1. No category

Title: “Reflexions about how to build a degrowth
process in Brazil”
Authors: BOCCATO-FRANCO, Alan Ainer;
FRANCO, Edson; GUSTACK DELAMBRE,
Mildred1
Contact: [email protected]
Organization:
Rede
Brasileira
pelo
Decrescimento Sustentável (Brazilian Network
for Degrowth)
ABSTRACT
This is the very beginning of Degrowth visibility
in Brazil: as a slogan, degrowth isn't
understood;
as
movement,
it
is
not
acknowledge; as a theory or idea, it is an
imported speech. Brazil is a continent-sized
country with a “promising growing economy”
and an oppressive social and economical
disparity. If in one hand, Brazil wasn't hit by the
economic crisis that still touches with more or
less intensity, all Europe, since late 2000's; in
the other hand, it is affected by corruption and
power concentration (political, economic,
resources). One of the reasons for immunization
before the crisis is the huge pent-up demand in
the Brazilian domestic market that made the
new, enthusiastic, medium and lower classes a
trump card for growth policies, which
engenders all the negative consequences the
degrowth current denounces. We conclude
thereby, that Brazilian profile in contrast to the
French, for instance, doesn't encourage more
activists, politicians or academicians to get
engaged in the transition process promoted
through the Degrowth slogan. There is no wide
questioning about the meaning of economic
growth in relation to the idea of development,
both being intimately linked in the imaginary of
society and its institutions. This lack of
questioning leads Brazil to the same path (and
mistakes) that developed countries had in search
of what was believed to be “progress”,
“development” and “prosperity”. Nevertheless,
we identify in Brazil a range of opportunities to
promote a transition and to bring into the
political debate the introduction of a new
perspective of development, focused on human
well-being in harmonious relationship with the
environment. With this paper, we want to
expose what has already been done and explore
what can be done to raise awareness and spread
1
Corresponding author: +55 48 3225 0867, Adress: Rua
Santa Cecilia, 734. 88340-000, Camboriú, Santa
Catarina, Brazil.
solutions related to the issues raised by
Degrowth. The objective of this paper is to
identify
actors
(movements,
networks,
researches, politicians, practical experiences,
opinion makers) in synergy with degrowth
fundamentals and therefore, representing
spaces for strengthening the debate and
practical action that can serve as a reference in
developing more accurate strategies to operate
a "post-growth society. We will open the
Degrowth political toolbox and show its
connections to social and environmental
movements that are gaining visibility and thus,
space for growing in Brazil. Further, we will set
up a few propositions that are likely to enhance
the dialogue between the different movements
and actors, as well as the cohesion within the
degrowth partners.
Keywords: Solidarity Economy, Political strategy,
participatory transition, degrowth process, social
movements
1 – Introduction
Regardless of the sincerity of many
activists, which is not at issue in this paper, it is
clear that sustainable development was from its
inception a weapon against social and ecological
contestations that began to make a dangerous
approach to dominant interests. The equivalent is
to be found on green economy, which strips the
pretension of social concern from the sustainable
development and appears as to create jobs, and
therefore profits, dues to the market of new and
“greener” technologies.
The perception of the unsustainability of
economic and social systems and the urgent need
of change are increasingly shared by social
movements and critical intellectuals. Once
eliminated the false illusions, we agree that the
core of the system must be addressed both on
theoretical, political and practical spheres. The
Degrowth movement is certainly not single, as
the ecosocialism2 for instance, has as much place
as many other movements and schools of thought
that argue for alternative paths and views of
development. A closer look shows that there are
more elements in common between them then
issues that could divide, and this point should be
2
KOVEL, Joel; LÖWY, Michael (2001) An Ecosocialist
Manifesto in http://ecosocialistnetwork.org/?
page_id=10 [visited on 01/09/2012]
emphasized in order to gather further efforts
towards a convergence of movements.
The predictable failure of the United
Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED or simply Rio+20) is the
confirmation that consolidated democracies, that
are fated to choose among candidates
subservients to the dogma of growth, aren't able
to overcome their national interests at these
meetings. Parallel to such international events we
can frequently discover a wide range of actions
and meetings that despite of their eventual
discretion can be found to be much richer and
succeed more pragmatic results. According to
Philippe Léna, research director from the
Research Institute for Development (IRD,
France) in Brazil, “one of the highlights of
Rio+20, and perhaps the most promising, was
the creation of the Brazilian Network for
Sustainable Degrowth”.
