Political ecology, Degrowth and the Green New Deal

This workshop was originally taught at the Summer Academy for Pluralist Economics 2021
Instructor: Riccardo Mastini

Module description

Qualification goals / Outcome:

After completing the module, participants should be able to analyse the concepts of degrowth, ecological unequal exchange, Green New Deal, and embeddedness by applying theories situated within the fields of academic research of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology.

Course content:

The first day of the workshop is intended to initiate students to the foundational concepts of ecological economics. Ecological economics is an ecological critique of economics, applying the energetics of life to the study of the economy. It also investigates the social distribution of environmental costs and benefits. It does so by deconstructing concepts that are taken for granted like “nature” or “the economy”, excavating their ideological origins.

Teaching methods:

Students will be given a reading list ahead of the start of the summer academy to help familiarize themselves with the key concepts that will be discussed. Each input session will be structured in the following way: 1-hour lecture followed by a 30-min discussion. Students are expected to develop a final presentation for the whole summer academy based on what the group will decide in the course of the first collaborative session.

Kind of module:

It is up to the programme coordinator whether this module is compulsory or elective. It is particularly suitable to be included in study programmes of economics, political science and/or finance. Depending on the prior knowledge of the students, this course is suitable for advanced study programmes as well.

Requirements for participation:

Students who are interested in attending this workshop should ideally have completed or being currently enrolled in a master's degree in either economics, anthropology, sociology, or PPE.

Requirements for granting credit points

Assessment pattern

Written exam containing open questions. Pass/fail

Module coordinator

The module is carried out by the Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik e.V. Responsible staff:
Janina Urban, M.Sc. and Anita Lehner, M.A.

Module teaching staff

Riccardo Mastini is a PhD candidate in Ecological Economics and Political Ecology at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is a member of the academic collective Research & Degrowth and of the international network Wellbeing Economy Alliance.

Reading List

• Is this Degrowth? Online Quiz: https://www.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=RzLRDsTr2Xg%3D
• Podcast introduction to degrowth and the Green New Deal: https://youtu.be/_nw5MdrvID4
• Federico Demaria debates with Paul De Grauwe about degrowth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAvClfH3Q8w
• Kallis, G. (2019). Socialism without growth. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 30(2), 189-206
• Hickel, J. (2019). Degrowth: a theory of radical abundance. real-world economics review, 87(87), 54-68: https://bit.ly/39pTNXF
• Kallis, G., Kostakis, V., Lange, S., Muraca, B., Paulson, S., & Schmelzer, M. (2018). Research on degrowth. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 43, 291-316
• Kallis, G. (2017). Radical dematerialization and degrowth. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 375(2095): https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2016.0383
• Demaria, F., Schneider, F., Sekulova, F., & Martinez-Alier, J. (2013). What is degrowth? From an activist slogan to a social movement. Environmental Values, 22(2), 191-215: https://bit.ly/39p5QnN
• A post-growth Green New Deal: http://unevenearth.org/2020/02/a-post-growth-green-new-deal/Europe's Green Deal is a tepid response to the climate crisis: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/environment/2019/12/europes-green-deal-tepid-response-climate-crisis
• Funding the Green New Deal: the evocation of Keynes: https://themoneyquestion.org/funding-the-green-new-deal-the-evocation-of-keynes/
• A Green New Deal Must Not Be Tied to Economic Growth: https://truthout.org/articles/a-green-new-deal-must-not-be-tied-to-economic-growth/
• Degrowth as a concrete utopia: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/degrowth-as-concrete-utopia/
• Degrowth: closing the global wealth divide: https://roarmag.org/essays/degrowth-closing-global-wealth-divide/
• A Sufficiency Vision for an Ecologically Constrained World: https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/a-sufficiency-vision-for-an-ecologically-constrained-world/
• Work in a World Without Growth: https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/work-in-a-world-without-growth/
• Degrowth: the case for a new economic paradigm: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/degrowth-case-for-constructing-new-economic-paradigm/
• Galvin, R., & Healy, N. (2020). The Green New Deal in the United States: What it is and how to pay for it. Energy Research & Social Science, 67, 101529: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629620301067
• Somerville, P., & Burton, M. (2019). Degrowth: A defence. New Left Review, 115: https://bit.ly/3hyxC4k
• McCarthy, J. (2015). A socioecological fix to capitalist crisis and climate change? The possibilities and limits of renewable energy. Environment and Planning A, 47(12), 2485-2502: https://bit.ly/2ZTziiS
• Plan, Mood, Battlefield - Reflections on the Green New Deal: https://www.viewpointmag.com/2019/05/16/plan-mood-battlefield-reflections-on-the-green-new-deal/
• Green New Deal for Europe Blueprint: https://report.gndforeurope.com/
• Sufficiency: Moving beyond the gospel of eco-efficiency (especially last chapter): https://www.foeeurope.org/sufficiency
• The Green New Deal’s Five Freedoms: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/green-new-deal-four-freedoms-fdr
• A Green New Deal to Win Back Our Future: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/green-new-deal-climate-change-policy
• With a Green New Deal, Here’s What the World Could Look Like for the Next Generation: https://theintercept.com/2018/12/05/green-new-deal-proposal-impacts/
• The Green New Deal explained: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/12/21/18144138/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez