Giorgos Kallis, Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology in Barcelona and R&D member is going to give a talk on Degrowth at the University of California, Berkeley, on March 13th.
“In this presentation I will develop two arguments. First, that economic growth is not and should not be the answer to the crisis. Evidence will be given to support the claims that global economic growth is ecologically unsustainable, and that in the long-term growth in advanced European or American economies may not even be possible. Second, I will argue that there are alternatives to growth and that we need to study them and understand them better. I will discuss why and how growth remains a core objective of most nations and then consider institutions that can decouple prosperity from growth.
I will reflect on community initiatives that autonomously attempt to escape the growth economy. I call degrowth the vision of economies that are socially and ecologically sustainable and do not grow or care to grow. Before concluding, I will engage with the difficult question of the political relevance of all this and scenarios of political change.”
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