//ON HOLD// Call for Contributions: The Scottish Degrowth Commission

Covid-19 update: Sadly but understandably, the Degrowth Conference in Manchester had to be postponed to 2021. This means that we’re no longer accepting submissions for this session. We hope that we’ll be able to re-launch a new Call for Contributions sometime in the next few months. Thank you for your interest!

We are inviting proposals for contributions to Enough!’s session at the 7TH INTERNATIONAL DEGROWTH / 16TH INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS JOINT CONFERENCE: Building Alternative Livelihoods in times of ecological and political crisis, September 1 – 5, Manchester

Submission guidelines: We invite contributors based in Scotland, or with a close connection to Scotland, to submit 500 word abstracts and a short bio (<50 words) to [email protected] by May 10 [please note: extended deadline!]. Abstracts can be for academic papers, but we also encourage poetry, visual and creative formats.

Bursaries are available – please indicate if you would like Enough! Scotland to cover overland travel from Scotland/ within the UK, accommodation and conference fees to attend the Manchester conference.

Abstract: We invite presenters to become Degrowth Commissioners by realistically assessing projections for Scotland’s social, political and economic future. The Scottish Government’s ‘Sustainable Growth Commission’ calls for an “inter-generational economic renaissance”, but starts from the impossible premise that economic growth can be made sustainable. In a direct challenge to the orthodoxy of growth at all costs, the Scottish Degrowth Commission is seeking to explore the concepts of degrowth, deep adaptation-in-solidarity and related ideas and explore what they would mean in a Scottish context. In this session, we argue that in order to mobilise resources required to respond to the climate emergency according to principles of social and environmental justice, livelihoods will need to be reconfigured under different potential governance scenarios, taking into account Brexit and the case for Scottish independence.

We invite contributions around the following topics:

– Degrowth livelihoods and Just Transitions in Scotland

– The Scottish independence movement and lessons for degrowth: What have we learned? What’s left to learn?

– Don’t make Scotland great again – make it good enough!

– Indigenous livelihoods and post-development in Scotland: crofting, food security and appropriate technology

– Migration, Scottish identities and decolonisation in the context of socio-environmental breakdown

– Degrowth responses to Brexit in Scotland

– Decentralisation, bioregionalism, political autonomy and degrowth in Scotland

– Degrowth and the Glasgow Effect: learning from post-industrial communities

Format:

Our session will have up to three presentations followed by an in-depth discussion with presenters and audience.

Presenters will be invited to also contribute to our budding journal Less or COP26 alternative events happening in Glasgow.

Session conveners: Svenja Meyerricks and Mairi McFadyen, Enough! Scotland

Relevant reading:

Enough! Positioning Statement: https://enough.scot/positioning-statement/

Enough! Degrowth Commission: https://enough.scot/degrowth-commission/

International Degrowth Conference 2020, Manchester, September 1 – 5 https://www.degrowth.info/en/next-international-degrowth-conference-manchester-2020/

An Economy for Scotland That’s Better Than Growth? by Katherine Trebeck https://enough.scot/2019/06/30/an-economy-for-scotland-thats-better-than-growth/

Trebeck K and Williams J, 2019. The Economics of Arrival. Bristol, Policy Press

This Call for Contributions is also available to download in pdf format.

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