Degrowth Vienna 2020
Speakers
VIVIANA ASARA
Assistant Professor, Institute for Multi-Level Governance and Development, WU Vienna
STEFANIA BARCA
Senior researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra
Stefania Barca is a senior researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, where she teaches Political Ecology and coordinates the Oficina de Ecologia e Sociedade. She is also a member of coalition council of the Green New Deal for Europe.
ALEXANDER BEHR
Political scientist, translator and journalist
Neben der Lehrtätigkeit an Universitäten, an Schulen und bei Gewerkschaften ist er Aktivist im Netzwerk Afrique Europe Interact und im forumcivique.org. Zuletzt erschienen: “Die Kraft der kollektiven Intelligenz.” In: “Jean Ziegler – citoyen et rebelle”, edition 8, Zürich 2019
ARMIN BERNHARD
Activist and professor at the University of Bozen
Armin Bernhard is active in the citizens cooperative in Mals (South Tyrol) and works at the University of Bozen on social agriculture.
ULRICH BRAND
Professor for International Politics, University of Vienna
ANTON BROKOW-LOGA
Transdisciplinary researcher; postwachstumsstadt.de
Anton Brokow-Loga is a transdisciplinary researcher at the interface of urban studies, political science and transformation research. Current project: postwachstumsstadt.de
EKATERINA CHERTKOVSKAYA
Researcher, Lund University, Sweden
Ekaterina Chertkovskaya is a researcher based at Lund University, working on degrowth and critical organisation studies, with particular interests in alternative organising, plastics and work. She co-edited Towards a political economy of degrowth (2019), co-organised the 6th International Degrowth Conference in Malmö and is part of the editorial collective of ephemera journal.
JULIA EDER
PhD Candidate in Sociology at the Johannes Kepler University Linz
Julia Eder’s research focuses on trade and industrial policy. Her major concern is how transnational production and labour relations can be modified in order to promote the social-ecological transformation. In this context, she has analysed different proposals for a green industrial policy from a labour perspective.
DENNIS EVERSBERG
Researcher at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany
Dennis Eversberg is a sociologist and part of the Post-Growth research team at the Institute of Sociology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany where he is heading the research group “Mentalities in Flux. Social imaginaries in modern circular bio-based societies”. His research focuses on post-growth/degrowth, environmental politics and social-ecological transformations.
MARGARET HADERER
Post-Doc am Institut für Gesellschaftswandel und Nachhaltigkeit, WU Wien
Derzeitiger Forschungsschwerpunkt von Margaret Haderer (PhD): das (Spannungs-) Verhältnis zwischen Vorstellungen einer großen, sozial-ökologischen Transformation und Veränderungen des Alltagslebens, Veränderungen die oft sehr lokal und experimentell sind.
EEVA HOUTBECKERS
Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Eeva Houtbeckers (Dr.Sc.Econ.&Buss.Admin.) is affiliated with Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture and NODUS research group that focuses on design for sustainability transformations. Her postdoctoral project is an institutional and sensory ethnography on postgrowth economy, work and livelihood practices in the global North. Her ongoing fieldwork includes participating in the Finnish Degrowth Movement (Kohtuusliike) and Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance (FADa) as well as studying grassroots projects about forest management, self-sufficiency and land rights.
NILDA INKERMANN
Department for Development and Postcolonial Studies, University of Kassel (Germany)
Nilda Inkermann works in the graduate program “Ecologies of Social Cohesion. Heterogeneity and Hybridity in Synchronic and Diachronic Comparison” at University of Kassel. Her research focuses on social-ecological transformation and global learning as political education. She is part of the I.L.A. Writing Collective for Global Justice.
IMEH ITUEN
Social scientist, human rights and climate activist
Imeh Ituen is a social scientist, human rights and climate activist. She studied Social Sciences and Integrated Natural Resource Management in Berlin and Perth, Australia and is particularly interested in racism and colonial continuities in the climate crisis. Imeh is part of the BIPoc (Black Indigenous People of Colour) environmental and climate justice collective Black Earth.
LISA KIESENHOFER
Activist with Fridays for Future Vienna
Lisa Kiesenhofer hat Politikwissenschaft und Germanistik an der Uni Wien studiert und arbeitet als Redakteurin beim Radio. Seit November ist sie bei Fridays For Future Wien aktiv. Sie ist Mitorganisatorin der Arbeitskreise Klima in die Medien und Klimagerechtes Österreich.
