Working groups Barcelona 2010

From DegrowthPedia.org

Authors: Participants of the Second International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity.

Initially issued: Following the Second International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Barcelona, June 2010 (see original working group results).

The purpose here is to try thinking within the context of degrowth. The participative process that occurred in Barcelona is explained on the conference's official website. The idea now is to build on the proposals made during the Degrowth conference and especially create links between the working groups. - The local organizing committee.

Take part in the follow-up of the building of degrowth propositions. Feel free to edit this page!


Contents


Political (and research) proposals elaboration

Money and currencies

What alternative monetary system could we develop in the pursuit of degrowth and how?

  • Governmental institutions needed to allow the use of alternative currencies.
  • An international research network on alternative monetary systems, to share knowledge and best practice.
  • Educational campaign to explain how conventional money is being created in the current system, and how local currency systems work.
  • How do we increase the demand for local currencies by getting a wider range of institutions to accept them? (e.g. local currency in payment of local taxes)
  • Should we remove the powers of private banking to create money?
  • What is the potential of alternative currencies to transform the international monetary system?
  • What is the relationship between the use of interest and economic growth? Study different scenarios with different interest rates (positive, neutral, negative) and its relation to economic growth. Do we need to replace the functions of interest in a framework of degrowth (a framework of limited natural resources)?
  • What is the appropriate backing(s) for money (in its various functions), to prevent it from becoming detached from the real-real economy.
  • Appropriate way to exchange between local currency and conventional money?


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


New financial institutions

How should we change credit institutions in the pursuit of degrowth?

  • Reform fiscal and monetary policy towards degrowth.
Transition economy
  • Evolutionary movement from a debt-backed economy to an equity-backed economy by?
  1. introducing floating cap on interest rates.
  2. a change in lending standards to reflect social, environmental and ethical goals.
Post transition
  • Eliminate fiat money, for 100% bank solvency.
  • Spur the development of cooperative banks, as key players in a system which also requires a central bank to regulate the money supply to avoid inflation or deflation.
  • Local enterprises/cooperatives can issue bonds in exchange for energy, for instance, to ensure that money scarcity does not prevent unnecessary lending restrictions. If you do not have money you can get them for energy that is to be produced in the future. (we did not talk about what happens if companies go bankrupt...reform insolvency law).
  • Limits the sale of derivative.
  • Make sure that local governments regulate central banks/cooperative banks to ensure that their lending reflects environmental & social standards.
  • Doubts about a global currency that reflects the world natural capital, as it requires a centralized government.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Social economy, changing the corporation status

What are the options for collective production action (non-profit organization, limited profit organisation (Limited Corp, etc.), for-profit cooperative status, etc.)? What types of non-profit status models can we develop and how?

Proposals
  • Limit the size of the company for maintaining the rationality of satisfaction of local needs.
  • Change institutions to abolish the profit dividends and profits of distant shareholders that don't take part of the activity. The social economy would be driven by people directly engaged on the labour force of economic and social activities and not only as investors.
Research questions
  • Can we think in a profit maximization enterprise in a de-growth society?
  • How can we link producer and consumer cooperatives to strengthen the non-profit rationality?


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Property rights

How can we reform property rights beyond the public-private divide? What property rights and institutions for a degrowing economy?

  • Non-regulation of resources is not a solution. Private property needs to be restricted. This implies further discussion on options and alternatives to private property and its regulation. In this regard, there is a need to:
  1. Distinguish between manufactured and natural resources.
  2. Identify indicators to determine the maximum level of property.
  • Degrowth is about halting the co-modification of nature. The term private property comprises various aspects. In terms of degrowth, some of these ambits could still remain in the context of private property and these should be defined. Degrowing in a just way demands democratic management of natural resources (including our own bodies) so the resources should not be co-modified.
  • Global commons: It is necessary to design jurisdiction according to each global common.
  • Local commons: It is essential to recognize and integrate communal property rights under national law.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Work-sharing

How can we implement a 3-day working week? How will domestic and voluntary work and wages look like in a degrowth society? Should we redefine work?