According to Léna “ independent of the
political position, growth is part of the national
culture
and
representations
are
non
questionable values. Nevertheless, it is in
emerging countries (especially Brazil) that are
the material, technical and financial means that
could implement another society model before
being fully prisoners of the system, as is the case
for Europe, the USA and Japan.”
In Brazil, an emerging country and
currently the sixth world economic, questioning
economic growth can be considered heresy or
even lack of patriotism. In fact, they are punctual
and marginal groups that question economic
growth explicitly either in the political institutional, academic and social movements
and civil society sphere as pointed out by
Boccato-Franco (2012). However, it exists in
Brazil an initial organization process on
degrowth, and in addition, there are various
organized sectors of society that implement
actions that appear to have direct relation with
the elements that characterizes degrowth. In this
context, this article aims to list some initiatives
already implemented under degrowth flag, and to
identify groups in synergy with degrowth
elements. Thus, they may represent spaces for
debate and strengthening of practical actions that
can serve as a reference in developing strategies
to operate more precisely, a "post-growth"
society.
2 – Which connections
Degrowth movement can be represented
in practice by some particular tools, be it in
political, social or personal spheres. Degrowth “is
a social movement born from experiences of cohousing, squatting, neo-ruralism, reclaiming the
streets, alternative energies, waste prevention
and recycling” (Martinez-Alier, 2012). Degrowth
also implies “a reduction of production and
consumption in physical terms through downscaling (and not only through efficiency
improvements)” (Kallis, 2010). The expressions
of “another” economy in Brazil are projects that
are likely to enhance the dialogue between the
different actors and movements, as well as the
cohesion within degrowth partisans. Its
identification represents one first step. The next
one would be to open the dialogue and to develop
tools likely to strengthen ties and overcome the
differences to a convergence of struggles.
In order to identify some convergent
elements between degrowth and some social
movements or social actors in Brazil, we used
four of eight goals or “R” proposed by Latouche
(2009):
• Restructure - to adapt the productive
apparatus and social relations in the light of
changing values. One of the aspects related to
this goal is to design economic and social
institutions in a different logic, such as
market and currency, as well as remuneration
for work and business and financial benefits.
These economic relations should not be
dominant or hegemonic neither in the
production nor in the goods and services flow.
• Redistribute – to distribute the wealth and
the access to natural heritage. It covers all
elements of the system, such as the land, the
rights to use the natural resources, the jobs
and the income. In the case of land
management, for example, it can be
represented by shorten the land dedicated
agribusiness, the interruption of land
speculation and desertification by the
reorientation of land use to peasant
agriculture and ecology;
• Relocalize - to produce locally what is
intended to meet the needs of the population.
Local businesses could be financed by savings
collected locally. To think and to devise a
local monetary policy, so that money flows
remain as much as possible in the region and
economic decisions are taken locally. The
•
local, complementary and social currencies
have an important role to this goal.
Reduce – to reduce the impact that our ways
of producing and consuming have on the
biosphere, by limiting the overconsumption
and waste.. It implies the reduction of
production and consumption of toxic
products, both in the aspect of health toxicity
and mental contamination. One of the very
important requirements is to reduce the
advertising system, waste and residue from
industrial agriculture, and the production and
use of individual automotive vehicles.
2.1 – Permaculture, ecovillages, transition
towns.
Grassroots movements have an essential
role to the experimentation and mediation of
life-styles and collective organization that
resonate with what Degrowth reclaims for
society. In this section we will briefly present
three different fronts that nevertheless are closely
related.
The most widespread definition of an
ecovillage seems to be the one of Robert Gilman
(1991)
who
proposes
four
essential
characteristics: “a human‐scale and full‐featured
settlement (food, leisure, social life, education,
business, residence), in which human activities
are harmlessly integrated into the natural world
in a way that is supportive of healthy human
development and can be successfully continued
into the indefinite future”.
It remits us to the permaculture practices
that suggest to work the nature and the human
economy as the complex system that they are,
applying a holistic strategy and according to the
following core ethics principles (Holmgren,
2007):
• Care for the earth: acknowledge Man as a part
of Earth, not apart from it;
• Care for the people: support and help each
other to develop healthy societies, look after
self, kin and community;
• Fair share: to ensure that Earth's limited
resources are used equitably and wisely,
setting limits to consumption and production
and redistributing eventual surplus.
