Science with Biophysical Basis. Besides that, the humanity should develop and adopt the concept of Eco units as basis for a new model of sustainable production and consumption. During the transition it will be necessary to produce food, water, raw materials, fibre, biofuels and environmental services, while decreasing fossil energy use and recovering biodiversity and atmosphere. All that will be only possible only if Agroecology, Ecological Ruralization (Network of Self sufficient Rural Eco units) and Ecological Systems 77

78 Education and Global Communication are adopted in order to re equilibrate social and environmental forces all over the world. OTT, KONRAD: DE GROWTH AND DEMOCRACY The relationships between an economic order beyond growth and a democratic mode of political governance should be analyzed in order to ask the question which combination of de growth orientation and democratic policy making might be feasible, attractive or even mandatory. Analysis is, first, about making explicit different conceptions of a) de growth economics and b) democracy. By doing so, a set of combinations can be distinguished. Such distinctions might be helpful for internal debates in the political camp that favors de growth and might wish further democratization of political life. They might also be helpful for external perceptions of this camp or might make it more difficult for other camps (liberals, conservatives, social democrats) to conceive a de growth democracy as a horrible and nasty straw man. Thus, the paper distinguishes, first, some variants of de growth from a more philosophical and ethical point of view, asking why one should engage in favor of a de growth economics. De growth is taken literally and refers conceptually to GDP. Second, some concepts of democracy are distinguished. This is done in a manner Max Weber dubbed idealtypisch without any reference to empirical details of the 130 full liberal or even electorate democracies on planet Earth. The focus is on the states forming EU. Afterwards, a Habermasian approach of democratic life is taken into account more closely. At the end of this paper, third, some questions might be addressed for further debate. My final claim is that modest variants of de growth and ambitious variants of democracy can, at least in theory, be conjoined to a viable and wishful political strategy for developed countries. PEZRES: ARCHITECTURE ET DECROISSANCE? L ARCHITECTURE COMME ART DU BATIR PRODUCTIF ET DONC CONSOMMANT DE L ENERGIE PEUT ELLE PRETENDRE A LA DECROISSANCE SANS DISPARAITRE? Cet article se propose de reprendre la définition profonde de la nature de l «architecture» pour montrer qu elle est traditionnellement dépositaire de la structure du monde dominant, mais qu elle a aussi un potentiel constructif. Ainsi, en s écartant des forces de la techno marchandisation contemporaine qui la conduisent, l architecture, à la possibilité intrinsèque de reconsidérer ses axes de production conceptuels puis matériels. En cela, dans une réorientation considérant le vivant «biologique» comme structure ultime, et l ajustement agréable à ce vivant comme objectif constructif, elle peut s intégrer dans une recherche systémique d optimisation des flux énergétiques. Dans cet effort de reconsidération fondamentale, l architecture renouvelée dans sa visée et dans sa constitution peut alors prétendre à s inscrire dans un cycle écologique et phénoménologique viable tendant vers le «bon vivre». L architecture naturelle sur le modèle de l agriculture naturelle s envisage, ici, comme assez créative pour participer à l évolution continuelle du vivant au sein d un écosystème duquel elle participe. Elle n est donc plus l architecture de la croissance mais l architecture du cycle vivant renouvelé en constant ajustement et évolution. 78

79 PIANI, LUCIA; SANTAROSSA, CARLO ALTERNATIVE CIRCUITS ON AGRIFOOD MARKET The increasing development of alternative forms in production, marketing and consumption in the agrifood sector make us to reflect on how these different modalities can be explained with a model of production and consumption in which the neoclassical theory of supply and demand is still central in explaining individual and collective behavior. The analysis starts by developing a taxonomy of "alternative" market systems to identify specific characteristics of producers and consumers. The taxonomy of "alternative" systems market concerns the identification and description of "alternative" markets and the definition of features that may characterize the markets in order to put them in a taxonomic classification. Among the common features of the markets we find the type of product, usually food, whose quality characteristics are defined by the producer consumer interaction. The alternative marketing channels are usually locally based. The experiences analyzed are developed according to the logic of communicative rationality which is explain by the economic theory of the agency. In some cases the communicative rationality is more evident, in other less, but in all cases is based on direct contact between producers and consumers. In this analysis, the need to make a critical reading of the market economic theory, in the light of the diversity that exists in human behavior, has been central, trying to build an interpretation model of the consumption and production systems. Starting from the analysis of the mechanisms leading to the choice of alternative agri food markets, it has been possible to develop an explanation for the differences in the behavior of producers and consumers based on the theories of the Gaussian distribution of populations. This idea was verified by direct analysis, through questionnaires given to the users of different way of commerce like buying groups, adoption of product, Farmer's Market, Earth Markets. For the formulation of the questionnaires were considered different socio economic variables useful to create the bases to understand social behavior of both producers and consumers. This paper highlights heterogeneity in the behavior of actors in the economic system showing experiences where the communication and definition of quality criteria, shared by producer and consumer, allows the survival of small local farms. 79

80 PIRGMAIER, ELKE; POLZIN, CHRISTINE: A MACRO ECONOMIC VIEW OF SUSTAINABILITY The recent policy context is dominated by intensive efforts for achieving economic growth especially in the light of the current financial and economic crisis. The mainstream economic literature and policy debates still consider high growth rates as an essential prerequisite for our future development. However, there is increasing awareness that economic growth may be both a remedy and a reason for many current economic and environmental problems. There are strong (two way) linkages between the economy and the environment and each component cannot be viewed in isolation. While it is largely accepted that a lot of environmental pressures (growing energy consumption, emissions of greenhouse gases, and waste volumes; peak oil; depleting fish stocks and water reserves, and the degradation of forests, lakes and soils) have been brought about by unsustainable patterns of economic growth it is less clear what kind and levels of growth would be consistent with sustainable development and how rebound effects can be avoided. As much of the current literature seems to imply, economic growth is not the sole answer to our problems but low, zero or negative growth under current framework conditions is also no option. Hence, the question emerges which new models of development we need to achieve lasting prosperity. As macroeconomic policy has to play a vital role in promoting sustainable development, a new macroeconomics for a transition to a resilient and sustainable economy is urgently needed. The starting point for this exercise must be to identify and understand the real world links between the economy and the environment and to clearly define the conditions for a sustainable economy. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of how a macroeconomic perspective can shed light on the possibility of achieving sustainable development. It looks into the determinants and the composition of different growth scenarios and it highlights how these scenarios and its individual factors impact the environment and sustainable development. The paper scrutinises the underlying assumptions of the scenarios and aims to give insights on what changes might be needed in the macroeconomic models and the macro economy itself to deliver sustainability. PIRGMAIER, ELKE; STOCKER, ANDREA; FRIEDRICH, HINTERBERGER: IMPLICATIONS OF A PERSISTENT LOW GROWTH PATH. A SCENARIO ANALISY FOR AUSTRIA Our current development is accompanied by ample crises. In addition to the climate and energy crises, much of the world s attention in 2009 has been on the financial and economic crisis. As the last mentioned affect economic growth fast and vigorously, large quantities of money were immediately channelled into national fiscal stimulus packages. The implications of the policy responses were clear; a return to economic growth is desirable, almost regardless of cost. The desire to find back to the old rhythm of boom and (slight) recession, i.e. the narrow focus on a return to growth, has largely ignored previous problems with the growth paradigm. An increasing body of literature highlights the fact that several current economic, social and environmental developments might bring economic growth to a halt. The often cited assumption is that low economic growth rates will be the normal case and not the exception in 80

81 developed economies in the near future (e.g. because of the dramatic diminishment of the world s natural resource basis). Without serious responses and concepts to face this situation, severe social consequences first and foremost rapidly rising unemployment could cause large losses of welfare. This paper aims to analyse how the Austrian economy would change if the above mentioned tendencies became persistent and which macro economic implications (employment, consumption, income, public finances, resource use, CO2 emissions etc.) a low growth scenario entails in Austria. Furthermore, the paper s purpose is to develop rudimental approaches out of the growth dilemma that do not solely rely on continuous economic growth. The crucial question under consideration is how the economic system needs to be reorganised in order to deliver sustainable development and high quality of life for all. PONGO, THOMAS: CAPITALISME, HETERONOMIE ET AUTO DETERMINATION: OBSTACLES ET CONDITIONS DE REALISATION A UNE ETHIQUE EXISTENTIELLE Le discours décroissant, en tant que propos en faveur d un changement radical de paradigme économique et politique, est un exposé qui fascine. Cependant, il est notre avis que les éthiques écologistes et antidéveloppementalistes ne suffisent pas dans la mesure où elles font trop souvent l économie des réflexions profondes sur le sujet et ce, malgré la pertinence des analyses critiques qui s en dégagent. L engagement humain tant souhaité par est rendu délicat pour trois raisons. Premièrement, le sujet, qu il soit citoyen, travailleur, consommateur ou étudiant, a perdu confiance dans les interventions publiques des autorités économiques et politiques. Deuxièmement, les remises en questions énoncent des diagnostics et invoquent des principes normatifs si non différents, souvent contradictoires (alter mondialisme, écologisme, capitalisme vert, marxisme, anarchisme, post capitalisme, etc.); ce qui rend confus le sujet fixé dans et dépassé par ce système. Enfin, il est nécessaire d envisager une critique et une thérapeutique inspirée par un projet de vie plutôt que par une éthique qui, dans certains cas, peut être culpabilisante et inconsciemment animée par la peur de la mort éthique écologiste. A nos yeux, la crise éthique est indiscossiable d une crise du sujet. Nous essaierons donc de dégager les obstacles et conditions de possibilité afin qu émerge une éthique existentielle qui vise au libre épanouissement des individus. Pour ce faire, nous tenterons de démontrer la nécessité de compléter la critique du fonctionnalisme de conservation systémique. Nous articulerons notre réflexion en trois temps. Premièrement, Nous nous inspirerons des arguments développés par R. Jaeggi (Laugier, 2009) auto détermination et hétéro détermination; appropriation du monde. Deuxièmement, nous opposerons à ces développements, les thèses défendues par A. Gorz (Gorz, 2004) autonomie et hétéronomie; sphère privée, travail pour soi et nécessité. Enfin, nous observerons la complémentarité des thèses précédentes au regard des travaux de C. Arnsperger (2009) fixation capitaliste; fonctionnalisme de conservation systémique et de nature humaine. 81

