Chapter authored by by F. Gillet and M. Terzo, Haute Ecole de Bruxelles, Belgium

1. Introduction

Agroecology is in the same time a large panel of techniques (local agriculture, organic-agriculture, permaculture, resilient agriculture ….), a critical look on those techniques with a theoretical reflexion on political, economical, cultural, social, ecological, human … levels and at the end also a philosophy that could be simply summarized as “an art of connecting and balancing agricultural activities and their ecological dimension in the everyday life”.

An important need of agroecology is to connect people together because they have to get out of the industrial and productive paradigm organised only on a managerial perspective. A possible alternative is thus cooperation between partners at the different levels of a more local, organic, resilient system. Cooperation means that people know each other better that only through money and business exchanges. They develop trust based on real relations, at least on the agricultural level but most of the time also in the everyday life and in the conscience of the common good.

We‘ll see in this training two dimensions of agroecology, the urban and the rural ones.

The training starts with a rural experience, by living in a farm that is today an ecovillage where agroecological dimension is present through vegetables production, goats milk production, organic bakery, organic food selling … but where a community of 40 people is also living and sharing a large space where several apartments or houses were built in addition to the original farm building. The aim is to reflect how agroecology fits in those several professional activities, how the common life is organized and what the interactions between both professional and common lives are. This is a first approach of the social dimension.

The second part of the training takes place in Brussels by visiting several projects. The urban farm called “Nos Pilifs” is a social economy enterprise employing workers with disabilities. Another urban farm in the city of Evere welcomes young workers for a practice placement of six months allowing them to learn the first steps of organic-agriculture. The district of Haren (North of Brussels) is another place where a tradition of urban gardening exists for one century. We there encounter activists (patatist movement) living on a place in Haren where a project of building a mega-prison is a real danger for maintaining this urban gardening tradition.

A TTT (training the trainers) day takes place at the end of the training. This day aims to see how the participants learned through the proposed activities and visits and how to have a reflection on the several methodologies used.

This document “social dimension of agroecology” aims to inform you about how this training happened, proposing you different tools allowing to organize such a training or a part of it in another context where it could be useful.

1.1 What is agroecology?

Formerly, agroecology is a new way of rethinking agricultural practices trough the knowledge of ecology (Altieri 1987). Here raise several other questions: what is ecology, why and how should we integrate its principles to the conventional agriculture?

Ecology is the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment, such as the interactions organisms have with each other and with their abiotic (soil, water, climate...) environment1. But since the Green Revolution, to increase agricultural productions, men constantly tried to overcome the constraints imposed by the natural environment. They changed the soil structure by the tillage and mechanization, and the soil composition by adding fertilizers, lime, pesticides... These changes have killed the natural macro and microbial life of the soil or they drastically disrupted the balance between these living organisms. They also conduct to global soil erosion. Fields are nowadays strictly artificial areas disconnected from their surrounding (semi-)natural environment. These fields even act on the environment as a trap where animals or plants which fall into it eventually die there.

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005), it is now assumed that the global food system is a major source of land, forests, fish stocks, biodiversity and water degradation with most of the ecosystem services degraded or unsustainably managed2. These ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. They include supporting services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation ; provisioning services of wild food, water, biomass, medicinal resources, natural fertilizer… ; regulating services such as climate regulation, air and water cleaning, waste decomposition… ; and cultural services for sciences, education, ecotourism, wellness, leisure activities, and even spiritual experiences.

For instance, the use of insecticides to protect crops from pests also kills their pollinators (Potts et al., 2010). Reducing diversity and abundance of pollinators not only decreases the crop production (Kevan & Phillips 2001) but also affects the reproduction of insect-pollinated wild plants (Biesmeijer et al. 2006). This loss of wild plant biodiversity then affects the abundance and biodiversity of their pollinators, and thereby decreases the crop production. But the use of insecticides is not the only cause of disappearance of pollinators. Because of the massive use of chemical fertilizers in the fields, the nitrogen cycle is disrupted and the amount of available nitrogen for plants is 20 to 40 higher than the natural fallout, even in semi-natural areas. This large amount of nitrogen favours grasses, which are wind-pollinated plants, to the detriment of entomophilous plants that feed pollinators. The almond trees orchards in the US are an extreme example of this vicious circle. Their 130,000 hectares of almond trees cultivated in California now require the rent of 2 million honey bee hives in February to supply to lose of the wild bees (Summer & Boriss 2006).

As seen from this example, conventional farming techniques do not only affect the biodiversity of cultivated land, but also the whole environment, even to the detriment of the services that this environment can provide to the farmers.

The loss of biodiversity and soil erosion is not the only threat that conventional agriculture places on us. It is also engaged in the climate change and the energy crisis. For instance, the intensive rearing of cattle produce a significant amount of methane, a gas involved in the greenhouse effect leading to the global warming. And the production of one tone of nitrogen fertilizer requires a ton of oil equivalent.

One could also mentions the groundwater pollution by nitrates or the public health problems caused by pesticides widely used on fruits and vegetables or by the use of antibiotics required by intensive breeding.

After why, let see now how agroecology can offer an alternative.

Agroecology is based on a set of principles that involve different methods and techniques and that operate at three levels. These principles are summarised and completed by Stassard and collaborators (Stassard et al., 2012). They all challenge the productivity-narrative, based on biotechnology, for a sufficiency narrative based on agroecology. The three levels are: the production system in the strict sense, the food system in a broader sense, and the relationship between food production and society as a whole. At those three levels, agroecology promotes alternatives for a sustainable farming that is more independent, more self-sufficient, and so more resilient.

At the production system level, Gliessman (1998) suggest to exceed the scale of the cultivated plot to take an interest in the whole farming system. In line with this idea, Perfecto & Vandermeer (2010) suggest an integrated management of biodiversity with food production, making the farmer a land sharing rather than a land sparing manager. These ideas led to what is now called the integrated farming3 for a more sustainable farming.

At the cultivated plot scale, agroecology aims to drastically reduce the amounts of non-renewable external inputs and tillage techniques, which are cause of soil degradation. Chemical fertilizers can be replaced by natural fertilizers (manure, compost, leguminous crops, green manures). Chemical pesticide can be replaced by biological pest control. Field margins can be created to sustain wildlife and so revive part of the natural ecosystem services (pollination, pest control by natural parasites and predators as birds, natural barriers against wind and water erosion...). Winter planting stores the fertilizer surpluses, protects the soil from erosion and leaching, protects the soil microflora and microfauna during the winter and promotes the growth of spring planting by releasing fertilizers and by aerating and structuring the soil. Thanks to zero tillage seeding, the structure and wild life of the soil is preserved. All those techniques lead to the organic farming.

At a larger scale, farmers can also sustain biological synergies that promote the ecosystem services by increasing the genetic diversity, the species varieties, in time and space. These synergies should take place not only inside the farming system but also with its surrounding environment.

The principles of agroecology also consist in a global reduction of energy use, especially the use of petrol to favour renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar, water or biomass energy, the parsimonious use of water and the reduction of waste production (e.g. biomass recycling).

Finally, while each of the methods and principles mentioned here can be applied in conventional farming, agroecology exists only through their combined application.

At the second level, agroecology also deals with the “food system” because the current industrial model of food production and distribution is no more sustainable. This larger food system scale takes into account the spinneret and consumer organization dimensions, and the socio-economic and political dimensions of the construction of food systems (Francis et al., 2003). The principles of sustainability and self-sufficiency mentioned above are now applied to the distribution and marketing of food. New spinnerets appear, promoting local and seasonal foods, peasant, organic and urban farming. Consumers are organised in joint and solidarity purchasing groups to sustain local farmers. Some stores offer foods in bulk to reduce packaging, ugly fruits and vegetables to reduce wastage... We see reborn the working, community and shared gardens and orchards.

The third level of agroecology deals with the relationship between the food system and the society as a whole by taken into account the views, wishes and experiences of the citizens, consumers and practitioners. If agroecology mainly promote alternative ways of productions and distributions, it also an active fight against the conventional methods that contributes to the destruction of our environment, create inequity and unfairness, do not respond to a wise and sustainable use of natural resources. Every citizen should therefore refuse, transform, or even innovate, the proposals made by the experts, whether they are producers, distributors, scientists or politicians. It is on this principle that are formed activists, consumers, neighbourhoods and peasants organisations. For this, agroecology promotes deliberative forums, public debate, dissemination of knowledge and the construction of participatory research mechanisms that guarantee the scientific approaches while taking into consideration the expectations of everyone involved (Stassart et al. 2012).

1.2 What is the social dimension of agroecology?

In a large definition we can use the word “social” as the expression of the relations among the living beings. For instance, certain non-human animals as most of the mammals are called “social species”.

This point helps us to see that the word “social” includes a reflection on what happens among the living beings. We can call it “interrelational perspective”.

From a more anthropological view, the word “social” is more connected to the collective and community dimensions:

• How are the groups organised, and how do they work?

• What are the people doing when they act together?

• What is the difference and the complementarity between acting alone and acting together and when is this balanced or not (we can call this "I/C paradox")?

In the common sense the word “sociality” connects to the word society. This connection explains for example the concept of “social security”, a social warranty that a society gives to their members. It may also connect to a little society: a group of friends, a club, a group of interests (social events, social net…). It connects also with economic, cultural, political, educational and spiritual dimensions of a society.

We have also the concept of social work including several professions working in the social field (working with and for people facing social challenges and social problems).

In the juridical sense, “social” can have ambiguous sense : it can connect to the relations between employers and employees (social lows, social conflicts…) or connect to relations between associates (social mandates).

Practical examples of bio-agriculture experiences

Let’s see in our case how this various social dimensions can be connected and give sense to the agroecological perspective in a degrowth context.

Let’s start our reflexion from 3 concrete cases, the stories of Marcus, of Dorian and Danielle, and of Gerard and Annelies.

Those 3 case stories came from a case study presented in “Agroécologie entre pratique et sciences sociales" (Agroecology between practice and social sciences).4

The presented persons were interviewed two times with a 10 years interval: once around 2001 and once around 2011.

Marcus and the “profitable organisation” perspective

Marcus is born in a farm. He is a 40 years old farmer at the first interview in 2001. He is coming from a large farmer’s family and has several brothers also farmers. One of them is involved in organic farming for several years now and convinced him about the profit he can make with this way of farming. Marcus then decided to shift 20% of his vast fields (350 ha) from “conventional” farming to organic farming (that means 70 ha).He is selling his organic meat and vegetables partly the supermarkets and partly to small distributors, local nets and markets. Business considerations are well present in the first interview. Marcus let us informed for example that he had to separate his farm in two different societies, one for the organic production and one for the conventional production, to avoid administrative problems. His choice for continuing to produce partly in conventional is linked to the opportunity of keeping the interesting quotas he has for producing beets. He is also limiting the working time for collaborators to a half time job (except short time jobbers in the high season). He is using machines in a kind of organic-industry-machines compromise. In the second interview, he is still speaking about business and industry but brings also more ecological considerations such as: quality of food, taste of food, importance that his family can eat with pleasure the farm production. The question of food security and social health is now well present.

