In the persistent controversy over the necessity and possibility of ongoing economic growth for ecological sustainability and societal well-being, growth critics gather around Serge Latouche’s décroissance — degrowth. Being sort of a degrowth economist myself, I started to wonder about something you might wish to call “degrowth capitalism”. Having my disciplinary background in management science, it always appeared to me as a strange blind spot in the degrowth debate. The level of the firm is all too easily neglected, with the minor exceptions of social entrepreneurship.… Read more
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
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
Ecological Economics, Degrowth and Business: The Beginning of a Field
I am just returning from the 11th conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics, held this time in Oldenburg and Bremen in Germany. As always after conferences, my mind is swirling with ideas, images and notions of what I heard and with whom I talked. This blog entry is just a very raw and weakly reflected summary.
In general, the science of ecological economics had its successes as many of its concepts and reasoning found their way into mainstream economics and politics – e.g.… Read more