Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

The degrowth transition requires the transgression of the existing hierarchies and hegemonies, and the radical transformation of many (or most) of our existing institutions. Hierarchies and institutions of knowledge production are no exception. The present paper focuses on universities, and the potential role they could play in a degrowth transition. We particularly focus on university community engagement (UCE), which we conceptualize as a mutually beneficial cooperation between the university and various further actors alongside a social justice agenda.
At present, universities are under the influence of multiple institutional logics, which results in the coexistence of multiple, and often conflicting priorities, identities and approaches. Universities, when reaching out to societal actors, mostly operate alongside an “economic development” or a utilitarian agenda. However, there are also examples for pursuing social justice or environmental sustainability objectives; aiming at the empowerment of marginalized actors.
Our research question is “how to find and institutionalize spaces for social justice oriented UCE at universities”? We demonstrate and critically (self-)reflect on the social justice orientated UCE processes that we created (or contributed to) at the University of Szeged Hungary, Faculty of Economics Research Centre – including participatory action research and ecooperative research, service learning and the furthering of equal opportunities at the Faculty. We use these bottom-up processes to examine the dynamics of organizational institutionalization of UCE. Our analysis is based on auto-ethnography and interviews conducted with civil society partners and colleagues.

Info

Day: 2023-08-30
Start time: 16:30
Duration: 00:15
Room: ZV-8-10
Type: Paper Presentation
Theme: Resilience building through degrowth

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