In early September 2014, about 4.000 scientists, activists and artists at the 4th International Conference on Degrowth sent out two messages. 1. Industrialized societies will change, either by disaster or by design. Accelerated resource exploitation and climate change can force societies into a...

Die Debatten und die sozialen Bewegungen zu Commons spielen im Spannungsfeld der Abwehr aktueller Enteignungen und der Entwicklung neuer Perspektiven. Den Commons wohnt eine ihnen eigene Kraft neben Markt und Staat und eine eigene Transformationskraft hin zu mehr Nachhaltigkeit inne. Sie stellen...

Der Forschungskontext der hier vorgelegten Untersuchung liegt innerhalb des in der sozial-ökologischen Forschung angesiedelten Forschungsverbundes Blockierter Wandel? Denk- und Handlungsräume für eine nachhaltige Regionalentwicklung. Der Untersuchungsraum ist die Region Muldemündung in...

This paper deals with what we consider to be key negative elements of current globalisation processes, and examines critically the dominance of the concept of global governance as a mode of control. This draws attention fi rstly to the fact that globalisation has an intentionally political...

Our perception of design is changing, for design today is no longer concerned only with aesthetics. Now the key factors are interdisciplinary competence and approaches to problem solving. Both politicians as well as businesses recognise design's hybridity and increasingly implement it as a...

This paper argues that the contemporary growth paradigm needs to be reconsidered on a micro level of consumption and product service-systems. This becomes necessary since a dynamic link between macro strategies and micro implementation of sustainable growth is missing up to date. Therefore,...

Economic performance of a country is generally being measured through GDP (Gross Domestic Product), a variable that has also become the de facto universal metric for standards of living. However, GDP does not properly account for social and environmental costs and benefits. It is also difficult...

The emphasis of the book lies in finding critical solutions to global climate change including chapters on environmental fiscal reform and unemployment in Spain, EU structural and cohesion policy and sustainable development, ecological tax reform in Europe and Asia, Australia’s carbon...

Northrhine-Westphalia (NRW) is the largest land of the Federal Republic of Germany. Until the 1970ies the Ruhr-area with a population of about 12 million people and a strong coal, steel and chemical industry had been plagued with severe pollution. In the 1970ies environmental protection had...