Degrowth: setting the stage – Filka Sekulova (ICTA-UAB)

Monday 6th July, 12.00-13.30, UAB Campus

This semi-introductory explorative lecture will set the stage for the summer school, bringing the seeds of the discussions yet to come and knitting the logical (and illogical) threads between the analytical and prescriptive elements of degrowth. Starting with the common misinterpretations and misrepresentations of degrowth we will first make sure we are on the same page in terms of its history, meanings and significations. Once having a common ground, we will go over the philosophical sources of degrowth and their seeming contradictions and mutual enforcement, paying due attention to the environmental justice connection. The lecture will then continue with a reflection on the elements and minerals of “a degrowth    proposal”,    while    exploring    the    gentle    and    sometimes    lost    demarcation    between ecological/green/degrowth/post-growth/etc. This entails a review of some ‘emblematic’ degrowth proposals and their co-evolution from the rough drafts coined during the second scientific conference in degrowth in Barcelona 2012 to nowadays. Some of the questions to address along the way are:

• How are degrowth proposals coined, and how should they?
• How are degrowth proposals perceived, received and spreading out?
• Is feasibility or correctness the guiding principle of degrowth proactivity?

The lecture will conclude with a reflection on the various networks and networking for degrowth taking place, linking scientific, political and political actors in various spaces and platforms, thus opening space for new hubs of collaboration during the course and beyond.

Background reading material: Introduction to degrowth, D’Alisa et al. 2014. In: Degrowth. A vocabulary for a new era.