DEGROWTH VIENNA 2020
Program

[panel debate]
*up to 5000 people*

Advancing a Degrowth Agenda in the Corona Crisis

The aim of this panel is to evaluate and discuss degrowth and it’s strategies in direct relation to the current corona crisis. We want to understand how the degrowth community responded so far to the crisis and how degrowth was and is present in recent discussions. The goal is then to identify potential pathways, but also barriers, for bringing forward the degrowth agenda in this time of upheaval. We invited speakers affiliated to different degrowth bodies to evaluate pros and cons of structural changes in the degrowth community and its organization and to discuss concrete ideas of responding to the corona crisis, using the windows that opend up.

Facilitator: Iris Frey – Campaigner and climate justice activist

Speakers:

• Stefania Barca 
  Senior researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra
• Matthias Schmelzer 
  Post-doctoral researcher, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena
• Andro Rilovic 
• Eeva Houtbeckers

Language: English with translation to German

[consecutive session]
*Up to 5000 participants*

Degrowth and European Politics 1: Panel debate “How do we deal with the European Green Deal?”

We will discuss what’s currently happening on EU level regarding “greening the economy” (mainly within the European Green Deal frame). Taking into account literature dealing with EU and national policies in the context of degrowth we want to make the practical challenges of navigating the realities of the European political system transparent. With this consecutive session we want to discuss the room of maneuver that this context provides for a deep transformation of our economy and society with a diverse audience, given the constraints of EU policy for transformational change towards degrowth in that market and competition are written in the “EU contract”. And also given the current COVID-19 pandemic and the large recession we are facing, where transformational green policies and deep change may are at risk.

During the panel debate, we aim to discuss and critique some main aspects of the European Green Deal: What is good, what is bad, what more needs to be done? What else needs to be done in parallel? Who can do it? How to strategically work on several fronts simultaneously?

Facilitator: Riccardo Mastini – PhD candidate Ecological Economics and Political Ecology, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, UAB Barcelona

Speakers:

• Aurore Lalucq
• Tone Smith
  Degrowth activist, ecological economist and freelance writer
• Jagoda Munic
  Director of Friends of the Earth Europe
• Pawel Wargan
  Activist and organiser; Coordinator Green New Deal Europe

Language: English with translation to German

[workshop]

Praktische Umsetzungen zur Arbeitszeitverkürzung

Arbeitszeitverkürzung ist eine klassische Postwachstums-Forderung. Dennoch ist der Weg der praktischen Umsetzung unklar. Welche Top-Down-Maßnahmen sind durch Politik oder Gewerkschaften möglich? Wie kann gleichzeitig ein freiwilliges Kürzertreten erreicht werden? Außerdem gilt es auf die Auswirkungen von möglichen Maßnahmen zu achten, um etwa zunehmende Ungleichheit zu vermeiden. Schließlich stellt sich auch ganz akut die Frage, welche Lehren aus der Corona-Krise bereits gezogen werden können.

Presenters: Hannes Vetter (Uni Heidelberg), Anja Janischewski (ICAE Linz)
max. number of participants: 20
Language: German

[special session]

Journalism in Crisis – Expert:innengespräch am Mittagstisch

“Ich bin davon überzeugt, dass das Versäumnis des Journalismus, über (den) Klimawandel angemessen zu berichten, einst als einer seiner großen Fehlschläge verstanden wird”, schreibt Kyle Pope vom Colombia Journalism Review im Frühjahr 2020. Welche Verantwortung tragen Journalist:innen angesichts der multiplen sozialen und ökologischen Krisen? Ist es ihre Aufgabe, einen sozial-ökologischen Wandel aktiv mitzugestalten oder ist es ihre Aufgabe, Ereignisse möglichst neutral zu beschreiben und zu analysieren? In einer digitalen Mittagstisch-Runde möchten wir über die Möglichkeiten und die Verantwortung von Journalismus angesichts der sozial-ökologischen Krisen sprechen. Wir wollen dabei besonders auf die Frage eingehen, inwiefern Wirtschaftsredaktionen bisher das Narrativ von endlosem Wirtschaftswachstum geprägt haben und inwiefern es hier ein Umdenken gibt.