Permaculture
is
considered
a
interdisciplinary,
systemic
or
holistic
methodology, which aims to help on designing,
planning and building ecologically sustainable
human settlements, as much socially equitable
and economically viable as possible. It values the
ethical behavior and follows principles of energy
efficiency. From this position results a set of
techniques likely to harmoniously integrate
human activities and ecosystems. Permaculture
promotes the rehabilitation of sites degraded by
human activity and the re-design of territories
(house, neighborhood, city, industrial area, plots
damaged by pollution, etc.).
The Transition Towns movement has its
origins on permaculture principles and
techniques and direct it to complex settlements
such as cities and commercial districts. The
Transition Network was founded with the aim to
inspire, encourage, connect, support and train
communities adopting and adapting the model of
transition to urgently rebuild their resilience
(ability of a system to withstand external shocks)
and drastically reduce its CO2 emissions.
Transition Initiatives create a promising
process that engages individuals, communities,
institutions and cities to, together, think and
implement the necessary actions for the short,
medium and long term addressing to Climate
Change and Peak Oil. The idea is that each
community use its creativity to make the change.
For large cities, an alternative is to transition the
neighborhoods, first strengthening locally and
then regionally. We could find around 23
transition initiatives in Brazil, spread in 9
different States. They act in very distinct
environments, from slams to rich neighborhoods.
Permaculture projects are much more
present as they are set up in the country from
little family farms or gardens, up to the more
formal Institutes. This is also one of the reasons
of the difficulty to localize and measure the size of
the permacultural community in Brazil. Some
groups get organized into quite strict structures
and networks on which new projects can
integrate as they follow some guidelines. The
“Permear Network”, for instance, counts 18
associated Permaculture Stations as they convey
to name it. To integrate the network (either
virtually and physically), besides the real and
active presence, an actual participant of the
network shall indicate the person or the project
as candidate, during a regional meeting,
acknowledging
its
compromise
to
the
permaculture ethical principles. The next step as
candidate is to visit another three established
participants projects, participate in a National
Meeting presenting its own projects and
realizations and achieve the mutual approval and
empathy3. According to Permear Network,
another 5 groups act in Brazil and 24 initiatives
(among which, the 18 official participant of the
network).
In spite of Permear, several institutions
and organizations, including those supported by
the government such as EMBRAPA (Brazilian
Enterprise for Farming Research), form and train
people and projects (commercial farms,
ecological and touristic sites, family farms,
among others) on the principles and techniques
of permaculture. The Permaculture Institutes are
in number of 10, spread in different regions of the
country.
For the ecovillages, the scenario differs in
size and organization. The very few communities
we were able to identify as ecologist are normally
found in naturally beautiful locations, either on
the coast or close an even inside the forests. For
that reason, a strong touristic appeal is usually
what motivates new visitors that are not
necessarily introduced to its context. In order to
achieve economic autonomy they can offer
hosteling service, as well as camping placements
or more sophisticated rooms. Further, some other
paid services can be placed as touristic structure
like tracking, guided tours, bike rentals,
massages, organic‐local
meals, etc. As the
visitants enjoy their “green”, “agro” or
“adventure” holidays, they get in touch to all
alternatives practices and activities that are
running all around the ecovillage. They can
choose either to participate in some task, discuss
with the residents or be informed and thus,
indirectly sensitized, through signs, folders, and
other informative materials available, like films
and books.
Briefly, all these shy initiatives meet and
mix with more important movements in Brazil:
the
solidarity-based
economy
and
the
agroecology. In the one hand they all act locally
keeping in its core the global issues that
motivates their work – a global economy that
seeks profit versus a local and community-based
economy that seeks well-being. In the other hand,
a strong environmental concern that stimulates
the creativity in the quest for ecological solutions.
