Degrowth and Human Ecology
CHE designed and ran the successful short online course ‘Degrowth in Scotland: Degrowing the Economy, Regrowing Our Lives’ in 2020 and 2021 with our partners in Enough! Scotland. The course handbook is Creative Commons licensed and available as a pdf here.
This page contains information about the online short course run jointly by The Centre for Human Ecology and Enough! Scotland which introduced participants to the historic gains and problems of economic growth and the principles of degrowth and ecological economics. The course discussed different frameworks for an economics of radical sufficiency – meeting fundamental human needs and promoting new rhythms and ways of working for a more just and sustainable world. The course will also introduce exciting new ideas and projects which promote the flourishing of degrowth principles in a Scottish context.
COURSE OVERVIEW AND MATERIALS
Every session includes a short introduction to read before the live class alongside one or two fundamental introductory readings. A few further in-depth readings are included with each section. All materials are licensed under Creative Commons (CC) BY-NC-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Below you will find the relevant handbook section for each session uploaded as a pdf file.
Session 1: Economic Growth, its History, Gains & Problems
Link to Title Page, Contents, Introduction and Section 1 of the Handbook
Session 2: Introducing Degrowth Principles
Link to Section 2 of the Handbook
Session 3: Rhythms of Time and Work: Commoning Care
Link to Section 3 of the Handbook
Session 4: Degrowth in Scotland: Ideas and Practice
Link to Section 4 of the Handbook.
Session 5: Degrowth in Practice: Human Flourishing
Link to Section 5 of the Handbook.
Session 6: Participant Presentations
No Handbook Section
The course will not be assessed, although course participants will receive a certificate of completion from the Centre for Human Ecology. All participants will be asked to practically engage with the course material by forming peer learning groups and to undertake an inquiry of an area in their life and work which engages with principles of degrowth. They will be asked to present their findings back to the group in the last session.
Contributors: Lorenzo Velotti, Luke Devlin, Dr Mairi McFadyen, Martin Krobath & Dr Svenja Meyerricks. Lorenzo Velotti was involved in the postponed UK Degrowth Summer School 2020 and Martin Krobath has contributed teaching and learning to the European Degrowth Summer Schools.