Presenters: Kristin Langen (Netzwerk kritische Journalist*innen), Leonie Sontheimer (collectext), Katharina Mau, Felix Wilmsen, Lukas Dörrie (Netzwerk kritische Journalist*innen), Theresa Leisgang (Freie Journalistin und Autorin), Gustav Theile (Wirtschaftsredakeur der FAZ), Hendrik Theine (Post-Doc an der Wirtschaftsuni Wien)
Language: German

[standard session]

Sprache: English with translation to German

Institutional Change 1

A legal approach to beyond GDP indicators: possibilities and limits
How can law contribute to the use of indicators that measure progress in an alternative manner? What are the limits thereof? This session will explore legal definitions and operationalizations of “beyond Gross Domestic Product” metrics by examining concrete existing legislation.
Presenters: Norman Vander Putten (Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles) 

Epistemologies of the Global South and the transformation of international investment law
An investigation into whether, and how, epistemologies of the Global South can be drawn upon to make more porous an international investment law regime that thus far has maintained a posture of indifference or paternalism towards Global South communities’ homegrown sustainability projects.
Presenters: Nicola Soekoe (University of the Witwatersrand) 

Empirical Analysis of Islamic Financial Development and Carbon Emissions: Narrating Through Islamic Moral  Economy
This presentation will discuss the relationship between environmental issues and Islamic finance by narrating it through degrowth and Islamic moral economy framework. In an attempt to respond to these questions, a model developed by Sapkota & Bastola (2017) is used, which has been further developed to examine the relationship between Islamic financial development and CO2 emissions in countries where there is presence of Islamic banks and sukuk market.
Presenters: Nur Dhani Hendranastiti (Durham University; Universitas Indonesia) 

[standard session]

Communicating Degrowth

The Psychology of Degrowth Adoption: Insights from the Perspectives of the Utopian Impulse and the Regulatory Focus Theory
We investigated how to influence people’s support for degrowth, and whether such influence may be subject to individual differences regarding transformative social change. To do so, we adopted the regulatory focus theory—one of the most widely used theoretical frameworks in social psychology—and used it to frame how degrowth is communicated to people. We also investigated the Utopian Impulse—a core personality trait that determines people’s propensity to pursue transformative social change.
Presenters: Dario Krpan (London School of Economics and Political Science), Frédéric Basso (London School of Economics and Political Science)  Language: English

Transformations Beyond Growth: A Diverse Practices Approach
This talk stages a conversation between diverse economies and practice theory literatures, outlining the distinct paths these two areas of scholarship have taken to explore current patterns of growth. It argues that their simultaneous consideration would benefit radical and critical scholarship, especially in understanding the complexities of social change.
Presenters: Tom Smith (Masaryk University, Czech Republic) Language: English

An anthropological contribution to degrowth
Social Anthropology has great potential to contribute to degrowth debates and proposals, hardly explored until now. I propose three ways to do so, further exploring one of them, inspired by the question: what can be recovered from the near past, still accessible in the present, for the future? The degrowth project needs new images, ideas, and practices, but it also needs to selectively retrieve those traditional local pre-globalization practices and knowledge aligned with a degrowth society, involving the elders of our society in the creation of pathways for a degrowth transition.
Presenters: Lucía Muñoz Sueiro (The New School, New York) Language: English

How to communicate & organize the Degrowth movement better
We argue that strategic, motivation-oriented communications and scalable, mission-centric organising are crucial bottlenecks for the degrowth movement’s success. We have three key recommendations for the movement to master the challenges that climate change communication has struggled with.
Presenters: Justus Baumann (Future Matters Project), Vegard Beyer (Future Matters Project) Language: English

[panel debate]
*Up to 5000 participants*

Strategic Approaches: an Overview

This panel aims to give an overview of different strategic approaches for degrowth. Panelists will discuss frameworks or typologies of strategic approaches to assist the discussions on strategy that place in the following days of the conference. Further, challenges and weaknesses of different strategic approaches, as well as inter-linkages between strategies will be discussed.