82 Ces analyses nous permettront, d une part, de poser une réflexion critique tant au niveau collectif qu individuel et, d autre part, de poursuivre le débat sur des questions comme l éducation, le revenu minimum garanti et le communalisme. PUIG I BOIX, JOSEP: DECREIXEMENT I ENERGIES RENOVABLES El concepte de decreixement s aplica fàcilment a l ús que se n fa de les matèries primeres i dels recursos naturals no renovables. Donada la seva finitud a la crosta de la Terra, té tot el sentit del món aplicar polítiques que facin minvar la utilització de tots aquests materials no renovables. I una d elles és el decreixement. Però és aplicable el concepte de decreixement a l aprofitament dels fluxos bioesfèrics renovables, com ara l energia del Sol i la força del vent? L activitat d escalfar aigua a base de cremar qualsevol combustible fòssil o a base de degradar electricitat generada a partir de la fissió del nucli de l àtom de l urani 235 fa que una vegada cremat el combustible fòssil o fissionat el nucli de l urani 235 ja no pugui ser disponible per a tornar a ser utilitzat. En canvi escalfar aigua amb la radiació que la Terra rep procedent del Sol, no fa pas que el flux de radiació minvi, ja que continuarà estan disponible per a la seva captació. Per tant quan es parla que decreixer vol dir disminuir el consum d energia, s hauria de precisar dient que es tracte de reduir l ús que se n fa de les fonts d energia no renovables. Les fonts d energia renovable, que es basen en la captació de fluxos biosfèrics no es consumeixen pas, simplement es capten, s aprofiten i tornen a ser disponibles per a noves captacions i aprofitaments. Mentre les limitacions en l ús de materials no renovables forcen a la societat cap el camí del decreixement, les limitacions en l ús dels fluxos biosfèrics venen per una altra banda que no te res a veure amb el decreixement. PUIG VENTOSA, IGNASI: INSTRUMENTOS ECONÓMICOS PARA INCENTIVAR LA REDUCCIÓN DE RESIDUOS Cualquier sistema económico precisa para su funcionamiento unos flujos entrantes de materias primas, que terminan convirtiéndose en unos flujos salientes de residuos. No cabe duda que un aspecto central de las políticas de decrecimiento debe ser precisamente hacer decrecer estos flujos materiales entrantes y salientes, para hacerlos compatibles con los límites que el medio ambiente impone al sistema económico. Esta presentación desarrolla posibles instrumentos económicos a implementar por parte de las administraciones públicas para hacer decrecer (reducir) el flujo de residuos generados, singularmente residuos municipales, pero también residuos industriales y de la construcción. Incidir en este aspecto también tiene una repercusión sobre los flujos entrantes, puesto que por medio de dichas políticas también se logra incidir sobre las fases de diseño y producción. 82

83 Tras una breve justificación de su idoneidad, se presentarán diferentes posibles instrumentos económicos para incidir sobre la reducción de residuos. Éstos se presentarán considerando la escala administrativa a la que pueden aplicarse (desde la Unión Europa hasta los municipios, pasando por los Estados y las Administraciones regionales). Asimismo, también se presentarán por tipología. Por un lado, la aplicación del principio de responsabilidad del productor. Por otro lado, se presentará la posibilidad de aplicar diferentes impuestos, tanto sobre la producción o uso de ciertos productos especialmente problemáticos desde el punto de vista de la generación de residuos (por ejemplo, envases de un solo uso, bolsas de plástico, pilas y baterías, etc.), como sobre el tratamiento finalista de los residuos (impuestos sobre el vertido y la incineración), de modo que estos tratamientos se encarezcan y así se incentive el reciclaje, minimizando de este modo los flujos salientes. En otro sentido, se presentarán posibilidades de articular las tasas de basuras de modo que su importe dependa de la generación efectiva de residuos: los llamados sistemas de pago por generación (o pay as you throw). Se presentarán sistemas de pago por bolsa y de pago por cubo, entre otros, así como sus resultados en términos de reducción de los residuos e incremento del reciclaje. Finalmente, se presentarán los sistemas de bonificaciónpenalización, que en contextos de mancomunidades o consorcios de residuos asignan a los municipios integrantes bonificaciones o penalizaciones en función de si su nivel de generación per cápita de residuos es inferior o superior al nivel medio de generación de los municipios integrantes. REGISTER, RICHARD: ROLL BACK SPRAWL This paper presents depaving projects and a mapping system for shifting development such that great areas of land would be de developed and areas of compact development covering far less land would be developed as fullbodied communities with all normal functions close together. RODRIGUES, SEBASTIAN: PLACING METAL SENSITIVITY AS A PEDAGOGIC NECESSITY FOR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Various parts of the world has been historically witnessed numerous and intense resistance towards mining of various minerals due to wide range of reasons that includes social, political, cultural, health, economical and ecological. Largely the discourse around resistance covers the negative impacts on the communities directly affected by the mining projects. Metal Sensitivity is missed from the discourse and this paper argues for its inclusion in practice and discourse. Although at the source of mineral extraction there stiff resistance movements they very often lack sensitivity towards the chain of usage of the metals that has its veins in powerful consuming classes of the world. This situation very often caps the huge potential for the widening of the horizons of the communities in the resistance at source of underground as well as open cast mining of various mineral. Movements often functioning in fire brigade mode neglect this crucial dimension. The result is that consequences are either success stories or stories of combat. The success stories are those wherein the mining proposals are stalled or at least temporarily halted due to movements 83

84 ability to put spoke in the political system. Mining interests however do not die, and system very often upgrades itself and strikes back again after the gap of few months or few years. While system takes time to upgrade itself, movements in the meanwhile are left with no agenda to pursue mobilization programs till mining project re emerges as visible enemy again. While those in combat mode flows from one victory to another or one setback to another or from setback to victory and vice versa. The movements very often not able to break through in practice and theory due to absence of required mindset and approach and too many people in movements gets rolled in self limiting logic. Metal Sensitivity as a concept and practice not only essential for de growth of society as an initial condition but has to be inducted as a necessary pedagogic ingredient for movements engaged in resistance of mineral resources. This addition widens the horizons to include critical appraisal of self as well as global consumption patterns that generates demands for mineral exploitation founded on unending pursuit of profits. This also opens up wider possibilities connection making processes across the globe breaking number existing hierarchies of gender, class, caste, creed and issue based practices of movements at various levels. RULLI, JORGE EDUARDO: LOS DESAFÍOS DEL DECRECIMIENTO EN AMÈRICA LATINA El momento actual de la humanidad es de incertidumbre y desasosiego. A pesar de un uso masivo de tecnologías asociadas a la ciencia, que se han incorporado a la vida cotidiana de las sociedades, nos encontramos instalados en la más absoluta desnudez de la existencia. Hemos sido arrojados hacia los límites del progreso al que apostamos durante unos pocos siglos, somos concientes de estar consumiendo con voracidad los recursos acumulados por el Planeta durante millones de años, en medio de una crisis climática y energética imprevisible y, luego de Copenhague, sin siquiera la esperanza de que los países puedan llegar a algún acuerdo que impida los colapsos que se preveen. Hemos transformado nuestra vida y el campo de la existencia humana en un enorme patio de objetos. Quizá, se trate para nosotros, en esta Crisis abisal a la que nos enfrentamos, de hallar una nueva forma de reencontrarnos con lo absoluto, un absoluto que extraviamos debido a la mediación de esos objetos que nosotros mismos generamos en el camino de un capitalismo urbano industrial que alguna vez emprendimos. La cultura occidental consideró siempre a la naturaleza como objeto, y por ende, también, lo hizo con el sujeto humano al que terminó incorporando a su mundo de objetos. De esa manera, convirtió el planeta en un reservorio de cosas, despojó a la pertenencia de sentido, para ofrecernos la posesión y la propiedad como valores ponderables. La lógica de la transformación, de la producción y la tenencia, pretendió ser el nuevo camino, un camino que nos llevó al fracaso, a las fronteras del agotamiento productivo, a la insensatez del pensamiento único y al riesgo actual de los colapsos ambientales. Pero no todo es devastación, en el horizonte aparecen nuevas y valiosas miradas que intentan reinstalar al hombre en su hogar planetario, las incertidumbres son sucedidas por las certezas, las propuestas de Decrecer refieren a los límites del paradigma contemporáneo y, también, a la esperanza de cambiar, de cambiar para volver a estar en el mundo, para poder arraigar en la tierra y entonces sí, llegar a ser en plenitud. Vemos al Decrecimiento como una propuesta que vuelve a colocarnos frente a la totalidad de la vida, como frente a un espejo, nos sume en la inmediata desnudez de la existencia, y nos reinstala en la posibilidad de un nuevo arraigo, de una nueva seminalidad para los 84