Dorian and Danielle : “interaction between ecological and business principles”

Dorian was 40 in 2001 and managed the grand-parents farm (8 Ha) for 15 years. He was first working with a full-time employee in the organic-dynamic perspective. He was producing meat, milk and cereals, and baking bread. He was selling those products on his farm and on several local markets. During the interview, he spoke a lot about his ecological convictions: his concept of an agriculture working with -and not against- nature, about his choice of paying somebody for baking by hand and not with a machine, about keeping a farm at a human dimension, about non growing, about non specializing. He said “I don’t want to do just milk, just bread. The farm is like a living being, it is not only an arm or a leg…”. He preferred that people came to buy directly on the farm.

Because of his convictions, he was acting a little bit differently than his colleagues. He thought it was not useful to calculate too much or to produce mountains of butter. It was enough to do the amount of butter needed “here and now” to make people happy. He liked to take time for those who came to the farm, to show them what he was doing instead of “paying for advertising that will bring very few”…

We find in his speech critical about ecological as well as industrial (not calculating too much) and business (advertising) perspectives.

Ten years later, Dorian met Danielle, his new companion. She developed a cheese production. They are now selling all their products on a real little shop on the farm. They are also selling other products than their own ones: grocery, organic production from other farmers, fair-trade products. Ecological references are thus going on, with this specificity of linking local selling and fair-trade products, of linking local space and Fairtrade…

In 2008, a governmental food agency control detected an inacceptable level of PCB (polychlorobiphenyles) in their milk. They were obliged to stop the milk and cheese production during several months. This was a very difficult episode, financially and morally. They could finally go on thanks to the help, gives and loans of friends and family. This was the time they set up their own little shop on the farm.

Even if they are still critical in 2011 concerning the business, trade and industry principals, once more they still find positive references to its principals. This is especially the case when Dorian explains that after the control they had to find “researches” to “find solutions” (industrial principal). One of those solutions was to organise concerts and meals in the farm. Another initiative was to welcome school classes in the farm. In the more strict agricultural way, they are now thinking how to value the milk or how to keep animals as long as possible, to transform them by themselves and to sell the flesh in their shop in vacuum packing (business and merchant principal).

Gerard and Annelies: from business to social perspective

Gerard is a farmer’s son. At the first interview in 2003, he was 50. He started his career as employee of railway, a job he retrospectively considers as a routine. He decided then to move with his new wife Annelies, a woman who had a sociocultural professional career. They were working with two part-time collaborators on 2.5 hectares. They created an informal association with other producers for a better coordination of their vegetables productions, managing the varieties, quantities and prices. They created together an organic-shop and provided vegetables baskets to the households of the region.

At the time of the second interview, they distanced themselves from this association, preferring to be more deeply engaged in social and ecological aspects with fewer partners. They developed then other activities: bed and breakfast in the farm, collaboration with the village school to train children in organic-agriculture, welcoming young drug-addicts for their social reinsertion. Because Annelies had a life stories techniques training, she proposed individual and collective training to women farmers.

As we can see, ecological and social principles are well present in this case. Compared to the preceding interviews, these principles appears in the option of producing various vegetables on a small scale, of using workmanship more than buying tools and machines and of selling on site. Social and ecological preoccupations have even growth in the second interview in 2011. Distancing themselves with the producers association is justified by the desire to go deeper in sustainable, social and educative activities. When Annelies spoke about life stories, she presents them as a way to help women in rural area to keep a balanced life between the part dedicated to work and the part dedicated to other activities, between what they give to others and what they receive from them.

We can see in those three stories that several principles: agroecological - social -economical - industrial are interacting in different ways.

For a better understanding of those interactions let’s go through the stories with the following exercise.

Proposition of an exercise for looking on a project with the help of 7 criteria

For a better understanding of the social dimension of agroecological examples: organic agriculture, shared gardens, distribution nets, community projects, etc.

• Top down (seeds legislation or sanitary controls) or bottom up (initiative of setting up an alternative shop or organising a participative certification net such as Ecovida experience in Brazil) Institutionalisation?

• The question of localisation and delimitation: urban or rural area, a countryside where forest and fields are clearly separated or where both are imbricated ….?

• Who are the different actors involved or to involve in the project?

• What are the collective and/or community dimensions of the project?

• A look to the history of a project helps to understand the triple relation between territories, institutions and actors of the project.

• What is here the balance between, agroecological, economical, social and industrial dimensions

The exercise aims to share (in little groups) experiences and observations of agroecology, questioning the social dimension of them with those 7 criteria… and/or others.

In a second time you are invited to question the place where we are preparing questions for the inhabitants connected with those 7 criteria.

1. Content part

2.1 Kick of talk

Ideally this activity is presented by two persons: one should well know the place where the training takes place, the other one should keep in mind the whole program

Aim

Welcoming all the participants of the training and helping them to be comfortable with the schedule (program), living places (presentation of the working, sleeping and eating places) and with the other ones (helping the people to know each other).

Equipment needed and preparation

A room with chairs in circle. A flipchart to note information. Posters with detailed schedule of each day (remaining on the wall all along the training). A paper document with an overview on the schedule for each participant. Eventually, a beemer for presenting pictures of the place, schedule and documents.

Conduct of the activity (one hour)

• Quick presentation of each participant (e.g. name and country). A deeper presentation including motivation and competences will be done later during the activity “Why degrowth?”

• Presenting the place with all commodities and particularities.

• Presenting the main rules of the place.

• Overview of the whole schedule with the posters made for each day.

• Answering the questions.

2.2. Dance and emotion

Ideally presented by two trainers called here

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

Starting training together about “social dimension of agroecology” it’s important that each person first remember “to be present to yourself and to the others as well as of the process of life that is going on through us as persons, collective and community”.

We‘ll go through body and soul exercises that help us and give us a possibility of moving as we feel it and experimenting the feelings and emotions we are going through during this sequence.

Equipment needed and preparations

A large room with a floor allowing dance and body activities, good audio equipment adapted to the size of the group (between 15 and 30 people). A lighting that can be very bright or more discrete depending of the different moments of the activity. A number of 1m long sticks (one by participant). Each participant has to wear clothes that allowed free movement.

Conduct of the activity (60-90 minutes)

- Walking …. Slowly…. very slow …. Little bit quicker, quick, quicker ……and coming back to slower, slow and very slow. Danou

Presence to yourself…. Space …. Changing direction - Group awareness

1. Breathing - opening myself to my breath, getting deeper and slower, feeling what happens all along the breathing canal from noise and mouth to the deepest inside of the body. Breathing helps to feel! Air and voice: voice games – collective improvisation: voicing helps to express. Rhythms a connecting between the people. Rhythm, voice and movement help to feel a vital energy, a feeling of life. François

2. Sticks - let’s form two groups: the first is acting and the second is looking and observing what happens.

Playing with the sticks by pairs: A is the leader - B follows … or not…

Nobody is the leader - B is the leader

Games by 3 persons-groups

If there is some more time: games with wire Danou

1. Free sequence Games with feet and percussions Danou

2. Various Geometry…: following my own hand - first alone, than in groups of 2, 3, 4... until 6 !

Dances by six without touching each other but being connected! Danou

1. Big double circle - everybody looking to the inside of the circle. Feel and find yourself again after all those games. Closing the eyes and breathe again deeply and slowly.

Than each participant from inside are doing little steps to the left side during a certain time… then stop. Slowly the people in outside circle, keeping closed eyes, present their two hands with the palms up. The people in the inside circle let progressively their hands come into the hands of the other without forcing something. Each one contacts and encounters the other with respect. Be attentive to what is experienced and felt. François

Examples of outcomes

• Better conscience of breathing in the immobility as in the movement allowing a better contact with oneself.

• Discover of the pleasure of free voicing together connected with the pleasure of cooperation.

• Discover of the necessary nuances in the interactions for having a good collective result trough the sticks game.

• Experiencing different kinds of rhythms and the possibilities of harmonising them.

• Experiencing emotions with other participants and exploring with them the possibility of expressing feelings and sensations after those experiences. (all dance games and especially the exercise with hands at the end).

How to evaluate ?

Have a precise observation of each participant and of the whole group dynamic during the activity. Look how people are entering and engaged in the activity.

At the end of the activity, all participants sit in circle. Then ask each of them to say a little word or a little sentence that express what he was experiencing during this activity.

1. . What is degrowth? – a role-play

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

The purpose of the role-play is to enable participants to realise that:

- there are a lot of arguments in favour of degrowth;

- that degrowth takes place at various levels (economic, social, political, scientific, educational, local ...)

- that the various actors involved in degrowth can have different or even contradictory motivation

It also aims to teach participants how to defend their own convictions, while remaining open-minded to the convictions of the others. So they are placed in a situation where they have to argue the conviction of a category of the population with particular interests.

Because the defenders of degrowth are often passionate people, their speech can sometimes seem radical or sanctimonious. This role-play aims to teach them to be more responsive to others and less moralistic.

Equipment needed and preparations

A room where participants can meet in small subgroups of 4 to 5 people.

Labels on which are written the name of a particular category of the population: scientist, politician, economist, citizen, artist …

One envelops for each subgroup with a single representative of each population category on labels.

Conduct of the activity

At first, a short presentation is given to remind participants why degrowth is needed for the survival of the human being and why our present western way of life is no longer sustainable without digging deeper in the social and economic gap that separates us from the rest of the world. The presentation can be found here.

Then, the facilitator gives the instructions of the role-play:

• form groups of 4 to 5 people

• each group receive an envelope with labels

• each people picks a label in the envelope and must play the role indicate on the label

• the role-play lasts 30 minutes during which each people has 5 minutes to argue why his character (scientist, artist, economist, activist, …) is the most important one to defend and promote degrowth.

How to evaluate ?

Main arguments for each character can be summarised on a flipchart. Meanwhile, the facilitator must not forget that the aim of the role-play is not really to find argument but learning to combine with the views of the others.

2.4. Discovery of the social life at the farm “Vévy Wéron” part I

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

The main objective of this activity is to explore the social structure of the inhabitants of the farm Vévy Wéron. Through this activity, it’s attended to understand not only its current structure, but also how it emerged over time. It also aims to collect the motivations (philosophical, economical, societal...) of families to settle there, the incentives and disincentives of such a lifestyle, how they are selected and how they are integrated by the other families.

These aims are consistent with the theme of degrowth because they are related to the concepts of solidarity and sharing, of voluntary simplicity and resilience, and of environmental care and health.

Solidarity and sharing are mainly expressed in the social lifestyle of the farm. Voluntary simplicity is a personal matter. Environmental care and health are meanly assessed through the farming and food production activities.

Equipment needed and preparations

You need a room for the first part of the activities where participants can sit in a circle.

Participants should dress work clothing for an outdoor walk.

Conduct of the activity

A representative of farm residents is introduced in the room. For an hour, he exposes the history and rules of life of the farm. As he wished, he answers questions from participants during his presentation or at the end.