Research questions
  • Relationship between labor productivity and reduced resource use?
  • How can we achieve changing recognition of different kinds of paid work and unpaid work? What is the definition of work in a degrowth society?
  • Reflections on barriers to lower working hours from other elements of degrowth: Debt, Consumerism, Low incomes, Access to the conditions for a good life.
  • What is the aim of work in a degrowth society?
  • Relationship between a basic income and reduced working hours.
  • Research that can recognize the value and contribution of the core economy (unpaid, household work) in our current economy.
Political proposals
  • Tax reform. Tax on resources, not labor. A more progressive income tax, with a larger tax-free threshold.
  • Incentives to encourage companies to enable work sharing and part-time work.
  • Other uses of taxes
  • Need to provide accessible childcare, including at conferences like these!
  • Legislation that supports co-housing.
  • Need to reduce the power of financial capital.
  • Focus on gender issues, including the equality of pay for genders.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Moratoria on new infrastructures

Which infrastructures should we limit, where and how?

  • Eliminate/nationalise mega-construction companies (due to their levels of debt) that drive the building of infrastructure projects as ends in themselves.
  • Some infrastructure projects must clearly be abandoned: Nuclear, incinerators, high speed train and large scale dams...
  • Some infrastructure must be limited: highways, long distance transportation, airports, ammonia production...
  • At the same time, transformation of some existing infrastructure must be promoted: smaller and more compact cities, converting car based infrastructure to walking and cycling and open common space.
  • Research the full life-cycle impacts and components of infrastructure materials.
  • Support social campaigns that change the imaginary of people regarding the need to travel, long distance travel, levels of consumption and production and dependence on infrastructure.
  • Support communities that fight large infrastructure projects.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


How to deal with advertising

Should we limit advertising and how?

Advertising increases consumption by creating the illusion that people can satisfy their needs – real or imaginary - through products. It is wasteful and is driven by the competitive nature of the capitalist system. To deal with advertising, we need a bottom-up and a top-down approach. Bottom-up focuses on changing people's perception of advertising to recognise its manipulative nature. Top-down refers to government action to impose limits. More research is needed on freeing communications channels from advertising.

Bottom-up
  • Empower people to enable them to deconstruct advertising.
  • Detox from the imagery of the consumption society.
  • Community child protection from advertising.
  • Debunking the myth of satisfying immaterial needs with material goods.
  • Reduce inequality – inequality drives consumerism.
  • Expose ubiquity of advertising.
  • Expose exploitation of values in advertising.
  • Direct action, i.e. subvertising.
Top-down
  • Ban everything (all ads) possible from public space.
  • Regulate everything (all ads) possible that affects kids/vulnerable people, health, CO2-intensive sectors, sexist messages, etc.
  • Advertising should be as expensive as possible, ie taxes, accounting standards, etc.
Research questions
  • Do we need ombudsmen for advertising?
  • How to free the internet from advertising?
  • How to organise free communications financially? (i.e. What are the real costs of a newspaper?)


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Reduction of natural resource exploitation

What political tools can we use to leave natural and biological "resources in/on the ground" and how can they become effective?

Political proposals
  • Global extractive moratoria on areas with high biodiversity and ethnographic value.
  • Internalization and transparency of mining real (and long term) costs.
  • Binding capacity for local communities in deciding about mining projects. Full information, a proper process and respecting national and international environmental protection norms.
  • To create funds for financing independent researches on mining.
  • To promote companies international accountability (campaining in countries of origin).
Research questions
  • How could we enforce a national cap on fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources while maintaining fair access?
  • How to tax advertising for discouraging resource consumption? With which criteria?
  • Which could be the results of an international found for compensating socio-environmental impacts?
Also disagreement points.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Zero-waste

How can we minimize the production of waste?