characterized as “practices of economic and
social relationships based on solidarity and
collaboration, inspired by cultural values that
place the human being as subject and purpose of
economic activity, rather than private
accumulation of wealth in general and capital in
particular” (FBES, 2003)4. Some principles
present in the Charter of Solidarity Economy
(FBES, 2003) converge with elements that
constitute degrowth: I) to build a system of
solidary finance, where the core value is the right
of communities and nations to achieve financial
sovereignty , on which at micro, local and
regional level, cooperative and ethical banks,
credit cooperatives and solidarity microfinance
institutions are important components of the
socio-economic system, facilitating popular
access to credit based on savings. At the macro,
national and structural level, the SE supports the
decentralization
of
national
currencies,
encourages fair
trades using community
currencies, proposes the control and regulation of
financial flows to fulfill its role as an instrument
and not as the purpose of economic activity; and
argues for the imposition of limits on interest
rates and earnings; ii) the development of
solidary productive chains that articulate
consumption and production, that consider
marketing and finance from local to the global
level; that keep economic and social activity
rooted in its immediate context and where the
territoriality and local development are
benchmarks; the development of trade networks
with fair prices, where the benefits of productive
development are shared more equitably between
groups and countries; the development of a
project designed to encourage people and
communities to appropriate resources and tools
in order to produce and to distribute the wealth
and to fill the needs of everyone and the genuine
sustainable development.
2.2 – Solidarity Economy
4
Practices related to Solidarity Economy
cover a broad spectrum of activities. In 2007,
Brazil
had
21.859
Solidarity
Economic
Enterprises cataloged in the Solidarity Economy
Information System, involving directly 1,687,496
workers5. These Solidarity Economic Enterprises
Solidarity Economy (SE) in Brazil is
3
http://www.permear.org.br/rede/ [visited on
29/08/2012].
5
Charter principles of the Solidarity Economy:
http://www.fbes.org.br/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=60
[visited on 29/08/2012].
Solidarity Economy Atlas – Web Version:
http://www.mte.gov.br/sistemas/atlases/ [visited on
consist on exchange clubs (exchange of goods
and services), associations and groups of
production,
cooperatives,
recuperated
enterprises, commercial initiatives (central
commercialization, fairs, shops, stores, common
warehouses and centers for commercialization),
initiatives for collective savings, credits and
finance (cooperatives of credit, community banks
and mutual funds ) and the collective use and
consumption of goods and/or services .
The identification of these practices are
carried out through participatory self-managed
guarantee systems and involve a number of
processes in the production chain. It aims to
create an identity within the territories,
strengthening short and medium production
chains, commercialization and consumption,
favoring,
therefore,
supportive
local
development6. In the context of these practices,
consumption is a responsible and political act.
The market is acknowledge as a place for
knowledge exchange, of sharing and to build
social ties turned to solidarity and peace.
The construction of a solidary finance
system is currently underway in Brazil. Part of
this system is composed, for instance, by credit
cooperatives operating resources of saving
cooperatives and the governmental credit
programs in order to boost credit to their
members. The National Association of Credit
Cooperativism of Family and Solidarity Economy
(ANCOSOL) represented, in 2006, 174 credit
cooperatives,
which
together
gather
approximately 154.000 members distributed in
15 Brazilian states7. Another example is the 51
community banks in Brazil that constitute a
Brazilian Network of Community Banks8. These
banks are created and managed by the
communities in the form of self-management.
Many of them operate social and local
currencies,, which favors the money flow inside
the community, increasing the capacity of local
economy and the wealth flow in the community.
The local currency circulation is free at local
market. To encourage its use, producers and
merchants offer discounts to whomever uses
them. The access to local currency is made
through loans in the national currency at the
community bank, by providing services to
someone who has the currency, by exchanging
the national currency by local currency directly at
the community bank or by receiving financial
benefits of productive enterprise when the person
is a member9.
The Solidarity Economy in Brazil has a
large and complex organizational structure and
articulation. Part of this structure is composed of:
i) Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy 10
(FBES) is an instrument of articulation composed
of more than 160 Municipal, Microregional and
States Forums, directly involving more than
3,000 social economy enterprises, 500 support
entities, 12 state governments and 200
municipalities; ii) Network ofSolidarity Economy
and Public Policy Managers11 ; iii) Articulation
Forum of Fair and Solidarity Trade (Faces do
Brasil)12, which mission is to foster the
construction of fair and solidarity trade; iv)
Parliamentary Group of Solidarity Economy,
composed by nationals deputies and senators, as
well as Parliamentary Groups in some Brazilian
States; v) National Secretariat of Solidarity
Economy13 under the Ministry of Work and
Employment, besides municipal and states
solidarity economy programs, departments and
secretariats; vi) Solidarity Economy National
Council is collegian body structure of the Ministry
of Work and Employment, composed by federal
and state body, public financial institutions and
representatives of solidary economic enterprises
(Brazil, 2006), and state councils with similar
character.
