Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

The paper builds on a 3-years research project about “Climate Park Steinhöfel” (Brandenburg, east Germany), beginning this spring. Climate Park Steinhöfel is one of Germany‘s biggest agro-solar-parc projects which, within the next few years, will devote 550 hectares of agricultural space to combined solar energy and agricultural production. Examining from a degrowth perspective the potentials and challenges of this development, the paper will explore the following questions: In which ways may the tax money and the Climate Bonus (that according to German law will be paid to the local community) be used to strengthen degrowth-oriented regional development, e.g., by installing a citizens’ budget? Which roles do networks of commons-oriented housing projects and intentional communities play in pracitizing transformational art, education, and community-supported agriculture in the region? Which role does the local citizens’ energy cooperative play in finding technical ways to use the energy produced locally, e.g., for a local heating network? How can a degrowth position be articulated in this structurally weak, post-socialist area with a high voting affinity for right wing populists parties, denying the fact of climate crisis altogether?
It also adresses questions of degrowth methodology: The author holds a post-doc position at a regional university for this project. She is also a decade-long degrowth activist as well as organizer and co-founder of a local housing project, devoting itself to anarchist regional development. How can we as scientists with a degrowth perspective find our way through these politically contested times without betraying our political, scientific and congenial communities?

Info

Day: 2023-08-30
Start time: 12:00
Duration: 00:15
Room: ZV-KC-Cres
Type: Paper Presentation
Theme: Technology and science for degrowth

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