85 hombres y para las comunidades. Tenemos, sin embargo, que precisar la diferencia que implica aceptar el decrecimiento para nuestros pueblos de la región americana, sometidos hoy en los procesos de la globalización, a devenir como nuevos enclaves coloniales, condenados a un extractivismo exacerbado, y a planes de Crecimiento arrolladores, en especial, de las exportaciones y de sus infraestructuras necesarias de caminos, puertos y sistemas de transporte. Cómo debemos pararnos frente a estas propuestas de limitación y resignificación de los escasos bienes que conforman la vida cotidiana de nuestras sociedades? Cómo plantearles decrecer a quienes no han podido salir nunca de la pobreza, a veces de la extrema indigencia? Cómo proponerles decrecer, a los que podrían creer y de hecho creen tener el derecho tardío, no solo a disfrutar de un consumo que nunca tuvieron, sino también, tener el derecho a una modernidad de la que los países centrales los excluyeron, porque su propia modernidad central la apoyaron y sustentaron sobre la colonización de los países de la periferia? Cómo proponerles ahora el decrecer a quienes llegan a los gobiernos de América Latina, con respaldo popular y con discursos socialistas, pero imbuidos de los optimismos y mesianismos tecnológicos que modelaron el mundo según los intereses del Capital y del crecimiento en los últimos siglos? Esa es la complejidad a veces desgarradora, de estos nuevos dilemas contemporáneos con que nos enfrentamos en América latina. Estamos proponiendo instalar esquemas de vida más amigables con nuestro entorno, cuando las deudas ecológicas pesan en la historia de los pueblos de tan diferente manera, cuando la violencia de la globalización ha impactado fuertemente sobre el pensamiento humano, remodelando sus sueños y sus expectativas para las fantasías de la modernidad y del consumo. Cuando las huellas ecológicas en relación a la bio capacidad de cada país resultan tan, pero tan distantes e injustas de toda posible armonía planetaria, que hacen doloroso el reconocimiento de que ciertas propuestas actuales de crecimiento y de modernización, más allá de su absoluta insensatez ecológica, cuentan con ciertos derechos, al menos a ser expuestas. Nuevos interrogantes, al interior de nuestras culturas, nos obligan entonces, a pensar y actuar desde un decrecimiento que permita en principio, el desarrollo de las zonas sofocadas de la economía actualmente globalizada, un decrecimiento que transite caminos de nuevos arraigos, de reinstalaciones en los ecosistemas y de relocalizaciones de las comunidades que fueron excluidas de los territorios, que fueron desterritorializadas, desarraigadas, empujadas a los procesos de tugurización y asistencialismo en las mega urbanizaciones. Tenemos por delante el desafío de repoblar los territorios hoy vaciados de población por los monocultivos y por los intereses de las Corporaciones transnacionales, a la vez que, el desafío de despoblar las megalópolis, hoy al borde del colapso, megalópolis que han crecido como tumores monstruosos en la lógica despiadada de la Globalización. Se trataría, en definitiva, de retornar al estar siendo, a la puesta en valor del hecho sagrado del simplemente vivir y que muchos denominan Soberanía Alimentaria tal vez por evadir los verdaderos desafíos. Desde nuestra América mestiza podemos aportar al decrecimiento fundándolo en una ecosencillez que disuelva el fundamento económico del modelo en la anterioridad del horizonte simbólico de estar siendo con el mundo para recuperar la plenitud del vivir sin más. Reconozcamos que Europa alcanzó su ser, y que, desgraciadamente en ese camino extravió su estar, mientras nosotros en América latina, permanecemos en nuestro estar sin que se nos deje alcanzar el propio ser Este es el origen de las actuales tensiones y la causa de los debates que llevamos con los pensamientos progresistas llegados ellos también desde Europa, junto con las tecnologías, con los modelos de desarrollo y con esa cosmovisión que generó en su momento tanto la ciudad 85

86 moderna como el capitalismo. Esa es también la causa del enmascaramiento zapatista que al mundo le cuesta reconocer, porque en el Renacimiento italiano las máscaras y los antifaces se impusieron para ocultar o enmascarar los rostros verdaderos, mientras que en América las máscaras develan el rostro que aún no hemos logrado que se exprese. América fue en la conquista como un árbol talado, como un árbol talado al que se injertó y continuó creciendo. Las raíces son las antiguas y permanecen muy en lo hondo del territorio, pero el árbol es otro y lleva cinco siglos ramificándose y dando frutos. Lo extraño de esos frutos del árbol injertado es que son frutos solapados, frutos que proviniendo del estar profundo de América, no logran alcanzar aún su propio ser, son frutos que vienen enmascarados porque no llegó la hora para ellos todavía, de tener un rostro propio. El antropólogo Carlos M. Sarasola nos dice respecto a Rodolfo Gunther Kusch: Conocedor consumado de Heidegger, Lévi Strauss, Jung ó Eliade, en los campos de la filosofía, la antropología, la psicología ó la historia de las religiones, recupera sin embargo a los autores americanos como el mejicano Miguel León Portilla, especialista en filosofía nahuatl, al chileno Félix Schwartzmann ó a las fuentes todavía más antiguas como el cronista indio Juan Santa Cruz Pachacuti, de las inmediaciones del Cuzco y sabio conocedor de la cosmovisión incaica. Kusch plantea una decisión cultural por lo americano. Un eje de su pensamiento ha sido el concepto de estar entre los indígenas, opuesto al de ser alguien de los occidentales. Kusch encuentra que el término más cercano a la forma de vida india es utcatcha, que se traduciría en estar sentado, en el sentido filosófico de domicilio, de sentirse amparado en el mundo (Haber, 1978:50). El vinculaba al sistema productivo incaico con la idea de una auténtica economía de amparo. El hombre occidental soluciona sus males trabajando sobre la realidad exterior, por el lado de afuera. Por el contrario, el indígena está incluido en la totalidad del universo y cualquier desajuste debe ser restaurado con el equilibrio interno de esa totalidad, a través del ritual. Para los que pensamos que se vive una época de convergencias entre la sabiduría de las culturas originarias de América y el nuevo pensamiento occidental, Kusch fue un precursor: indagó en las profundidades del mundo andino y vio lo que hay en nosotros como occidentales. Planteó las diferencias y las oposiciones, pero también los posibles caminos de encuentro y confluencias. Kusch no tiene aún el lugar que merece en los ámbitos académicos, de pensamiento y reflexión. Todo sistema de pensamiento generado por la conciencia occidental puede ser válido en América, siempre que se nos permita reubicarlo a la luz de nuestro propio universo simbólico, que se fundamenta en una lógica de la negatividad como esencial al pensamiento mestizo, un pensamiento que estaría siempre a la defensiva y en espera de su propio tiempo... un tiempo que aún o ha llegado. Todo arraigo de las teorías sólo puede ser auténtico, si logra germinar en este suelo y someterse a la preeminencia de una resignificación desde lo emocional, lo inconsciente, lo no visible, lo oculto a los abordajes de las categorías de la racionalidad. Con tanta o mayor precaución indagaremos cuando, como en este caso, se trata de un modelo de fuerte impronta económica. Porque es posible que una vez más, estemos haciendo ecología de los fines, sin reparar en los medios con los que contamos para la nueva construcción del hábitat común. Grandes sectores de nuestros pueblos practican desde siempre una especie de decrecimiento natural, que vale para los muchos que no han sido ganados por las lógicas del consumismo y de la acumulación capitalista. Ellos reemplazan todavía el poder adquisitivo por reciprocidades e intercambios, mantienen prácticas comunitarias de 86

87 ayuda y esfuerzo compartido, le dan otro valor a las pocas cosas que poseen, pero, sobretodo, viven arraigos muy marcados al estar en el mundo así sin más. Esos decrecimientos implican hoy estar marginados de los mercados, aunque participan de los intercambios locales. Nuestras poblaciones tienen de hecho, una larga historia de desarrollos locales y uso de los bienes comunes que, a pesar de la mercantilización, no han logrado apagar el sentimiento de pertenencia y de identidad común por encima de las lógicas individualistas y acumulativas. Se trata de una ventaja sustancial: la de poder recomponer las redes locales recurriendo a los saberes profundos que respetaron desde siempre la biodiversidad y el uso común de los ciclos alimentarios no extractivos. Solamente los sectores condensados de los poderes locales y nacionales se han entregado plenamente al paradigma productivista. Ellos son una minoría enriquecida al modo y uso de las metrópolis mundiales, y han roto toda pertenencia y sentido comunitario; pero la misma crisis del paradigma cada vez más concentrado en unos pocos, dejará los espacios necesarios para que los sectores medios y urbanos vean en el decrecimiento la oportunidad de recomponer la vida y su armonía natural. Estas transiciones hacia un mejor estar y un buen vivir, ya han comenzado y el decrecimiento deviene en un camino a seguir que seguramente será poco numeroso y desarticulado en sus comienzos, pero que puede constituirse en un poderoso imán en las zonas grises de la crisis en que vivimos. Tenemos en nuestras manos la capacidad de volver a la tierra y recomponer los ciclos agrarios que generaron la vida de los pueblos durante milenios, tenemos la necesidad de volver a armonizar la vida humana con los ciclos cósmicos. El decrecimiento es uno más de tantos caminos que se van abriendo, algunos desde los países ricos pero muchos, también, desde las periferias, buscando nuevas alternativas para tanta infelicidad. En el caso de nuestra América tal vez, la sociedad del Decrecimiento pueda ser, asimismo, un reencuentro con antiquísimos modos del hombre americano de habitar el mundo. El afamado periodista científico estadounidense Charles C. Mann en su libro Una nueva historia de las Américas antes de Colón nos dice: Un número cada vez más grande de investigadores ha llegado a la conclusión de que la cuenca del Amazonas Lejos de ser la tierra virgen intemporal y con un millón de años de antigüedad que muestran las postales es el resultado de una interacción histórica entre el medioambiente y el ser humano. durante mucho tiempo unos pobladores inteligentes, que conocían trucos que aún nosotros estamos por aprender, utilizaron grandes parcelas de la Amazonía sin destruirla. Ante un problema ecológico, los indios lo resolvían. En vez de adaptarse a la naturaleza, la creaban. Estaban en pleno proceso de formación de la tierra cuando apareció Colón y lo echó todo a perder. Bueno, dejando aparte la probable intención antiespañola subyacente, propia de la cultura anglosajona, he querido mencionar estos párrafos de Mann, porque son inspiradores de una utopía que muchos hemos intentado y en buena medida materializado, al menos en la pequeña escala de nuestros hábitat locales, la de ser cocreadores de la Naturaleza, e imaginar y generar nuevos ecosistemas biodiversos, donde hemos conseguido sorprendentes equilibrios y gran cantidad de frutos. Me pregunto ahora, qué enorme capacidad regeneradora podría tener una sociedad cuyos principios rectores fueran los de ser cocreadores de Naturaleza y cuyos integrantes sintiesen este mandato como algo incorporado a todas sus prácticas cotidianas y productivas A lo largo de América Latina, nuevos gobiernos populares encaran actualmente reformas sociales, aprueban constituciones audaces, modifican estilos de gobierno y sobre todo, generan lenguajes y discursos, que movilizan las 87