Facilitator: Nathan Barlow – PhD candidate in social-ecological economics, WU Wien, environmental activist

Speakers:

• Panos Petridis
  Post-doctoral researcher,  University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
  
• Nilda Inkermann
  Department for Development and Postcolonial Studies, University of Kassel (Germany)
• Katya Chertkovskaya

Language: Emglish with translation to German

[consecutive session]

Degrowth and European Politics 2: Creating a democratic and caring economy and society that serves the many

This workshop is a follow on to the panel debate “How do we deal with the European Green Deal?”. It will be a fully interactive workshop (laptops and full attention ideally required!) delving further into some of the issues around EU politics and degrowth. We will dig deeper into the question of how we can bring some already existing progressive policies and lived examples together – we will draw on some of the positive initiatives we have been seeing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic e.g. UBI, publicising health systems, more cycle lanes – and how can ensure these remain long-term. We aim to explore questions around how we can build up local, resilient, caring economies and societies with degrowth values (short, medium, long-term) and can national and EU policies such as those within the European Green Deal assist in this – if so how?

Presenters: Meadhbh Bolger (Friends of the Earth Europe) and Katharina Wiese (European Environmental Bureau) will facilitate this session in a participative manner
Max. number of participants: 30
Language: English

[workshop]

Degrowth Communism: Toward a Convergence of Strategies

Through this workshop we want to instigate a dialogue, so far largely missing, between degrowth and communism. We understand both degrowth and communism as traditions of thinking and practising the social-ecological transformation and the system change that are needed to achieve an environmentally safe and socially just life for all. There are differences between the two movements, which we consider worth discussing, but also growing complementarities, which we consider worth uniting and uniting around – resulting in what we propose to call “Degrowth Communism”. But more importantly, there is an urgency to reassess, both from within and between Degrowth and Communism, political strategies of systemic change in the present.

Presenters: Bue Rübner Hansen (Aarhus University), Emmanuele Leonardi (University of Coimbra), Kai Bosworth (Virginia Commonwealth University), Jesse Goldstein (Virginia Commonwealth University), Tomislav Medak (PhD researcher at Coventry University)
Language: English
Max. number of participants: 30

[workshop]

Moving through emotionalities of crises: a moving exploration

Collective crises affect us emotionally. When we pause to process our feelings before jumping to action, we are able to align with our underlying wants, needs, and values. By sharing them, we tap into a powerful source of connectivity, required to mindfully move forward together. In this workshop, we hold space for our emotionalities of crises. Engaging in practices of mindfulness meditation, guided movement, and reflection, we’ll collectively explore our inner states in a slow, embodied process.

Presenters: Judith Ezra Mühlbacher (The Really Wild Show), Steph Braun
Max. number of participants: 25
Language: English

[standard session]

Co-operatives, Work and Degrowth

Degrowth Cooperatives as Alternative to the Development Paradigm: The Case of the Integral Minga Cooperative
The session will start by explaining the objectives of the study, the theoretical framework on post-development, degrowth and cooperativism. Then, the studied cooperative and the methodology used will be explained. Finally, the results of the fieldwork and the conclusions will be demonstrated.
Presenters: Jéssica Chainho Pereira (ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal) Language: English

Car workers as political subjects of degrowth transformation
I argue that degrowth strategies should be focused more on the industrial sectors and on those who work there. More concretely, the automotive industry is economically-speaking one of the most important sectors in Central Europe, with car workers having great potential to be a transformational force.
Presenters: Patrik Gažo (the Department of Environmental Studies, Masaryk University) Language: English

How can the concept of democratic ownership contribute to a social-ecological transformation?
The study explores how the concept of democratic ownership can contribute to a bottom-up, workers-led social-ecological transformation of the Austrian aircraft sector, targeting the Viennese airport in particular. Therefore, the study will involve qualitative interviews with workers and workers’ councils, following a workers’ inquiry approach to combine knowledge creation with political emancipation.
Presenters: Philipp Chmel (Vienna University of Economics (WU) Language: English

Cooperative growth strategies for businesses beyond growth
“Post-growth organizations” do face a dilemma: Growth allows them to increase their good impact. At the same time, it may have bad effects on themselves, as organizations. Against that background, we discuss various “cooperative growth strategies beyond growth” that promise to resolve that dilemma.
Presenters: Dirk Raith (Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz) Language: English

[panel debate]
*up to 5000 people*

Past and current environmental movements in Austria: what we can learn for the transformation

The history of the environmental movement in Austria shows that although the prevention of many environmentally damaging mega projects has been successful, transformation is still pending: In despite of the fact that the prevention of the launch of Zwentendorf nuclear power plant in the 1970s and the occupation of Hainburger Au in the 1980s led to a large resistance movement, not enough pressure could be built to enforce more comprehensive demands for social change.

