Society – Page 2 of 4 – André Reichel

2017/01/112019/06/13

Sustainability 4.0

tl;dr: Sustainability 4.0 implies the empowered co-creation of prosumers in order to re-shape economy and society towards social inclusiveness and ecological soundness.

[Update June 2019: published article on Sustainability 4.0 available now (in German)]

The combination of sustainability and digitalization for solving environmental, social and economic problems seems both promising as well as old hats. Most of us remember the 1980s and 1990s with their call for ecological modernization, not to be confused with the ecomodernists of today.… Read more

2015/05/292015/11/07

Progressive Degrowth

Degrowth is a conservative perspective on humanity’s future and thus always runs into serious acceptance problems when dealing with progressive proposals of “limitless” developments. What is needed is a reframing of these proposals as conservative and limiting our future while degrowth is presented as a “new progressivism”.

If you are an optimist regarding your life, technological opportunities and the general scheme of things, degrowth is hardly an attractive political-economical idea – less a philosophy you’d like to call your own.… Read more

2015/04/042015/11/07

Convivial Modernity

In my module on »Sustainable Development« at Karlshochschule International University I also teach sociological theories dealing with the natural environment. The other day my class and I were discussing »Risk Society« by Ulrich Beck among others. The idea behind it is that the old industrial society – modernity 1.0 – has given way to a different kind of modernity, one in which the production and distribution of risks has taken the place of wealth production and distribution.… Read more

2015/02/022015/02/02

Groundhog day in Greece: On the missed opportunity for setting degrowth on the political agenda

The electoral victory of SYRIZA in Greece has fueled imaginations on the European left for a departure of ‘no alternative’ austerity politics. As much as a return of more imaginative politics is desperately needed in order to revitalize European democracy and save it from too much technocratic post-politics, it is rather doubtful if there really is a true alternative from a postgrowth or degrowth perspective. When looking more closely at SYRIZA’s Thessaloniki program many elements can be found that have the name of John Maynard Keynes written all over them: cutting taxes on fuel and property, raising the tax threshold, reintroducing a 13th month pension for low income pensioners, a 3bn EUR employment program sought to create up to 300,000 new jobs, and an increase in the country’s minimum wage.… Read more

2014/12/23

Underneath our skin: the new economy beyond growth

This is a very rough transcript of an interview done with Justin Ritchie and Seth Moser-Katz from the Extraenvironmentalist, a great “podcast, blog and video series that explores the mindset of an outsider looking in on Earth” – and a way of thinking as they proclaim. The original podcast from which this transcript has been produced (by myself, so all errors are exclusively my fault) can be found on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/extraenvironmentalist/episode-83-1-andr-reichel-are

André Reichel (AR): If we want to restrict global climate change to about 2C we need emissions reductions in the range of 8 to 10 % per year.… Read more