88 energías del Pueblo y lo convocan a luchar contra el imperialismo. Algunos de esos gobernantes, se declaran abiertamente marxistas y en un lenguaje que parece propio de los años sesenta, hasta refieren al marxismo leninismo como una visión científica del mundo. En realidad, si bien estos gobiernos luchan contra el imperialismo, todos han mantenido en sus países excelentes relaciones con las empresas y corporaciones transnacionales que caracterizaban a las relaciones de la dependencia, y han continuado con las concesiones y explotaciones de la minería, del petróleo y de las producciones agrícolas en gran escala. En mayor o menor medida, han logrado sin embargo, renegociar esas concesiones y contratos, obteniendo en general mayores ventajas económicas para el Estado Nacional, ventajas que han aplicado para respaldar planes sociales, con los que asisten a los sectores más desprotegidos. Pero más allá de los planes asistenciales y de los nuevos lenguajes que en realidad son revivales de antiguos paradigmas, el horizonte que se nos propone, es abiertamente el de la modernidad tal como la viviera Europa, y el de un mayor Crecimiento, en los términos del producto bruto y de modelos de exportación de bienes comunes y commodities a los países centrales. Estas son las reglas actuales en América Latina, y es posible que la Argentina sea de los países más moderados en estos procesos de cambios, pero no es una excepción. Todos esos gobiernos mantienen excelentes relaciones con la OMC, han aceptado sin mayores cuestionamientos las semillas genéticamente modificadas, han renegociado y convalidado las reglas de patentamientos y regalías, respaldan las inversiones mineras con procesos de cianurización y en algunos casos muy notorios, como en Brasil, proponen y demandan del mundo la aceptación de nuevos biocombustibles provenientes de la propia agricultura, biocombustibles con los que paliar la crisis del petróleo, en los países desarrollados. Los gobiernos progresistas y de izquierda que hoy ocupan los gobiernos del grueso de nuestros países, parecieran intentar ser consecuentes con lo que suponen una época de cambios, sin comprender todavía que, estaríamos viviendo en realidad, un cambio de época. Desde un ecologismo situado en sus horizontes de realización, no seríamos capaces de confundir a estos Gobiernos con sus antecesores, ni dejaríamos de valorar con cierto optimismo los cambios importantes que se suceden en América Latina. Pero no podemos dejar tampoco de señalar el transplante mecánico de propuestas que se realiza a lo largo del continente, el eurocentrismo demencial que nos conduce en medio de la crisis planetaria a intentar una neo modernización tardía de nuestros países, y por último, la falta de coraje de muchos de nuestros líderes, para pensar mundos nuevos en épocas que son de globalización y dominio de las corporaciones, no de imperialismos tal como algunos de ellos todavía suponen La construcción de una modernidad tardía y de un socialcapitalismo sustentado en alianza y hasta en el respaldo de las Corporaciones, son objetivos que han comprometido a una generación de intelectuales de la izquierda progresista a todo lo largo del continente, incapaces de revisar los paradigmas por los que lucharon en los años sesenta y setenta, y que introducen a nuestra América en un camino incierto y de difíciles retornos. De continuar ese camino, estaríamos sacrificando la originalidad de América, en especial como posibilidad de su aporte al resto de la humanidad, desconociendo la posibilidad de innovar y de imaginar un mundo nuevo, un mundo donde, tal como dice el zapatismo, quepan muchos mundos diversos. Sería una pena. Por otra parte, debemos aceptar que, el planeta enfermo ya no soporta nuevos experimentos extractivos, la contaminación y los abusos sobre la Naturaleza son malos si se hacen en nombre del Capitalismo y son igualmente malos si se los realiza en nombre del Socialismo del siglo XXI. Recordarlo y obligar a que lo reflexionemos, sería el gran deber en la etapa en la que estamos. 88

89 RYAN COLLINS, JOSH: THE GREAT TRANSITION: CRIATING THE DEGROWTH ECONOMY As the financial crisis and threat of a global recession recedes, there is every sign of a return to business as usual in the workings of our economies. Politicians are celebrating the return to growth in GDP, whilst efforts to create a global deal on climate change and make significant reforms to the financial system stutter. The Great Transition develops the idea that is it possible to reduce growth in developed countries without reducing overall value and well being defined as social and environmental value creation rather than simply output. This is vital as we seek to persuade politicians that radical policies to preserve the planet and reduce global inequality do not necessarily have to mean job losses and misery for citizens in the west. In this presentation, I will demonstrate some initial economic modelling and alternative valuation methods that will be required to 'de grow' our economies, using the UK as the case study. I then run through four policies required to achieve a sustainable and socially just economy by These include: A Great Revaluing, where market prices reflect real social and environmental costs; A Great Redistribution of both income and time, which massively increases social value by boosting the resources of the poorest citizens at a small cost to the most wealthy, A Great Rebalancing of the role of the state and market and The Great Economic Irrigation where we outline how a reformed financial system could facilitate many of the changes proposed. SALMON, JEAN MARC: UN MORATOIRE DES AGROCARBURANTS DANS LES PAYS TEMPÉRÉS? De nombreux pays industrialisés se sont donné des objectifs de croissance des AC (agrocarburants). Ils sont présentés dans une ambitieuse stratégie multirisques avec pour objectifs de réduire: Le risque social qui menace des agriculteurs confrontés à la réforme de la PAC (politique agricole commune) et à d éventuelles avancées de la libéralisation du commerce mondial (cycle de Doha). Le risque climatique en produisant un carburant responsable de moins d émissions de GES (gaz à effet de serre). Le risque stratégique en diminuant la pétrodépendance vis à vis des pays exportateurs de pétrole. Les évaluations en cours montrent qu aucun des risques visés n est conjuré par les AC. De plus, il devient manifeste que les AC aggravent les crises alimentaire et écologique. Les prix des céréales et des oléagineux doublent presque entre 2004 et 2008 aiguisant la crise alimentaire. Selon la FAO, les AC sont responsables pour moitié de cette hausse. La croissance planifiée de leurs usages d ici 2020 dans les pays industrialisés exercera une pression à la hausse sur les prix agricoles des céréales et des oléagineux. Le développement des AC provoque des effets d éviction de cultures vivrières, lesquelles par le jeu des marchés sont délocalisées dans d autres pays. Elles contribuent ainsi directement et indirectement à la montée du prix des 89

90 terres, laquelle attire la spéculation: achat de très grandes propriétés par de grands groupes agroalimentaires et par des pays inquiets pour leurs approvisionnements alimentaires. Cette concurrence pour l espace agricole renforce les tendances à la concentration des terres au profit d une agriculture exportatrice, intensive, énergétivore et au détriment des agricultures vivrières et familiales. Nourrir décemment la population de la planète suppose, entre autres, un moratoire des cultures d AC dans les pays tempérés. À partir de ce constat, l article, rédigé en anglais, propose d examiner les arguments qui pourraient mitiger ce jugement. comme la productivité meilleure des cultures d AC dans les pays tropicaux. Puis il examinera une hypothèse de transfert des subventions dédiées aux AC, dans les pays de l Union européenne et aux Etats Unis, vers des politiques soutenables et équitables (transports urbains collectifs; alimentation bio de proximité). SANJUÁN REDONDO, HÉCTOR; MARCELLESI, FLORENT; BARRAGUÉ CALVO, BORJA: DECRECIMIENTO, TRABAJO Y RENTA BÁSICA Explorar la idea de trabajo en una sociedad decrecentista y la Renta Básica de Ciudadanía como herramienta práctica de transición hacia ella. El decrecimiento, más allá de una alternativa a los sistemas productivistas, se ha convertido en un imperativo de supervivencia ante la crisis social y ecológica mundial, principalmente para los países desarrollados. El culto al crecimiento, junto con las condiciones en las que este pueda producirse con mayor facilidad (acumulación de capital, sociedad de mercado...) se ha mostrado claramente contraproducente a la hora de adoptar medidas y comportamientos que ayuden a paliar los grandes problemas de la humanidad como el cambio climático o la pobreza. Esta contradicción se manifiesta tanto desde las altas esferas políticas y económicas como en la vida diaria de un ciudadano, cuya existencia se resume a integrar un ciclo de producción empleo consumo destructivo para el planeta y el bienestar colectivo y personal. El llamado trabajo productivo es clave en el mantenimiento de este ciclo crecentista y conforma el epicentro de la organización social actual (tiempos de la vida, sistemas de redistribución, procesos de socialización, etc.). Ante esta situación, criticaremos en primer lugar el concepto de trabajo en una sociedadasalariada intrínsecamente vinculada a una sociedad del hiperconsumo y del pleno empleo que explota la Tierra y los seres humanos. Plantearemos un ciclo decrecentista a través de la redefinición del concepto de trabajo y riqueza basada en el reconocimiento y valor de las actividades no mercantiles, cooperativas y autónomas. Analizaremos también cómo ha evolucionado a raíz de los avances tecnológicos de las últimas décadas y la llegada del capitalismo cognitivo. En una economía del conocimiento, las nuevas fuerzas productivas y de fuente de valor centrales pasan a ser la inteligencia, el saber y la creatividad, lo que afecta de manera significativa al papel, a la forma y al valor del trabajo. 90