Core points
  • Responsibility to be shared in the individual, social, productive and political arena.
  • Proximity: production, treatment and final disposal of different wastes as local as possible.
  • Incentives, especially taxes as economic tools in the des-incentive of waste generation.
However, reduction of waste can not be managed just with economic instruments.
  • Education to all social actors, in order to make close not just impacts of products and kinds of treatments, but also the positive implications that zero waste initiatives have in relation to quality of life.
  • Ecodesign and Cradle to Cradle, important role in the change of perspective of the waste in reuse sense.
Political proposals
  • Promotion of legal instruments to reduce waste such us taxation (on materials, in the production process) and Deposit and Refund systems enlarged to as much as possible.
  • Use of advertising expertise for education in reuse and reduction.
  • Facilitation of sharing good experiences to link good practices and good quality of life.
  • Encouragement of cooperative sharing to promote community based recycling and reuse methods.
  • Incorporation of proximity in waste regulations as a core principle.
Research question
  • Creation of an international network of agencies for life cycle analysis and waste prevention.
Disagreement
  • Role to be played by corporations and private sector and how much the solutions are to be looked for in the technological and/or in the social arena.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Degrowth in water consumption

How can we reduce – real and virtual - water consumption in the "Global North" to 25% of its current levels (factor 4 reduction)?

  • "Reapropiation of commons": returning to public ownership and management of superficial, groundwater and desalted water at municipal level (if possible) avoiding to consider it as a commodity.
  • Domestic tariff systems with basic threshold for free lifeline and quota up to a ceiling threshold, established in physical blocks terms and per day per person. Heavy industrial tariff to physical parameters and thresholds.
  • Labelling Virtual water content (full life cycle) on all products: water points credit card
  • Degrowth in water consumption is tightly related to land use planning: non-industrial agroecological approach to agrarian land and food sovereignty; stop new irrigation plans and water transfer and big supply infrastructures; stop urban sprawl.
  • Downscaling to local sources management which enable people's empowerment: public fountains of free drink water as a symbol against fetishism of bottled water; democratic control on economy; living the river and its ecosystems; building a new water culture starting from water as life.
  • In conclusion, accelerate degrowth and downshift your lifestyle.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!

Reusing empty houses and co-housing

How can we change future forms of housing to occupy empty houses and develop shared (communal) housing? How can we promote mutualisation of goods in general?

Research proposals
  1. Encourage architectural research on alternative housing, such as collaborative design of reused / empty buildings into co-housing with residents, material reuse, etc.
  2. What is the "overconsumption of space"? Is it better to talk about ecological footprint?
Political proposals
  • Impose a large tax on unoccupied housing.
  • Stop urban sprawl.
  • State purchases houses that would be repossessed and turns them into public co-housing, empowering people.
Contested proposals
  • Find instruments to stimulate the reduction of living space for households that overconsume space.
  • Strengthen squatter rights.
  • Strengthen association rooted in social fabric with institutional backup to match empty houses with people living in poor conditions (i.e. homeless) who would care for the properties (i.e. self-management).


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Basic income and income ceiling

How can we politically implement a basic income for all? How can we reform taxation and other policies to impose a ceiling on high incomes?

Research themes/questions
  • Comparisons between basic income (BI) and a negative income tax plus a social welfare state to inform public opinion. That is, not only from a monetary-based approach, but also from a moral perspective.
  • Will economic degrowth provide sufficient means to finance a BI institution in the long-run?
  • Can a BI institution be a viable and fruitful alternative to development aid?
  • How has human psychology, values, and moral ideas played a role in preventing the application of a BI system in the past? What psychological insights can be derived from human populations where BI as an institution has been applied?
Issues needing further attention
  • In order to finance BI sustainably a tax-based approach should be implemented progressively on income rate, rent or ownership, natural resource use, and consumption.
  • Is a basic income preferred to a guaranteed-job-offer? Should local currencies, or product-specific vouchers play an important role in the making-up of a basic income-rent?
  • How to implement BI at a political level; in particular taking into account voter participation in political processes.
  • What are the links between a society of employment and a society addicted to consumption?


Income ceiling (IC) is on the political agenda in Europe now. Measures to redistribute income & wealth and measures to give equal access to environmental services are compatible and, in fact, they should go together.