Facilitator: Christoph Ambach (ILA collective)

Speakers:

• Jutta Matysek
  Activist and action climber for environmental protection, peace and human rights
• Lisa Kiesenhofer
  Activist with Fridays for Future Vienna
• Margaret Haderer
  Post-Doc am Institut für Gesellschaftswandel und Nachhaltigkeit, WU Wien

Language: German with translation to English

[special session]

The state – a missing link within Degrowth strategies

Degrowth strategies needs a more substantiated reflection on the ambiguity of the state. Whereas many strategies do not address the state explicitly, some grasp it as an important actor of a transformation towards a post-growth society while others reject this role by referring to the close link between the national state and economic growth. What is needed is a differentiated concept of the state able to understand its fundamental role within capitalist development but also its historical concrete expression in contemporary societies and the crises they face.  The session will provide some presentation from different conceptual perspectives based on experiences from different world regions. It is dedicated to stimulate discussions on how to respond to the ambiguity and the contradictory nature of the state from a Degrowth perspective.

Presenters: Christoph Görg (BOKU/SEC), Max Koch (University of Lund), Miriam Lang (Quito, Ecuador), Soumitra Ghos (independent researcher and activist, West Bengal, India)
Max. number of participants: 50
Language: English with translation to German

[workshop]

Knowledge production for degrowth

We offer a workshop focused on our needs in terms of knowledge production in a society turned towards degrowth. We will highlight the work of fifty researchers, activists and students on the production of an alternative research scenario, called Horizon Earth. The workshop will revolve around four phases of presentation and discussion : The research scenario’s development and objectives, and three moments devoted to each of our research topics : 1) Health, 2) Food and Agriculture 3) Energy, Housing and Mobility. It will be a great opportunity to listen to your feedbacks on the presented research areas and narratives.

Presenters: Camille Besombes (Sciences Citoyennes, Institut Pasteur), Maura Benegiamo (Collège d’études mondiales, Politics Ontology Ecology), Fabrice Flipo (Sciences Citoyennes, Institut Mines-Télécom), Madina Querre (REVeSS, PACTE Grenoble), François Briens (Sciences Citoyennes, International Energy Agency), Paul Lacoste (HALEM (inhabitants of temporary and mobile homes), Simon Grudet (Sciences Citoyennes), Aude Lapprand (Sciences Citoyennes), Maëlle Frétigné (Sciences Citoyennes)
Max. number of participants: 30
Language: English

[workshop]

The Precautionary Post-Growth Approach: A response to the crises?

Are there alternatives to a forced green growth strategy as a solution to overcome the consequences of the corona pandemic, which also have the potential to be widely accepted in the societal discourse? With the precautionary post-growth approach, we have made a new proposal. We would like to discuss how the concepts of resilience and precaution can contribute to socio-ecological change after the lockdown – in concrete fields of action such as resource conservation and circular economy. In doing so, we refer to the results of a study for the German Environment Agency.

Presenters: David Hofmann (Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Ulrich Petschow (Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Bettina Bahn-Walkowiak (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy), Nils aus dem Moore (RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research), Steffen Lange (Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW)
Language: English
Max. number of participants: 30

[standard session]

Institutional Change 2

A framework to move policy-making in the EU beyond growth
The session introduces an online toolbox to guide policy-making beyond growth. Based on a literature review, we structure post-growth policies along 17 objectives, 101 transformative changes and 260 instruments. The framework shows what means other than economic growth can achieve political ends.
Presenters: Jonathan Barth (presenter; lead author) (ZOE. Institute for Future-fit Economies), Christoph Gran (co-author) (ZOE. Institute for Future-fit Economies), Jakob Hafele (co-author) (ZOE. Institute for Future-fit Economies), Raphael Kaufmann (co-author) (ZOE. Institute for Future-fit Economies), Tabea Waltenberg (co-author) (ZOE. Institute for Future-fit Economies) Language: English