91 En segundo lugar, tomando en cuenta estas transformaciones, es nuestra labor presentar unos medios que hagan factible una transición hacia el vivir mejor con menos. En este sentido, vemos en una Renta Básica de Ciudadanía universal, incondicional y que cubre las necesidades básicas no sólo una medida de lucha contra la pobreza, sino una herramienta de emancipación capaz de romper de manera efectiva las dinámicas de producción y consumo, abriendo el camino hacia una sociedad decrecentista. En otras palabras, un instrumento para salir de la sociedad asalariada de consumo y alcanzar una reorientación socio económica sobre bases ecológicas. SANNE, CHRISTER: THE NEW TASK: WORKING FOR CHANGE WITHOUT FEAR The degrowth concept challenges deep rooted notions in the eyes of most people growth still signifies progress. In order to turn the world in a sustainable direction, this must be recognized. But we must also understand that even if political leaders are aware of the dangers of tomorrow, they are unable act as long as people fear what a change may mean. This is basically why the Copenhagen summit on climate change failed. The facts of global warming, desertification, overuse of water resources etc have been known for a long time. But the general public and media was only made aware a few years ago with the climate crisis. The political system has reacted by taking limited steps, far from sufficient. These measures may even convey the false message that the situation is under control. The new knowledge and the steps taken also rallied special interests who oppose them and act against further change: the climate sceptics and all the lobbyist at work in Washington, Brussels etc. In a sense this is positive because it shows that the issues now have gained a central place in politics. But this also creates a new challenge for us as academics and activists. The warnings have sounded and are recognized. Now we must show what needs to be done and that doing it will not create undue hardship. We must make it clear to the public and politicians that it is possible to attain a sustainable society without slipping back into dire poverty living on dirt floors and chopping our own firewood as some of the worst predictions claim. We have to take the fear of change out of the public debate. I trust that technology can go a long way to solve the problems of resource restraints and emissions. If we settle for a reasonable living standard, this should be possible even within the environmental space allotted to us in more fair world. With a decent distribution of incomes, we can create a good life for everyone in the rich countries during the next decades. We would certainly have to give up some of the comforts and habits of today but psychological and social research shows that it need not make us more unhappy. And we can probably do this within the fundamental rules of the market economy. But some conditions have to change and that already challenges special interests. They continue to scare the public with dismal scenarios and obstruct necessary adjustments. It is vital that their propaganda is offset with solid facts. So we have to advance from warnings which are probably correct for a business as usual development! to showing how to fare in fair world: how technology can be used wisely and without creating rebound effects, how we can change from more production to more leisure, that more material wealth does not promote happiness etc. All those things political leaders and their voters need to know in order to wipe out the fears that the prospect of change always arouses. 91

92 SCALTRITI, BRUNO: THE FOOD SHORT SUPPLY CHAIN: A SOCIOECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE The present agrifood sector is particularly connected with the theme of the degrowth. The approach of the gastronomic sciences, that is a mix of humanistic and scientific points of view, propose a different pattern of development for the agrifood system in the future. The first challenge is the transformation of the food supply chain into a short (and local) supply chain. A local supply chain (or short supply chain) means a lower quantity of fuel and greenhouses gases due to the lower distance between producers and consumers. In some cases it means an occasion for women employment and also a better economic conditions for farmers. With a shorter supply chain we can add social contents to acts (purchasing and selling) that are considered merely economic: farmers markets and special channels of purchasing (Italian GAS for example) are the only opportunity for experience of social farming to survive. The aim of this paper is to study from a socioeconomic point of view a farmers market as an example of short (and local) supply chain in order to understand the mechanisms of working and the elements of weakness and strength of such a low inputs and high good outputs supply chain. Starting from a case study (some Farmers market in Italy) the aim of this paper is to find the a reproducible model of food short supply chain: in fact farmers markets, periurban and urban agriculture, Community supported agriculture, chisan chishou movements, Amap etc. are successful, but isolated examples of local system of exchange. Are these model exportable in other contests? When we talk about the short supply chain, we can t forget the developing countries, which have different problems but for whom we can make similar considerations. Is the short supply chain suitable for developing economies with problems of starvation? Is the present agroindustrial system available to solve these problems? We can introduce issues like the food sovereignty, food security and the poverty, especially rural poverty. For such a big question we can t answer only yes or no, but we can observe that the present food system coexists together with more than one billion of undernourished people and that alternatives must be searched. The analysis of the food short (and local) supply chain can help to understand the mechanism of production, distribution and consumption in developing countries too. SCHMEIZER, MATTHIAS: REDISTRIBUTION OR GROWTH? DEGROWTH AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Growth and the promotion of economic growth by any means is the core of the dominant politics of postneoliberal states in dealing with the crisis of the global capitalist economy at present. In the context of the current multiplicity of crises ranging from a global bio crisis threatening life on this planet to a crisis of democracy, finance and the social economy these efforts are doomed to fail. Therefore, the criticism of growth politics and the promotion of transformative politics of degrowth are topics highly relevant to present day social movements. However, the concept of growth is deeply embedded into conventional progressive thinking and politics of the left ranging from emancipatory parties to NGOs and trade unions. Building a comprehensive progressive social movement around the criticism of growth politics therefore requires first to analyse the interconnections between transformative social movement politics and growth politics. In this paper we therefore aim at (i) analysing why and in how far growth has become such a central feature of progressive political and economic thinking (especially trade union politics; and (ii) at analysing the practical and 92

93 strategic goals and demands of emancipatory social movement from a degrowth perspective. Building on the longranging debates around the (im)possibility of delinking and qualitative growth, the potentials and pitfalls of (eco) Keynesian politics and the links between the political economy of capitalism and growth the focus is thus strategic. SCHNEIDER, FRANCOIS: DEGROWTH OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION CAPACITIES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, WELL BEING AND ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY It is commonly perceived that economic growth is the best response to economic, environmental and social crises. Many growth policies are directed at increasing the capacities to exploit resources by pushing down the limits to production and consumption at the macro level. To the surprise of many, the efficiency, sufficiency and policy solutions developed in a growth context seem to fail. The degrowth movement has been challenging the centrality of economic growth as an overarching policy objective on the basis of cultural, democratic, bio economic, environmental and well being grounds. This article does not only challenge economic growth. It aims at identifying what actually needs to degrow. Research has shown that the production and consumption capacity to exploit natural resources and humans needs to unevenly and globally degrow. Done appropriately, this could prevent crises as well as the failure of efficiency, sufficiency and other political measures in general due to the so called rebound effects. The reduction of the production and consumption capacity to exploit natural resources and humans requires a combination of frugal innovation and adjustment in three large areas, namely resources, institutions and human behaviour. Solutions that aim at finding and developing ways to consume and produce less are defined here as frugal or debound innovations. Rather than suppressing limits in order to increase consumption and production (done by rebound innovations), frugal innovations acknowledge and work with limits, creating then debound. Frugal innovations are successful only when accompanied by an adjustment, implying a macro level reduction of the consumption and production capacity. Adjustments, as defined here, are therefore the completion of the frugal innovation objective at a higher level. Degrowth adjustments adapt limiting factors (such as natural resources availability, infrastructure and time; finances and deregulation; needs satisfaction, unawareness and inequity) in order to prevent the rebound effect. The article suggests practical examples of adjustment that can be undertaken at local and larger policy levels. Natural resource related adjustment is supported by policies that tend to leave more resources in the ground. An infrastructure adjustment policy measure would be a moratorium on road, incineration, dams, fossil energy thermal energy, cement infrastructures, etc. A time related adjustment would be a macro level reduction of working hours, or in general macro policies that reduce the time spent on resource intensive consumption and production. Finances related adjustment would imply going out of the debt or virtual economy and shifting towards an economy that considers a sustainable level of resource use. It would also imply replacing world currencies by local currencies. A deregulation 93

94 based adjustment would generally involve a reduction of property rights on biota, soil and minerals. Needs adjustments consist of supporting mutualization, (in housing for example), and reducing the use of products and the production units with a short lifetime. A key degrowth adjustment dealing with awareness would involve restrictions to advertising. Finally, inequality adjustment would introduce basic income and income ceiling. Finally, the production and consumption capacity to exploit natural resources and humans with different limiting factors brings tracks for a multidimensional quantitative and qualitative measure of the size of an economy. SÉBASTIEN, LÉA; WALLENBORN, GRÉGOIRE: THE ROLE OF ATTACHMENT TO NON HUMANS FOR A SUSTAINABLE DEGROWTH Some values promoted by the degrowth movement, as localism, slowing down and collective links, can also be found in attachments to non humans, like territories, animal species, or natural sites. Through the analysis of different case studies, we will present how different attachments reconfigure the notions of space, time and collective. The paper will be based on four case studies presenting various environmental attachments, exhibiting different relationships between social and patrimonial dimensions on several areas. Three of our case studies are located in France and one in Tanzania: (1) Forests in Sologne, France; (2) Forez plain, France; (3) Adour Barthes, France; (4) Kilimanjaro south slopes, Tanzania. We conducted 120 interviews among territorial actors, using an opened interview guide. Though not environmental sensibility oriented, our interviews made the attachment notion surge, as well as its multiple forms. Our analysis enlightens the sentimental and almost sacred feature that actors feel about natural objects of their territory. These non human actors create attractive or repulsive affects, which impact on knowledge and management. We want to understand what are the consequences of these feelings about nature on social relations and on the environment. There are several ways of being attached. Our results show that an actor loving is an actor knowing. But is an actor loving an actor doing? We try to analyse here the relations between attachment and engagement. Is it possible to understand the origin of an attachment? May be not totally, because too many personal characteristics interfere. It is however possible to try to categorise how human and non humans are creating new links with space and time when they are attached. The idea of collective of humans and non humans is obviously central in this analysis: it will be examined in parallel with the notion of degrowth and further developed through examples. SEMPERE CARRERAS, JOAQUIN: DEGROWTH: PROPOSALS AND QUESTIONS Once admitted the prospect of an economy without growth or with degrowth, we must face three subjects and several questions with no easy answer. In the first place, State must have a stronger role because of the emergency of challenges and the need to face the resístanse of plutocracy. But State is not enough: there is also the need of an organized civil society to foster a sustainable economy from below. In the second place, the notion of productivity must 94

