Below is a collection of user stories suggested by Leipzig course participants. The idea was to develop these into assignments to become a GROWL trainer.
*Time issues in Degrowth Trainings Christoph Sanders ( KNOE, Leipzig) was interested to do this
*As a traveler and global citizen, I want to open the debate on mobility within degrowth society so that we can adress this dilemma on a more systemic leven
*As a part of different teams, I want to learn organization building and pedagogic technics to create working sustainability
* As an energeer and practicioner, I would like to explre the role of Renewable energy in a degrowth society, so that the topic of energy is properly adressed in the debate. A course would help to create awarness of the limits, but also about the possibilities and transformative potentials of alternative ways of energy production. In a paper, I would like to provoke a debate, in a order to get a more clear perspective on the combination of the tow realms
* As a lawer, I want to know how are structured CSA etc. is, to participate in the building of an degrowth society
* As a PHD Student I want to reflect on my mental infrastructures of a complete and fullfilled PHD Tet so that I can decide what is important and possible and what not
* As an engeneer in renewable energy sector and coming from my country I want to analys, discuss, explore, know about position, idea, ways, importance, impact, consequences and Degrowth in this sector
* As an academix I want to bring together ideas developed within different social sciences that are related to the idea of degrowth, so that my collegues and students could see its relevance
*As a trainer I want to share experiences with other trainers and see other trainers work on Degrowth so we all can develop our training skills
*As a coordenitro of the contenc I would like to have more feedback and demands from the course organizers and participants so that we build a good content base with concrete steps
* As a psychologist and degrowth activist I want to know more about the connection between individual and societal processes of change so that people become resiliently and efficantly engaged in transition towards a Degrowth Society
* Developing relations between f....( Fabricatuer lokal) and Repair Cafe in The Ref...in Brussels
*As an engineer who feels disconnect from relationships and need of society when dealing with only technical problems I would like to discuss about giving the possibility to this category to bring technological innovation which really fulfill needs of people
Target group: Inhabitants of Melissochori
Melissochori, where I was born and grew up, is a village almost 20km away from the city of Thessaloniki,
situtated on a mountain slope covered by forest. The surrounding area is mainly agricultural land. Almost 1,500 people used to live in melissochori according to Greek Cencus 2001. After a decade of intense development in the area and according to Greek Cencus 2011, the population is almost 5,500. This increase of population size was due to the fact that the village is very close to the city while at the same time it has been popular for its beautiful natural environment as well as the water sources (people from the village as well as Thessaloniki residents use to collect water from the water sources for drinking and cooking). So at the moment, the population is mainly synthesized by the old residents and the news. These two groups do not meet. At the same time, public space is dominated by men. Women mainly meet in their houses. The society of the village is dominated by very conservative reflexes. Unemployment is high rated among young people.
Very close to Melissochori are situtated 2 more villages, Drimos and Liti. In the area of Drimos village there is also a marble mining activity, visible in the whole area. Almost half of the mountain being exploited does not exist anymore.
The quality of the underground water of the area has been significally downgraded due to nitrate pollution. Underground water is used for drinking and irrigation. Since almost 2 years, it has been officially announced by the relative authorities that the households in Drimos must not use this water due to the pollution. I should mention that the problem does not exist only 2 years. It was just announced before 2 years, after
advocate intervention.
What?
>> Explore what kind of events could be organized in the village of Melissochori in order to create spaces where the residents (men & women, old & new residents) can meet. In other words explore the possibility of creating a network of residents with common interests and needs.
How?
1st step -- Prepare a questionnaire survey about what the residents of the village are missing in the public space/social life of the village, by means of entertainment, education, information etc.. about the effect of crisis in their lives. Things that changed and things that have not changed, for better or for worse.(something like it)
2nd step -- Process the questionnaire and produce results
3rd step -- Organize an event in the village where residents are invited in order to communicate the results & investigate the possibilities of what kind of events/seminars etc we could organize
4th step -- Evaluation by questionnaires to the participants at the end of the event
This shortl project could be the first part of a bigger project. How it continues will be dependent on the participations and the outcomes. This first part is important in order to explore relationships and dynamics already existing as well as for the residents to meet each other.
Expected outcome is the whole project to be a node in starting to create a trustful network of people so that later we can proceed on introducing degrowth ie through the question how other communities are dealing with the effect of crisis on their lives, on the way of researching for other paradigms.
There are a series of areas that we could explore and provide educational toolkit for the "degrowth" organizations of the future. For example l mention hereunder:
- Tools concerning decision making processes,
- Conflict management tools,
- Participatory structural models,
- I.T tools (open source) for automatizing the procedures,
- Theoritical package about "Solidarity & Cooperative economy",
- Community project management tools,
- Community building tools,
more soon...
Key Words
Experiental learning and training. Decolonization of the imaginary. Everyday Life. Surrealism. Situationism. X-Phi. Ethics. Pedagogies for insurrection. Voluntary Simplicity, etc.
Rationale
The same as in Roger Pol Droit's book 101 expériences de philosophie quotidienne . Read a brief and nice description here.
Also similar to This Diary will Change your life (which has grew into an app!)
The goal is to raise awareness, to bridge the gap between everyday life approach and academic approach to degrowth, to collect and present "degrowth practices", to develop imagination, to have fun developing and trying it, to question our own ways of thinking, degrowth dogmas and its' performative contradictions, to challenge ourselves and others.
Method:
Everyone is invited to submit an idea for an experiment, provide a "recipe" to do it.
We can also think a bit about the effect we intend, and categories or tags to describe our experiment, for later organization and reviewing.
Try to work between funny and disturbing.
We should later on work on standard format for presenting the experiment. Let's see.
I'm thinking of actions too, experiments or actions.
Experiments
1. Les décroissants
2. Postcards for degrowth
3.
4.
"Abstract"
- To deconstruct the idea of economy as an economistic science, reestablishing the connection between society and economy.
- In a social model where economy is seen in its substantial form (the study of the different ways humans have to survive) (as opposed to its formal definition - most efficient way to manage scarce resources), degrowth (ie, a society where the growth of PIB no longer matters) might be the end point of the different actions undertaken to promote development;
(- The production of use value as first priority (and only then of exchange value, for export, etc) of a public policy to defend the region resilience, through activation of cooperative production, association of producers for distribution and mutualization of "safety nets")
Target groups: young students of economy (?)
Methodologies: - game (WHAT GAME?) - I want to do something that shows clearly that other ways of rationale are possible
- Formal presentation; examples
Where to present: Austria (?)