The Solidarity Economy also has an
informational apparatus composed of: i) the
National Information System in Solidarity
9
6
7
8
29/08/2012].
Solidarity Economy: Another economy at the service of
life (Economia Solidária: Outra economia a serviço da
vida). http://www.fbes.org.br/index.php?
option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=1114&Ite
mid=216 [visited on 29/08/2012]
http://www.ancosol.org.br/composicao.php [visited on
29/08/2012]
http://www.bancopalmas.org.br/oktiva.net/1235/secao/9
963 [visited on 24/08/2012]
10
11
12
13
http://www.bancopalmas.org.br/oktiva.net/1235/secao/2
3739 [visited on 24/08/2012]
http://www.fbes.org.br/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=57
[visited on 25/08/2012]
http://www.itcp.coppe.ufrj.br/rede_gestores/ [visited on
29/08/2012]
http://www.facesdobrasil.org.br/ [visited on
29/08/2012]
http://portal.mte.gov.br/ecosolidaria/secretaria-nacionalde-economia-solidaria/ [visited on 29/08/2012]
Economy14 and the Atlas of Solidarity Economy
under the responsibility of the Ministry of Work
and Employment; ii) an economic and a social
network on the Internet, the Cirandas 15, which
offers tools to promote economic, social and
political articulation; iii) the Solidarity Economy
Sniffer16, that is a search tool on the internet to
localize solidarity economy enterprises in Brazil.
There are state and municipal laws that
specifically address the SE, and countless
propositions of laws that, in general, create
municipals and state councils, policies and funds
to encourage solidarity economy. Most of these
laws and bills have been proposed to the
legislature by popular initiative. Nevertheless,
there is no federal legal definition of what is
solidarity economy and enterprises, as well as
principles and guidelines to a national policy for
the sector. To fill this gap, the movement of SE is
collecting signatures to submit to the Brazilian
legislatives a popular proposition of law that,
among others , defines as characteristics of
solidarity
enterprises:
a
democratic
administration with the sovereignty of the
assembly, the practice of fair prices without profit
maximization and, the fair distribution of
results17.
There is no law that addresses community
banks and local currencies, a fact that creates an
institutional insecurity for these banks. In the
case of cooperatives, current legislation in Brazil
is not proper to solidarity enterprises. However,
there are bills moving in National Legislative to
regulate community banks and local currencies 18,
as well as a new General Law of Cooperatives 19
14 http://www.mte.gov.br/sistemas/atlas/atlases.html
[visited on 25/08/2012]
15 http://cirandas.net/ [visited on 25/08/2012]
16 http://www.fbes.org.br [visited on 25/08/2012]
17 http://www.fbes.org.br/?
option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=1131
[visited on 23/08/2012]
18 Bill nº 93/2007 (Projeto de Lei Complementar nº
93/2007), House of Representatives.
http://www.camara.gov.br/proposicoesWeb/fichadetram
itacao?idProposicao=361065 [visited on 22/08/2012]
19 Senate Bill nº 3/2007 (Projeto de Lei do Senado nº 3)
http://www.senado.gov.br/atividade/materia/detalhes.as
p?p_cod_mate=79846 [visited on 22/08/2012]
Senate Bill nº 153/2007 (Projeto de Lei do Senado nº
153).
http://www.senado.gov.br/atividade/materia/detalhes.as
p?p_cod_mate=80378 [visited on 22/08/2012]
2.3 – Agroecology
The movement for agroecology in Brazil is
organized in the National Articulation of
Agroecology (ANA) that is a network that brings
together
non-governmental
movements,
networks and organizations engaged in
implementing concrete experiences to promote
agroecology20. The principles that guide the
ANA's proposals are expressed in its Politic
Charter21. One of these principles is the rural
sustainable development based on social justice
and the distribution of productive resources, with
a focus on family farming and agroecology. Its
principles explicitly defend the disappearance of
land ownership based on latifundium and big
rural enterprises. It is remarkable that it
explicitly advocates for a limit to size of private
property. ANA supports the National Campaign
for Limiting the Size of Land Ownership, as well
as some organizations that are part of ANA, the
National Forum for Agrarian Reform and
Countryside Justice. The Forum organized, in
2010, the Popular Referendum for the Limit of
Land Ownership22.
