The very first tweets of the opening talks by @EU_Commission and EU Parliament presidents at #BeyondGrowth conference show how politicians are still very on board with #growth and didn't (or refuse to) understand that the all point of a conference called #BeyondGrowth is to move away from growth, not trying to fix it.
btw, the conference is livestreamed here: https://www.beyond-growth-2023.eu/lecture/opening-plenary-limits-to-growth/
Now talking Sandrine Dixson-Declève, who finally is clarifying that the Club of Rome is not calling for a different growth, but for a different economic model tout court.
I really loved the passage: 'the only technology that can fix climate change is a time machine that can brings us back 50 years to allow us to make different decisions'
'People don't want #EconomicGrowth, they want #EconomicStability'
Sandrine Dixson-Declève (Club of Rome) open plenary talk at #BeyondGrowth
'Our economic system is fundamentally undemocratic' and 'it fails both ecologically and socially'
@jasonhickel
'Unemployment is an artificial #scarcity and it can be demolished'
@jasonhickel
'This is not the time for timid responses, it's the time for courage'
Amazing closing words of hope by @jasonhickel
Adelaide Charlier closing her speech drawing upon the clear historical reference on 'I have a dream' MLK speech, it's kind of powerful and sad at the same time, not sure I necessarily agree with it. Remarking however that we need to pass from dream to reality and policy.
Opening plenary just closed and here is a recap of what we've learned so far:
- politicians still cling to the hope of 'fixing growth' or 'different growth'
- the Club of Rome finally fully clarified that NO, they ARE NOT advocating for a different growth, but for a different economy
- environmental movement should embrace political and social discourse
- it's good to dream about a different future, but it's time to shift from dream to policies.
Of course there has been much more, I just underpinned the striking points for me. Again, the conference is completely livestreamed and free to be watched online here:
https://www.beyond-growth-2023.eu/
They also have a Slido for Q&A
https://app.sli.do/event/k8JKbRKfB71i3i9mGPu1ez/live/questions?m=mxrd0
I'll be following the Focus Panel 3 and 5, but will stop the live-tooting until the second plenary this afternoon (I'm on a PhD deadline tomorrow, be nice, please!)
Anyone is welcome to contribute to this thread posting other focus panels or even from the one I'm following. Use this thread as a collective space, but please avoid discussions and remember to be respectful. I reserve the right to filter posts that aren't in line with the thread
Panel 3 starts with a great intro from researcher Lebohang Liepollo Pheko, stating: 'My first name is activist, my surname is scholar'
the round of introductions closes wonderfully with Professor Raj Patel starting: 'I'm here because I'm curious about degrowth, and I am worried degrowth might be bullshit' if we don't address and discuss the profound problems of migration and ecofascism
Panel 3 - Ritu Verma 'You might have an oil spill and still have economic growth, but what about the environment?' - 'GDP is a colonial concept'
Panel 3 - Raj Patel: 'Italy in 2008 paid back Libia for her colonialist past' but this is only a very small part of the story of colonialism
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'We can stop calling people Vasco de Gama and Christopher Colombus as 'travelers''
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'The 'World' that has been constructed is a 'world' build by the plunders'
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'The notion of exporting - externalising - a problem (to poorer nations) has been the only modus operandi (by rich nation)' and let's not forget the 'militarisation of economic growth'
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'Can we please stop to call it 'developed or developing', 'rich or poor', they are Extractivist Economies.'
Panel 3 - @jasonhickel 'Catch up development by the Global South is impossible, it's like saying that if Amazon workers will work hard enough will catch up to Jeff Bezos'
Yep, the tech industry offers really a lot of concrete example of extractivism in case people need closer realities to relate to.
Panel 3 - Raj Patel: 'Capitalism is a way to avoid paying your bills through cheap labour, cheap care, cheap food, cheap energy, cheap money, and cheap lives'
'cheapening' the world is such an important and powerful concept
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'Beyond asking 'who is who', we should ask 'who is the 'we'''
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'Are we going to ungrowing the entitlement and the inequalities that dominate this part of the world'
So important that they are calling out that also degrowth can be constructed on colonialist values and world construct.
Panel 3 - Ritu Verma: 'There are important lessons in the South - ageism and the invisible work of women [not only in the household] that subsidises the economy'
Panel 3 - @jasonhickel 'Production is what we do, is our relationship with the living world and we should have a proper democratic discussion on what production means'
Panel 3 - @jasonhickel 'Growth critical ideas are the core of anticolonialist thinkers'
Debunking the myth that degrowth and post-growth are concept born just in the minds of white scholars
Panel 3 - Rita Verma: 'When we talking about wellbeing we talk about the a long sense of contentment' different from happiness which is a fleeting emotion on which GDP thrives
Nice to hear the 'buen vivir' philosophy being brought to the table
Panel 3 - Rita Verma: 'There are many approaches that claims to be beyond growth but they aren't. We need to conceptualise all the alternatives that are proposed'
Panel 3 - Rita Verma: 'We can't have the world economic order being dictated by economists and engineers'
Loving how she is emphasising the centrality of the cultural pillar of sustainability and the call for a transdisciplinary approach
Panel 3 - Raj Patel: 'Degrowth needs a place, and you need to fight for it' and 'What kind of EU do we want to engage with degrowth, it depends on what the EU is'
'We need to be materialist to avoid to engage in magical thinking'
Panel 3 - Raj Patel: 'If the care economy is bought by colonialism than I'm not particularly thrilled about it'
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'We all have indigeneity'
this was in the context of reforming language with more precise word like 'displaced communities', 'marginalised' and 'exploited'
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'Bear in mind that 'Human Rights' were constructed in a moment when part of the world were not even considered fully human'
'We need to recognised the problems we carry on with ourselves'
Panel 3 - @jasonhickel 'We need an Ecological Proletariat' built on alliances between students, environmentalists and political movements
Panel 3 - Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: 'There are ONG and aid and humanitarianism concepts that reproduce othering'
@alx
Also loved Raj Patel just now
“governments are the executive committee of the bourgoisie”
@alx
And #LiepolloPheko is just phenomenal. So much in what she said just now; so much to think with for figuring out what role #anthropology as a discipline can play in #Degrowth and #Transition - this is what i am really trying to work on just now
Alx 🐈
Pauline von Hellermann