The supply chain crisis and its root cause, the end of cheap energy, prove that the constant growth paradigm advocated by capitalism is a pipe dream. We need to find a new way of producing, consuming and interacting on a planet with finite resources. Alternatives are already on the table. We just have to start making them a reality.
| Duration: | 1 hour 30 minutes |
We are facing enormous economic, social and environmental challenges to which the existing model offers no solutions. The model based on continuous growth has an expiry date, and it’s getting closer. It simply does not work. The signs are everywhere. But the prevailing message is still that growth is the only way to build prosperous societies. De-growth or post-growth proposals are confined to small areas, silenced in the mass media and avoided in political circles.
Expanding the debate on the economic model and getting society to gradually embrace the idea of non-growth is no easy feat. The challenge is to think of the medium and long term and envision a decent future for everyone, where we can dispense with the “every man for himself” mentality. Citizens should have the power to choose between planned, fair, equitable de-growth and the inevitable alternative: a de-growth derived from the collapse of the current system, with particularly harsh consequences for the most vulnerable.
Such a weighty matter merits profound reflection, and to help us we have two prestigious individuals who have dedicated their lives to investigating the environmental crisis and alternatives to the existing economic system.
Yayo Herrero and Tim Jackson will talk about the post-growth society, inviting us to think long and hard about what kind of model we want to build.
- Yayo Herrero is a Spanish anthropologist, technical engineer, social educator, lecturer, ecofeminist activist and one of the most influential European researchers in the field of ecofeminism and ecosocialism. She has served as national coordinator of Ecologistas en Acción [Ecologists in Action] and managing director of FUHEM. She is currently a collaborating lecturer of the UNESCO Chair in Environmental Education and Sustainable Development at the UNED [National Distance Learning University]. She writes for eldiario.es and other media and has authored and co-authored numerous books, including La vida en el centro and La gran encrucijada.
- Tim Jackson is an ecological economist and writer. He currently directs the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), a research centre that aims to understand the economic, social and political dimensions of sustainable prosperity. Jackson has been at the forefront of international debates on sustainability for three decades, working with the UK government, the United Nations and the European Commission. Since 2018, he is the UK Food, Farming and Countryside Commissioner. He has authored many books, including the acclaimed Prosperity without Growth (2009). His most recent publication is Post Growth: Life after Capitalism (2021).
Organised by: La Casa Encendida with the collaboration of Fundación Transición Verde
The event will be held in a Zoom room. Once you have registered, and before each session, you will receive a confirmation email with the login details for the event. Simultaneous Spanish-English translation will be available for this session.