ANA
assume
local
sustainable
development as a strategy for implementing a
global transformation design, which highlights
the local population and its cultural diversity. It
considers that the recuperation of culture, values
and way of life proper to each people are essential
to build local development processes. It also have
a direct confrontation with the agribusiness,
considering that this agriculture is the expression
of the current economic development model that
perpetuates, during more than five centuries, the
domination by the agrarian elites in Brazil. It also
defend the basic right of food featuring several
initiatives such as the rescue and conservation of
local seeds and animal breeds and the
diversification
of
production
systems,
enhancement of self-consumption, recover of
food culture, the development of food quality and
food education.
Regarding the market, ANA assumes that:
20 http://www.agroecologia.org.br/index.php/sobre-a-ana
21 Politic Charter – I National Meeting of Agroecology
(2002): http://www.encontroagroecologia.org.br/ and
Polic Charter – II National Meeting of Agroecology
(2006) http://184.107.57.144:10480/quotaAna/ana/anasite/publicacoes/carta-politica-do-ii-ena/ [visited on
24/08/2012]
22 http://www.limitedaterra.org.br/ [visited on 24/08/2012]
i) markets should be designed as a means of
conducting economic exchanges and not as an
end in itself; ii) the agroecological product should
be accessible to all people; iii) new relations with
markets should be grounded on ethical and
solidarity basis, reconnecting producers and
consumers; iv) productive activities geared to
markets must be developed to ensure and
strengthen the production oriented to selfconsumption. ANA evaluates that the experiences
of local markets and direct sales to consumers, as
agroecology fairs, are privileged spaces for the
construction of more fair and favorable relations
between producers and consumers and that it
also has been considered as learning spaces that
permit the strengthening of community ties.
As an example of the informational
structure of the agroecology movement, we
emphasize the Agroecology Network23 consisting
of an information system initiatives in
agroecology managed jointly by the ANA, the
Brazilian Association of Agroecology (ABAAgroecology)24 and Scientific Society for Latin
American Agroecology (Socla)25. This system
provides information on practical experiences,
research and teachings in Brazil and other Latin
American countries, related to agroecology. There
is also the Brazilian Journal of Agroecology which
publishes scholarly articles and essays on original
and innovative agroecology and related fields of
knowledge.
Within the government, we found the
Parliamentary Group for Development of
Agroecology and Organic Production installed in
the House of Representatives. Recently, it was
established the National Policy for Agroecology
and Organic Production, which aims to integrate,
coordinate and adapt policies, programs and
actions that induce the agroecological transition
under the organic and agroecological production
base. Besides, it was created the National
Commission for Agroecology and Organic
Production,
composed
of
government
representatives and civil society (Brasil, 2012).
2.4 – Mobility – Brazilian Critical Mass
The “Bicicletada” is a monthly action
inspired by Critical Mass where cyclists gather to
23 http://www.agroecologiaemrede.org.br/ [visited on
24/08/2012]
24 http://www.aba-agroecologia.org.br/aba/ [visited on
24/08/2012]
25 http://agroeco.org/socla/ [visited on 24/08/2012]
claim their space on the streets. The main goal is
to promote the bicycle as a environmentalfriendly and sustainable transport system. To
achieve it, the action reclaim the creation of
favorable conditions for the use of the vehicle,
especially in urban areas, in order to integrate
cyclists on mobility planning. Other goals are to
promote the culture of the bicycle; to educate
drivers (motorized and cyclists) regarding a
peaceful and cordial behavior in traffic. Besides
those central goals, several objectives that follow
local needs, can take place once decided by the
participants.
No leaders or statutes leads to different
ways of demonstrations, according to the
participants of each location or event. Among the
plurality of motes, the motto “one less car” is
used to create empathy and greater respect of
motor vehicles that saturate the streets of big
cities. Another raised slogan is “We are the
traffic”, which makes clear to motorists that
cycling is another component of urban mobility
that needs to be consider.
One registered serious attempt against the
critical mass took place in Porto Alegre in
February of 201126. A car run over 100
participants, wounding 25 of them. Almost 100
cities in Brazil participate monthly and disastrous
events are unfortunate exceptions. The idea is to
celebrate the occupation of the streets, promote
harmony in spaces that belongs to everyone.
2.5 - Children Consumerism
In Brazil, the debate concerning child
consumerism has been animated by Alana
Institute, a civil society organization that
coordinates the Child and Consumption Project,
which goal is to increase public awareness about
childhood consumerism and advocates for the
regulation of marketing communication directed
to children. As a result of this infant publicity the
institute identifies: high rates of violence in
youth, childhood obesity, early sexualization,
family stress and other problems27.