HALLIKI KREININ
Teaching and Research Associate, Ecological Economics Institute, WU Vienna
AURORE LALUCQ
Co-founder Veblen institute, MEP at European Parliament
Aurore Lalucq is the author of several books on economic, social and ecological issues, she wrote with economist Jean Gadrey the book “Should we give a price to nature?”. She is a specialist in the monetarization and financialisation of nature, social-ecological transition and banking regulation. Aurore Lalucq heads the collection of books on economic theory and ecological transition at “Les petits matins” (French editor)
Close to ecologist, heterodox economists, and socio-economists, she works with James K. Galbraith. In 2016 and 2017, she participated in the coordination of the European New Deal of DiEM25. She works with Dominique Méda, with whom she organises conferences on labour and ecology and has supervised the hearing of the presidential candidates on the ecological transition in 2017.
MIRIAM LANG
Professor at Simón Bolívar University, Ecuador
Miriam Lang is a professor for Environmental and Sustainability Studies at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador. In her work, she combines decolonial and feminist perspectives with political economy and political ecology. She collaborates with the Global Working Group “Beyond Development” with internationalist, feminist, ecologist and anti-racist social movements and promotes South-North dialogues on systemic transformation.
JUTTA MATYSEK
Activist and action climber for environmental protection, peace and human rights
Als Kind schon bei Hainburg Besetzung und div. Friedensdemos dabei, seit Erwachsen als Als Aktivistin und Aktionskletterin aktiv für Umwelt- und Klimaschutz, Friedenspolitik, Menschenrechte, Artenschutz, Tierschutz, gegen Atomkraft, gegen Faschismus, gegen Rassismus, gegen Armut und Wohnungslosigkeit.
Gründungsmitglied und seit mehr als 14 Jahren Vereins Obfrau und Sprecherin der BürgerInitiative “Rettet die Lobau – Natur statt Beton” die sich gegen die geplanten Autobahnprojekte im Nordosten Österreichs einsetzt. Vertreterin der BürgerInitiative im Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfungsverfahren UVP.
Ehrenamtlich Radiomacherin für Radio Orange das freie Radio von Wien bei den Sendereihen “Open Up” und “trotz allem”
MÁRGARA MILLÁN
Sociologist; lecturer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico
Márgara Millán holds a Phd in Social Antropology and is
Lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Science of the National
Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM. Her topics had been social
movements and prefiguration of the political, mainly the zapatistas in México, Gender, cultural and social representation in social movements; modernity critique, decolonial critique and prefiguration of other
political forms.
JAGODA MUNIC
Director of Friends of the Earth Europe
Jagoda Munic is Director of Friends of the Earth Europe, an environmental justice organisation with members in more than 30 European countries. She served as the Chairperson of the Friends of the Earth International (2012-2016), worked for a number of years with Zelena akcija / FOE Croatia, and has a Masters in Biology-Ecology, Library and Information Sciences (University of Zagreb) and in Pollution and Environmental Control (The University of Manchester).
ANDREAS NOVY
Professor at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria)
Andreas Novy is associate professor and head of the Institute for Multi-Level Governance and Development at WU Vienna. As a socio-economist he has worked on a wide range of topics including social-ecological transformation, urban development/Red Vienna, the foundational economy and social innovation. He recently co-founded the international Karl-Polanyi-Society, and has hosted two Good Life For All-conferences at the WU.
TONNY NOWSHIN
Degrowth and climate justice activist
Tonny Nowshin is an activist from Bangladesh. With many others, she has been mobilizing to save the world’s largest mangrove forest–the Sundarbans. She believes- we need to radically change the way we live on this planet in order to avert the climate crisis we are facing today. Currently, she is working with Urgewald, researching fossil finance.
ISAAC "ASUME" OSOUKA
Social Action International
Dr Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka coordinates Social Action International, an organisation promoting resource democracy and the human rights and livelihoods of marginalised communities in West and Central Africa. Osuoka previously served as Coordinator of Oilwatch Africa, a network supporting communities impacted by the petroleum industry in the continent.
He has participated in several international conferences and has been a panellist at the United Nations’ Expert Group Meeting on the Use of Non-Renewable Resource Revenues for Sustainable Local Development. Osuoka holds a doctorate in Environmental Studies from York University in Canada where he has been a member of faculty and visiting scholar.
MARO PANTAZIDOU
Deputy Director for Global Strategy and Impact, Amnesty International, London/Greece.
Maro Pantazidou works at the intersection of participatory strategy development, radical education and collaborative research. She has served as the deputy director of global strategy and impact for Amnesty International and has collaborated with bigger and smaller organisations and networks who wish to reflect on their approach to social change. As a facilitator and/or researcher she has been part of transnational research projects that focus on civic action and socio-ecological transformation.
SUSAN PAULSON
Professor at Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida (USA)
Susan Paulson explores how gender, class, and ethnoracial systems interact with environments. She has researched and taught in Latin America for thirty years, fifteen of those living in South America among low-impact communities. Currently based at the University of Florida, Susan participates in Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance (FaDA), has written on Degrowth: culture, power and change, and co-authored the forthcoming book The Case for Degrowth.
