Degrowth 2014 - Cultural Agency, potentials and limits of current civic movement
How the change we have been discussing can actually happen?
A valid discussion, but what will the limitations and potentials be.
As an economist, she has always been interested in alternative economies for many decades. She mentions that sometimes it’s hard to live the principles you preach in everyday life, more-so than in other alternative lifestyles. Demonstrations don’t work in the long term, they are to make your demands but in the long run you need to show why the common people should change.
Leonidas Martin
Is a proponent of ‘artivism’ (Art meets Activism). Political change isn’t all that is needed, in fact many don’t understand or appreciate this. Political is the application of a change that is required or demanded. He likes to try and demonstrate what ‘The Good Life’ means outside of Capitalism is. An example was running a party in an Employment office to demonstrate the potential ‘positivity’ of this time and the system’s flaws.
Micha Narberhaus, Smart CSOs
Was motivated by attending many inspirational discussions but there was never a follow up discussion on ‘where next’ and ‘how’. The research project started to bring together people from NGOs and grass roots organisations from many different sources, but with a focus on people who have the energy to actually do something. The aim over the past three years is to have a more structured, ‘professional’ space.
Many of the global, large scale movements that started around ten years ago have found more success in moving to the local scale and engagement with the population directly.
Civil society and NGOs need to be careful about how it portrays and enacts the assumed opinions of the people it purports to represent. Sometimes they can end up mis-representing opinions due to their own agendas, limitations or misunderstanding.
Has the term ‘movement’ become overused and misused? When has a movement turned into something else and vice-versa.
Transformation always comes over time anyway, does it need to be forced so much?
How can you appeal to the common persons perspective with concepts that are abstract or hard to understand. For example making your own food verses refugee issues. There can be external factors that push issues over the edge into decisive action. For example the long-running anti-nuclear campaign suddenly had success post-Fukishima.