Proposals on IC
  1. Minimum-maximum ratio.
  2. Ratio within companies.
  3. New ways on attaining social status (in the absence of high incomes) should be found.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


New technologies

Are new technologies tools for degrowth or pandora's boxes of resource consumption? How to shift research from growth-oriented technologies to innovations for frugality and sharing?

  • A selective moratorium based on potential risks, benefits and impacts.
Research
  1. Identify criteria (encompassing values of stakeholders) for systematically assessment, e.g.:
    1. Degree of locality concerning resources, innovation and decision making.
    2. Scale in use of the technology and the scale of the supporting infrastructure.
    3. Required inputs and outputs of the technology (environmental, monetary, energetic, etc.).
  2. Disseminate the results of the inquiry for independent and wide review.
  3. Promote public awareness of core issues.
  4. To promote people's engagement to ratify or abrogate such moratorium.
Politics of new technologies
  • New and current institutions to achieve buy-in from the broader community (including scientists and technologists). Ideological separation:
  • Technology and innovation not driven by the market could lead technological progress. For example local and small scale with low start up capital and other barriers to entry (e.g. permaculture, agroecology and various social technologies).
  • Technology and innovation, irrevocably entwined with markets and commercial prospects. The very need to service markets drives technology and innovation (e.g. internet, antibiotics, Genomic engineering, Space travel).
  • The question remained about how the de-growth movement can manage sustainable coexistence of commercial interests without compromising the social and environmental interests in fostering innovation and technology. How should rights on knowledge be managed in this case?


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Education

What is the role of teaching and training for degrowth? How can we introduce the idea of degrowth in education?

The way in which a community transmits or transforms its culture. Today's formal educational system has been created by and for the growth model. Degrowth needs an education for living in harmony with the environment. All social groups must be involved in this process.

  1. Allow room for different pedagogies in order to promote creativity and diversity. Promote cooperation early on in the process of education development, for example, by involving the community in the formation of curricula.
  2. Education oriented around self-determination.
    • Raise political and critical awareness in order to evolve collectively and in harmony.
    • In order to create a sense of private sphere one has to be capable of interacting with, influencing and appreciating the world.
    • Political consequences: opposition to hegemonic status quo through empowering philosophy/policy.
  3. Re-examine our methods of evaluation and standard setting, and promote inter-generational knowledge sharing and informal education.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Research (and political) proposals elaboration

Social metabolism and transitions

What do we know from previous, big socio-ecological transitions that is relevant in the context of a transition to degrowth? Is a degrowth transformation feasible and how?

Socio-Political aspects
  • Link environmental movements with social movements and focus on underlying root causes to form alliances.
  • Aim at the consumption level of the sustainable peoples/classes of the world though this consumption levels take place in an unsustainable systems and therefore cultural changes are necessary even among these people.
  • Create autonomous and intentional communities (niches of sustainability), and connect them. Promote this way of living and intervene in the system.
  • We need to change the current narratives that focus on material wealth to shift the focus on values that acknowledge the sustainability principles.
Bio-physical sphere
  • Global level
    • Closing material cycles as much as possible.
    • Reinforce the product design-reduce its material requirements-make it more re-usable and recyclable.
    • Reduce, eliminate toxic chemicals (industrial fertilizers).
    • Return to the traditional, innovative way of agriculture/agro-ecology.
    • Reduce the global throughput of energy and materials adjusting it to the carrying capacity of the biosphere.
    • Put a limit to human appropriation of net primary production. Limit deforestation, change in industrial agriculture.
    • Internalize real costs.
  • Local and regional levels
    • Not exporting trash.
    • Reduce long-distance imports; Foster proximity relationships through urban redesign/re-organization.
    • Less energy consumption in inputs.
    • Switching to locally produced renewable energy.
    • Construct with regional materials. Bio-climatic architectural design.
    • Use seasonal, ecological and local food.
    • Reduce the transport infra-structure and make it more collective.
    • Promote sharing of electronic home equipment. Perceive them as commons.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Cities and degrowth

How will cities look after degrowth? Can we plan for degrowth and how (multifunctional urbanism, etc.)?

