(Project Room) (in German & English)

At the “Degrowth Slam,” four contributions—partly poetic, partly scientific, in both German and English—were presented.

The opening was by Cailiosa with a creative and rather traditional poetry slam that harnessed the beauty of poetry. She gave the climate crisis a new, more personal name — “Nina” — and portrayed her as the main character of a play, engaging in a dialogue with her. Although the slammer wrote the piece so that “Nina” could take revenge on the companies that caused her, and despite showing how many people try to mitigate the crisis or minimize its consequences, “Nina” grows increasingly angry, stronger, and unpredictable: the climate crisis is not fair.

Dr. Arch. Alejandro de Castro Mazarro took a visual approach and presented societal connections as a body system—cities and buildings as the digestive systems of our communities. He argued that despite the green appearance of some buildings with planted walls and roofs, the underlying foundation remains gray, made of concrete, steel, and glass—a symbol of the greenwashing by the economy, which advocates for "green growth" instead of a fundamental change, a socio-ecological transformation.

Sarah Devecchi, a young doctoral candidate from Italy specializing in sustainability assessment based on planetary boundaries, explained the connection between planetary boundaries and growth. How are these boundaries quantified, and how should they be integrated into economic models when designing and calculating new products, buildings, etc.? What role does justice play in distributing the impacts that “growth” has on the planet and people?

As a historian and economist, Friederike Habermann presented in her slam a perspective from the year 2125, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the socio-ecological transformation that created the “Good Life for All.” She painted a picture of a creative utopia (or dystopia?) and opened a window to possible futures where life and societies look different — a future in which gender prejudices have been overcome, we have become a vegan society, and live together with our neighbors who happen to be pigs. Her contribution poses the question: How did we get there?

The participants were able to engage with important aspects of our current economic system, its global consequences, the concept of degrowth, and the obstacles to transformation through four very different, creative, and artistic presentations. After the event, there was a strong desire for discussion, allowing everyone to collectively reflect on and further explore the topics presented.