There is also the group Free Childhood
Consumerism28 that is a collective of mothers,
fathers and citizens that demonstrate the
ineffectiveness of Brazilian self-regulation
26 http://bicicletada.org [visited on 25/08/2012]
27 http://defesa.alana.org.br/post/29103602505/alanadefesa [visited on 28/08/2012]
28 http://infancialivredeconsumismo.com [visited on
28/08/2012]
advertising industry that instead of worrying
about the health and well-being of children, serve
to the interests of the sector. They argue,
therefore, that the state must intervene in this
matter.
Debates surrounding this issue have been
promoted in Brazil during the year 2012. For
example, the side event Children Consumerism,
Advertising and Sustainability sponsored by
Alana Institute, as part of the program of the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20). Two other events were
the 1st Seminar Free Childhood Consumerism,
conducted by the Commission on Human Rights
and Minorities of the House of Representatives
and the public hearing Children's Advertising Regulatory provided by Bill 5921/2001"
promoted by the Federal Attorney for Citizens'
Rights. These events had a partnership with other
organizations such as the Alliance for Childhood
(Aliança pela Infância), the Federal Council of
Psychology (Conselho Federal de Psicologia), the
Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense
(Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor –
IDEC) and Akatu Institute.
The
main
debate
on
children's
advertising's agenda is the approval of Bill 5.921,
currently under consideration in the House of
Representatives. This bill will prohibit any type of
advertising and marketing communication:
addressed to the child through any medium or
media, whether products or services related to
childhood or related to teen and adult audience;
on medium or media intended for children; on
television, on the internet or radio fifteen minutes
before, fifteen minutes after and during children's
programming or programming whose audience is
mostly children and; prohibit the child's
participation in any type of advertising or
marketing communications29.
3 – Critical, scientific and intellectual
production
Critical
and
intellectual
scientific
publications directed specifically on Degrowth
are rare in the country because the word
“Degrowth” still out of the Brazilian range of
concepts and because it happens elsewhere from
29 Substitute of Bill nº 5.921/2001 (Substitutivo ao
Projeto de Lei nº 5.921/2001), House of
Representatives
http://www.camara.gov.br/proposicoesWeb/fichadetram
itacao?idProposicao=397962 [visited on 28/08/2012]
the mainstream economic scene and the everyday
life of population in general. In the other hand
opinion articles, interviews, critical essays can be
found on Internet but it would be impossible to
describe them accurately and fairly in this paper.
It is in academia that Degrowth territory seems to
be more fertile. We could find from
undergraduate to post-graduate works dealing
specifically the issue.
3.1 – Summary of Scientific and Academic
Production
Until now we have identified only two
post-graduate studies who has degrowth as an
object of study. One such research is being
developed by researcher Ana Flávia Bádue 30 as a
student in the Graduate Program in Social
Anthropology from the Faculty of Philosophy
Literature and Humanities, University of São
Paulo (FFLCH/USP). This research aims to
analyze the emergence of political ecology in
France in the 1970s and articulate this moment
with the contemporary degrowth movement,
paying particular attention to how non-European
countries are faced by European movements.
Another master research is being developed by
Alan Boccato-Franco by the Graduate Program in
Sustainable Development at the University of
Brasilia (Unb). In this study the author aims to
identify the fundamentals of the different strands
of degrowth around the world and establish
relationships between them and the idea of Buen
Vivir present in some Latin American countries.
We also found some publications in
academic journals or events such as: Nascimento
& Gomes (2009) that address the core features of
a set of works and authors related to the
décroissance movement and others who inspired
them or deal with the same subject without
necessarily taking part in the movement; Violante
& Silva (2010) dealing specifically with the
degrowth in that present an overview of
information and data from Brazil, and from other
countries, in order to contextualize the
unfeasibility of the economic growth model;
Garran & Ikeda (2007), in his essay entitled
"décroissance: fact or fad?" he suggest a reflection
about the trend of social awareness in the matter
of consumer because of the existence of French
movement la décroissance as well as similar
movements in Brazil.
30 Personal contact made on 02/21/2010 with Ana Flavia
Bádue
3.2 – Summary of Books and Others
Publications and Articles
Also for the published books released in
Brazilian Portuguese the examples are scarce.