Key research proposals
  • How does the decentralisation of political power in the city relate to bottom-up processes and the degrowth agenda? (address concerns of concentration of power and democracy)
  • How does the 'right to the city' (Henri Lefebvre) connect to the degrowth agenda? (the right of all urban dwellers to take part in the production of the city, transforming social, political and economic relations in urban spaces)
Key political proposals
  • Reshape and reform current cities instead of building (eco)cities and (eco)neighbourhoods from scratch.
  • Re-localise urban life with multi-functionality (public space as a commons) in mind.
Other research proposals
  • Why isn't there planning by people vs. planning for people? How do you get people to plan for themselves? Barriers, preconditions and counter-forces to encourage planning by people (users) and not only for people (consumers).
  • How do we degrade the car as an urban transportation mode through taxes?
  • How/what is the relationship between ecological urban development and gentrification?
  • How to build local, social and ecological resilience in cities/bioregions?
Other political proposals
  • Raise awareness on the need for the shift to degrowth cities.
  • Develop and implement an ecological degrowth neighbourhood plan using a bottom up process (collectively decide what areas to remove, to recycle, to preserve...)
  • Scale and distance as planning parameters.
  • Make initiatives in the city that are already working on paradigm change visible to understand potential of cities as social-political space.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Agro-ecology, food sovereignty and degrowth

Can we feed the world with locally produced, organic food and if yes, how?

Agroecology is not an option but an imperative for farming; there is an urgent need to move from a productivist industrial model of agriculture towards a more agroecological integrated agricultural system of food production.

Many structural changes are needed: economical, political, social cultural. For instance, policies that are currently financing industrial agriculture projects must stop and, instead, financial support is needed for different kinds for agroecological alternatives.

Also, cultural changes are a must in the relationship between people and food production; these will imply shifts to fair, environmentally sound and healthy food consumption patters that rely less on intensive livestock production. The rural and urban sphere needs to be reconnected both in the North and the Global South taking up the perspective of food sovereignty.

Citizen initiatives supporting both urban and rural localised farming must be encouraged by diverse alliances with social movements, farmers, consumers, and public institutions as education, health sector, etc.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Trade degrowth

Should we limit global trade for degrowth and if yes, which trade and how (institutions, international organizations, etc.)?

Propositions
  • Ecological and social impacts of trade have to be measured with biophysical and social indicators, and further have to be integrated in trade policies and agreements.
  • There is a need for a new democratic global trade organization that moves away from "free trade" and growth as their fundamental basis, and towards social and environmental sustainability.
  • Food issues should be given priority to improve food security by working towards food sovereignty and productive autonomy.
  • Power relations have to be reduced among others by absolute foreign debt cancellations.
Research questions
  • How can ecological and social impacts of trade be measured with biophysical and human indicators?
  • How can the problem of scale adequately be addressed with various mechanisms?


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Participative/direct democracy

What forms of "deep" democracy for a society that degrows?

Research questions
  1. In a degrowth scenario, what ideas and practices of direct/participatory democracy are relevant for different scales of decision-making? Including with respect to different types of enterprises?
  2. In a degrowth trajectory, what kind of incentives can/should be set to motivate people to participate in political activity and decision-making?
  3. How can we ensure that existing participative decision-making arrangements are taken into account by existing institutional framework?
Proposals
  1. Create spaces and networks for enhanced participation in politics and decision-making (e.g. citizen juries).
  2. We should de-commercialize/de-commodify politics.
  3. Increase critical and deliberative capacity by creating holistic spaces of education.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Political strategies

What is the relative role of political parties, social movements, unions, groups practicing degrowth and academics-intellectuals in making the degrowth idea dominant in society? Which existing parties or movements can adopt the idea of degrowth?

Three comprehensive and complementary options
  • Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives.
  • Voice strategy: political movement and activism, a particular engagement.
  • Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth.

There is a need to learn from other local initiatives; some cases were discussed, and there is a need to be based more on the grass-roots and history of movements, and to have relevance to recognize diversity of socio-cultural and political history contexts.

