Degrowth strategies

Posted on: 10th June 2020

How can we de-grow?

Strategies for Social-Ecological Transformation

 

“Degrowth Vienna 2020” was an online conference. The presenter and panelist discussed strategies for a degrowth transformation. By bringing together practitioners, artists, activists, civil society actors and scientists, many aspects of transformation were openly discussed.

Degrowth Vienna 2020

The Need for Degrowth – Time to Think about Strategies

The panel connects to the  opening of the conference.

 
This panel outlines the appropriateness of degrowth as an adequate response to the multiple crises and aims for a reflection on the necessity of degrowth to seriously consider the role of (and their analysis) of strategy. We will also discuss the contribution of this conference to degrowth’s consideration of strategy.
 

facilitator:

Laura Grossmann

Presenters:

Ulrich Brand
Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka
Susan Paulson
Brototi Roy

Strategic Approaches: an Overview

This panel aimed to give an overview of different strategic approaches for degrowth. Panelists discussed 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 were discussed.
 

Presenters:

Panos Petridis, Nilda Inkermann, Katya Chertkovskaya

Moderator:

Nathan Barlow

Past and current environmental movements in Austria: What we can learn for 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

Speakers:

Jutta Matysek
Lisa Kiesenhofer
Margaret Haderer

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 todiscuss concrete ideas of responding to the corona crisis, using the windows that opend up.
 

moderator:

Iris Frey

Presenters:

Stefania Barca, Andro Rilovic, Matthias Schmelzer, Eeva Houtbeckers

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 todiscuss concrete ideas of responding to the corona crisis, using the windows that opend up.
 

moderator:

Iris Frey

Presenters:

Stefania Barca, Andro Rilovic, Matthias Schmelzer, Eeva Houtbeckers

Strategies for global solidarity in the face of multiple crisis

At the heart of the discussion is an intensive examination of the discourses on decolonization and post-development in relationship to degrowth as central elements of a social-ecological transformation. The aim is to further stimulate the exchange of experiences between Global South and North perspectives and the application of concrete strategies for solidarity practice by experts from science, activism and civil society.

facilitator:

Antje Daniel

speakers:

Imeh Ituen
Mágara Millán
Alexander Behr

Degrowing the food sector: How to build democratic food policies

The aim of the panel is to develop a common understanding of how a socially and ecologically sustainable food systems can look like. To achieve this, we draw on existing practices and strategies of local and regional initiatives which promote sustainable food systems. There exists already a variety of collectives, networks, and food system approaches, which create opportunities and offer tangible examples and visions of what a degrowth society could look like. These initiatives offer examples, which contribute to a democratic food system and from which we can learn.

 

The guiding question of the panel is therefore to what extend strategies used by these initiatives can serve as a strategy for degrowth.

Further questions to be addressed are: As part of a democratic food policy, how can the initiatives be strengthened and up-scaled? What (else) does a democratic food policy need to contain and how can this be achieved? What keeps us locked into the current unsustainable food systems and what strategies are needed to overcome these lock-ins/barriers?

 

To discuss these questions, Olivier De Schutter will introduce, in a first step, insights from the IPES-Food report and relate them to the degrowth debate. His keynote will be complemented with concrete examples, covering different spatial scales – the urban, regional and the European. More concretely, Line Rise Nielsen from the institution “Changing Food – Copenhagen Food System Centre” will present an urban strategy of counselling the city. Armin Bernhard will describe a regional strategy drawing on his experience of a citizen’s cooperative in Mals (South Tyrol) and Genevieve Savigny from the European Coordination La Via Campesina will explain the role of social and peasant movements struggles for a democratic agricultural and trade policies on the European Union’s level.

Understanding transformations and the role of strategy

This panel explored theories of social change and lessons from history of societal transformations to see what we can learn about strategies for transformation. The panel served as a general introduction to conceptual approaches in transformation research and provide a basis for the discussions in the rest of the conference. We discussed mechanisms, triggers, and obstacles to successful change, and explored different approaches to understanding transformation.

facilitator:

Tone Smith

speakers:

Miriam Lang
Ecuador Dennis
Andreas Novy

Closing Panel: Today–Tomorrow: Reflections on the conference & how to move forward

With graphic recording we crystallised the main statements of the panel for you. Enjoy the short movie about it!

The aim of the Degrowth Vienna 2020 conference is to integrate expertise and elaborate promising strategies for a socially and ecologically just transformation. This panel aims to bring together the multiple facets of the conference by reflecting upon highlights, lessons learned and shortcomings. The second part of the panel discusses of how to move forward. Putting strategy, the how, on the agenda of the degrowth movement will raise questions of possible reorientations or new directions for the movement. Further, we will consider concrete next steps and reflect on how to incorporate these learnings in our work, organizing and actions.

 

facilitator:

Christian Kerschner

speakers:

Viviana Asara
Nina Treu
Tonny Nowshin
Halliki Kreinin

more info on Degrowth Vienna 2020

Related Posts