95 be reviewed: instead of stressing productivity of labour (with its high requirements in material and energetic resources), it is the productivity of natural resources which should be stressed: to get the same services with less resources (eco efficiency). But eco efficiency third point is not enough. Because of the uncertainties about future availability of energy, it is necessary to look for a more frugal economy: reducing consumption of biophysical resources and adopting habits and priorities in accordance with it. Among the questions with no easy answer: Will there be a return to agriculture? Shall we change to an economy of saving, reusing, recycling and repairing? Will these proceses not be more intensive in labour and therefore not compatible with a reduction of human effort? Will it be posible to finance a Welfare State in an economy with less currency, or will there be a need of more voluntary, non remunerated work? Is it posible to reorient popular savings from consumerism to investments for a sustainable economy, laying the foundations of an economy freed from capital? SIRILLI, STEFANO: CO2 REDUCTION: A DANGEROUS FRIEND The struggle against CO2 production is becoming the major enviromental measure, adopted by both national and global institutions and grassroots movements, and it is addressed with a number of different actions, ranging from cap and trade mechanisms to lifestyle changes. CO 2 production is becoming the most important variable used by both institutions and public opinion in conceptualising and communicating trends of environmental impact, while many other specific aspects (such as resource use and waste generation) are not receiving the same attention. It may be argued that cap and trade mechanisms, like the Kyoto protocol, by creating a financial (and derivative) market for the CO2 bonds, hardly represent an alternative to the present economic system, and will produce speculation and growth of GDP, leading eventually to an increase in the use of natural resources. The carbon trade market, after a few years of existence, already amounted to 0.1% of world GDP in Environmental issues are very complex and need to be summarised in a limited set of indicators, but using a single figure as an indicator of human impact (like CO2 production) could cause the same problems as the use of GDP in the economy: the use of a single indicator for a complex phenomenon (GDP growth as a tool to increase well being) can in the long run distort the conception of the phenomenon (GDP growth becomes an purpose itself). On the other hand, CO2 production has the advantage of being easily understood by people, being able to provide a synthetic measurement of resource use and pollution, albeit indirectly, since CO2 itself is neither a scarce resource, nor a pollutant. In wiew of the political framing of environmental issues between civil society and governments, the degrowth movement, supporting a vision of democratic change, should avoid being involved in the CO2 crusade without a strong criticism. As climate change is a global issue, CO2 production will be managed at global level, and a strong development of carbon trading (based on a widespread consensus on the CO2 global warming link) could cause a concentration of 95

96 power in small financial groups who, under the flag of containing the impact on climate, would continue acting according to the old fashioned rules of profit and growth. This paper proposes a sharp differentiation between enviromental resource management (environmental pressure, waste, social inequality, etc.) and climate change issues. Enviromental resource management issues represent the base of a degrowth movement, as they can be managed from a more local, decentralized and democratic way, while climate change represents a large scale issue, still mainly faced by growth oriented hierarchical institutions, with strong interests in marketing environmental concerns without necessarily caring about sustainable reforms. SPANGENBERG, JOACHIM H.: WEALTH IS THE PROBLEM! REVITALISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS A CONDITION FOR A DEGROWTH ECONOMY One of the least discussed driving forces behind the collapse of the financial system is the concentration of wealth, now in the US at the level off the robber baron age, the The accumulated wealth has outgrown the real economy since the 1980s, and thus the opportunities for investing these fortunes. The situation is unusual: due to the liquidity surplus, it is no longer mainly business looking for investment funding, but liquidity looking for investment opportunities. Such opportunities were not in sufficient supply from the real economy, which led to re investment of money into money, the financial sector, in speculative bubbles made of virtual money with no real economy backing. Nonetheless these bubbles were an important driver of (virtual) economic growth. The vagabonding money has two sources: on the one, decreasing taxes on high incomes contributed to an upward redistribution of wealth. On the other hand, the privatisation of social security systems created immense amounts of collectively owned but privately managed capital. Public pay as you go schemes and private insurance/fund systems both derive the money they pay out from the production of the current year, but they differ in two key aspects: Pay as you go schemes take money from members of the labour force and redistribute what the take rather completely through a more or less bureaucratic non profit system: the state of public insurances. Private insurance systems take money from clients, invest and manage it in a profit oriented system, and pay the transfers from the profits. Given that before the bubble burst 40% of all profits in the US were made in the financial sector, the effect of this system on wealth concentration should not be underestimated (and as a result, the race for higher incomes in the rest of the population, even among the top 1% of income earners). Secondly, the large volumes of capital in search of 96

97 investment opportunities enforced investment (including risk capital) and were an important contribution to (partly economically nonsensical) economic growth. For a sustainable degrowth economy and society, both factors have to be addressed: public social security (incl. Health care systems reduce economic volatility and drivers of growth, and so do taxes on high income (which are anyway needed to revert the upwards redistribution of the last decades). In the 1960s the USA charged up to 90% income tax on top earners a precedent for a sustainable society. THOMSON, BOB: AN INDIGENOUS APPROACH TO DEGROWTH In addition to the considerable literature on degrowth coming from Europe and on steady state economics from North America, the indigenous peoples of Latin America are moving forward with similar analysis and proposals for a post industrial or post development world from their own unique perspective even including it as objectives in the new Constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador, and, in the case of Bolivia, are beginning to incorporate them into National Development Plans. Discussions about living well, but not better, suma qamaña in Aymara and sumak kawsay in Ecuadorian Quechua, took place at the May 2008 Enlazando Alternativas conference in Lima and at an international seminar in November 2009 in La Paz and a number of academics and civil society groups are taking it up. The potential for synthesis and learning between northern voluntary simplicity approaches and indigenous approaches would seem to be ripe for dialogue and eventual global campaigns which respect global differences, while recognizing and building on common understandings and causes. TOPALIDES, HARRIS: DE GROWTH AS A CONTEMPORARY STRATEGY FOR THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT De growth arises in the current development agenda as an alternative management strategy of economic development aiming its sustainability with the conscious planning of its transition from growth to equilibrium. According to non equilibrium Thermodynamics, economic development, as a social process, is subject to limitations set by social and environmental pressures to material standards of living. Under explicitly specified conditions these limits may be identified and the pressures arising may be addressed, in the context of a dynamic model representing the pattern of economic development. In this model pressures are caused endogenously by the interaction of growth of economic and demographic structures with social and environmental ones. When growth goes too far, as it is highlighted nowadays by global economic crisis, the limits of the latter are approached and acting through feedback 97

98 loops on the former, erect obstacles to growth that threaten the material standards of living. De growth affords the gradual retardation of growth so that, in the long term, the intensity of pressures is lowered and the standards of living are sustained. Identifying contemporary content of economic development as corresponding to a global Knowledge economy, a holistic approach complementing the analytical ones, to planning this strategy, presupposes the description of the dynamic structure producing this content. In bibliography the structure producing the course of economic development, in its industrial content, through its entire life cycle is represented by a complex system defined in a Systems Dynamics context (N. Forrester, 1973). Since the new content has evolved qualitatively from industrial, its structure may be described with an extension of the latter. Such an extension involves the formulation of the new hypothesis imposed to its operation, as a result of the policies undertaken to address the limits to growth appeared to industrial model. These hypotheses are: (a) Increase of the capital intensity of production processes, (b) Extension of development from national to global dimension, (c) Decrease of the resource content and emissions, per unit of output, inversely related with the increase of capital intensity. The consideration of the extended model reveals the leverage points of intervention to the contemporary course of economic development by highlighting the specific limits encountered and the causes of the pressures arising. Their address requires a change of paradigm from growth to self restrain, that may be strategically facilitated with (i) accepting higher environmental pressure so that it may be addressed with labor intensive policies, i.e. resource recycling in production processes and (ii) introducing moral, social and environmental criteria in the function of markets and especially financial ones that allow for the long term consideration of performance and profitability, i.e. social responsible investments. ULVILA, MARKO; PASANEN, JARNA: CLASS, DEGROWTH AND TRANSITION TO A JUST AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY The best ideas in environmental economics, such as degrowth and steady state economy, need to be placed in a context of socio economic classes for them to gain wider appeal and to become a transformative force. Income based classes are very relevant for environmental debates since income has a strong relationship with ecological damage. The higher the income the larger the harmful footprint. In this paper four global classes are identified. The classes, their annual purchasing power parity adjusted income thresholds and sizes are: the over consuming class, greater than usd, one billion consumer class, usd, one billion 98

