Search results for "Degrowth"
showing 10 items of 10 documents
Degrowth, the past, the future, and the human nature
2012
Abstract In the last years, different sources point to a same message: industrial civilization has entered an overshoot mode, the natural limits to growth have been already surpassed. This frontier does not wait for us in the future; it already belongs to our past. If population and the economy are truly beyond the limits, then current visions and theories of social change would be deeply perturbed. If the development era is approaching its end, then many sociological theories on current societies will share the same destiny, sustainable development doctrines between them. It is worth to examine theories that explicitly look at the social world this way or that – at least – are not incompat…
Landfill Culture: Some Implications to Degrowth
2016
To some extent, waste is just one more sign of the unsustainability of growth. Waste from industrial and socio-economic metabolism must be understood as any unusable material left over after a job, function or operation has been completed, which however, retains the ability to disrupt natural systems and interfere with them as one of its inherent properties. As part of such waste, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) represents the unusable (or underused) and rejected fraction of the material resources mobilized by the sophisticated urban and/or industrial ecosystem. Although the volume of MSW is relatively small compared to other waste types, it is increasingly important as a result of its steady r…
Building up an ecologically sustainable and socially desirable post-COVID-19 future
2021
AbstractCOVID-19 crisis has emphasized how poorly prepared humanity is to cope with global disasters. However, this crisis also offers a unique opportunity to move towards a more sustainable and equitable future. Here, we identify the underlying environmental, social, and economic chronic causes of the COVID-19 crisis. We argue in favour of a holistic view to initiate a socio-economic transition to improve the prospects for global sustainability and human well-being. Alternative approaches to “Business-As-Usual” for guiding the transition are already available for implementation. Yet, to ensure a successful and just transition, we need to change our priorities towards environmental integrit…
La comprensión e impulso de la Sostenibilidad: un requisito imprescindible para una acción educativa y ciudadana eficaz
2019
Diagnósticos concordantes de la actual situación de emergencia planetaria muestran la necesidad de una urgente transición a sociedades que hagan posible una vida justa y digna al conjunto de seres humanos y a las futuras generaciones, al tiempo que se protege la biodiversidad y se revierte la degradación del medioambiente. Esta problemática ha dado lugar a propuestas con distintas denominaciones -transición a la sostenibilidad, decrecimiento, crecimiento inclusivo… - generando controversias que pueden dificultar el establecimiento de una agenda común para hacer frente a los problemas. Proponemos por ello centrar el debate en analizar las medidas que se consideran necesarias, en particular p…
Towards the Post-Carbon Society: Searching for Signs of the Transition and Identifying Obstacles
2016
The transition to a post-carbon society, in which the consumption of fossil fuels falls over time, is determined by the need to prevent catastrophic climate change, the increasing cost of energy and complex combinations of both these causes. The transition will not only entail political adjustments and the replacement of some technologies by others, but will be accompanied by social and cultural changes that bring about substantial modifications in the organization of our societies and our ways of life. Based on the situation in Spain, this article analyses whether the current conditions, which date back to the crisis that began in 2007, favour a benign and smooth transition, or, on the con…
The sterilization of eco-criticism: from sustainable development to green capitalism
2015
El desarrollo ha sido un tropo dominante de la vida política y económica global en el mundo desde 1950. Como tal ha estado inevitablemente conectado a algunos de los procesos sociales más importantes de esta era: colonialismo, globalización, post-colonialismo, crisis ecológica global, el crecimiento del ecologismo, entre otros. La consolidación de la sociedad del consumo contemporánea llegó de la mano de la certeza de que sostenía un sistema de vida que, como daño colateral, incluía una crisis ecológica global. Desde muchos lugares del mundo nuevas voces apuntaron críticas en relación a los costes de la globalización y propusieron alternativas y soluciones: el eco-criticismo. Este artículo …
Planetary well-being and sustainable business : A work in progress
2024
Businesses have a significant impact on global environmental and social sustainability. To address the related issues, the concept of sustainable business has been introduced, which refers to the practices that businesses can adopt to minimize their negative economic, environmental, and social impacts. This chapter presents a critical analysis of selected sustainable business concepts and practices using planetary well-being as a conceptual framework. In terms of conceptual approaches, the chapter discusses circular economy (circulation of resources without creating waste), degrowth (shrinking of production and consumption to respect planetary boundaries), and sustainability transition (rad…
Giustizia ambientale e recupero delle aree verdi: il caso di Palermo
2021
L’urban shrinkage è diventata una questione centrale tanto nel dibattito scientifico quanto nell’agenda politica di diverse città europee. Secondo i dati EUROSTAT (2019), circa il 40% delle città europee con più di 200.000 abitanti stanno perdendo popolazione; una contrazione che si esplicita maggiormente, sotto il profilo spaziale, in una progressiva sottoutilizzazione del patrimonio edificato, così come nel contestuale incremento di aree e terreni in stato di abbandono. In questo quadro controverso di mutazione strutturale della città, così come l’abbiamo conosciuta, le politiche urbane alla prova in Europa tentano di declinare la decrescita quale occasione strategica di investimento sull…
Looking for Feminist Pragmatist Roots of Degrowth Ideas: Jane Addams, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Caroline Bartlett Crane
2022
The aim of the paper is a search of feminist pragmatist roots of degrowth ideas. The starting point is the question of whether in views of the members of the Progressive Movement the idea of progress has always implied the economic (and industrial) growth. Searching for counter-examples leads me to ideas of ecofeminism and feminist critics of capitalism in the previous turn of the centuries. The ideas of ecofeminism were developed by women associated with the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago and the social settlement Hull House. They observed a link between the exploitation of subordinate members of a society and the degradation of nature in Western cultural values. The …
Yhteiskunnallinen liike verkostona : Degrowth-liikkeen verkostomainen toiminta Suomessa
2017
Degrowth tarkoittaa talouskasvuun kriittisesti suhtautuvaa ajattelua sekä elämäntapaa, joka on sosiaalisesti oikeudenmukaista ja ekologisesti kestävää. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää millaista degrowth-liikehdintää Suomessa on. Tavoitteeni on tarkastella, millaisia toimijoita Suomen degrowth-aktivistit ovat, mitä degrowth heidän mielestään tarkoittaa ja miten he toimivat kasvukriittistä ajattelua edistääkseen. Pyrin myös selvittämään millaisia degrowth-liikkeen toiminnan ominaispiirteet ovat, miten liike on verkostoitunut ja millaiset tulevaisuuden visiot sillä on. Olen koonnut tutkimusaineistoni haastattelemalla viittä degrowth-liikkeen aktiivista jäsentä eri puolilta Suomea.…