There is a need to learn from local initiatives to reply in other local contexts or to extract models that can be expanded at the global level. Degrowth is not an entirely new idea, to take root in the 1970's, so it is important to learn about mistakes; there is a need to highlight alternatives of the past and to look at how they have worked. The discussion has emphasised in understand social, technological, political and economics contexts that made differences between now and 70's. The movements change from our current situation and position at local and global levels should not be only one, would it be to construct from understanding different cultures and political history context in determining emphasis on particular political strategies.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Demography and degrowth

Where and why should population de-grow? Which bottom-up movements initiate voluntary population control and how?

  1. The degrowth movement advocates full reproductive rights taking into account environmental and social consequences for our own and other species.
  2. The degrowth movement welcomes the conscious procreation, co-responsibility of the partners in child rearing.
  3. The degrowth movement opposes government coercion and opposes the incentives to increase the birthrate as seen in some countries.
  4. The degrowth movement welcomes the declining rate of population growth and peak population.
  5. Migration is not caused by overpopulation but primarily because of the extreme inequalities in the world. The degrowth movement supports the right to migrate and opposes the "lifeboat" ethics. Simultaneously, degrowth movement supports the shift to greater local resilience to reduce the need to migrate.
Research proposals
  • When women are given the right to choose and when the appropriate health services exist, population rates tend to decline. Further research is required on this topic.
  • The viability and usefulness of alternative ways of living (i.e. Nomadism) should be investigated.
  • Research on forms of cohabilitation, its relation to happiness and resource use is required.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Demilitarisation and degrowth

How can we implement a general armistice? How can the militaro-industrial sector reduce?

Not available.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Energy degrowth and the transition to renewable energies

What sort of renewable energies for degrowth? Is degrowth in energy consumption a better strategy for transition to renewables than "burning our way fast" to renewables?

Political proposals
  1. Foster policies, incorporating a multi-criteria evaluation to have an energy system with the highest energy return on investment (EROI) and the lowest environmental impact and lowest material throughput with lost transport distance...
  2. The decision making process of planning for future policies should be in a democratic and decentralized manner but the decision could be to use and manage the energy either locally or centralized.
Research questions and proposals
  1. How can we ensure fair access to fossil fuel as their scarcity increases?
  2. Research on the trade off and complementary points of locally vs. centrally derived energy systems.
  3. Further invest money (public) on alternative energy sources (apart from nuclear) to research on their fundamental principles and also strategies for implementation in a transparent (to everyone) and for the common use and good of everyone (bien común).
Points of disagreement
  • Cap on the energy demand.
  • Prioritization of sectors for reduction of energy consumption.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Environmental justice, the environmentalism of the poor and degrowth

How can degrowth "translate" to non-western contexts and who would be its allies in the "Global South"?

Proposals
  • Build next conference together with environment and climate justice movements in order to integrate within degrowth the concepts of social, political and environmental justice.
  • Increase the visibility of positive examples and proposals of bottom up and alternative life sustainance models.
  • In order to work towards a world where economic growth in the Global North and in the Global South are delinked, we need to distribute wealth and compensate for ecological debt. For example, we should support the Yasuni initiative, carbon tax to redistribute revenue, work in the north to reduce degradation in the south.
  • Share our knowledge in a copy-left degrowth journal/platform.
Research questions
  • Different way to collect data to measure and stop the negative impacts of degrowth on disadvantaged groups.
  • Need to redefine development categories (North, South, poor, rich 1-2-3-4 world, national state, developed underdeveloped, post- anti- high income, low income central marginal eco abuse, green economy,...). Find the right lenses to identify who is affecting and who is affected.
  • We recognize that poor and other marginalized groups in the Global North are also environmentally disadvantaged in the Global South.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Social security and pensions

How to secure pensions in a degrowth society? How to deal with potential inter-generational conflicts?

Proposals for the transition
  1. Need to develop risk sharing systems for saving and financing for the transition.
  2. Progressive taxation system focused on income (above maximum income 100% tax) and green taxes for increased pension funding as is required.
Proposals for final aim
  1. Happiness of people.
  2. An equalitarian society where social security is not needed, i.e. everybody can satisfy their basic needs with basic income (basic income is not necessarily money).