After a small break where participants are asked to dress with warm clothes, they are divided in subgroups of less than 10 people each for a guided tour of the farm. Voluntary inhabitants of the farm that are sufficiently fluent in English guide the subgroups for the tour. The maximum number of participants for each subgroup must not be too high in order to keep the tour convivial, not to afraid the guide (he’s not a professional guide), and to allow everyone to ask questions without being too oppressive for the guide.

Because each guide is an inhabitant of the farm with his own past, motivation and centre of interest, each tour is unique. As a result, after the guided tour, participants are invited during the teatime to share their experiences. Participants must also keep in mind that the information they collect from the guide will be use later in the TTT exercises.

2.5. Evening conference debate around the themes of degrowth and education

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

The goal of the first part of the conference debate evening is to remind the history and main foundations of the philosophy of degrowth through presentation given by a subject matter expert.

In a second part, as part of the “training the trainers” objectives, the participants are initiated to the guidance of a philosophy café oriented to the theme “degrowth and education”. The aim of this second part is to learn a technique of debate guidance were participants are asked to propose and debate solutions to a specific problem in a serene atmosphere that promotes innovations, critical thinking and collaboration.

It is expected from the participant to realise that the future trainer is not supposed to be an expert in degrowth. Nobody is supposed to be an “absolute” expert in all the action areas regarding degrowth (energy, pollution, mobility, gardening, recycling …). The role of the trainer is not to provide knowledge, he may if he can, but his main role is to manage the debates in order to make the participants aware of their own abilities to:

• find solutions by themselves ;

• find solutions thanks to the group, thanks to the sharing of resources and experiences ;

• realise that there is not only one good solution, a unique way to get involved in degrowth.

Equipment needed and preparations

• Time laps: 2 hours.

• A room where participants can sit in a circle.

• A flipchart or a blackboard and writing material.

• A small paper sheet and a pencil for each participant.

Conduct of the activity

Part 1: conference

Time laps: 1 hour.

Part 2: philosophy café

Time laps: 1 hour.

The facilitator of the philosophy café gives a small sheet of paper and a pencil to each participant and asked him to write an answer to the question that will be asked. The answer must be short, as a single sentence, and personal. In our exercise, the question was “Which education for tomorrow's society in a context of degrowth?”

The answers are collected in a bag and given to the facilitator who randomly picks one in the bag and reads aloud. If needed, he may ask the writer for clarification.

Participants may intervene to argue the reasons for their approval or disapproval regarding the proposed solution. Participants who wish to speak should raise their hands. The facilitator distributes speech to allow everyone to express himself or herself.

When there is no more comment or after a while, the facilitator picks a new answer in the bag. In one hour, it is expected to consider 4 or 5 answers, no more.

During the last 10 minutes of the activity, the participants are asked to summarise the debate through a single word they loudly tell at the audience. Then, they can vote for the best word.

At the end, the facilitator summarizes the methodology so that participants are well aware of the procedure, the objectives and the role of the facilitator.

How to evaluate ?

- Were the participants loquacious, talkative ?

- Was each participant able to speak at least once?

-Did the chosen concepts stimulate the reflexion ?

- Does the final word satisfy everyone?

Examples of outcomes

No outcomes are expected because this philosophy café is just an exercise. But as a tool, the philosophy café is a good way to make people collaborate in finding solutions to simple problems.

2.6. Discovery of the social life at the farm “Vévy Wéron”

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

The main objective of this activity is to live part of the inhabitant’s everyday life at the farm Vévy Wéron. It aims to understand that community living offers many advantages but also involves obligations.

A secondary objective is to learn a technique or practice that is both related to degrowth and related social life in the farm.

Equipment needed and preparations

Well in advance, you need to negotiate with the inhabitants of the farm a list of workshop to be proposed to the participants, and the maximum number of participants for each workshop. So, inhabitants have the time to schedule the workshop and to prepare the needed tools and material.

You need a room with a flipchart.

Participants should dress work clothing for outdoor work such as gardening.

Conduct of the activity

Participants register on a flipchart on which several outdoor or indoor workshops are listed. The maximum number of participants for each workshop is indicated on the flipchart.

The proposed workshops are manual works directed by the inhabitants of the farm and that are part of their normal work. It’s supposed to last two hours. In our course, the manual works were the followings:

• To cut and dry nettles for feeding the donkeys.

• To prepare the evening vegan meal with the cooker.

• To prepare apple pies for the teatime.

• To store wood for winter.

• To build a wooden crate for composting pit toilet wastes.

• To manufacture a puppet booth.

• To help milking the goats.

• To sort the apples in crates.

• To help at the bakery.

During the workshop, the participants are expected to learn the technique, to understand its usefulness and its place in the life of the farm, and to understand how it fits in a degrowth process and agroecology. At the same time, they can continue the discussion with the inhabitants.

After the workshops, participants and inhabitants are invited the have a common teatime and diner during which everyone can share and compare their experience in a friendly atmosphere.

How to evaluate ?

- Are the discussions at the teatime or diner focused on – or enough connected to- the experiences lived by the participants during the workshops?

-What were the most deepened subjects in the discussions ?

- Are participants satisfied with their work?

- Do they exchange experiences among them or with the inhabitants?

2.7. Visit of the farm “Nos Pilifs”

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

- Presentation of a sheltered workshop for disabled people.

- Learning how a commercial company located in urban areas is concerned with the protection of the environment and how it is involved in agroecology.

- Show how to combine agroecology and social integration of disabled people.

Equipment needed and preparations

Here, we took contact with the farm well in advance in order to schedule our visit. The visit includes a presentation of the farm in a seminar room with a film and slides, a tour of the infrastructures guided with team leaders, and a vegetarian lunch prepared by disabled workers with organic or local food.

Participants should dress clothing for outdoor walk.

Conduct of the activity

Part 1 (one hour)

The general presentation of the farm is give through a film and slides in a seminar room equipped with the required video material. The film is available here (part I) and here (part II). A translation of the film is proposed here. The translation is loudly given simultaneously with the film.

The slide presentation about the place of agroecology at the farm is given here.

The participants are invited to ask questions at the end of the presentation but the questions session must be short. The participants are indeed told they may continue to ask questions during the guided farm tour.

Coffee and tea are offered before leaving the seminar room.

Part 2 (one hour)

The participants are divided into two or three subgroups for more conviviality. They are guided through the different buildings and farm workstations. They can meet and discuss with the workers. The guide focuses his speech on agroecology, recycling, energy and water saving, and on the social integration of disabled people.

Part 3 (one hour and a half)

Nos Pilifs farm has a tavern where a room has been especially reserved for the participants. A vegetarian dish has previously been ordered. As every workstation of the farm, the dish at the tavern is prepared by disabled workers and is made of organic or local food.

How to evaluate ?

-Did the participants understand “What is done here ?”

-Did the participants have enough time and information to understand the constraints of such a company that must combine profitability, environmental concerns and integration of people with disabilities?

-Do they have time to discuss the choices made by the company and consider other solutions?

-How were the interactions after the film, during the visits, during the discussions, during the diner?

-Did they identify this experience as a work on “social dimension of agroecology” ?

2.8. Visit of Haren district and encounter with the “patatist activists”

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

Have a focus on the political dimension of agro-ecology. See how alternative projects bring lot of links between the participants creating a strong social dimension in those projects. Discover of different dimensions of political engagements (from “just a new little idea, simply different” to “hard activist movement” through agroecological projects.

Equipment needed and preparations

Taking contact with different people managing projects in this District: Evere urban farm, Haren Gardeners, Cultural center of Haren “De Linde”, Patatist representatives.

Participants should dress clothing for outdoor walk.

Beamer and documents ready for presentation in the cultural center.

Conduct of the activity (half a day – here from 14:00 to 22:00)

• Travelling from Nos Pilifs to Evere urban farm - 30 min

• Visiting the Evere urban farm with Thomas, farmer-trainer in the project - 45 min

• Debriefing of the visit in Circle - 15 min

• Travelling from Evere to Haren - 30 min

• Visiting the district of Haren guided by Haren urban gardeners and inhabitants, discussing with them about the agroecological state of the district on the way to the Kelbeek - 60 min

• Encounter with patatists in the Kelbeek and visiting the infrastructures built on the place where the construction of a mega prison is planned. - 30 min

• Discussion with them in the tent: Who are the patatists? - Story of the movement from the first day where they planted potatoes in this field (april 2014) with 400 persons until today (November 2014) with the construction of more permanent infrastructures for occupying the place – Who are the persons engaged in this movement and how do they live? -what is the impact of the movement on the political authorities responsible for the prison project? - Connection between patatists and the movements “Campesina” and “Landless peasants”? – What is the future of the movement ?

All this discussion is happening in a circle with a facilitator helping for questions and answers, exchanges of ideas and debates to be done in a respectful and open mind perspective - 60 min

• Travelling to Haren cultural center “De Linde” for a conference by Elisabeth Grimmer (Inhabitant of Haren) aiming to synthesize all the problematic of the project “Prison of Haren” including a discussion with the audience (participants of Growl training and some other participants invited) - 60 min

• Buffet – Dinner allowing easy exchanges between participants - 60 min

• Travelling to the sleeping place (here at the Haute Ecole de Bruxelles) - 60min

Outcomes

Discover of agroecological projects on a concrete way by visiting them on the field and encountering the people who are in the center of the action.

• Awareness of the tension lived by the Haren inhabitants between the gardening tradition they have and the planned mega-project.

• Encounter with Haren inhabitants through discussions, visiting their district and sharing a meal with them.

• Experimenting the core of an activist movement and looking on their motivations, engagement and modes of action.

How to evaluate ?

-Did we have a good time management to have an interesting look on the several projects?

-Was this succession of visits good balanced between “adventure and comfort”?

-How were the interactions during the visits, during the discussions, during the conference, during the diner?

-Is the problematic of Haren clear in the mind of the participants?

2.9. Training the Trainers (TTT) – I – World café

Introduction

At the early beginning of the course, participants were given the “Train-the-Trainer module” document (available here). A short presentation of the document is given. People are told that they can use the back of the sheets to take notes during the activities. They are also told that their notes will be very important for the TTT day.

Aims, consistency with the theme and expectations

The main objective of this world café is to allow each participant to be aware about the different elements that should be taken into account when preparing its own activity. This awareness is done through three analysis grids: analysis of the key levers and obstacles; analysis of the environmental issues; analysis of the global brain.

The analysis grid of the key levers and issues consists of a series of questions to ask oneself to properly prepare its activity.

- For my project, which educational methods?

- People involvement?

- Practical scenarios in learning?

- Citizen-based approaches?

- What is the motivation of the people?

- Which support from the management and from de colleagues?

- Which partnerships with other organisations?

- How much time is dedicated to coordination?

- Which material and financial supports?

- Which support from referees and/or from people from the outside?

- Which communication means?

- Which consistency?