PANOS PETRIDIS
Post-doctoral researcher, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Panos Petridis work focuses on island studies, socio-ecological transitions, participatory research and degrowth. Since 2010 he has been involved in the research and management of a transdisciplinary project on the Greek island of Samothraki that examines the conditions of island sustainability and supports a local a transition towards more sustainable pathways.
NORA RÄTHZEL
Senior Professor at the University of Umeå (Sweden)
Nora Räthzel, PhD, is Senior Professor at the University of Umeå, Sweden. Her main research areas are environmental labour studies, trade unions and the environment, working conditions in transnational corporations and gender and ethnic relations in the everyday.
LINE RISE NIELSEN
Food Policy Director of the Copenhagen Food System Centre
Food Policy Director of the Copenhagen Food System Centre. It is an international lab for sustainable food systems investigating how to establish systemic change throughout a range of actors reaching from farm to kitchen to political level.
With a deep knowledge and expertise regarding the food system and various stakeholders, Line Rise Nielsen has a profound believe in using the public meals served from state, regional or municipality kitchens as a driver towards a sustainable food system and create a close and sustainable relationship between the city and its hinterlands.
Line is also Leader of Greater Copenhagen Lab in FoodSHIFT 2030.
ANDRO RILOVIC
Andro is a member of the organizing team of the 8th International Degrowth Conference that will take place in The Hague in 2021. He is also one of the editors of the degrowth.info web-portal. In his spare time he does a PhD on the topic of degrowth & anarchism at the International Institute of Social Studies (Netherlands).
BROTOTI ROY
PhD student Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Degrowth India Initiative
Brototi Roy is a PhD student at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona focusing on environmental justice movements in India. She co-founded the Degrowth India Initiative in 2015, with an aim to facilitate discussions and bring together people looking for alternatives for socio-ecological justice and equity.
She is a member of Research&Degrowth, the Barcelona based association dedicated to research and activism on degrowth. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics.
GENEVIEVE SAVIGNY
European Coordination Via Campesina and member of the European Economic and Social Committee.
Genevieve Savigny is peasant from South of France, involved with the European Coordination Via Campesina in agriculture and food policies. Member of the European Economic and Social Committee.
JULIET SCHOR
Professor of Sociology, Boston College (USA)
Her forthcoming book is After the Gig: how the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back. Schor has studied the relations among working hours, carbon emissions and inequality. She is Chair of the Better Future Project, a climate activist organization and a co-founder of The Center for a New American Dream, the South End Press and the Center for Popular Economics.
MATTHIAS SCHMELZER
Post-doctoral researcher, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena
FRANCOIS SCHNEIDER
Industrial ecologist, degrowth researcher and degrowth activist
Francois supports degrowth since 2001. Co-founder of Research & Degrowth (http://degrowth.org/), one year walk for degrowth in 2004-2005, initiator of international degrowth conferences, he has been involved with cascade recycling, rebound effect, material flows, lifecycle assessment, transport, and lately housing – co-author of a book on “housing for degrowth”. Lately working at ICTA, Barcelona, and organiser of summer schools. He started in 2012 the experiential project Can Decreix, the “house of degrowth” in catalan.
OLIVIER DE SCHUTTER
Professor at UCLouvain (Belgium) and SciencesPo (Paris)
Olivier de Schutter is a professor at UCLouvain (Belgium) and SciencesPo (Paris) was the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food between 2008 and 2014, and a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights between 2015 and 2020. In May 2020, he resigned from this position to accept the mandate of Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
TONE SMITH
Degrowth activist, ecological economist and freelance writer
Dr. Tone Smith writes, researches and give talks about ecological economics, degrowth and the need for a social-ecological transformation. She is an active member of Rethinking Economics Norway where she heads the advisory board, and also active in Stay Grounded for whom she recently edited the report “Degrowth of Aviation“. Smith has formerly worked for the Austrian Ministry of Sustainability, the OECD, Statistics Norway, and taught at several Austrian Universities.
WILL STRONGE
Researcher in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Brighton; Co-director of the thinktank Autonomy
Will Stronge is a researcher in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Brighton and co-director of the thinktank Autonomy. His research focuses on critiques of work, the changing reality of work in society today, and finding policy solutions for a postwork society which promotes real freedom, equality and human flourishing.
NINA TREU
Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, Leipzig (Germany)
Nina Treu is co-founder of Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie in Leipzig and was team and programme coordinator at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig 2014. Currently she is mainly responsible for acquisition and internal coordination at Konzeptwerk and is part of the web editorial team of www.degrowth.info.