Discussion of the relevance of Public Procurement for the Degrowth Community
The online session will start with a short 10 min presentation on public procurement and its importance in Degrowth and post-growth policies. It will continue with a world-cafe style joint discussion (10 min) where participants can exchange ideas on the role of public procurement and about its relevance for the Degrowth Community. The participants will have the opportunity to pinpoint some issues that are especially relevant in the development of a possible “degrowth procurement” framework.
Presenters: Gabriella Gyori (Sustainable Procurement Specialist) Language: English

A Green New Deal without growth
The Green New Deal offers a powerful vision for how to deploy industrial policies to coordinate the overhaul of a country’s energy system and decarbonize its manufacturing and agricultural sectors. However given the elusiveness of absolute decoupling degrowth policies must accompany this transition.
Presenters: Riccardo Mastini (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona) Language: English

The history of the environmental movement in Austria shows that although the prevention of many environmentally damaging mega projects has been successful, transformation is still pending: In despite of the fact that the prevention of the launch of Zwentendorf nuclear power plant in the 1970s and the occupation of Hainburger Au in the 1980s led to a large resistance movement, not enough pressure could be built to enforce more comprehensive demands for social change.

[panel debate]
*Up to 5000 participants*

The historic role of trade unions

Trade unions and workers movements have historically provided the countervailing power to exploitative capitalism in the societal sphere, fighting for broad societal emancipation, including the abolishment of slavery and child labour, public health, shorter working hours and better working conditions. Many of the social rights and societal institutions we take for granted today have come about thanks to the many, varied (and often conflicted) workers movements that have organised workers and fought for these rights. Trade unions and workers movements are still a powerful force and should play a decisive role in the transformation towards a degrowth society, as a broad radical social movement for change is needed. Looking back towards past fights for transformations allows us to move past simplified dualisms to understand both the challenges and commonalities of a broad movement for social-ecological transformation.

Facilitator: Heinz Högelsberger – Austrian Chamber of Labour

Speakers:

• Florian Wenninger
  Austrian Chamber of Labour
  
• Nora Räthzel
  University of Umeå (Sweden)
  
• Julia Eder
  Johannes Kepler University Linz
  
• Ulrich Brand
  University of Vienna
  

Language: English with translation to German

[workshop]

Civil disobedience as a strategy for degrowth

Civil disobedience is emerging as a key element employed in the fight for environmental and climate justice and for raising awareness about some of the most urgent crises. The aim of the session is to develop a better understanding of civil disobedience and how it may be used strategically in the degrowth process. Nonviolent protest played a fundamental role in the anti-apartheid movement, the civil rights movement, as well as labour and peace movements across the world. Recent years have seen the rapid spread and upscaling of collective actions of civil disobedience by environmental and climate justice movements. While the context for nonviolent resistance may differ based on the expressed politics and ideology of these movements, sometimes evoking critical questions about race, gender, or cooperation with state authority, more often than not actions are explicitly linked with the aspirations of the degrowth movement. This begs the question of how civil disobedience should first be understood, and second how it may be used more explicitly as a strategy for degrowth.

Presenters: Sara Fromm (Member of Research & Degrowth and Climate Justice Activist), Simon Schöning (Researcher and Consultant, Climate Justice Activist)
Max. number of participants: 30
Language: English

[workshop]

Effective Strategies towards the Good Life for All within planetary boundaries

Based on a thesis paper inspired by Polanyi´s reflections on “freedom in a complex society” the workshop discusses effective strategies for a Good Life for All within planetary boundaries. The thesis paper proposes three new pillars for more effective strategies: (1) acknowledging the importance of a strong state that enables public-civic partnerships, (2) overcoming the focus on niche alternatives that lead in localist traps and (3) elaborating multiscalar strategies of selective economic globalization.