99 sustainable class, usd, of three billion struggling class less than 750, two billion. For the over consuming class a set of powerful degrowth interventions are urgently needed for three reasons. First, the members of this class are causing remarkable share of the environmental destruction globally. Secondly, there is strong cultural tendency for rest of the society to emulate the consumption styles of this class. Third, income inequality is a major impediment to societal well being. Successful degrowth interventions among this class would reduce the incomes for the benefit of the environment and well being of the society. They would include advances in progressive income taxation, introduction of progressive consumption taxes and prohibition of excesses. Similar, but more gentle set of degrowth interventions is needed for the second billion belonging to the consumer class. The growth of income of this class needs to be halted in the short term and reduced gradually in the long term. The largest of the four classes, the sustainable class, have the basic needs met in a way that fits within the carrying capacity of the earth. For this class the principles of steady state economics should be applied. The livelihoods and ways of life of this class needs to be respected, promoted and protected. The struggling class includes the two billion poorest in the world. Permanent or reoccurring hunger indicates the powerlessness of this class. Therefore empowerment is the key to their transition path. This would mean access to land and other natural resources and full realisation of political and social rights. Economic growth among the struggling class would be an expression of successful empowerment. URBAN VESTBRO, DICK: SAVING BY SHARING. COLLECTIVE HOUSING FOR SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES In the paper the experiences of collaborative housing are analysed from the perspective of their potential to promote pro environment behaviour in Sweden and other countries of over consumption. The analysis is based on the review of historical and recent studies of various forms of collaborative housing, upon the author s own experience from living in an urban collective housing unit and upon the author s role as chairman of the Swedish association Kollektivhus NU (Cohousing NOW). It is argued that neighbourly cooperation and collective action is required to promote changes towards sustainable lifestyles, and that much can be learnt from communal living experiments. In Swedish collective houses (with individual apartments for each household) residents may save both by reducing the normal apartment by for instance ten per cent, and by accepting fewer rooms than in non collective living. It is concluded that the spatial organisation and other design aspects constitute important factors for the attraction and survival of existing experiments with alternative ways of life, and for the promotion of pro environment behaviour. It is furthermore concluded that common spaces should be located where residents pass frequently and be provided with glazed walls in order to stimulate spontaneous use. The spatial organisation of cohousing units may influence the level of social control, which in turn may constitute a determining factor for pro environment behaviour. 99

100 VAN GRIETHUYSEN, PASCAL: CONCEPTUALISING DEGROWTH: AN EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE This contribution rests on the postulate that any social goal requires firm theoretical foundations to be successfully implemented. The challenge of consciously conceptualising, developing and implementing the institutional, organisational and technological means of mastering the Degrowth phase in a manner as sustainable, equitable and responsible as possible, is no exception to this rule. When facing the Degrowth challenge neoclassical economics is of limited help, if any. Anchored in a mechanistic, a temporal epistemology, neoclassical economics proves unable to apprehend the complex and multidimensional nature of Human Nature interactions. Consequently, it ignores the ecosocial collapse human societies have entered, eludes its irreversibility by invoking substitution principles and technological salute, and shows inability to propose any course of collective action that would diverge from the capitalist rationality, as illustrated by the impasse in which the international climate governance has locked itself. An alternative, more promising way rests on the integration of the critical institutionalist tradition of Veblen and the ecological economics of Georgescu Roegen into an evolutionary economic paradigm. An evolutionary paradigm proposes an integrated but differentiated approach to evolutionary processes resting on both a conceptualisation of the common principles they might share and an adequate apprehension of the specific characteristics they present when they are realised at different, irreducible ontological levels. Anchored in an evolutionary epistemology, an evolutionary economic approach can properly articulate the diversity of geophysical, eco biological and sociocultural temporalities as well as the complex interactions between them. When adequately oriented toward the Degrowth challenge, such an approach provides a set of conceptual and theoretical elements that may: o o o o o o propose a theoretical description of the capitalist expansion as a cumulative sequence of appropriation and concentration of assets through capitalisation and finance, with increasing inequities and widening ecological degradation as consequences of the subordination of eco social considerations to capitalist imperatives; suggest a conceptualisation of natural resources resting on the very different ecological and economic potentials of mineral and biotic resources; give an adequate economic account of the manner in which human activity, driven by capitalist economic rationality and powered by hydrocarbon based industrial technology, has gone beyond the resilience thresholds of the Biosphere; identify the urgency of decreasing the depletion of natural resources and lowering the anthropic disruption of the Biosphere by drastically reducing the economic process throughput; explain the institutional and technological locked in situation into which the western path of economic development, both capitalist and industrial, has led our societies; increase the chances of success of the required reorientation by analysing the complex encompassing web of forces that act as inertial factors impeding that reorientation; 100

101 o make people aware of such a web and develop consciousness awareness through sound theoretical explanations. VITARI, CLUADIO: THE FREE/LIBRE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE: AN INSPIRING SUCCESS FOR OTHER CONCRETE ALTERNATIVES The software industry is changing as a result of the rising influence both of packaged and of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS). On the one hand, the typical dilemma between developing an Information System (IS) internally or finding it elsewhere increasingly favours the latter option, with the result that the currently available offthe shelf software applications are gaining substantial ground in the market. On the other hand, FLOSS is becoming an ever more significant reality in many different software industry segments. The success, in some software segments, of the FLOSS adds evidences that concrete alternatives (open software or commons) to the dominant paradigm (for profit and proprietary software) could succeed. However the comprehension of the raisons of this success is not fully achieved and more over the understanding of the generalizability of this success to other concrete alternatives is far to be clear. Critical social theory helps in understanding this success, as FLOSS communities (of users and developers) seems to consciously act to change their social and economic circumstances struggling against various forms of social, cultural and political domination. The case study research method will be applied on the Content Management Systems as an exemplar success of floss. Starting from bringing to light the restrictive and alienating conditions of the status quo in CMS segment, we will critique it, showing its oppositions, conflicts and contradictions. We will enrich our analysis seeking to help other software segment actors to eliminate theses causes of alienation and domination in order to move toward an ecological sustainability and social equity. We will conclude our contribution on one hand by informing the critical social theory in order to better take into account the specificities of the online communities. On the other hand, we will try to generalize the findings and suggestions to other concrete alternatives with the aim at facilitating the success of other kinds of concrete alternatives to the dominant paradigm. WÄCHTER, PETRA; ORNETZEDER, MICHAEL; ROHRACHER, HARALD; SPÄTH, PHILIPP; SCHREUER, ANNA; WEBER, MATTHIAS; KUBECZKO, KLAUS; PAIER, MANFRED; KNOFLACHER, MARKUS:: THE DEGROWTH OF ENERGY In Europe, energy efficiency has steadily increased while also energy consumption rates have undergone the same development. That means that the situation would be even worse without improvements in technological possibilities. On the other hand, it shows that measures aimed at fostering energy efficiency stabilize the mechanism of economic markets and follow the rules of the growth paradigm. It is obvious that a rethinking of our consumption patterns in combination with our current energy use and the exploitation of resources is required. Moreover, we have to tackle the problem of this rebound effect and decouple the introduction of more efficient energy technologies from the rules of economic markets. Therefore, for the emergence of a new energy system, it is also necessary that different norms and values towards more energy sustainability including new actors and institutions replace the previous structure. 101

102 Especially in Austria, current energy policy has failed to fulfil the targeted reduction of emissions according to the Kyoto goals by far. Instead of a slight decrease of 13% we are confronted with a rise of CO 2 emissions by 11.3% compared to Facing this situation, system innovations have to apply not only economic and political institutions but also consumers and firms. In the ongoing project, within the framework of two stakeholder workshops scenarios for a sustainable energy future were developed and evaluated. Based on the evaluation three strategic key action fields were identified: the spatial organisation of energy production and use, governance strategies dealing with complexity and uncertainty and the role of the civil society in the transformation of the energy system. Within these fields some critical issues will be explored that are highly relevant for system innovation. The aim is also to make a contribution to a shift to a more sustainable energy future detaching itself from the growth paradigm. WALKER, TOM: RETHINKING THE "LUMP OF LABOR" AS A CPR A framework for design and evaluation of policies for worktime reduction can by opened up by viewing the labor supply as a "common pool resource" (CPR). In "Foundations for Environmental Political Economy," Dryzek explored the prospects of an alternative, /Homo ecologicus, /to economic man. Dryzek's alternative is based on his interpretation of Ostrom's case study analysis of CPRs. That new political economy is one that can account for instrumental rationality but that also can point to alternatives grounded in something firmer than wishful thinking, namely communication, interaction and self organization. Economists have often ridiculed proposals for work time reduction on the grounds that they are based on a "lump of labour" assumption that there is a fixed amount of work. But Chapman in "Hours of Labour" suggested that even if the lump of labor was a fallacy, it may have prevented workers from competing ruthlessly for jobs and thus undermining their standard of living. Taking Chapman's insight a step further, we can redefine a lump of labor counternarrative that modifies the conventional fallacy myth. Instead of a fallacious assumption, this refashioned lump proposes an ethic of collective and cooperative working behavior in which labor is regarded not as just one more CPR among many but as the CPR /par excellance, /its most far reaching and democratically vital instance. In "Accountants and the Price System," Stabile alluded to something like the above when he noted that, " Human labor is also the primary constituent of the society whose values must be part of any criterion of social evaluation. The appropriate starting point in any policy directed at social costs is with those imposed on labor. Stabile cited Clark's /Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs. /Clark argued that labor should be treated, socially, as an overhead cost of doing business rather than as a variable cost of the employing firm because the cost of maintaining the worker and his or her family in good stead has to be borne by someone whether or not that worker is employed. If all industry were integrated and owned by workers, what would be the relation of constant to variable expense?... it would be clear to worker owners that the real cost of labor could not be materially reduced by unemployment. Social overhead cost and common pool resources can be shown to be two ways of looking at very similar collection of variables. 102