GODWIN UYI OJO
Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
Rev Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo is a political ecologist, activist cum researcher, and one of Nigeria’s foremost environmentalist and human rights advocate.
PAWEL WARGAN
Activist and organiser; Coordinator Green New Deal Europe
Pawel Wargan is an activist and organiser based in Berlin. He co-founded and coordinates the Green New Deal for Europe campaign, is a member of the Coordinating Collective of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and is the Coordinator of the Secretariat at the Progressive International. He has published in Jacobin, the New Statesman, Tribune and Politico. He holds a masters in law from the University of Oxford.
FLORIAN WENNINGER
Head of the Institute for Historical Social Research at the Vienna Chamber of Labour
Florian Wenninger is historian and political scientist and heads the Institute for Historical Social Research at the Vienna Chamber of Labour. In addition to contemporary Austrian history and the history of the labour movement, his work focuses in particular on research into dictatorship and violence.
ANNA DAIMLER
Trade unionist and general secretary of the Austrian “Transport and Service Trade Union” VIDA
Anna Daimler is a trade unionist and general secretary of the Austrian “Transport and Service Trade Union” VIDA. In VIDA, Anna represents a wide range of workers in different sectors (e.g., transport and mobility sector, tourism, health care, hairdressers, cleaning staff or security staff).
NIKOLINA RAJKOVIC
Labour activist and researcher at the Institute for Political Ecology (IPE) in Zagreb, Croatia
Nikolina Rajković is a labour activist and researcher. She works at the Institute for Political Ecology (IPE) in Zagreb. Nikolina is interested in democratizing public services, models of workers’ management and participation in companies, as well as labor unrest in the post-socialist period in Croatia.
Facilitators
CHRISTOPH AMBACH
Member of I.L.A. collective, activist for the good life for all
Christoph Ambach studierte Socio Ecologial Economics and Policy an der WU Wien, ist Mitglied des I.L.A-Kollektivs und Co-Autor des Buches: „Das Gute Leben für Alle – Wege in die solidarische Lebensweise“ Er interessiert sich für Degrowth, soziale Bewegungen und rettet gerne Lebensmittel 🙂
NATHAN BARLOW
PhD candidate in social-ecological economics, WU Wien, environmental activist
is a PhD candidate in social-ecological economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business where he is researching different approaches to transforming the economy in a socially and ecologically just way. Additionally, Nathan is an environmental activist and an avid food-saver. He is on the editorial team for degrowth.info and organizing the Vienna 2020 degrowth conference.
ANTJE DANIEL
Substitute professor of Development Studies at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Vienna.
Antje Daniel is substitute professor of Development Studies at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Vienna. Her research focus is on social movements, environmental activism, utopia/future research and gender in the global North and South.
JULIANNA FEHLINGER
ÖBV-Via Campesina Austria
Julianna Fehlinger is a social ecologist and works for Via Campesina Austria. She is an activist in the movement for food sovereignty and member of the borard of MILA – founding a participatory supermarket in Vienna.
IRIS FREY
Campaigner and climate justice activist
Iris Frey works with Attac Austria, is a climate justice activist and part of the organising team of this conference. She co-started various initiatives in Vienna to help bringing forward a social- ecological transformation of our societies.
LAURA GROSSMANN
Activist for climate justice, facilitator
Laura Grossmann has been an activist for climate justice for many years. Currently she organises with the Austrian group “System Change, not Climate Change“. She also works as moderator, facilitator and consultant for different organizations.
HEINZ HÖGELSBERGER
Geologist, environmentalist, trade unionist; Chamber of Labour Austria
Heinz Högelsberger is geologist. He worked in his trained profession as well as environmentalist (Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth) and trade unionist. 2017 he joined the Austrian Chamber of Labour dealing with various aspects of public transport.
CHRISTIAN KERSCHNER
RICCARDO MASTINI
PhD candidate Ecological Economics and Political Ecology, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, UAB Barcelona
Riccardo Mastini is a PhD candidate in Ecological Economics and Political Ecology in the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is a member of the academic collective Research & Degrowth, of the international network Wellbeing Economy Alliance, and of the editorial team of the web portal Degrowth.info. You can follow him on Twitter / Facebook and visit his website.
MELANIE PICHLER
Dr. Melanie Pichler researches and lecturs at the Institute of Social Ecology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and is also an Associate of the International Political Ecology Research Group at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on environmental and resource politics, industrial transformation, political ecology and socio-ecological conflicts.
VERENA WOLF
Verena Wolf studied social-ecological economics and policies (SEEP) at WU Vienna and is research assistant at the Institute for Sociology and Social Research at WU Vienna. She is part of the organizing team of the degrowth conference, climate justice activist, and advocate of pluralism in economics.