Decreixement sostenible : beneficiós ecològica i econòmicament

L'edició mensual del "Journal of Cleaner Production", una publicació internacional líder sobre innovació tecnològica i industrial, publica els resultats d'un estudi coordinat per Giorgos Kallis, François Schneider i Joan Martínez Alier, investigadors de l'Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) de la UAB. La publicació, que inclou 15 articles de reconeguts economistes, sociòlegs i experts en medi ambient, reflecteix la idea de que un "decreixement sostenible", per exemple una reducció equitativa de la producció i del consum, milloraria les condicions ambientals i el benestar humà.La edición mensual del "Journal of Cleaner Production", una publicación internacional líder sobre innovación tecnológica e industrial, publica los resultados de un estudio coordinado por Giorgos Kallis, François Schneider y Joan Martínez Alier, investigadores del Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) de la UAB. La publicación, que incluye 15 artículos de reconocidos economistas, sociólogos y expertos en medio ambiente, refleja la idea de que un "decrecimiento sostenible", por ejemplo una reducción equitativa de la producción y del consumo, mejoraría las condiciones ambientales y el bienestar humano.This month's edition of the periodical "Journal of Cleaner Production", a leading international journal on industrial and technological innovation, publishes the results of a coordinated study organized by Giorgos Kallis, Francois Schneider and Joan Martinez-Alier from the ICTA at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). The publication, which involves 15 analytical and empirical articles from distinguished economists, social scientists and environmental scientists, reflects on the idea of "sustainable degrowth", i.e. an equitable downscaling of economic production and consumption that will improve environmental conditions while enhancing human well-being

Capitalism, socialism, degrowth : a rejoinder

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-055

The political ecology of deforestation. Notes on three contributions to the subject

This review essay introduces three recent contributions to the issue of deforestation from a political ecology perspective. The case studies examined, Western United States, Indonesia and India, exemplify the power relations and the distributional issues that surround the practices of forest management in these geographical contexts. Thus one common focus of the books is who benefits and who loses from the processes of environmental change induced by forest management.Aquest estat de la qüestió introdueix tres contribucions recents al tema de la desforestació utilitzant la perspectiva de l'ecologia política. Els casos d'estudi examinats, l'oest dels EUA, Indonèsia i l'Índia, palesen les relacions de poder i les qüestions distribucionals que envolten les pràctiques de gestió forestal en aquests tres contexts geogràfics. Un punt focal dels tres llibres és, doncs, qui se'n beneficia i qui hi perd pel que fa als processos de canvi ambiental generats per la gestió forestal.El presente estado de la cuestión introduce tres contribuciones recientes al tema de la deforestación utilizando la perspectiva de la ecología política. Los estudios de caso examinados, el oeste de los EEUU, Indonesia e India ejemplifican las relaciones de poder y las cuestiones distribucionales que rodean las prácticas de gestión forestal. Así, el nexo de unión de los tres libros es quién se beneficia y quién sale perdiendo en los procesos de cambio ambiental inducidos por la gestión forestal.Le présent état de la question propose trois contributions récentes sur l'étude de la déforestation selon la perspective de l'écologie politique. Les études de cas examinés, l'ouest des États Unis, l'Indonésie et l'Inde, fournissent des exemples sur les relations entre le pouvoir et les questions distributionnelles concernant les pratiques de gestion forestière. Ainsi, le point de concordance des trois ouvrages présente les bénéfices et les pertes au sein des processus de changements environnementaux liés à la gestion forestière

Limits, ecomodernism and degrowth

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICUnidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-

Fertile soil: The production of Prefigurative Territories by the Indignados movement in Barcelona