The Environmental issues analysis grid aims to allow the trainer to be aware that there are many fields of action or target audiences, or to ensure that all fields of action and target audiences are taken into account by the training. These fields of action or target audiences are the followings:

The global brain analysis grid aims to allow the trainer to be aware that people think and learn in different way. Some parts of the brain dominate the others, and therefore people are more receptive to certain arguments or sensitive to certain approaches.

There are four main types of brain, depending on what they value most (more information here – in French):

People who value knowledge are used to understand and learn thanks to simple oral or visual presentations (lectures, courses, books, demonstration, visits...).

People who value intuition perform in creative workshops where they are free to create and imagine.

People who value practical action do not just need to see or to ear but they must also practice to learn. Cooking, building a wooden crate for composting pit toilet wastes, manufacturing a puppet booth… are such practical activity we organised.

People who value sensitivity need to touch thinks or to share with the others in a convivial atmosphere to live and to feel emotions. They mostly learn and memorise when things are full of emotions. Petting goats, listen to a moving testimony, having fun at teatime, shearing meal of cooking together are such activities that can bring emotions.

Equipment needed and preparations

A large seminar room where subgroups of 4 to 5 people can sit at round tables.

Large sheets of paper and colour pencils.

Adhesive gum or tacks to hang paper sheets on the room's wall.

Conduct of the activity

Part 1 (half an hour): levers and obstacles

People are invited to sit at round tables in subgroups of 4 to 5 people. A large sheet of paper is given for each table. The sheet is previously divided in two columns (levers on the left side – obstacles on the right side) and shows a central label with the title “Projects or places visited”.

People are invited to fill both columns of the sheet with what they consider as levers or obstacles to a single or the whole projects and places visited during the past few days. They can fill it by their own way: with words, short sentences, drawings...

At the end, all the sheets are fixed on the room’s wall and people are invited to browse all the sheets. The aim of the display is to find the important items and synthesise them.

As an alternative to the display of sheets, a person may be designated as spokesman of the table. For the following analysis grid, all the people are changing table, except the spokesman. The latter then made a report to new members of what has been done by his group. A discussion can then take place in order to find the important items and synthesise them. A new spokesperson is then nominated for the next analysis grid.

Part 2(half an hour): environmental analysis grid

Same methodology than part 1. The environmental issues analysis grid is stuck in the centre of the sheet and the pie areas of the grid are extended by lines to the edges of the sheet. The theme of the grid (here “agroecology”) is written in the central circle of the grid. In our exercise, the participants have to fill in the pie areas in order to answer the following question: “What have we done, see, or learned about agroecology during our course that could be related with the different issues mentioned on the grid?”. The answers could deal with activities, feelings, concepts, people, methodology…

Part 3 (half an hour): global brain

Same methodology than part 1. A symbol evocating the brain is stuck in the centre of the sheet. The sheet is divided in for quarters that represent the four types of the global brain. In our exercise, the participants have to fill in the quarters with the activities of the week that mostly fit with one of the four categories of the grid.

Examples of outcomes

Here are examples of outcomes from the three grids.

Part 1: example of levers and obstacles analysis grid

Part 2: example of environmental analysis grid

Part 3: example of global brain analysis grid

How to evaluate?

Analysis grids can be used both for preparing and evaluating the activities. When preparing and filled in by the trainer, it can warn him that some dimensions or target audiences are not taken into account. At the end of the course (or activity), it can be filled in by the participants of the training as an evaluation tools for themselves and for the trainer.

2.10. Training the Trainers (TTT) II “Be in the trainer position”

In the end of this training, as an “open conclusion” participants are invited to choose individually and to discuss in little groups of 3 – 4 persons a subject they would like to present in the position of the trainer (individually or in binomes…). This theme can be choosed in the different subjects already presented this week or can be a new subject (connected with the week theme “social dimension of agroecology”).

The focus is double:

- on the content of the presentation (what’s about?)

- on the methodology: what is the form of the training (presentation, game, interactive exercise, art performance…)?

This group work will be a starter for developing ideas by participants and help them to take the position of trainer in their own contexts.

At the end of this sequence, we can experiment one or two proposed trainings in the form of micro trainings (15 min activity – 15 min debriefing).

1. References

Altieri, MA 1987, Agroecology: the scientific basis of alternative agriculture. Westview Press, Boulder, CO, USA.

Biesmeijer, JC, SPM Roberts, M Reemer, R Ohlemüller, M Edwards, T Peeters, AP Schaffers, SG Potts, R Kleukers, CD Thomas, J Settele & WE Kunin 2006, “Parallel declines in pollinators and insect-pollinated plants in Britain and the Netherlands”, Science, vol. 313, no. 5785, pp. 351-354.

Francis, R, G Lieblein, S Gliessman, TA Breland, N Creamer, R Harwood, L Salomonsson, J Helenius, D Rickerl, R Salvador, M Wiedenhoeft, S Simmons, P Allen, M Altieri, C Flora & R Poincelot 2003, “Agroecology the ecology of food systems”, Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, vol. 22, no. 3; pp. 99-118.

Gliessman, S 1998, Agroecology: ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture, Chelsea, MI: Ann Arbor Press.

Kevan, PG & TP Phillips 2001, “The economic impacts of pollinator declines: an approach to assessing the consequences”, Ecology and Society, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 8, [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss1/art8/

Perfecto, I & J Vandermeer 2010, “The agroecological matrix as alternative to the land sparing/agriculture intensification model”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 107, no. 13, pp. 5786-5791.

Potts, SG, JC Biesmeijer, C Kremen, P Neumann, O Scheiger & WE Kunin 2010, “Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers”, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 345-353.

Stassart, PM, P Baret, J-C Grégoire, T Hance, M Mormont, D Reheul, D Stilmant, G Vanloqueren & M Visser 2012, “L'agroécologie : trajectoire et potentiel pour une transition vers des systèmes alimentaires durables”, pp. 25-51 in Van Dam, D, M Streith, J Nizet & PM Stassart, Agroécologie entre pratiques et sciences sociales, Educagri Editions, Dijon.

Summer, DA & H Boriss 2006, “Bee-economics and the leap in pollination fees”, Agricultural and Ressource Economics Update, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 8-11.

Contents

Mental Infrastructures: The Culture of Growth

The last decades have rendered clear that a set of multiple crisis requires to fundamentally change the lifestyles of the societies in the Global North. Regarding the ecological crisis, it has so far not been possible to attain a sustainable level of resource consumption in the early industrialized countries. Thus, technological measures are insufficient to tackle the problem. They need to be complemented by profound political measures as well as a fundamental cultural change – by a change of our concepts of a good life and consequently by a change of our motives of action, of our desires and striving. This promises to also positively contribute to the solution of other crisis, like the humanitarian, the democratic and the economic crisis, since cultural change necessarily concerns the modalities of interaction – of how we deal with ourselves and others.

So far, cultural change has mostly been debated theoretically. We have gathered a large amount of knowledge about it. However, the main challenge remains its implementation (Hunecke 2013: 104), since we find it tremendously difficult to change our habits only by knowing things. But why? This is the opening question of Harald Welzer's influential paper “Mental Infrastructures – How growth entered the world and our souls“ (Welzer 2011). According to Welzer, a German psychologist and sociologist, mental infrastructures of growth are a persons' psychological, social and cultural settings. At the moment the latter are strongly shaped by a growth-oriented pattern which is linked with central aspects of European and thus globalized “modernity”. It affects our concepts of the good life, of social and individual development, our desires and thus also our daily routines. Moreover, mental infrastructures are mostly unconsciously internalized. By consequence, we don't change our lifestyles towards more sufficiency, since the cultural growth paradigm is so deeply rooted in our mindsets and so “normal” to us that we are mostly unable to question or even perceive it. Indeed, the extension of individual experiences and options, closely connected to material values and status, seems still to be a major aim of personal striving for many people in the Global North (Hunecke 2013: 12).

Welzer claims that mental infrastructures of growth are interdependent with material infrastructures of growth (such as energy systems) and institutional infrastructures of growth (such as the growth dependent design of our social systems) (Welzer 2011: 14). Hence, it is most important to understand that we won't be able to achieve a social-ecological transformation of our societies if we don't find a way to change our mental infrastructures.

Cultural change requires to identify major aspects of our mental infrastructures in a first step. This will be the content of the first part of this introduction. Yet and as already pointed out above, just knowing more won't solve the problem. Although it might be a significant achievement to deconstruct our daily actions and to understand which cultural ideals drive our habits, this still does not change our behavior. It rather seems that we need to practice new habits in order to change. Explaining why an embodiment of knowledge is required and how this can be achieved, will be part of the second subchapter.

Importantly, the chosen focus on cultural and individual change should not inspire the idea that lifestyles may be transformed by the efforts of individuals only. As mental infrastructures are interdependent with material and institutional infrastructures, a social-ecological transformation will fail to meet the challenges of the multiple crisis if we just focus on one of the three dimensions. Thus material and institutional infrastructures need to be reformed as well.

Mental infrastructures of growth

The notion of mental infrastructures as outlined by Harald Welzer remains largely vague. Yet, he alludes to various cultural concepts that can also be be found in publications of other thinkers dealing critically with neoliberal capitalism and its social as well as psychological consequences. This especially applies to Hartmut Rosa's considerations regarding cultural drivers of social acceleration and Ulrich Bröckling's concept of the so called enterprising self. The latter deals with the economization of the social and with aspects of self-optimization. Both phenomenon, social acceleration very clearly and the economization of the social up to a certain degree, depend on the increase of time saving efficiency. Thus, module four of the Leipzig course focused on “Experiencing (In-)Efficiency” from a practical perspective. Another deeply rooted mental infrastructure which is not identified by Welzer, but which must be understood as an indispensable prerequisite for economic growth, is the modern perception of a divide between humans and non-humans allowing the exploitation of nature. As this mental infrastructure was not part of the Leipzig course, we decided not to respect it in this introduction. For details on this mental infrastructure see: Sanders 2014.

The mental infrastructure of acceleration

In his central work “Acceleration - The Change in Temporal Structures in Modernity“ (Rosa 2012), Hartmut Rosa claims that the main processes of modernization (individualization, rationalization, differentiation and domestication of nature) may be interpreted as functions of social acceleration (ibid.: 440-441). Basically, social acceleration refers to the increase of quantity per time unit. According to Rosa, it can be best described by a self-reinforcing circle of acceleration comprising technological acceleration, the acceleration of social change and the acceleration of the pace of life.1 Yet, the speed of social acceleration is further increased by external motors impacting on specific elements of the circle. Although it is generally crucial to understand that technical acceleration is driven by a capitalistic economic motor (time is money)2, in the context of this article the cultural motor is of particular interest:

Rosa states that social acceleration is, among others, driven by cultural ideals of modernity. The wish to change for the sake of change (Friedrich Ancillon) was incrementally institutionalized in our societies since the beginning of the modern era. Although this process was surely influenced by the evolving of industrial and capitalist production the “ideal formulated by Ancillon is the consequence of a conception of life in which the good life is the fulfilled life, a life that is rich in experiences and developed capacities“ (Rosa 2009: 90). The reason for the wish of modern individuals to speed up their lives in order to be able to appreciate as many of the options of the world as possible, lies within the cultural problem that the time of the world dramatically diverges from our individual life time. In the pre-modern era the solution for this problem was provided by religions offering the concept of the endless afterlife. However, with secularization the hope for eternity lost its strength and was replaced by the ideal of the fulfilled life – the idea of living as many lives as possible within one life time.3 The promise of acceleration is complemented by the promise of prosperity, since money allows to fulfill the wish for acceleration and is also able to compensate for those uncertainties that a high-speed society involves for everyone (Rosa 2012: 285). Finally, another complementary cultural driver that motivates us to speed up our lives is fear (ibid.: 284-285). As already mentioned in footnote 2, in an accelerating and competitive capitalist society, standing still is equivalent to falling behind. “Thus, people feel pressed to keep up with the speed of change they experience in their social and technological world in order to avoid the loss of potentially valuable options and connections“ (Rosa 2009: 88).

