The 9th International Degrowth Conference will take place from August 29 to September 2 2023 in Zagreb, under the title "Planet, People, Care: It Spells Degrowth"!
A modelling tool for a sustainable future
Degrowth is a social movement and a conceptual framework which repoliticizes the development debate, currently overwhelmed by the idiom of economics. The degrowth movement and theory are attempts to reinterpret the fundamentally untenable position of modern society, and a call to build imaginaries and conceptual frameworks suitable for a radical shift towards sustainability. It is about sustainability in the physical and social sense; not just sustainability that provides enough energy and food for all people on the planet, but sustainability that describes a life worth living for everyone.
Public services such as water supply, electricity and transport are key to environmental sustainability, as well as the social inclusion of citizens. These services are often provided by inefficient and corrupt public companies and institutions that are fully under the control of political parties and mainly serve private interests rather than the public one. As an alternative, numerous agents advocate privatization, realized through direct sale of public companies, concessions or public-private partnerships, but this gives the private businesses a monopoly that allows them to maximize profits at the expense of public interest. IPE explores models of democratization of public services in order to correct the shortcomings of public management and prevent the privatization of public services.
The Junior Research Fellowship is a paid six-month position for young researchers
