GAP day 2 (summary-questions)

 a.     How should the issues of “resources and extraction” be approached from the core of the degrowth proposal and perspective?

b.     How can the hegemony of developmentalism and extractivism in the global South and the global North be questioned? And what is the role of the DG proposal in the global North in this?

c.      How can the experiences of struggles and proposals of the global South contribute to degrowth debates and practices in the global North?

Transition: mid-term; renewables

Consent:

(a) to abandon necessity of EXT … how … long run

(b) dialogue with global South; producing alternatives in common, beyond solidarity

Open questions:

(c) scale issues; alternatives

(d) what is the degrowth perspective?

1st step … to look at proposals yesterday (we propose a systematization)

2nd step: to complement (not too much!)

3rd step: how to continue? We propose to agree on some issues and discuss them in sub-groups; then plenary

4th step: to make more precise to refer to existing experiences, where are commonalities & differences?

1. 1.       Methodologically / perspectives

a)      Regulation & Scale

b)      To make resource flows for final products more visible

c)        Steps necessary toward implementation & strengthening of necessary institutional arrangements (E-Transparency-promote at local level)

d)      Analyze the feasibility of the proposals: consider power relations and possible strategies to achieve the aims

2)      Premises / principles

a)      How do we abandon the extractivist logic? What alternatives are there for extractivist economies … under which conditions EXT takes place? How to change politics promoting EXT?

b)      North South dialogue; logic of EXT goes to the weakest points … need to learn from each other

Abandon in the mid-term the necessity to extract (for workers, states etc.)? HOW? - To define democratically the places where to extract fossil fuels, minerals at a minimum. – Context specific and going hand in hand with democratization; - Participation, self-government

SCALE: dependency of the local; how to change international dynamics?

c) We should not antagonize or idealize an alternative => take into consideration the differences in every scenario

d) Rethinking Technology

- Sufficiency (do we need cars, etc. …)

- How do we produce them (…sustainable, …)

Ex.: Repoliticize Renewable Energies (not because fossil fuels are better BUT because renewable energies also depend on extraction)

Technology transfer

Renewable energies

e)      To question manipulative and political power of big corporations

Experience in Ecuador: induction heater subsidied by state in order to lower use of liquefied gas;

In North: obsession for cheap stuff

3)      Campaigns / action:

a)      Global conference on resource extractivism and alternatives

b)      Free public transport

c)       “Naming and shaming” of popular brands (e.g. Apple) for negative practices in the supply chain (fair stuff CONFLIFTS with degrowth?)

d)      To counter planned obsolescence

1. Technology
2. Lifestyle
3. => course of extractive logic

e)      Introducing resource issues into trade unions/ job issues (RSA (?), one million climate jobs)

f)       Hegemonizing degrowth

1. more presence in mainstream media
2. broad educational campaigns
3. research (more public)

4)      Networking / knowledge flows

a)      Good information network => education of affected people

b)      Trans-disciplinary education: Engage engineers with socio-economic results

5)      Knowledge production / research

a)      Identify dependency structures and find ways to avoid/ change it

b)      Mapping of resistance – systematize (cf. EJOLT project)

c)       Research in “cleaner” and “greener” technologies/alternatives (do not let us be greenwashed)

d)      To look at who is benefitting with the renewable energies (e.g.). For what?

Open the ecological to other dimensions