To sum up, the ideal of the fulfilled life in combination with the fear to fall behind is a deeply rooted cultural concept and can thus be labeled as a mental infrastructure of growth. Speeding up the pace of our lives would not be possible without time saving measures of self-optimization. As it is the case for social acceleration, we will realize in the following that self-optimization in modern times is a result of both, a culturally shaped desire of individuals and a structural necessity.

The mental infrastructure of self-optimization and enterprising

This mental infrastructure of growth can be best understood when briefly referring to the study field of “governmentality”. Here, social scientists largely deal with the work of Michel Foucault. The term of “governmentality” already implies their main interest – the relationship and the coincidence of government and mentality. Foucault analyzed in many of his works how government techniques changed by increasingly including control techniques that allowed to govern modern individuals from within themselves.

In the context of mental infrastructures of growth, this perspective allows us to understand that individuals to some extent govern themselves as they are supposed to do from the ratio of the capitalist system. Why this is the case and how we are asked to increasingly act economically in all spheres of our lives is the main topic of Ulrich Bröckling's work “The Enterprising Self” (Bröckling 2007). At the core of his book lies Foucault's analysis of neoliberal thinking. Importantly, Bröckling states: “If the ratio of neoliberal thinking results in the generalization of the mechanism of competition and in the establishment of the market as the universal model of socialization, the figure of the enterprising self turns into the vanishing point of our subjectivation“ (Bröckling 2007: 107; translated by the authors). To put it more simply: If neoliberal thinking tries to establish the market logic in all spheres of society and not only in the economy, then we will increasingly act economically. This is exactly why the construct of the Homo oeconomicus as a rational agent, who tries to optimize his_her decisions regarding costs and benefits, “is not a random narrative construct in economic theory but a cipher for the function-specific expectations of the economic system, which defines how human beings should understand themselves as agents and how they have to act in order to participate in the market“ (Bröckling 2012: 4). However, “the real-fiction of the Homo oeconomicus in no case merely translates the functional requirements of the economic system into a role script. Rather it is dependent on becoming subjectivated, which means dependent on generating the individual resonances in the form of altered self-interpretations and self-practices“ (ibid.). In order to translate the premises of neoliberal economy into our mentalities, structural incentives and constraints are certainly important. Yet, Bröckling stresses the relevance of what is called interpellation (Bröckling 2007: 27-31). We are invocated to understand ourselves as Homo oeconomicus and/or enterprising selves and to act accordingly. But only if the call resonates in us, it becomes powerful and the process of subjectivation takes place. Often we unconsciously respond to calls that are vastly present in our daily lives (for example in discourses, publicities, party platforms or guidebooks), since we wish to stay connected in communication and because of our fear to be socially excluded, if we resist to adapt to mechanisms of socialization which are shaped by the logic of the market (Bröckling 2007: 47).

To summarize: As the Homo oeconomicus and the enterprising self are neither abstract models, nor are they directly translated into reality. But as they get partially real through interpellations and corresponding processes of subjectivation, they can be labeled real-fictions. Or as Bröckling puts it for the enterprising self: You are not an enterprising self but you are supposed to become one. And you only can turn into one, since you are already addressed as such (Bröckling 2007: 47).

Yet, it is important to distinguish between the real-fiction of the Homo oeconomicus and the real-fiction of the enterprising self. The latter diverges from the former, since the enterprising self passes the threshold of uncertainty. What does this mean? The enterprising self cannot translate uncertainty into calculable risks as the prototype of the manager does, since an enterprising self acts against the background of insecure information and lacking pathways. This is why Joseph Schumpeter identifies the entrepreneur as a modern hero (Bröckling 2007: 116). The entrepreneur is the creator of the new and the defeater of the unknown. The entrepreneur produces for the market and its decisions depend on uncertain demands. Thus, the enterprising self acts to some extent beyond rationality, which is supposed to be compensated by unresting activity (Bröckling 2002: 9-10; Bröckling 2007: 116-123). Not surprisingly, activation is one of the central invocations in guidebooks, which are understood by Bröckling as manuals for neoliberal thinking. He identifies a semantic of total mobilization (Bröckling 2007: 117; Bröckling 2012). Accordingly, he quotes Tom Peters, one of the gurus of personal and business empowerment: “Just throw enough spaghetti against the wall, maybe something will stick to it“ (Bröckling 2002: 10; translated by the authors).

If the enterprising self turns into the vanishing point of our efforts of subjectivation, what everyone is supposed to become is precisely what threatens everyone. Why is that? On the one hand, the logic of comparison and competition produces the feeling of lack, incompleteness and guilt. This is the actual reason for the never ending restlessness of the modern individual. On the other hand, if the market mechanism increasingly shapes socialization, the interpellation to act economically is on the verge to become hegemonic.4 Ultimately, the possible result of the ongoing economization of the social is dystopic: “As there is nothing less at stake than the own life, there is no space for playful easiness and noble fairness. Thus, the enterprising self is not only a general orientation but also a bugbear. What everyone is supposed to become is precisely what threatens everyone“ (Bröckling 2007: 126; translated by the authors). Just as Hartmut Rosa does when describing the consequences of social acceleration for the modern individual, Bröckling refers to Alain Ehrenberg's work “The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age“ when outlining the flipside of the enterprising self (Bröckling 2007: 289; Rosa 2012: 388-390): exhaustion and depression.

Just as the wish for acceleration can be described as being unquestioned, since it is linked to our cultural ideal of the good life, the economic view on ourselves and our fellow men and women becomes an increasingly dominant and unconscious mentality. It perfectly fits the logic of social acceleration and it is massively enhanced by neoliberal thoughts that have great impact on the governing of the social.

Embodying knowledge and practicing cultural change

So far, we presented two different mental infrastructures of growth that are shaping our actions and routines. They are deeply internalized and largely unquestioned. Knowing them is crucial to deconstruct our behavior – no matter if we talk about most basic daily habits or abstract life visions. However, the cognitive process of deconstruction is insufficient to actually change our lifestyles for several reasons: Firstly, we positively associate them with our understanding of a good life. Secondly, most habits that make up our lifestyle are simply too automated to change them just by knowing about them. Finally, external conditions are of great importance for individual transformation. Currently, they are preserving the logic of growth, increase and acceleration.5 By consequence, Welzer even remarks that “a bigger part of the knowledge assets which currently get effective in discourses, will only be of relevance after the change of practices – not before” (Welzer & Gießmann 2009: 107; translated by the authors). For Welzer only concrete practices allow to transform the existing knowledge into effective one, since practices built the bridges between abstraction and the realities of people (ibid. 106).

Psychic resources for a degrowth society

Against this backdrop, the psychologist Marcel Hunecke stresses that processes of reflection need to be embodied in order to support personal change. Moreover, he also highlights the relevance to connect these processes with positive emotions (Hunecke 2013: 32). People in the Global North will barely change lifestyles that are connected with still dominant cultural concepts of the good life (like the mentioned prevailing attractiveness to extend personal experiences by consuming as many world options as possible), if change is not associated with an improvement of individual well-being.

Yet, the experience of pressure and stress caused by the need of constant innovation, acceleration, activity and efficiency are perceived by large parts of the population in the Global North as a loss of well-being as well as a risk for physical and psychological health (ibid.: 9). These forms of suffering provide possibilities for interventions that Hunecke wants to use to activate and strengthen a set of six psychic resources. These are not postulated from a normative perspective but derived from empirical research. He deems them helpful to cope with the exigencies of highly dynamic societies but likewise crucial for a sustainable lifestyle, an increase of individual well-being and for a social-ecological transformation towards degrowth societies. Basing his work largely on results of positive psychology, but also of environmental psychology, resource based coaching and social-ecological research, he identifies the following resources: The capability to enjoy, self-acceptance, self-efficacy, mindfulness, construction of sense and solidarity. For Hunecke these resources have the potential to mutually strengthen but also enclose each other (for details see: ibid.: 120f.).

In the context of our topic, the development of the six psychic resources allows to identify and to tackle a variety of problematic consequences of the mental infrastructures that have been identified above. 1) According to Hunecke the capability to enjoy facilitates experiencing more intense moments of life instead of just increasing the quantity of consumed world options. Here, wealth of time, regionality and seasonality are important concepts to connect this psychic resource with a possible degrowth lifestyle and altered concepts of the good life. 2) Self-acceptance prevents people from compensating perceived unsatisfactoriness by material consumption to increase their social status. As shown above, the feeling of unworthiness can be perceived as a consequence of the extension of competition and interpellations to act in the sense of the enterprising self. 3) Self-efficacy strengthens the conviction to be able to contribute to the change of personal and societal environment (ibid.: 120f.). 4) Mindfulness allows to get aware of problematic habits by increasing the sensitivity for the needs of oneself and of other beings and is conducive to experience joy. This turns mindfulness into a crucial psychic resource that may help to reduce the gap between nature and humans. 5) By getting aware of ones own needs and those of others, mindfulness also opens the way to more general questions about the sense of individual action and being (ibid.: 69) as well as to the psychic resource of solidarity. 6) The latter one allows cutting through the dominant paradigm of competition which was identified in this article as driving force for acceleration, self-optimization and the mobilization of the self.

Due to the potential of the identified psychic resources to deconstruct mental infrastructures in an integral way and to gradually transform them, the reader will realize that the pedagogical program of the training on mental infrastructure in many ways tried to refer to these resources and to activate them. In that regard the course was also inspired by Harald Welzer's attempt to identify and support alternative and succeeding counter practices with the help of the foundation “FUTURZWEI”. The same applies for Christine Ax's work on the so called “skilled society”. Both may be well interpreted in the context of embodying knowledge and practicing change. Thus, they will be shortly presented in the following as an inspiring end of this introduction.

The skilled society

Christine Ax notices that modernity goes along with an the unlearning of practical skills as more and more processes are machine based (Ax 2009: 25; 28ff.). Yet, the development of skills is most crucial for a happy life: Firstly, skills provide autonomy. If you are skilled, you depend less on money and/or on the skills of other people and/or the decay rates of knowledge. Secondly, skills may activate various of the mentioned psychic resources – e.g. self-efficacy, mindfulness and enjoyment.

