{"id":1132,"date":"2025-10-02T04:02:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/visualising-degrowth\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:02:59","slug":"visualising-degrowth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/global-green-economics\/visualising-degrowth\/","title":{"rendered":"Visualising Degrowth"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content column wide left blog_post content view\" id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"edit image\">\n\t<\/div>\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<div class=\"share\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    var addthis_config = {\n        ui_language = 'en'\n    }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis sharing\">\n\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style\" addthis:title=\"Visualising degrowth\">\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_twitter\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_pinterest_share\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_preferred_4\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_compact\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style\"><\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_config = data_track_addressbar;<\/script><br \/>\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"addthis article_options\">\n\t\t<!-- \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/mandrill\/subscription\/add\/6334\/6389\">Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t -->\n    \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVisualising degrowth<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubDate\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/experts-and-authors\/stoddard-louise\/\">Louise Stoddard<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t28 March 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">I have had some trouble visualising what a degrowth future could actually look like. Yesterday Richard Register from the NGO<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ecocitybuilders.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">&nbsp;EcoCity Builders<\/a>, helped me out. The title of the session was \u2018making it real. Practical transformations towards degrowth\u2019. \u2018Cities are the foundation of the ecological system\u2019 said Richard as he embarked upon a fantastical tour of alternative city images from around the world. Inspired by the work of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paolo_Soleri\" target=\"_blank\">Paolo Soleri<\/a>, who has designed and built an alternative model for a city Arcosanti in Arazona. Richard has travelled the world photographing and documenting examples of good and bad city design and developed his own theories of how we should collectively live together in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The problem is the distance over which cities spread. It\u2019s a case of \u2018auto kind versus mankind\u2019. So would a greener car help? No, says Richard, that would just perpetuate the problem. It\u2019s a psychological issue, we are very attached to cars. The amount of land that it takes to grow one car tank of bio fuel could feed a person for one year. Public transport can utilise the same power directly from power plants that cars have to carry in heavy batteries. Bicycle highways can move people around cities faster and roof top gardens can grow us food. Food production in cities need to be increased and more green spaces. Such as Hundertwasser haus in Vienna Austria (see photo) where roof top greenery is grown over eleven stories of public housing including a school and a dentist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The key issues, he argues are agricultural systems (we eat too much of the wrong things such as meat that takes up a lot of land) other issues connected to the built infrastructure and sprawling cities must be dealt with in addition to population \u2013 we need to seriously look at family planning and reducing the mass of human beings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Later over another vegetarian meal prepared in the courtyard of the university Richard explained the difficulties of his job. Many people are interested in the concept of sustainable cities, they think that the idea is great but as soon as it involves changing behaviours or giving up cars attitudes change. It\u2019s a case of NIMBY- ism (not in my back yard) but also a fear of facing up to reality. \u2018It\u2019s really frustrating said Richard \u2018because the solutions are in many cases extremely attractive but it is only now that the threat of climate change is very real, that we are even starting to look at them\u2019 As Richard headed off to his next session and I joined the queue for washing up dishes and felt like i had just met the first person at this conference who had really succeeded in selling me a vision of what the future could look like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Back in this morning\u2019s panel another vision of ideal living was being presented by freelance Ecologist Debal Deb, whose presentation on lessons from pre industrialised societies caused some controversy. Another very visual presentation peppered with songs &#8211; \u2018imagine there\u2019s no heaven\u2019, \u2018power to the people\u2019. Debal described indigenous groups in India who were preserving natural areas and species as an integral part of their culture. Sacred habitats, groves and animals meant that the natural environment was flourishing. He also highlighted the principle of hunting and gathering only what was entirely necessary as a lesson transferable to degrowth theory. The problem with industrialised society, Debal argues, is that it has no community memory, no lessons passed down through the generations which value the natural environment around us. Discussions about the economy never take into account \u2018existence value\u2019 \u2013 that something is valued just because it exists, trees, rivers etc. We all give them a positive value, but this is impossible to measure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Following this a few members of the audience questioned his view of the \u2018Nobel savage\u2019 and criticised him for over romanticising indigenous approaches highlighting that various tribes had wiped out species from over hunting in the past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">I agree that it is good to question indigenous knowledge, but I have been quite overwhelmed at this conference by the number of people and presentations talking about its value and time and time again the benefits of local knowledge have been cited as something which benefits future generations and the planet. But I would like to know how this can realistically be transferred into societies that know little about its values. How do you incorporate indigenous knowledge into western societies?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"disqus_content\">\n\t\t\t<a name=\"comments\" id=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_shortname = 'broker'; \/\/ required: replace example with your forum shortname\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_identifier = '4859';\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tfunction trackComment(comment)\n\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tfunction disqus_config() {\n\t\t\t\t\tthis.callbacks.onNewComment = [function() { \n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t\t}];\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t(function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tvar dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text\/javascript'; dsq.async = true;\n\t\t\t\t\tdsq.src = '\/\/' + disqus_shortname + 'https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/blogs\/global-green-economics\/.disqus.com\/embed.js';\n\t\t\t\t\t(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);\n\t\t\t\t})();\n\t\t\t<\/script><br \/>\n\t\t\t<!--\n\t\t\t<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\/?ref_noscript\">comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/noscript>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\" class=\"dsq-brlink\">comments powered by <span class=\"logo-disqus\">Disqus<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t-->\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visualising degrowth Louise Stoddard | 28 March 2025 I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_2.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1132","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Visualising degrowth \/ Global green economics \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have had some trouble visualising what a degrowth future could actually look like. Yesterday Richard Register from the NGO&amp;nbsp;EcoCity Builders, helped me out. The title of the session was \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmaking it real. Practical transformations towards degrowth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCities are the foundation of the ecological system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Richard as he embarked upon a fantastical tour of alternative city images from around the world. 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Yesterday Richard Register from the NGO&amp;nbsp;EcoCity Builders, helped me out. The title of the session was \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmaking it real. Practical transformations towards degrowth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCities are the foundation of the ecological system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Richard as he embarked upon a fantastical tour of alternative city images from around the world. Inspired by the work of Paolo Soleri, who has designed and built an alternative model fo...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/global-green-economics\/visualising-degrowth\/","og_type":"article","og_title":"Visualising degrowth \/ Global green economics \/ Blogs - The Broker","og_description":"I have had some trouble visualising what a degrowth future could actually look like. Yesterday Richard Register from the NGO&amp;nbsp;EcoCity Builders, helped me out. The title of the session was \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmaking it real. Practical transformations towards degrowth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCities are the foundation of the ecological system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Richard as he embarked upon a fantastical tour of alternative city images from around the world. 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