Michelle Bauens, the P2P Foundation The Nutrient dense project is a global community of farmers and civic scientists who believe that putting nutrients into the soil it will improve food growth rates. These projects will often receive no funding, so they have mutualised their research and practices. This knowledge and information is shareable and escapes the commodity model. This is the production of commons, not capital.
Growth is always a goal in many countries, statistics appear everywhere and it's always discussed. Even small reductions in GDP are met with bitter disappointment, it's become one of the most important measures in the modern era.
It's refreshing to hear someone (unsurprisingly an engineer) mention that the Degrowth movement could do with more practical projects and methodologies to run alongside the theoretical discussions.
Konstantatos Haris of the Harokopio University of Athens is a member of Syriza and Political scientist in the department of Geography. He states that Geography and History are also factors as well as different political and socio-economic structures. There are commonalities amongst many Southern European countries that need to be addressed today.
Despite attending the conference, not everyone will fully understand what 'Degrowth' is, or the multitude of related terms that will be mentioned during the conference. Thankfully the first session on the schedule is ideally suited for getting your knowledge up to scratch.