Redefining Growth and Prosperity

Workshop initiated by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the UK Sustainable Development Commission

21 April 2009
at the Austrian Permanent Representation in Brussels

Invitation and Programme
Detailed workshop documentation

Rita Trattnigg from the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management welcomed more than 50 participants before the morning session started with two presentations given by Tim Jackson (SDC) and Friedrich Hinterberger (SERI).

Tim Jackson presented the UK Sustainable Development Commission’s report “Prosperity without growth”, followed by Friedrich Hinterberger who spoke about the Austrian project and the presentation of arguments “What kind of growth is sustainable?”.

Following, five invited workshop participants commented on both input papers:

• Doreen Fedrigo (EEB – European Environmental Bureau) found the similarities of both papers interesting, the idea of paradigm shift lies behind both of them. To her, three T’s are key: transition, translation, transformation.

• Oliver Zwirner (European Commission, DG Environment) focused on measurement activities “Beyond GDP” and strategies for a transition towards sustainability such as the need to reorganise work and the profitability of companies, to develop macroeconomic theory that links economy and ecology, and to design visions for all business/social groups.

• Michaela Moser (EAPN – European Anti Poverty Network) looked at the documents from two perspectives: realities of people experiencing poverty and EAPN’s 5 elements to fight poverty. She mentioned that all points were covered fairly reasonable in the reports.

• Gerhard Huemer (UEAPME – European Association of Craft and SMEs) often hears from SME’s that they simply want to hand their business over to their children/grandchildren. They are criticized by the EU for not being innovative, fast growing enough etc.

• Martin Sieker (EESC – European Economic and Social Committee) said he won’t comment because commenting means not agreeing and he agrees on absolutely everything. His key message was: Sustainable Development is about change, not damage control!

All this was framed by inspiring discussions.

The afternoon session started with two presentations on “Economic growth and economic crisis – is degrowth here to stay?”.

Gjalt Huppes (Leiden University) provided a historical analysis of growth and crisis, causes of growth, direct and indirect effects of crisis and prospects for degrowth after crisis – “Crisis, Growth and Degrowth: Coupling and Decoupling Mechanisms through Crisis?”.

Victor Anderson (SDC) commented highly interestingly on the SERI paper and especially on the question “Is another growth possible?”. He pointed out traps of decoupling on the production side, doubted whether the change on the consumption side (e.g. LOHAS, cultural creatives,…) is drastical enough and mentioned the danger of using different indicators.

The ensuing discussion in form of a “dialogue” was guided by three questions to the audience:

1. Do you agree that there is a need to redefine growth and prosperity?
2. What are your three favourite arguments for redefining growth and prosperity?
3. How would you sell those arguments to decision makers?

The upcoming discussion followed a new, enriching participatory method and was indeed remarkable.

The workshop ended with concluding remarks from Friedrich Hinterberger and Tim Jackson.

View the detailed workshop documentation here.