More information on Special Issue on Promises of growth and sustainability in the bioeconomy of the Journal for Sustainable Consumption and Production

In current debates about the future of modern societies, one concept is increasingly marshalled as providing an answer to multiple challenges: the bioeconomy. The dominant narrative makes the claim that shifting to a bioeconomy based on the flow of renewable energies and biological resources societies can achieve both: ‘green’ economic growth and a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and resources, thus building a sustainable future. 

The aim of this Special Issue is to shed light on the nexus of sustainability, technology and growth within the bioeconomy from multidisciplinary, critical and constructive perspectives. We invite empirical and/or conceptual contributions addressing but not limited to the following questions: 

• Can growth-based economies really be made sustainable by just basing them on biogenic instead of fossil materials and resources? 
• Do the bioeconomy and the innovations of modern biotechnology enable a decoupling of environmental throughput from GDP? 
• Would the transformation of modern societies towards post-fossil, bio-based economic activities need to involve an overcoming of unlimited economic growth? 
• What would political processes and bioeconomy implementation strategies have to look like in order to transform the economy in a democratic and participatory way?

The above mentioned Special Issue is a cooperation between Forschungszentrum Juelich as a topical editor (Sandra Venghaus) and the Junior Research Group flumen as guest editors (Dr. Dennis Eversberg, Dr. Martin Fritz, Lilian Pungas).

We would like to invite you to submit papers (various formats possible such as research and review articles, short communications). 

The deadline is June 30, 2021. 

Papers will be peer-reviewed and the aim is to have final papers accepted and sent to production by 30th November 2021, which should mean the special issue can be finalised by the end of the year/early 2022. All information you need as an author with this journal you can find here. 

Do not hesitate to write to us if you have any further questions. Also, we would be very grateful if you shared the call with any colleagues that might be interested.

Dr. Dennis Eversberg      dennis.eversberg@uni-jena.de

Dr. Martin Fritz                martin.fritz@uni-jena.de

Lilian Pungas                  lilian.pungas@uni-jena.de

„Empty Promises and self-fulfilling prophecies. Bioeconomy (and circular economy) from a critique of growth perspective” – that was the title of Jana Holz’ keynote, that she held in the online workshop “potentials of the concept of a circular economy“ on 24 March 2021.

The workshop was part of the discussion series “degrowth – vision of the future or an illusion?” organized by the AK Wien and Degrowth Vienna.

Jana Holz takes part in the 3rd International Forest Policy Meeting (IFPM3) (https://ifpm3.info/) on March 17 and 18, 2021. The event is organized by the Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg together with IUFRO Division 09.05.

In the panel “Global Forest Bioeconomy: Continuity or a Pathway to Transformations?” Jana gives a lecture on “Forest-based Bioeconomy in Finland: Extractivist Loopholes?“. She also contributes to the 3MT Competition (Three Minute Thesis Competition), where she will present the topic of her doctorate to a wide audience within three minutes. Here is more information about the 3MT competition idea.

He will present his paper „The Critique of Growth in Historical Context“. The workshop will run from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Please register here https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QQRtKHx2SFaYIU-0ovMGJw

Program:

‘The Limits to Certainty and the Metaphysics of Infinitude’ Nandita Badami (UC Irvine)
Discussants: Venus Bivar (York) and Kristoffer Ekberg (Chalmers)

‘Writing the History of Ecological Economic Thought’ Antoine Missemer (CIRED Paris) and Marco Paulo Vianna Franco (KLI)
Discussants: Julia Nordblad (Uppsala) and Matthias Schmelzer (Jena)

‘Critiques of Growth in Historical Context’ Matthias Schmelzer (Jena)
Discussants: Roman Gilmintinov (Duke) and Glenda Sluga (EUI)

„The Ecology of Economic Thought“ is a five-part online workshop of the Canada Program at Weatherhead Center of the Harvard University. See more https://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/canada_program/Ecology.

Lilian Pungas, 2021. “Caring dachas – Food self-provisioning in Eastern Europe through the lens of care”, in: Nelson, A., Edwards, F. (Ed.): Food for Degrowth. Perspectives and Practices. Routledge, London & New York, 59-74.

Abstract: The notions of care and stewardship are at the root of all practices concerning food production – from ploughing the soil and sowing, to harvesting, cooking, preserving and composting. Yet, in contrast to cooking, cultivating land is often not perceived as ‘classical’ care work. Instead, care is mostly framed as an interhuman activity concerned with human sustenance and reproduction and therefore, associated mostly with household work, raising children and taking care of the elderly (Waerness 1984; Jochimsen 2003). Given that care remains a rather marginalised category, my goal in this chapter is to reinforce and enrich the discourse on care in degrowth scholarship by demonstrating how food self-provisioning (FSP) in both urban and periurban areas is grounded in ideas of care and stewardship, not only as an interhuman act, but also in connection to the soil and surrounding environment. In this sense, caring means ‘reaching out to something other than the self’ (Tronto 1993, 102) implying a deep empathy with other (living) beings, as well as being followed by some form of action.

Drawing on four of Tronto’s (1993) expressions of care, I demonstrate that, despite seeming ‘irrational’ in economic terms, FSP is essentially a very rational act of care based on a deep understanding of interdependence and mutual vulnerability between humans and nonhuman nature (Gottschlich 2012). Care manifests as reciprocal ‘caring about’, ‘care-giving’ and ‘care-receiving’ with the surrounding environment, the gardener’s community and oneself. In this case study, I explore how notions of care are expressed in FSP, and how they can all be recognised as predominant intrinsic motives behind this practice. In contrast, I display how promises and narratives of industrial agriculture fall into Tronto’s fourth category (‘taking care of’) as rather ‘masculine’, ‘public’ and ‘loud’ manifestations of care. Tronto’s (2013) subsequent, fth, dimension of care (‘caring with’) constitutes a less hierarchical relationship as well as a complex interdependence between both counterparts (care-giver and care-receiver) so might provide an additional (potentially more appropriate) framework for analysing care in FSP practice. However, in this chapter the focus lies on the other four dimensions of care for the sake of nuanced analysis of specic aspects and motives of care practice with regard to FSP. 

The article is part of the miscenally: Nelson, A., Edwards, F. (Ed.), 2021. Food for Degrowth. Perspectives and Practices. Routledge, London & New York.

This collection breaks new ground by investigating applications of degrowth in a range of geographic, practical and theoretical contexts along the food chain. Degrowth challenges growth and advocates for everyday practices that limit socio-metabolic energy and material flows within planetary constraints. As such, the editors intend to map possibilities for food for degrowth to become established as a field of study.

International contributors offer a range of examples and possibilities to develop more sustainable, localised, resilient and healthy food systems using degrowth principles of sufficiency, frugal abundance, security, autonomy and conviviality. Chapters are clustered in parts that critically examine food for degrowth in spheres of the household, collectives, networks, and narratives of broader activism and discourses. Themes include broadening and deepening concepts of care in food provisioning and social contexts; critically applying appropriate technologies; appreciating and integrating indigenous perspectives; challenging notions of ‘waste’, ‘circular economies’ and commodification; and addressing the ever-present impacts of market logic framed by growth.

This book will be of greatest interest to students and scholars of critical food studies, sustainability studies, urban political ecology, geography, environmental studies such as environmental sociology, anthropology, ethnography, ecological economics and urban design and planning.

https://www.routledge.com/Food-for-Degrowth-Perspectives-and-Practices/Nelson-Edwards/p/book/9780367436469