Against this backdrop, Ax argues for a skilled society. Her vision of such a society fundamentally differs from the ideologically driven knowledge society (Ax 2009: 254), since in a skilled society people work under the condition of freedom (ibid.: 259). Here people are able to realize their needs by having more personal responsibility for the own work. In the context of cultural change, a combination of differently organized work and an emphasis on skills (without ignoring the importance of knowledge) provide the possibility to change mental infrastructures: As already mentioned, it allows activating and strengthening those psychic resources which may be relevant in a degrowth society. Moreover, working in the skilled society facilitates embodying strategies. As skills cannot be digitized (Ax 2009: 53), skilled people will most likely deal less with computers than workers in a knowledge society, but will interact with a much greater variety of those forms and shapes that the world hosts.

Promoting succeeding counter practices

Besides the problem of the deep internalization of ideals and routines, Welzer remarks that we also don't change our practices, simply because we don't have experienced better ones (Welzer & Gießmann 2009: 108). Of course, this lack also prevents political measures that would greatly facilitate and promote individual transformation. Thus, he seeks to spread and support changed practices in order to link up abstract knowledge to the realities of the people. In his understanding these practices serve the project of a reductive modernity, “a society which keeps its civilizational standard while considerably reducing its material and energy consumption as well as seriously decreasing consume but increasing personal autonomy” (Giesecke, Tremel & Welzer 2015: 6; translated by the authors). For this project, he founded the foundation “FUTURZWEI”6 which gathers examples and stories of succeeding counter practices to publish them regularly and in a prominent way. FUTURZWEI is understood by its members as a public relation agency for a social movement that searches for ways to realize a reductive modernity (ibid.). This may be possible by breaking up patterns of (re-) production in a practical mode of change allowing people to make new experiences with themselves (Welzer 2015: 36).

GROWL and the 4th International Conference on Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity

The Course "Mental Infrastructures and Degrowth Transformation" adressed the topic of the „Culture of Growth“ from different perspectives. It discusses the mental infrastructures of growth and their historical background theoretically. Moreover, it allows the reflection of our personal mental models and encourages experimenting with their convertibility by offering a variety of experience-based workshops.

The course comprised four main parts:

1. Presentation of the concept of „Mental Infrastrutures“ and a plenary discussion
2. Performance-Workshop „Strategies of Self-Improvement“
3. Self-reflective workshop on „Growth and social acceleration“
4. Practical Workshop: Experiencing (In-)Efficiency

A set of methodological modules was developed and experimented during this course.

Module 1: Getting to know a concept – What are mental infrastructures of growth?

Module overview

Total: 3,5h

General aims of the module

• Participants understand what the term „Mental infrastructures of growth“ means and how it can be filled (here: by Harald Welzer)
• Participants critically discuss and question the concept and its limits
• Participants link the concept to their personal lives
• Participants evaluate the possible impact of mental infrastructures for a social-ecological transformation

Module Description

1. Presentation (30')
The module starts with an introductory input on the concept of mental infrastructures. The presentation aims at explaining what mental infrastructures are and why they are relevant. It then focuses on three mental infrastructures (or „socio-cultural schemes“) that currently sustain the growth oriented society and that are specifically addressed within this course in the following workshops:

a. Bookkeeping and the „Economic Man“ (see Module 2)

b. Acceleration and the Shrinking of the Present (see Module 3)

c. Efficiency and the Knowledge Society (see Module 4)

2. Open Plenary Discussion (30')

This open phase aims at clarifying open questions and expressing doubts and critique concerning the concept.

3. Worldcafé (60')

In this part the participants wrap up the core of the concept, transfer it to concrete examples and make a link to their personal lives. In order to do this, the room is set up with tables (approx. 1 table for every 5-6 participants), where the following questions are discussed seperately in a „Worldcafé“:

a. Find a coherent working definition for „Mental infrastructures of growth“ based on the presentation. What are examples for it according to your definition?

b. How are you affected by „mental infrastructures of growth“ in your personal lives – within your family, friends, work, your own habits...?

c. How do you deal with or react to them?

Each questions is discussed for 20 minutes within groups of 5-6 participants. Then the participants change tables and come together in new combinations. A „host“ stays at each table to introduce the newcomers to the previous debate which is the basis for the discussion of the next question. For further explanation of the worldcafé method see: http://www.theworldcafe.com/method.html.

4. Break (15')

5. Presentation of the World Café results (30')

First, the different working definitions (Question 1) are presented and evaluated in the plenary: What are the differences? Can they be integrated to a common/ coherent definition? Or are there aspects that cannot be harmonized?

In a second step, the hosts are invited to give an overview of the further discussed topics and share especially interesting points with the whole group.

6. Collective mapping (30')

This last step aims at clarifying the concept by mapping existing mental infrastructures of growth, which we see within society and in our personal lives around the newly developed working definition. If needed, it is possible to form another small group that integrates the different definition proposals into a common definition, which then can be placed in the middle of a big wallpaper. All other participants are invited to write down the mental infrastructures they discussed within the worldcafé and illustrate the map with colours, drawings etc. This is supposed to be interactive, creative and fun and serves as a base for further discussions within the seminar.

The wallpaper is put up in the seminar room and can be complemented in the following days.

7. Wrap-up and outlook (15')

At the end, there should be some time to embed the concept into the following parts of the seminar – that this seminar aims at giving the chance to experience our own mental infrastructures and the role they play in our lives as well as to experiment with alternative experiences that may have the potential to change our mental infrastructures.

Module 2: Performance Workshop “Strategies of self-improvement and competition as mental infrastructures of growth”

Module overview

Total: 7 h (+ circa 2h of breaks)

General aims of the module

• Participants know important imperatives and strategies of self-improvement
• Participants relate strategies of self-improvement to (the mental infrastructure of) competition and reflect on problematic dimensions of that relation
• Participants experiment in a playful way with different forms of coping with the imperative of continuous self-improvement
• Participants include cognitive, emotional and physical dimensions in their approach (holistic approach)
• Participants have the possibility to enjoy working and experimenting together in a cooperative way (experience of cooperation)
• Participants develop a joyful and playful attitude towards failure during the workshop (experience of „not improvement/optimization“)
• Participants find artistic-performative forms of expression for their work and show them to others

How this documentation is made

In the workshop a lot of theatre-methods, games, and exercises are used. Usually these methods work like frames and can include a lot of different possible variations and fillings. These can vary from situation to situation and can be filled with other methods that future trainers might bring from their respective backgrounds. Please be aware that it usually makes sense to have experienced a method at least once before you facilitate it yourself.

For those of you who don't know so many exercises or don't remember them, you can have a look here: http://www.keithjohnstone.com/writing/ and here: http://improwiki.com/en or here: http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?nodeID=52

Although this workshop is explicitly not based on the “Theatre of the opressed” nor within improvisation theatre, you can find exercises in these fields that are applicable and useful for the Performance-Workshop as well.

Module Description

1. Warm-Up (15')

Before you start the workshop, make sure to offer one or two warming-up exercises that you like a lot. They should a) wake people up and b) be fun.

2. Introduction to the workshop (30')

• „We will work with different text-based materials and create own small text components. Later we will also write monologues.“
• Sitting in a circle the facilitator explains what will happen during the workshop and what is his/her personal approach, regarding both the approach to the content as well as to aesthetics. What will happen in the workshop? What was said more or less was the following:
• „We will move a lot and we will develop our own movements with our bodies: We will do a lot of games and exercises that will allow us to have fun and create movements in a simple way. We will work with music. And we will create our own movement vocabulary, we won't dance ballet“
• „We will try to combine brain and body, and have a look at the effects this connection might have if we combine them in different ways.“

3. Let's start! Theatre Exercises (60')

• Exercise in the room to feel comfortable in the room, to come in (physical) contact with the room and with the others: people scatter in the room and go around, find their own rhythm of going, say hello to the others in different ways, etc.... You find some basic „room-exercises“ here: http://improwiki.com/en/wikis
• „The running train“: Exercise with music. Two people come together. One person stands behind the other, looking in the same direction, the person in the front starts to go through the room, inspired by the music. Step 1: The first person turns around and the second person has to react and turn around as fast as possible, too. Now the second person is the first, the roles are changing. Step 2: The second person can stop the first person by giving a pat on the back. Then the second person “draws“ something on the back of the first person with the finger and the first person transforms the drawing into a movement . Step 3: Groups of 2 persons go together and build groups of 4 persons, then groups of 8. The groups start to react to the other groups in their movements in the room. Music used: „Je veux“ by Zaz
• 1,2,3 from Bradford: you find a description of the method here: http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/dbi/content/two-three-bradford
• Exercise on subtext in a circle, e.g. with the words „you“ and „here“. The chosen word is expressed by every person in the circle with a different subtext / imitating different possible situations. In the second round with the second word in addition the next person reacts to it.

4. Gallery of self-improvement (30')

Before the workshop: prepare a wall full of images that have to do with the topic. I chose images from self-management, time-management, diet, yoga, networking, etc. Self-improvement can be described and analyzed in a lot of elements of our lives. (see Material 2)

Participants have time to watch the wall, to relate it with their own lives and thoughts and to get inspired by it. In the 30 minutes they have, each person writes down three imperatives of self-improvement that start with „you“ and put it on the wall. During the exhibition I put music by “Apparat”.

BREAK

5. Performative exercise „What's the time, Mr. Wolf“ (45')

(German name „Ochs am Berg“),You find a description of the game here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_the_time,_Mr_Wolf%3F

If the sun is shining, go outside. After playing it several times (in the variation “low countries”) change the rules of the game step by step:

• If one person is caught by Mr. Wolf, the whole group has to start again.
• Mr. Wolf is invisible. The group has to imagine Mr. Wolf, stop when the imagined Mr. Wolf turns around. You can do that in separated groups already.
• Last step: Divide the group, so that you do not have more than ten people in one group. The small groups repeat the last step, but now they use the texts about self-improvement that they wrote in the gallery-phase and speak them with different subtexts in the freezing phases. The audition-group(s) describe(s) effects (1) and interpretations (2). As this last step is a kind of performance (and people can get nervous), I went inside the main room to use an adequate room with a stage for it.

6. Monologues and Movements (90 minutes)

The following part is a combination of working with creative writing methods and working with methods of new/contemporary dance. I switched between writing and moving parts, so that the participants did not have to write/dance all the time at a stretch. I will describe the two parts separately.

Writing Monologues based on associations

Participants get two papers and a pen each. They sit in a circle and write „self-improvement“ on the first and „failure“ on the second paper. They write the words in the center of the paper and make a circle around them. Then they start to write associations to these words, building chains from the circle to the border of the paper. This can be e.g. like this: self-improvement – healthy food – apples – apple tree – forest – lord of the rings – my first girlfriend Eva – etc...

Always associate to the word you wrote before. Participants do this until their papers are full (6-10 chains should emerge).

Participants do that with both words/papers and then change the papers with their neighbors. On the neighbors papers they underline on each paper three words they find interesting and then give them back.

