Earlier this year, I wrote a blog article on “The End of Europe“. The motivation behind it was this nagging feeling that something went wrong on the old continent, that something along the way to European integration got lost – the heart and soul of Europe and what this European project is about. For 500 years, Europe was about civilization – and dominance, colonization, exploitation of people and planet, bloody wars at home and abroad; but also great successes in the progress of humanity, with the formulation (and “sacralization” according to Hans Joas) of human rights, born out of the European traumata so inseparably connected to its cruel history. Europe, first and foremost, is not a geographical expression but an idea. And today it seems that Europe lost its idea.
I wanted not only to analyze the reasons why Europe lost its ideational foundation but also how the emerging discourse, the emerging activism around postgrowth – with connections to décroissance or degrowth, transition towns, the maker movement and many more – might be able to form a new ideational core for Europe. Instead of turning, again, to technocratic solutions and policies for renewing Europe, thus excluding ordinary citizens in the usual European elitist manner, embracing these new movements might be exactly what Europe needs to relight its fire.
Welcome to Postgrowth Europe!
(>> my shortened blog article at Degrowth 2014 Leipzig as well as on the Postwachstums-Blog)