Planting the seeds of degrowth in times of crisis – Examples from Greece – Part I

By Marula Tsagkari * At the same time that the degrowth movement was gaining ground in the public discourse, Greece, was living the most severe economic recession since the Second World War. In the Chinese language the word crisis is represented by two symbols. The first means danger and, the second, opportunity. We must look for …

Peter Bratsis on the Greek crisis: The materiality of power and the physics of change (Part II)

by Peter Bratsis * A fundamental lesson we have learned or relearned from the Greek crisis is that public opinion in itself is of little consequence and that any attempt to derail and undo existing modalities and articulations of political power need to disrupt the routines and activities that are constitutive of such power. The second part of …

Peter Bratsis on the Greek crisis: The materiality of power and the physics of change (Part I)

By Peter Bratsis * Societies are self-created from the ground up, political power has a materiality and momentum that can not easily be redirected or undone or wished away. But, at the same time, we are active in the creation of this power and are capable of transforming it precisely because of the ways that we ourselves constitute this …

Building alternative economies of food in a context of institutional violence

During a fieldwork interview with two new farmers engaged in agroecological production and alternative food networks in Bizkaia, a province of Euskadi (Basque Country), one said something like "all our young people are in jail". This was a striking comment, but not necessarily a surprising one. While walking through the territory of Euskadi it was common to …