This is a recording of an introductory course held at the 4th International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Leipzig in 2014. Federico Demaria from the French-Spanish organisation Research and Degrowth gives an introduction to degrowth. The presentation is based on the introduction to the book “Degrowth. A vocabulary for a new era.” and discusses definitions of degrowth, degrowth literature, debates, history and further research to be done.

The podcast exposes the concept and principles of co-operatives and the three main types of co-operatives: the consumer, credit and farmers buying and selling co-operatives. Furthermore, the history of the co-operative movement is presented. The authors draw the line from co-operatives to "degrowth" by arguing that these organisations discourage profit maximisation due to their ownership structure, their social purpose and their primacy of people over capital. The value of the members' co-operative share does not increase with the growth of a co-operative and it can not be used for speculation. Finally, the authors give examples for current co-operatives which empower (local) communities fostering social justice and environmentalism.

Robert Costanza briefly present various methods of environmental valuation, and talks about the changes in the global value of ecosystem services. He then introduces the major ecosystem services, and how different methods of valuation affect the preferred policies to address environmental issues.

Das Paradigma der ökologischen Ökonomie (Ecological Economics) stellt einen multidisziplinärern Ansatz dar, um ein ganzheitliches Bild der wachsenden ökologischen Probleme und ihrer Verflechtungen mit der Ökonomie zu erhalten. Sie beschäftigt sich mit Ressourcenknappheit, Umweltverschmutzung, Klimawandel, Nahrungsmittelknappheit oder sozialer Ungleichheit. Hierbei werden wissenschaftliche Disziplinen wie Ökologie, Ökonomie, Physik und zunehmend auch andere Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften (z.B. Soziologie oder Philosophie) herangezogen, mit dem Ziel, im ökonomischen Denken auch ökologische, ethische, politische, institutionelle und soziale Faktoren zu berücksichtigen. In diesem Zusammenhang werden nichtzuletzt deshalb auch wesentliche Grundannahmen der orthodoxen Ökonomie sehr kritisch betrachtet (Constanza 1989, Ayres 2008, Spash 2010).

"his course introduces the complex, but critical, concepts of sustainability and resilience and examines your impact on our environment."

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