103 WILLIAMS, COLIN C.; WHITE, RICHARD J.: THANSCENDING THE DEPICTION OF MARKET AND NON MARKET LABOUR. PRACTICES: IMPLICATIONS FOR DEGROWTH The true nature of the economies that are beginning to rapidly re emerge from the shadow of global economic crisis have been the subject of intense scrutiny and contestation from a wide range of academic, policy making and popular communities. In response to this crisis, there exists an increasing sense that new more innovative and radical visions are desperately needed to force an effective, appropriate and constructive response. The paper argues that it is imperative that new visions or strategies must embrace complexity and critical analysis where appropriate, even if this means sacrificing previously simplistic and accessible narratives and theoretical frameworks. More specifically, when considering the very real and significant nuances which exist in contemporary labour practices, the paper argues that it is vital that the problematic limitations of existing binary ways of conceiving and representing the realities of economic production, exchange and consumption in society are acknowledged. The 'economic' is far richer, heterogeneous and pluralistic than allowed for in crude binary frameworks. In keeping with the radical thoughts that have emerged within the diverse economies school and present within other post structuralist and critical scholars, the paper argues that there is an urgent need to reconceptualise the hierarchical binary reading of labour in terms of oppositional market or non market realms, which, in dominant economic thought and practice, serves to promote and privilege the former at the expense of the latter. To recognise this diversity of labour practices in society the paper proposes a variant of what Glucksmann (2005) calls a total social organisation of labour (TSOL) approach. Using TSOL as a conceptual framework the paper address the findings that arose from empirical data collected between 1998 and 2002 through 861 face to face interviews in deprived and affluent urban and rural English localities. This leads to the emergence of a more nuanced discussion of the socio spatial variations in the work cultures as well as individual labour practices, and stands as a more accurate and faithful representation of the "whole" economy. The paper then moves forward to consider the real implications that this new framework has for the sustainable economic de growth, ecological sustainability and social equity. Importantly this critique incorporates practical and concrete ways to influence and harnesses those labour practices which are most aligned to, and compatible with, these ambitious, urgent yet crucially achievable ends. WOLF, STEPHAN: NON GROWTH MARKET ECONOMIES Choosing between different economic systems compatible with ecological limits usually condenses to the choice between a planned economy and constrained capitalism. Planned economies require delicate sacrifices of individual liberty. Capitalism on the other hand at least theoretically allows for greater freedom, but needs growth to be sustained on the economic level and for political reasons in order to generate a surplus to compensate losers inside capitalism. Are we thus left between a rock and a hard place, either giving up individual liberty or running into ecological catastrophe? 103

104 The answer is: No, we can maintain individual liberty without compromising the development chances of future individuals but this requires profound institutional changes. The key is to distinguish between capitalism and market economy. Even though these terms usually are considered as synonyms, they are not: Capitalism is a scheme of property rights, explicitly concentrated rights in means of production, whereas markets are a form of coordinating property. The driver of economic growth is rather capital concentration with the inherent need to increase profits on individual firm level, which at the aggregate leads to economic growth. A first idea hence could be to politically implement ecological limits as e.g. currently done with the CO2 cap and trade system in the EU. But: As long as modes of production remain capitalistic, a growth constrained capitalism would rather lead either to an even more severe concentration of capital with undesirable distributional consequences, or require massive anti trust interventions accelerating competition on the expense of all economic actors. Since this does not seem eligible, a way out of this dilemma would be to put away pressure from enterprises to grow. This in consequence means that current capital intense forms of business like international stock companies no longer are an adequate form of business, but rather must be replaced by economic organizational forms like cooperatives or foundations which are less dependent on individual growth and even can withstand periods of shrinking. Finally, it is argued that pollution permits are a feasible form of setting ecological limits, but they must be distributed per capita over the globe. This on the one hand leads to a basic income for all, alleviating the individual strive for engaging in capitalist production, secondly it distributes indispensable production inputs equally, creating individual economic power such that everyone has a greater say in how to establish sustainable modes of production. WURSTHORN: CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY BASED ON DISAGGREGATED DECOUPLING INDICATORS FOR DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS In the current international political debate how to achieve sustainable development OECD for example, but also the UNESCAP, have identified decoupling of environmental use from economic activities as one of the most important objectives for the first decade of the 21 st century. Generally decoupling means breaking the link between environmental bad and economic goods. Appropriate indicators are a necessity to assess the ways to achieve decoupling. In the context of decoupling, an indicator should consider a meaningful link between economic activity and environmental impacts of economic activities. Although the aim of decoupling has to be reached on a macroeconomic scale, to map the driving forces (and the trailing one) of decoupling a more sophisticated information base is necessary, i.e. the indicator should capture on the one hand the activities of industries. On the other hand the chosen indicator should allow to plot the whole economy comprehensivly. Additionally, the underlying data should be publicly available and regularly updated. Therefore disaggregated indicators are meaningful. 104

105 This approach aims to show and discuss a country specific decoupling indicator on the level of disaggregated industrial sectors. The presented indicator environmental impact, in E99 points, per economic performance, in Euro, of an industrial class make use of the emission data base European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) respectively the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) in combination with the life cycle impact assessment method Eco Indicator 99. The approach enables to show an overall picture of industrial classes for different impact categories, e.g. climate change or ecotoxicity but also for all impactcategories aggregated. The contribution to the conference describes the development between 2001 und 2007 and discusses the results. XUE, JIN; NAESS, PETER; ARLER, FINN: ARGUMENTS FOR AGAINST ECONOMIC GROWTH For the last five decades, the pursuit of economic growth has been a dominant ideology around the world. Since the 1960s, the voice of questioning endless growth began to emerge and recently the debates on growth have turned fierce. The scope of the arguments against growth has expanded from its initial physical focus to a broader range of issues. This article critically scrutinizes the arguments for and against growth in terms of its relations to the economic system, society, environment and ecology, as well as to morality in a more general sense. From the perspective of economic system, it has been argued theoretically that capitalism has an inherent growth compulsion. Combined with the social logic for consumption, the two aspects make up strong dynamics for continual growth. Opponents argue that the economy is inclined to stabilize in the end in terms of biophysics. From the social perspective, critics of growth employ empirical evidences to rebut the conventional belief that economic growth generally brings social benefits. The trickle down effect is argued to be indefensible and inefficient in coping with some social problems, e.g. social inequality. From the environmental and ecological perspective, the propositions of ecological economists and environmental economists make up the major debates on growth. Environmental economists hold the view that environmental problems can be solved within a growth paradigm and future growth will offer better solutions. Ecological economists argue that biocapacity is limited and therefore cannot support endless growth. Moreover, market based solutions are inefficient and insufficient to altogether tackle the contradictions between endless growth and ecological constraints. The moral arguments provide ethical justification and moral motivation to the abovementioned arguments against growth, which make them meaningful and justifiable. The moral arguments are: (1) present generation has obligations to leave a healthy nature to future generations based on the principle of intergenerational equality; (2) given the limited natural resources of the planet, consumption levels in the rich countries should not grow to a level violating moral principles of environmental justice and distributive justice of wealth across nations and population groups; (3) humans have a duty to conserve and protect non human nature in the interest of a sustainable environment for both humans and other species. Following this presentation of the debates, a discussion and evaluation of the plausibility of the arguments leads to the conclusions: (1) endless economic growth in already affluent countries is not necessary for the wellbeing of 105

106 inhabitants; (2) endless economy growth seems impossible due to the already existing and imminent constraints from physical world, society and morality. ZOGRAFOS, CHRISTOS; FRANÁOIS, GERBER: DEMOCRACY AND DEGROWTH: CONCEPTUAL ISSUES AND REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES Although degrowth seems to be mostly oriented towards reducing the size of the economic system and perhaps more significantly lowering levels of material consumption, the importance of democracy as a processes for achieving these aims is an equally vital aspect of the paradigm. Clearly, degrowth supporters seem more keen on models of participative and direct democracy as preferred means for reaching decisions on institutional changes necessary to achieve degrowth transitions. Nevertheless, the field seems rather unclear as to which specific idea of democracy (e.g. deliberative democracy, substantive democracy, agonistic pluralism, etc.) it fosters. Moreover, degrowth enthusiasts seem to shy away from considering the challenges related to the use of democratic decision making processes for achieving a change of deeply embedded preferences. For example, how could the profound changes in behaviour and ethics implied by the low material consumption principles of degrowth be brought about through the democratic participation of individuals who are themselves deep into materially intense lifestyles? In addition to that, much degrowth scholarship focuses on the future, in terms of putting attention on ways in which society could move away from current unsustainable modes and levels of natural resource use. Still, both the present and the past have much to teach us, as initiatives pursuing lower material consumption have already existed. For example, during WWII, the Roosevelt Administration in the US used both aggressive advertising and public policy instruments to instigate citizen attitudes of resource conservation and waste reduction. Similarly, in the early 2000s in Rosario, Argentina, urban gardens (that minimise energy waste from food transport) have proliferated and provided a solid livelihood activity for thousands of families. Interestingly, the second initiative was associated to grass roots initiatives that had already generated these livelihood alternatives and which gained momentum after the devastating financial crisis that hit the country in the early 2000s. Conversely, the US case was mostly associated with a top down initiative that generated social conditions necessary to pursue degrowth. Understanding how such initiatives have come about, i.e. what sort of democratic (or not) decision making processes have made them possible, is a key issue for degrowth as this could provide useful lessons for future degrowth politics. The aim of this poster is to use historical and contemporary evidence in order to consider the political implications of different ideas of democracy for pursuing degrowth. In particular, we are interested in finding out what sort of democratic politics is necessary for making sustainable degrowth transitions. The first, conceptual part of the poster will summarise the essentials of different understandings of democracy that can be relevant to degrowth. The second, empirical part will set out the characteristics of decision making processes in cases of real life initiatives that have gone against the growth logic. The poster will conclude with a series of reflections and open questions regarding synergies and tensions between degrowth and different types of democracy. 106

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