Presenters: Andreas Novy (WU Vienna), Dirk Holemans (Oikos, Green European Foundation)
Language: English

[standard session]

Regional Transformations

Buen Vivir in Germany
Buen Vivir goes beyond criticism and rejection. It has an utopian surplus. European activists adopted it to make positive visions thinkable and expressible. The fluctuating relevance of Buen Vivir can be traced back to the course of political struggles both in the Andean countries and in Europe.
Presenters: Timmo Krueger (Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS)) Language: English

Strategies for Transformation: Agency and Alliances in Rural Alternative Movements in Japan
Embedding human lives again into the local ecosystem may help to reverse overexploitation and to foster degrowth lifestyles. To discuss transition strategies for alternative lifestyles, we analyze two niche developments in Japan: the fishery-forest movement and the self-employed forestry movement.
Presenters: Norie Tamura (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature), Hein Mallee (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature) Language: English

Walking the path from sustainability to degrowth – the case of Slovenia
Sustainable development has been linked to environmental protection in Slovenia since the beginning of the environmental movement in late 1980s. Due to various reasons, sustainable development remained strongly associated with the environment, while very weak in linking the social component and even less the economic component till present times. In 2000 climate change became promineng in the NGO field and gained importance in policies. A comprehensive and holistic understanding of climate change and human rights from the other perspective, lead to scattered degrowth ideas and practices in Slovenia among NGOs, scholars and interested active citizens. What was the path from sustainable development and how degrowth came on the agenda in Slovenia, will be presented in the session.
Presenters: Živa Kavka Gobbo (Focus Association for Sustainable Development, Slovenia) Language: English

[consecutive session]

The fallacy of economic growth in climate science & policy Part 1

Our two-part workshop will explore why climate science has such difficulties to imagine mitigation pathways without economic growth. The first part will focus on a critique of assumptions of economic growth and the dangerous implications thereof against the background of a broader critique of the dominant carbon metrics. The second part will dive into alternative scenario modeling, including in the context of the IPCC. We will also present our own Societal Transformation Scenario, its assumptions, outcomes and political implications.

Presenters: Linda Schneider (Heinrich Böll Foundation), Kai Kunhenn (Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie)
Language: English
Max. number of participants: 30

[standard session]

Transformation, Design and Utopias

*up to 5000 people*

Language: English with translation to German

Sustainability, Transformation & Utopias
The presentation discusses the role of positive visions for a transformation towards a more ecologically sustainable and socially just society. Firstly, it is argued that in the context of modern societies something like ecological sustainability can already itself be regarded as a stark utopia. So far, no society exists that can be characterized as modern and whose metabolism is not based on the destructive exploitation of nature. The second part of the paper introduces the concepts of “concrete utopia” (Ernst Bloch & Rudi Dutschke) and “real utopias” (Erik Olin Wright). Finally, it is argued that both kinds of utopias are likely to be required to achieve profound social-ecological transformation that will probably take a considerable period of time.
Presenters: Bernd Sommer (Europa-Universität Flensburg) Language: German

Transformation by design?
The central question of socio-ecological transformation is whether it will take place “by design” or “by disaster” (Sommer/Welzer 2014:27). In the discourse this question is rhetorically answered with “by design”. But what role does design play in social-ecological transformation? The lecture will present growth-related problems in design and give an overview of two main strategies. It deals with both: The challenges design has to face in a time of social-ecological crises, but also with its potential. All will be in reference to the student-organized teaching project “Degrow Design!” and the resulting publication.
Presenters: Antonia Ney (Student. Lehrkraft WiSem2019 Bauhaus-Universität Weimar), Joy-Fabienne Lösel (Student. Lehrkraft WiSem2019 Bauhaus-Universität Weimar) Language: English

[special session]

Bursting Platform

Bursting Platform is bringing under a spotlight feminization of politics and exploration of possibilities of co-creating and opening a new political space – a platform for building stronger connections between various initiatives, places, women activists covering diverse, but relevant topics that bring into effect needed new alliances. Five themes will be presented by five activists and researchers from Ljubljana: Maša Hawlina – Housing, Asja Hrvatin -Care as resistance, Nicoleta Nour – Fridays for future/Climate strikes, Sara Pistotnik – Accessibility to health care, and Lana Zdravković – Emancipatory politics. They will share their theoretical and practical know how or struggles regarding their topics. The bursting platform supports and actively engages women activists, progressive and radical thinkers, who are experimenting with new political practices, imagining and trying out alternatives withing degrowth thinking.

