A global on-line symposium of the International Degrowth Network and the International Society for Ecological Economics.
September 1 to September 4th, 2020, University of Manchester.
The sessions will be in the afternoons. All times below are British Standard Times, click here to convert time.
Join us for this symposium over four days. We’ll be considering the implications of the global Covid-19 pandemic for economy and livelihoods. The Covid-19 pandemic and responses to it have had deeply unequal impacts on lives, livelihoods and well-being across race, gender and class. At the same time it has opened up the space for new possibilities for building alternative livelihoods and economies that can take us beyond a capitalist economy that requires ever expanding growth. Will we go back to business as usual with all the ecological, social and economic risks that will bring or take the path towards a new kind of economy that provides for human needs of all while restoring and protecting the natural world that we all depend on?
Provisional outline programme
Tuesday 1st September
12.00-14.00
Session 1: Introduction to ecological economics and degrowth.
What are degrowth and ecological economics and how can they help us think and work for a different future, post Covid?
- Introduction: Rationale of the roundtable by Joshua Farley and Federico Demaria Would an alliance between ecological economics and degrowth help both communities achieve their shared goals? Why or why not? If yes, how do we strengthen it?
- Speakers
- Ecological economics: Bina Agarwal (Confirmed), Julia Steinberger (Confirmed) and Emanuele Campiglio (TBC)
- Degrowth (Confirmed): Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, Ksenija Hanacek, Matthias Schmelzer
14.30-16.30
Session 2: Gender, livelihood and the impact of Covid .
This session is organized by the Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance (FaDA). It contains intersectional feminist reflections on Covid-19 and the politics of social reproduction, the Care Income, and the politics of care and commons in a context of ecological crisis. After a brief introduction to FaDA by Corinna Dengler, who hosts this session alongside Katy Wiese, we are looking forward to mini-inputs (7-10 minutes) by:
- Anna Saave on the pandemic as an opening for a care-full radical transformation;
- Susan Paulson on Covid-19, care & masculinities;
- Selma James and Nina López from the Global Women’s Strike on the Care Income; and
- Manuela Zechner on the politics of care and commons in a context of ecological crisis.
Following these inputs, there will be time to discuss the question how care can be organized in a degrowth society that strives for both intersectional gender and environmental justice first amongst the panelists and later on with the audience.
16.45-17.30
Session 3: Post COVID-19 challenges and options for adjusting Africa’s strategic vision and policy practice in pursuit of the SDGs (exact title TBD).
- Rashid Hassan, 2020 Boulding Prize Winner
Wednesday September 2nd
Sessions 4 and 5: Indigenous and Black communities and the impact of Covid (12.00-14.00 and 14.30-16.30).
This session will be drawn from members of indigenous and black communities. Themes will include: consideration of the impact of Covid, environmental injustices and the new authoritarianism on black and indigenous communities; perspectives on creating and strengthening social and economic alternatives.
12.00-14.00
Session 4
Confirmed speakers
- Ailton Krenak (Brazil)
- Felipe Milanez (Brazil)
- Zulma Zamora (Ecuador)
14.30-16.30
Session 5
Confirmed speakers
- Manuel May (Mexico)
- Annie Moon (Navajo Nation)
- Kevin Williams (Black American)
Further speakers to be confirmed
Invited moderator: Carolyn Finney
Thursday September 3rd
12.00-14.00
Session 6: Class, livelihoods and alternative production
This session will consider the impact of Covid and an ecological economy after Covid through class and livelihood. It will draw on movements by labour to shift to alternative systems of production. How can production be redirected in more democratic ways to meet human needs? It will draw on the experience of the Lucas Plan, applying the lessons to the present context.
Confirmed speakers
- Hilary Wainwright (editor of Red Pepper)
- Phil Asquith (Lucas Workers Combine)
- Mick Cooney (Lucas Workers Combine)
Further speakers to be confirmed
14.30-16.30
Session 7: Reflections: Making change happen
This session will reflect on the week’s colloquium discussions. The panel will be drawn from authors of recent books on degrowth and ecological economics. Themes might include: strategies and policies; incumbent interests and power; political mobilisation; responding to the new authoritarianism; social movements.
Confirmed speakers
- Vincent Liegey
- Susan Paulson
- Neera Singh
Further speakers to be confirmed
Friday September 4th
Interventions from the Arts
12.00-14.00
Session 8: Decentralising Political Economies
Decentralizing Political Economies is an open-source research platform launching in September 2020. Set up as a long-term collaboration between The City Lab at Liverpool John Moores University, the Whitworth Art Gallery and The Association of Arte Útil, it explores the idea of usership in art through the implementation of real-world 1:1 scale projects in which artworks are themselves open-ended and functioning projects in the real world.
This session will introduce notions of ‘usership’ and the ‘constituent-led’ in art and art institutions. In discussion with artist Owen Griffiths, whose recent projects include a community growing garden, the session will consider alternative modes of ownership and rethinking livelihood in the context of civic space and urban landscapes.
Speakers:
- Poppy Bowers (The Whitworth, The University of Manchester)
- John Byrne (Liverpool John Moores University, School of Art and Design/City Lab)
- Owen Griffiths (Owen Griffiths Studio)
- Alessandra Saviotti (Asociación de Arte Util)
