Book presentation

«Towards a political economy of degrowth». Ed: Ekaterina Chertkovskaya; Alexander Paulsson and Stefania Barca

October 29, 2019, 16h30

Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra

Overview

Since the 1970s, the degrowth idea has been proposed by scholars, public intellectuals and activists as a powerful call to reject the obsession of neoliberal capitalism with economic growth, an obsession which continues apace despite the global ecological crisis and rising inequalities. In the past decade, degrowth has gained momentum and become an umbrella term for various social movements which strive for ecologically sustainable and socially just alternatives that would transform the world we live in.

How to move forward in an informed way, without reproducing the existing hierarchies and injustices? How not to end up in a situation when ecological sustainability is the prerogative of the privileged, direct democracy is ignorant of environmental issues, and localisation of production is xenophobic? These are some of the questions that have inspired this edited collection.

Bringing degrowth into dialogue with critical social theories, covering previously unexplored geographical contexts and discussing some of the most contested concepts in degrowth, the book hints at informed paths towards socio-ecological transformation.


Round table discussion
featuring João Rodrigues (CES/FEUC) and Irina Velicu (CES) as discussants, with the participation of the book's editors Ekaterina Chertkovskaya (Lund University) and Stefania Barca (CES) and authors Emanuele Leonardi (CES), Santiago Gorostiza (Universitat Autonoma Barcelona) and Giacomo D'Alisa (CES)
Moderator Teresa Almeida Cravo (FEUC/CES)


Activity withiin doctoral programmes Democracy in the Twenty-first Century and Governance, Knowledge and Innovation and  the Ecology and Society Lab (Oficina de Ecologia e Sociedade-CES)