Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

Degrowth's call for downscaling of production and consumption in high-income countries aligns with the call of the Circular Economy (CE) for a reduced material footprint and increased circularity. However, the CE often problematically frames 'waste' as the newest resource for commodity production that will ultimately bring about ‘green growth’ through decoupling in high-income countries. Although critical literature has already identified gaps, contradictions and challenges regarding ecological, physical and socio-political questions, there is little research on existing and tangible practices that showcase ways to establish new material cultures that do not reproduce commodification and productivism.

In order to study examples of such concrete practices, our research adopts the Diverse Economies (DE) framework (which degrowth extensively builds on). DE enables a non-capitalocentric reading of the (circular) economy, highlighting diverse expressions of economic practice and their transformative potential. Specifically, through extensive and immersive empirical research with ten members / enterprises in a maker cooperative in Belgium, we aimed to inventory various formal and informal discard management practices and relate them to the cooperative's ethical charter as well as the ethical 'coordinates' outlined in DE scholarship. One of the key observations was that economic and social life were not seen as separate spheres: discard management was predominantly embedded in social ties – not the other way around – and care, creative conviviality and reciprocity appeared to be core features of this social fabric.

This paper conceptually and empirically contributes to both the CE and heterodox economic literatures, by inventorying tangible examples of more diverse and post-capitalist forms of circular economies.

Info

Day: 2023-08-30
Start time: 12:00
Duration: 00:15
Room: ZV-8-1
Type: Paper Presentation
Theme: Alternative economies

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