Presenters: Maša Hawlina (Institute for Housing and Space studies), Asja Hrvatin (No Border Craft), Nicoleta Nour (Youth for Climate Justice), Sara Pistotnik (Studies in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Ljubljana), Lana Zdravković (Peace Institute), Ajda Pistotnik (EnaBanda Association)
Language: English with translation to German
Max. number of participants: 30

[workshop]

Transformatives Engagement – was braucht es dafür?

Wie können wir unser gesellschaftspolitisches Engagement zukunftsfähig gestalten? Wie erkennen wir neoliberale und andere Muster in unserer eigenen Arbeit? Wie schaffen wir in unseren sozialen Bewegungen eine Arbeitskultur, die zu den Werten passt, für die sie kämpft? Dieser Workshop ist ein Plädoyer für den Ausstieg aus einer Burnout- und Überforderungskultur, und ein Anknüpfungspunkt für alle, die sich mit den Basics und der politischen Relevanz von nachhaltigem Aktivismus beschäftigen möchten.

Presenters: Katharina Hagenhofer (radix – Kollektiv für transformative Bildung)
Max. number of participants: 18
Language: German

[workshop]

Bringing Degrowth into Politics, before and after Covid-19

How to bring Degrowth into politics or how to influence political debates has been a key question since the birth of the movement in France in the early 2000s. Reflecting on the experience of Degrowth in several countries and considering the particular Covid-19 historic momentum, we will discuss how Degrowth did, can and could influence politics. An introduction will be made by the facilitators followed by an open discussion on the topic.

Presenters: Tone Smith (degrowth.no), Vincent Liegey (Parti Pour La Décroissance)
Max. number of participants: 30
Language: English

[consecutive session]

The fallacy of economic growth in climate science & policy Part 2

Our two-part workshop will explore why climate science has such difficulties to imagine mitigation pathways without economic growth. The first part will focus on a critique of assumptions of economic growth and the dangerous implications thereof against the background of a broader critique of the dominant carbon metrics. The second part will dive into alternative scenario modeling, including in the context of the IPCC. We will also present our own Societal Transformation Scenario, its assumptions, outcomes and political implications.

Presenters: Linda Schneider (Heinrich Böll Foundation), Kai Kunhenn (Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie)
Language: English
Max. number of participants: 30

[arts & culture]

Guitar music

Vian Oussi
Vian Oussi is a young improvisational guitarist with syrian-kurdish roots. His music is a smooth mix of of flamenco, gipsy, spiritual and classical music.

[arts & culture]

Film and discussion: Oro blanco

Every morning Flora walks out into the mountains with her onehundred llamas searching for pastures. However every season the animals become thinner and the landscape drier. The high planes of the Salinas Grandes hides one of the biggest lithium reserves in the world. In order to extract it the last sweet water of the desert is being pumped into vast reserves by international companies. The battery industry`s ressource hunger threatens the shepherds and the traditional salt production of the indigenous Kolla and Atacama. In quiet poetic images “Oro Blanco” depicts the lives and fears of people who have to fight for their territory and way of living.

Presentor: Gisela Carbajal Rodríquez

[arts & culture]

Film and discussion: Feeding our degrowth imaginary #1: Twin Oaks

To unlock our collective imagination we need new images, new inspirations, new ways of imagining other possible and desirable worlds. We need to realize that another economy is possible, that we can live better with less and that there are already many who have begun to walk towards a degrowth future. The first video of this series of projects, networks, movements, and worldviews inspiring for degrowth shows one of the longest-lived intentional communities in the United States, Twin Oaks (Virginia), that has thrived successfully for over 50 years and that shows, on a very small scale, a radically different reconfiguration of work, wages and, in general, of the organization of life.

Presentor: Lucía Muñoz Sueiro
Facilitation: Alejandra Barrera, Florencia Schaeffer

[arts & culture]

DJ SET: STANLEY MESSER (STRUBOSKO)

Stanley Messer is a DJ for fun. After 15 years of playing in clubs all around Austria and honing his craft, he now just does what he likes and what he does best: spreading love and good vibes through the power of rhythm and harmony. House, Disco, UK Garage, Drum’n’Bass –genres are secondary on his quest for the perfect mix. But every track is guaranteed to have a funky edge to it, and at least a hint of soul.