Now everyone writes a monologue from one of the following perspectives:

• The „I“ is in the mode of self-improvement and describes it's everyday habits or
• The „I“ tries to reflect on it's own strategies of self-improvement, tries perhaps to change them and describes how that works

After writing the monologues two people come together and present their monologues to each other. They decide for one monologue they want to continue working with but they can also try to integrate passages they don't want to lose from the other monologue. At the end they have a text that they want to use for the rest of the workshop.

Creating movements and a first choreography

Before writing the monologues start with the movement/dancing-part: For every word that is underlined, the participants find a movement. Then they find a nice combination of the movements.

The participants start with this exercise in the same groups of two as above. At the beginning one person is the „mover“ and the other is the „reader“, after finishing they change the roles: One person (the reader) reads a word (e.g. „forest“) from his papers the other (the mover) creates spontaneously a small movement. Then the next word is read and the next movement is created. Then the „mover“ links movement 1 and movement 2. After working through all six words from the two papers, the participants change the roles. Now they work in the same way with the papers of the former mover. The result are two choreographies of six linked movements. These choreographies should be precise, so that participants can repeat them exactly and also teach them to other participants.

Exercises that helped us with the preparation of the movement parts

• Room-Exercises with spontaneous statues to terms (I used terms from the lunch-break, some easy to translate in physical like „tired“, some more difficult like „pasta“, some really difficult like „green“). After working with statues you can go to small movements.
• Puzzling: All participants are standing in a circle: One person goes to the center and goes into a free position. Freeze. Now a second person goes to the first and tries to find a position, that „fills“ blanks in the position of the first without touching him or her. Freeze. The first person tries to leave without touching. A third person is coming into the circle and so on.

7. Staging the monologues and choreographies (90')

In the groups of two from 7) the participants start to combine their text and their two choreographies. They start to experiment with different forms of combination. Questions that could support them:

• „Who is speaking which part of the text?“
• „Which parts do we speak together (if any)?“
• „When does which part of which choreography take part?“
• „Which parts do we move together (if any)?“
• „What are you doing, when you don't have anything special to do on the stage? How can you give focus on the main performing person?“

At the end each pair has a small performance.

In the last step the participants go together in groups of three or four pairs and combine their performances, keeping the same questions in mind. As they are six to eight people in each group, they can also work with choirs, speaking choirs as well as moving choirs. Additional tasks are now:

• „Find an order for the three/four performances that makes sense to you“
• „Decide how your performance will start and how it will end“
• „Think about rhythmical questions: when are you loud/quiet, when fast/slow.“
• „Think about subtexts and attitudes of the performers“

8. Presentation of the performances and feedback (60')

Finally the groups can present the results of their work on stage. For non-professional actors the facilitator should explain the difference between a private place and a stage, where every movement is significant and can be interpreted by the audience. I usually mark the border of the stage with a tape and explain, that crossing that border implies that you are not a private person anymore but someone performing. As such, you are performing a role which may differ from your private roles.

After the performances we had a small break and then gave feedback in two different ways:

• In a circle: „What do you want to say concerning the workshop, which experiences do you want to share with us?“
• In anonymous: At the end of the course we put papers for every workshop on the floor and left the room, so participants could write down detailed feedback.

Module 3: Self-reflective workshop on growth and social acceleration

1. Harald Welzer and Hartmut Rosa provide the theoretical background to link the concepts of growth and acceleration to our daily lives. Rosa claims that competition and the promise of eternity are the main engines for acceleration. They trigger acceleration in other areas, such as technology, and therefore provide the basis for economic growth. Welzer introduces us to the concept of mental infrastructures.
2. The workshop aims at connecting Rosa’s and Welzer’s theory with our own biographies. How has acceleration and growth influenced our lives? What do our mental infrastructures look like? What are barriers that hinder us from thinking, feeling and acting differently? Which ideas help us change?
3. The workshop will combine theoretical input and practical exercises, most of which are based on self-reflective elements.

Module overview

Total: 5.30 h (plus 1 h of break)

General Aims of the Module:

1. make acceleration and growth visible in our own biographies (we talk about degrowth but visit one training after another….)
2. some (but little) theoretical background on acceleration (Rosa) and personal growth (humanistic psychology)
3. understand some needs and mechanisms underlying acceleration and why it is so hard to change (barriers)
4. learn about the value-action gap / attitude-behavior gap
5. develop ideas on resources and strategies towards a degrowth society

Module description

Exercise I: Gallery walk

Aims:

• Warm-up and set minds for the topic
• Introduction to the topic: understanding time as a relative perception

Walking through the time gallery:

• Quotes are printed on colorful paper and hung up on a clothesline beforehand.
• Participants move slowly along the clothesline and have time to read and perceive quotes, proverbs and images.

Note: put up music to create a comfortable atmosphere. Participants may talk if they wish to.

Time needed: 15 Minutes

Material: Material 2, pegs, clothesline, pictures (e. g. from a game called „Dixxit“), music, speakers

Exercise II: Walking through the room

Aims:

• Understanding time as a concept shaped by society;
• Feel how different speeds affect us in a metaphorical sense

Procedure:

You should have a present voice and make sure participants use the whole room for this. This includes preparing the room in advance (no tables, chairs etc.)

Read the following script and leave time in between while participants are walking through the room at different speeds.

1) Relaxed
We walk through the room in a very relaxed way, slowly. Give attention to: your breathing........your relaxation..........your look, your posture and the way you walk........feel the ground.........look at the others (you may add: smile)

2) Accelerate – phase I
We walk through the room in a faster pace, almost our normal pace. Give attention to: your breathing........your look, your posture and the way you walk........feel the ground.........look at the others (you may add: smile)

3) Accelerate – phase II
We walk through the room in a fast pace, almost running. Give attention to: your breathing........your look, your posture and the way you walk........look at the others (you may add: smile)

Questions for reflection (shortly):

• How did you feel at the different paces?
• How do these feelings correspond to the quotes you read?
• Did you experience some form of resonance?

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: music, speakers

Exercise II (Alternative): Following hands

Aims: warm-up, coming together

Procedure:

Participants come together in pairs. They should take their hands and use it as imagined magnets. One takes the role of the follower and follows the other hand like a magnet through the room; after a while, they can switch roles.Participants should try different positions and play with their partners. You can encourage an active atmosphere with active music.

Questions for reflection (shortly):

How did you feel while following the hand? How did you feel leading the hand?

Are these feelings associated with the quotes that you have just read?

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: music, speakers

---INTERLUDE---Explaining goals

Aims: Explaining goals of the workshop and making them transparent (see aims after the chart).

[Note: I prefer to explain the goals of the workshop here instead of doing it, how it is usually done, straight in the beginning - participants should not be primed right away as to what they are supposed to think (e.g., while walking through the time gallery.]

Note also: Before you start, you may introduce the FREEZE idea: whenever you feel like the participants are not focused or wandering off with their minds, you might say FREEZE. Everyone will then immediately take a paper (make sure they are available throughout the whole workshop, as well as pens) and write down their thought. Encourage participants to write down whatever is on their mind in that moment. Collect the sheets and make a break. You will get a better idea on where the group is and what they need. Make sure you can adapt your exercises accordingly if you wish to.

Time needed: 10 Minutes

Material: List of the aims as a reminder for yourself if needed.

Exercise III: "I-still-have-to-list"

Aims: experiencing self-constraint on time / internalization of acceleration and how it affects us

Procedure:

Start with a little imagination and take the participants to their home desks: “You come back after this workshop and arrive at home. The next day, you sit at your desk and realize what needs to be done in the following weeks. All the things that you have to do and still didn't manage to do come to your mind. There are the dirty clothes and the food that you need to prepare, but there is also that issue at work and another unfinished task....”

Participants should take a sheet of paper and list all the things they have to do beginning with the sentence "I still have to....". They have 3 minutes for this, so they need to be quick and note as much as they can think of. It should be things that are currently on their mind and that they need to do in the following weeks.

Possible questions for reflection (collect quick impressions):

• What is on the list? Give some quick examples.
• Do you see a pattern?
• Are to-do-lists an example of an overall feeling and tendency in society?
• Why do you feel you still have to do all those things? Who tells you that you have to?
• Where does the pressure “to have to” come from?
• Do you feel it would be possible to ever “finish the list”?

Time needed: 40 Minutes

Material: Paper, Pens

Exercise IV: Reflective walk

Aims:

• making the shortage of time visible in our everyday life
• get activated and share you experiences with someone

Procedure:

Participants should find a partner that they haven't talked to until now.

They go for a walk with their partner. They should take the note sheet with suggested questions for reflection with them (Material 3).

Note: When participants come back, let them know that they will have time later on to exchange with the others and give input and insights from their walk. They may use their newly gained knowledge for what’s coming next, the plan analysis.

Time needed: 30-50 Minutes

Material: Material 3 (Note sheet)

Exercise V: Plan analysis

Aims:

• identifying mechanisms underlying acceleration: needs as a motor for actions
• work out goals and needs behind personal growth and acceleration

Procedure:

Write down the five points in Material 4 on a board/big sheet of paper and explain the idea behind the plan analysis.

The vertical plan analysis is a diagnostical tool that is used in behavioral psychotherapy to assess the needs of clients in relationships. Plans are seen as an expression of different motivational schemes. Behaviors are seen to be indicators for a need: by acting in a certain way, persons are trying to get something they want and need.

Note: This is a modified and extremely brief version, it differs from the original idea!

Participants should think of a situation in which they had the feeling of being in shortage of time. The I-must-have-list might give them ideas for such situations. They should formulate every behavior in a command form. This might seem strange at first, but it will help participants to not lose the focus (explain this to them).

Participants go into pairs of two and take a sheet (material 4). They perform a plan analysis with their partner. When one is done, switch roles. Note: It is important that participants think of a specific situation.

Questions for reflection:

• Are there other ways to achieve the needs and goals behind an accelerated life?
• What happens when people oppose “capitalistic” mental structures such as self-optimization? What happens if people “drop out” of the system?

Time needed: 45 Minutes

Material: Material 4

Lecture

Aims:

• understand how and why acceleration and the feeling of shortage of time come into being by getting to know the theory of acceleration by Hartmut Rosa (Why do we have less less and less time, although we save time through efficiency and technological progress?)
• link individual and societal processes: understand growth as motor of social acceleration: to remain stable, you have to grow (both in the economy, as well as individually)
• link personal growth (Humanistic Psychology) with social acceleration and provide a critical reflection on the topic How do personal and economic growth interact, and where are differences?

Make sure the lecture is well prepared: this includes your own preparation (get to know the material – of course you might as well create your own content and presentation – and the preparation of the room (presentation software must work on the computer you use as well as the connection with the projector....)

Time needed: 30 Minutes

Material: Material 5: presentation (online or pdf version), projector, speakers

Source: Online presentation: https://prezi.com/0atu2xtiyl86/acceleration-personal-growth/

// TODO: Get copy of Prezi as open format (PDF) and put it on the course page. Link to it (QR-Code)

Map of change

Aims:

• identify barriers and structural constraints that prevent us from acting
• bring together ideas on strategies that might be useful for a transformation towards a degrowth society
• think about individual resources and societal structures that provide the infrastructure for change

Procedure:

Hang up the map of change (see material 7).