Social movements do not only protest and demand political change - they produce new spaces too. Why and how? If we understand this, we can appreciate better the specificity and potential of the last cycle of mobilizations involving the encampment of cities' squares. This paper shows how the Indignados movement in Barcelona evolved from symbolizing an alternative future in the square to constructing alternatives in the city after. We find that people in alternative projects re-appropriate and transform urban space because they want to live differently and produce a radically different city, now. We conceptualize these new spaces as "prefigurative territories", integrating the seemingly divergent anarchist theory of prefiguration with Lefebvre's Marxist theory of space production. Prefigurative projects have strategic horizons and struggle with conflicts when opening up. Against those charging the Indignados with a fetishization of the occupied square and a failure to achieve political goals, we argue for the continuing relevance of the movement as it moved from the production of differential, to the production of counter-spaces. Further research should investigate how these counter-spaces feed into processes of political change.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper

Interest-bearing loans and unpayable debts in slow-growing economies : Insights from ten historical cases

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MAltres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICUnder what circumstances are interest-bearing loans compatible with an economy without much growth? The question is becoming increasingly important given a tendency towards declining growth in industrialised economies and increasing evidence that continued growth is incompatible with environmental sustainability. Previous theoretical work suggests that when interest-bearing loans compound, this results in exponentially growing debts that are impossible to repay in the absence of economic growth. We here examine ten historical cases to assess support for this finding. We find that interest-bearing loans have typically resulted in unpayable debts in these non- and slow-growing economies. We further identify four broad category of measures to prevent or alleviate the problem of unpayable debts, and show how they have been employed in the past. Our Appendix compiles sources of debt regulation from across the world over five millennia

És el "Green Growth" possible?

El Dr. Jason Hickel (Goldsmiths, Universitat de Londres) i el professor Giorgos Kallis (ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) han publicat un article titulat "És el Green Growth o creixement verd possible?" a la revista New Political Economy. L'article examina com s'articula les polítiques del creixement verd en els principals informes del Banc Mundial, l'OCDE (Organització per la Cooperació i el Desenvolupament Econòmic) i el Programa de Medi Ambient de les Nacions Unides, i prova la teoria contra evidències empíriques i models de relació entre el PIB i les emissions de materials i CO2, tot desestimant polítiques de creixement verd per fer front a l'emergència ecològica.El Dr. Jason Hickel (Goldsmiths, Universitat de Londres) y el profesor Giorgos Kallis (ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) han publicado un artículo titulado "¿Es el Green Growth o crecimiento verde posible?" a la revista New Political Economy. El artículo examina cómo se articulan las políticas del crecimiento verde en los principales informes del Banco Mundial, OCDE (Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos) y el Programa de Medio Ambiente de las Naciones Unidas, y prueba la teoría contra las evidencias empíricas y modelos de relaciones entre el PIB y las emisiones de materiales y CO2, desestimando así políticas de crecimiento verde para hacer frente a la emergencia ecológica.Dr Jason Hickel (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Prof Giorgos Kallis (ICTA, Autonomous University of Barcelona) have published a paper titled "Is Green Growth Possible?" in the journal New Political Economy. The paper examines green growth theory as articulated in major reports by the World Bank, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and the UN Environment Programme, and tests the theory against extant empirical evidence and models of the relationship between GDP and both material footprint and CO2 emissions, dismissing this way green growth policies to deal with ecological emergency

Limits to fishing: the case for collective self-limitation illustrated with an example of small-scale fisheries in Catalonia

Is there a limit to the amount of fish that can be taken from the sea? This question echoes the concern of the broader environmental movement in asking: are there ‘limits to growth’? If the answer is ‘yes’, then what must be done to remain within sustainable limits? Fifty years after the publication of the landmark report Limits to Growth, new theories about limits highlight the importance of collective self-limitation, also in the context of fisheries management, in place of external, top-down determination and imposition of limits. This paper considers the shift in fisheries governance from regulating and establishing Maximum Sustainable Yields to collectively co-managing territories and ecosystems as symptomatic of a general turn from externally-imposed to self-imposed limitations. We show how perceptions and practices of limits are changing based on an ethnographic study of six small-scale fisheries co-management plans located off the Catalan coast in the Northwestern Mediterranean. The study evidences the challenges fishers face in attempting to define the limits of their agency to manage external forces that are often beyond their control. It concludes by arguing for the adoption of an ethos of collective self-limitation in fisheries governance to protect and benefit local communities and their environments