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Human nature and degrowth

What do we know from evolutionary biology, anthropology, cultural studies and sociology about human nature that is relevant to degrowth?

  • Human beings have biological, emotional, intellectual and spiritual potentials, and different cultures realize them differently. The social, political and economic conditions which people live in shape their values and behaviors.
  • Humans seem to tend to act 'short-term', but now with humankind facing pressing ecological limits, there is now a need to create institutions fostering us to feel, think and act more long-term (i.e. within ecological limits).
  • In the context of degrowth, it is imperative to draw upon and integrate research including but not limited to anthropology, happiness studies, experimental economics, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience for transcending the concept of homo economicus. Such research into human nature would enable us to better understand how to reshape these conditions in order to favor those values and behaviors which are socially and environmentally benign - for example to better distinguish between real needs and illusory needs/satisfiers.
  • We propose to support existing and creating new experimental spaces, i.e. communities experimenting with degrowth at a local scale to investigate in practice how best to satisfy the basic needs for sharing, creating and mutual esteeming.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


New (macro)economic models for degrowth

Can we model and simulate non or de-growth economic pathways and how?

  • Modelling degrowth using various economic tools can provide useful insights.
  • Important aspects to consider and integrate in new models on degrowth are:
    • Work time reduction: investigate the potential labour income and employment benefits.
    • Explicit representation of: resources constraints, absolute scarcity in physical flows and strong sustainability principle (critical resources).
    • Stability of the system when contracting (is it predictable?).
    • Variations in the financial system/institutions and interest rates.
    • Diversity of scales is needed for degrowth models (international, national, regional, local)
    • Changing the definition of work, how to incorporate unpaid work?
    • Complexity in modelling macro-micro relationship. How to incorporate the micro level in macro models on degrowth?
    • The increase of the marginal utility stemming from redistribution and increasing equalities.
    • Non-community goods.
  • Degrowth models can be useful for investigating possible scenarios for the welfare state and social services in the context of degrowth.
  • Not so much disagreement between participants.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Indicators for degrowth

Do we need to measure progress towards sustainable degrowth and if so, how?

  • Indicators should be chosen in order to favor reduction of resource use as well as waste and emissions within ecological limits while maintaining and enhancing quality of life.
What to measure
  • environmental as well as social indicators (with economic ones part of the latter).
  • qualitative and quantitative aspects.
  • objective and subjective indicators.
What to consider
  • bottom-up and deliberative approach.
  • indicators for communication and indicators for analysis.
  • consumption and production aspects.
  • avoid reinventing the wheel but make use of available (SD, i.e. sustainable development) indicators where appropriate.
  • avoid getting dominated by what is already measured but consider first what to measure.


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Economic degrowth and the Steady state

How can the two proposals and communities cooperate more? Which are the differences and similarities?

Steady State (StSt) and Joint Research
  • How much larger than optimal scale is the natural sustainable scale, and at which one politicking should be directed.
  • Study the optimal slope / feasible range of degrowth slopes, for North as opposed to South
  • Collaborate to advance international diplomacy for North/South convergence in global ecological footprint / carrying capacity.
  • Look at how StSt deals with interventions/shocks/group struggles that cause shifts off a StSt path.
  • Unite macroeconomic modelling of StSt and ecological economics, endorsing key publications
  • Joint investigation of existing international cases of economies that are not growing, i.e.: Japan, Cuba
  • Joint StSt / D (degrowth) publications in journals, for policy briefs, conferences
Policy
  • D and StSt could jointly campaign to Green parties, international forums/orgs, with shared slogans, such as "less is more".
  • Initiate a degrowth initiative at CASSE.
Disagreement
  • New terminology: A-growth; Earth economics; Degrowth plus?; Décroissance...


Take part in this degrowth proposal. Feel free to edit this section!


Reference

"Working group results", Second International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, June 2010.

See also

Retrieved from "http://degrowthpedia.org/index.php?title=Working_groups_Barcelona_2010"