Divide group in two halves – individual vs. societal: Hand out questions to reflect upon accordingly (Material 6)

1. First round: Think for yourself (5 minutes). Make notes if you want to.

After the first round:

Present the map of change and explain the different areas and what you want to do with it. The map of change is a visualization of the mental infrastructures in present society and the ones that are needed for a degrowth society (Alternative Island). It also visualizes the “roads” that might lead to such a transformation – the resources and strategies needed to get there (Resourcelandia). It also projects the barriers that might hinder us (Barrier Woods). The sea surrounding the land and islands may give space to further comments, critics etc (see example in the annex: Material 6).

2. Second round: groups with 5-6 persons (30 minutes).

In the group, they should further collect ideas and examples of a possible degrowth society, the society as we perceive it now, barriers and ways to overcome them. The focus should be on obstacles and strategies on how to overcome ”capitalistic mental infrastructures”, especially if there is not much time.

Each example/idea/concept should be written on a separate card. Provide different colors for strategies and resources, barriers, capitalistic infrastructures and degrowth infrastructures and open questions/comments.

The group should pick someone to present the cards in the plenum.

Remember: this is not an easy task, some people work all their lives on this and yet don’t have answers.

Questions for reflection (basically the same as on the sheet):

What are capitalistic/degrowth mental infrastructures?

What are the obstacles/barriers? Why do you have to run along and when do you manage to get out?

What are ways to overcome these mental infrastructures? How can mental infrastructures for a degrowth society be paved, on an individual and on a societal level? What are mechanisms of change?

Criticisms / Open comments

3. Third round: Each group presents in the plenum (20 minutes)

Have one person from each group present the outcomes from their group discussions. The person should put up the cards according to the area/color.

After each group has presented, you should have a nice collection of all the ideas on the map of change.

4. Fourth round: Group discussion (25 minutes)

Discuss about the different ideas you find on the map. Which are realistic, which do you find difficult?

Where do you feel contradictions and ambivalence?

What are pros and cons of different strategies?

Time needed: 80 Minutes (if you have time and energy, you might take more time for this if you wish to)

Material: Material 6, Material 7, moderation cards in 5 different colors (parts of the map of change), crepe tape

Mindfulness-based exercise

Aims: try a mindfulness-based exercise as a tool for inner change

Procedure:

Make sure everyone can put him- or herself in a comfortable position (either lying down or sitting); participants can close their eyes (which makes it easier to visualize). For this exercise it is essential that no disturbances take place, you provide a comfortable room and have enough time. Read the material beforehand so you have a present and clear voice and don't get confused while reading out loud. Try to soften your voice and leave room between the sentences – the more comfortable you feel during the exercise, the more will the participants.

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: Material 8: Peaceful place

Closing round/Feedback

Aims:

• get feedback of the group
• closing the workshop together

Procedure:

Sit in a circle. Each participant has about one minute to answer the question: “What do you take along from this workshop?” (make sure you include yourself). After you are finished, invite participants to sit with crossed legs and put their hands on the neighbor’s knees. Take time to look at each other and close the round.

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: --

Module 4: Practical workshop “Experiencing (In-)Efficiency and the Skilled Society”

Module overview

Total: 3,5h + Dinner

General aims of the module

• Participants experience themselves in a practical activity which differs from their daily work (usually at a computer) – and the usual seminar setting – and which allows to experience another form of self-efficacy by working with their hands and bodies
• Starting from the practical experience they reflect upon their daily work and from there on how work is socially organized within modern societies and what mental infrastructures are linked to it – the idea of efficiency, a strong division between the categories „practical“ and „theoretical“ and as a result the tendency to depreciate practical skills
• Participants know that practical skills are an important issue in the degrowth debate and why. They discuss how a focus on practical skills can foster a social-ecological degrowth society and where the limits of this approach are.
• Participants have fun preparing a convivial meal for all.

Module description

1. Introduction to the Workshop (10')

As an introduction to the workshop the trainer puts up 3 definitions of central concepts shaping the organization of work in modern societies which are in this workshop understood as mental infrastructures supporting the growth society. They will be questioned later on in the workshop. At this point these concepts are very shortly explained – as well as how they are interrelated:

A. Efficiency describes the extent to which time, effort or cost is well used for an intended task or purpose. It defines the relationship between the effort that has been made (resources & working hours) and the outcome. [cf. Wikipedia]

B. The division of labour is the specialisation of cooperating individuals who perform specific tasks and roles. It is historically associated with the growth of total output and trade and with a rise of complexity in industrialised societies. It is in this context expected to increase both producer and individual worker productivity. [cf. Wikipedia]

C. The term Knowledge society refers to a society formation in highly industrialized countries: individual and colletive theoretical knowledge as well as its organization becomes more and more the social and economic basis of these societies. Aside with the tendency to a rising reputation of theoretical knowledge, practical skills are depreciated. [cf. Wikipedia; Ax 2009]

Then the participants can ask comprehension questions, but the concepts are not discussed yet.

2. Introduction to the practical workshops (5')

In the next step the different workshops are presented and the participants decide on which workshop they would like to attend. Then every person receives a little piece of paper with a question on it. He or she will take this question to the workshop and is invited to reflect upon it while doing the practical work. The questions are randomly distributed among the participants, so several people receive the same question. In Leipzig we used the following questions:

• What does efficiency mean to you personally? In what situations do you experience it's positive/negative aspects?
• What positive/negative aspects of the strong division of labour (within our society) do you experience in your personal life?
• What kind of work has made you happy in the past and why?
• What kind of (theoretical and practical) knowledge and skills would you personally like to develop more? Why?

3. Practical Workshops (120')

In Leipzig we offered the following 3 workshops:

1. How to bake your own bread

2. How to produce tasty spreads

3. Harvesting at the CSA project

They were all related to the collective preparation of a meal, but other workshops are also possible, of course.

4. Reflection in small groups (30')

Within the workshop groups the participants exchange about their experiences within the workshop. The reflection is guided by the questions that the participants had received, but also any other experiences can be shared here.

5. Reflection in Plenary (45')

In the plenary then, there is first the opportunity for all to share whatever they want to share with the whole group: an especially interesting issue that had come up in the small group, an open question that could be relevant for further research or reflection etc.

In a second round, we link the personal experiences to degrowth as a societal concept which focuses strongly on the development on practical skills as well as concepts of self-providing. The following questions can help with this:

• Is a degrowth society a more „practical“ society than the present and what does that mean? In which fields?
• What role does self-sufficiency and the development of practical skills play for the transformation towards a degrowth society?
• What are the limits – and risks? - of the strong focus of the degrowth debate towards practical skills and self-sufficiency?

The results of this debate can be found in the Annex (Material 9).

6. Convivial dinner

At the end, we prepare a common meal for all: with a colourful, fresh salad, bread and spreads. It's the direct „practical“, visible and tasteable outcome of the workshops.

Material

For details on the material, please visit the following website and check the longer version of this documentation online:

https://co-munity.net/mental-infrastructures/materials-0/documentation-course

// TODO: Put as box with QR-Code

Literature

• Ax, Christine (2009): Die Könnensgesellschaft – Mit guter Arbeit aus der Krise; Berlin: Rhombos.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2002): Jeder könnte, aber nicht alle können – Konturen des unternehmerischen Selbst; Mittelweg 36, in: Eurozine; http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2002-10-02-broeckling-de.html; Last access: 18.06.2015.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2007): Das unternehmerische Selbst – Soziologie einer Subjektivierungsform; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2012): The Subject in the Marketplace, the Subject as Marketplace, Presentation at the Conference „The Marketization of Society: Economizing the Non-Economic“, University of Bremen, 01./02.06.2012; http://www.mpifg.de/projects/marketization/downloads/Broeckling.pdf; Last access: 12.07.2014.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2012): Totale Mobilmachung. Menschenführung im Qualitäts- und Selbstmanagement; in: Krasmann, Susanne, Lemke, Thomas, Bröckling, Ulrich: Gouvernementalität der Gegenwart – Studien zur Ökonomisierung des Sozialen; 6th edition; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp
• Descola, Philippe (2013): Jenseits von Natur und Kultur; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
• Gießmann, Sebastian; Welzer Harald (2009): Vom Wissen zum Handeln – vom Handeln zum Wissen: Harald Welzer im Gespräch mit Sebastian Gießmann; in: Gießmann, Sebastian et al.: Politische Ökologie; Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften; 2/2009; Bielefeld: transcript; 103-110.
• Görg, Christoph (2003a): Gesellschaftstheorie und Naturverhältnisse – Von den Grenzen der Regulationstheorie; in: Brand, Ulrich; Raza, Werner (eds.): Fit für den Postfordismus? Theoretisch-politische Perspektiven des Regulationsansatzes; Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot; 175-194.
• Görg, Christoph (2003b): Nichtidentität und Kritik – Zum Problem der Gestaltung der Gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnisse; in: Böhme, Gernot; Manzei, Alexandra (eds.): Kritische Theorie der Technik und der Natur, Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag; 113-134.
• Görg, Christoph (2005): Jenseits von Naturalismus und Naturberrschung – Naturverhältnisse in der Kritischen Theorie; in: Asta der FH Münster (ed.): Alle reden vom Wetter. Wir nicht. Beiträge zur Förderunge der kritischen Vernunft; Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.
• Hunecke, Marcel (2013): Psychologie der Nachhaltigkeit – Psychische Ressourcen für Postwachstumsgesellschaften; München: oekom.
• Rosa, Hartmut (2009): Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a dysychronized High-Speed Society; in: Rosa, Hartmut; Scheuerman, William E.: High-Speed Society - Social Acceleration, Power, and Modernity; Pennsylvania State University Press; 77-112.
• Rosa, Hartmut (2012): Beschleunigung - Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne; 9th edition; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
• Sanders, Christoph (2014): Societal Relations with Nature and Mental Infrastructures – A critical glance from Buen Vivir and Theravāda-Buddhism; Conference paper for the 4th International Conference on Degrowth; https://co-munity.net/conference2014/science/content/societal-relations-nature-and-mental-infrastructures-critical-glance; Last access: 01.07.2015.
• Welzer, Harald (2011): Mental Infrastructures - How Growth Entered the World and Our Souls; http://www.boell.de/sites/co-munity.net/files/endf_mental_infrastructures.pdf; Last access: 18.06.2015.
• Welzer, Harald (2015): Zukunftspolitik; in: Welzer, Harald; Giesecke, Dana; Tremel, Luise: FUTURZWEI Zukunftsalmanach 2015/2016 – Geschichten vom guten Umgang mit der Welt; Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer; 13-38.
• Welzer, Harald; Giesecke, Dana; Tremel, Luise (2015): Vorwort; in: Dies.: FUTURZWEI Zukunftsalmanach 2015/2016 – Geschichten vom guten Umgang mit der Welt; Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer; 5-8.