In the past few weeks, Degrowth Vienna members have been speaking up for degrowth in various German-speaking media. We reported on Max Hollweg’s interview with Der Standard last month; here is more.
The basics of what degrowth means and involves are explained by Halliki Kreinin and Lisette von Maltzahn in two interviews – listen to Lisette’s interview with SOL on air, or read the interview that Halliki gave to Moment.at during the Beyond Growth Conference in Brussels. In the two interviews, Halliki and Lisette explain the issues with economic growth, building on the connection between social and ecological crises, and they give suggestions for ways forward from a degrowth perspective.
The online newspaper Unsere Zeitung has been covering our 5-point plan for Degrowth in Austria that we introduced at the end of the Beyond Growth Conference. The article also features Brototi Roy and Corinna Dengler, who both participated to our book Degrowth & Strategy.
The Austrian magazine Alexandria has realised a three-part article looking into the possibility of a healthy degrowth for the sake of climate – part 1 on the problems that the growth paradigm entails, part 2 on degrowth utopias, and part 3 on ways forward. Degrowth Vienna members Verena Wolf and Livia Regen were part of the experts interviewed for the realisation of this series. Although the article does not make the case for degrowth, it does contribute to introducing degrowth to a wider audience.
We have already mention Max Hollweg’s interview with Der Standard which compares the degrowth and green growth perspectives. Other members of the association have contributed to more targeted media content too. Degrowth Vienna member Peter Nitsche-Whitfield engages closely with degrowth and workers’ unions in his work with the European Trade Union Institute, and in an article he recently published in Arbeit & Wirtschaft. In the article, Peter debunks the idea that economic growth is necessary to improve workers’ living standards and highlights the role that economic growth plays in unequal distribution of wealth. He also stresses the need for environmental movements and workers’ unions to collaborate.
With these articles and media engagement, we hope to make degrowth more widely understood, contribute to the popularity of the narrative, and incite readership and audience to learn more and engage with degrowth.
*Addition from 01.06.2023: Our coordinator Lisette von Maltzahn was interviewed for the ORF magazine ECO on the topic “Green Growth”. Available until 08.06.2023.