Category: Conferences

Posted on

Technology Beyond Growth – The Role of Technology in the Postgrowth Economy

Placing the notion of technology within a postgrowth setting is like introducing Conchita Wurst to a Vatican congregation. Not any congregation, but the Papal conclave. Not as a surprise guest to cheer everyone up, but as a serious proposal for the next Holy Father – or in this case: the Holy Trinity of the one, the other, and both. Technology? Are you sure? Technology is either regarded as the dominant means to follow the futile dream of decoupling economic activity from ecological impact thus producing »green« growth – and thus cementing the capitalist, growth-oriented machine, responsible for environmental degradation, productivity increase and workers exploitation, acting as the materialist »perpetuum mobile« spewing out one gadget after the other in order to keep us fixed in our roles as mindless consumers, feeling ever more hollow down to our human core.… Read more

Posted on

Lessons from Gothenburg

After returning from the 6th Lifecycle Management Conference in Gothenburg, where I delivered one of the keynotes dedicated to “Sustainability Beyond Growth”, I noticed that some of the talks and topics really stuck with me. Especially two presentations remain notable. One was from Danone and their new tools for calculating their Carbon Footprint in the supply chain. With their yoghurts they can now see perfectly clear that the “original producers” aka “the cows” are responsible for most of it.… Read more

Posted on

Management’s undecidable questions and its trivial answers?

After participating in this year’s Academy of Management Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the planet’s largest professional body of management scholars, I gained some puzzling insights to the profound problems of the field. Of course this is mainly due to my distorted worldview I inherit from Heinz von Foerster, Francisco Varela and Niklas Luhmann. However it might be just as valid as any other, and maybe even more so as it stems from a kind of reasoning that embraces paradox rather than run away from it.… Read more

Posted on

17th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference

It is the final day of the 17th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference in New York City and I am trying to get the mixed soup in my head together. The first day was really a shock, as Nina Fedoroff was seriously advocating genetic modified organisms as the future hope for sustainable agriculture. In a similar, although more balanced vein, Klaus Lackner argued for clean energy. Now that might at first not look like a bad thing, and I would surely love to see heavy investment in it.… Read more

Posted on

Economy without Growth

Again I am returning home from a conference, this time hosted by the German Association for Ecological Economics (Vereinigung für Ökologische Ökonomie VÖÖ) in Freiburg. The general theme was dedicated to an economy without growth (Wirtschaft ohne Wachstum). The conference was organized as an extended workshop, with an input keynote by Peter Finke and Niko Paech, a World Café do gather comments on the input, and an Open Space with six corners with different topics. I co-hosted a corner with Susanne Hartard on Innovation and Business.… Read more