The first example we can cite is the translation of
Serge Latouche's (2009). “Petit traité de la
décroissance sereine”. A very recent publication,
“Facing the Limits to Growth”, organized by
Philippe Lena and Elimar Pinheiro do
Nascimento (2012) is the first and only book
about degrowth written to be published in Brazil.
This book bringing together authors from Brazil,
Uruguay and Europe, writing about the issues
related to development associate to the critique of
economic growth. The organizers were aware that
it would be a challenge in such country, where the
economic policies, oriented to the development
patterns of the older industrialized countries,
determines the entire social and political spheres.
Distancing
from
the
strict
term
“degrowth” we can find a wider range of Brazilian
publications that touch the subject: “Limits to
Growth: The 30-year Update”, the update of the
original Club of Rome report translated by Prof.
Pachoa Celso Roberto and Maria Isabel Castro
(Meadows et al, 2007); “The Nature as Limits to
Economy - Contributions of Nicholas GeorgescuRoegen” is the publication in the form of a book,
from the scientific work of Andrei Cechin (2010);
“Ecoeconomics - A new approach” by the
economist Hugo Penteado (2003).
There are four articles by Serge Latouche
published in the IHU Ideas Books, "The
Degrowth and the Sacred", "Conviviality and
degrowth", "Is degrowth the good news of Ivan
Illich?" and "The degrowth as a condition of a
convivial society" (Latouche, 2006, 2012a, 2012b,
2012c). Besides these, there is an article by Joan
Martinez Alier, “Economic degrowth socially
sustainable”31, translated into Portuguese and
socialized by Latin American Information
Agency-ALAI.
3.3 – Academic actions
Besides
the
written
work
a
few
31 MARTINEZ-ALIER, Joan (2009), “Decrescimento
econômico socialmente sustentável”.
http://decrescimentobrasil.blogspot.com.br/2010/11/dec
rescimento-economico-socialmente.html [visited on
20/08/2012]
introductory courses have take place in Brazil. As
example, those promoted by the Laboratory of
Interdisciplinary Studies in Complexity of the
University of Southwest Bahia (UESB). In 2011,
the first year of the course, the theme was
“Introduction to the Culture of Degrowth”. As
highlights the historian Carlos Alberto Pereira
Silva, professor ministering and organizing the
courses, “it have attracted the interest of many
people that, when realizing the existence of
multifaceted crisis generated by a predatory
'developmentalism',
exclusionary
and
consumerism, they see in Degrowth an
alternative to civilization, needed in our time”.
Participants of these courses come from different
areas of knowledge and experiences and
according to Professor Carlos Alberto, “they have
achieved success in spreading the values,
principles and ideals of Degrowth movement”.
Very recently in 2012, in the same campus of
Vitória da Conquista of UESB, it was launched
another course carrying the title “Sustainable
degrowth”.
Further, Carlos Alberto explains that
academic debates around Degrowth are “mostly
requested by Professors in Economics and
Management and some discussions are already
underway in major Brazilian universities with
the aim of bringing students closer to most
recent discussions and issues in terms of
management and governance”32. According to
him, these debates culminated on the invitation
of Serge Latouche to visit and speak for
academicians; and thus, the perception that part
of Brazilian Academia have “embraced the
Degrowth as who recognizes a remedy for a
very serious evil”. In November of 2011 Latouche
present Degrowth in some of the most important
and innovative universities in the country as
Federal University of Mato Grosso (Cuiaba - MT),
SAF/CEPAT (Curitiba - PR) and the University of
Vale do Rio dos Sinos - Unisinos (Campus Porto
Alegre - RS).
4 – Public Manifestations and Meetings
To include Degrowth on a political speech
in Brazil is a very challenging task and probably
doesn't garner much votes as we conclude by the
Brazilian political struggle to maintain infinite
economic growth. Therefore, it is worth
highlighting the effort of the current senator of
32 Briefing of the “Sustainable Degrowth” Course
specially written as contribution to this paper.
the Federal District (Brazil), Cristovam Buarque,
responsible for the permanent sub-committee of
the Earth Summit (RIO +20), to organize debates
related to degrowth themes during 2011 and
2012. In September 2011 a public hearing
specifically on Degrowth was hosted by Léna
Philippe, Carlos Alberto Pereira and Joao Luiz
Homem de Carvalho, which later would integrate
the Brazilian Network for Sustainable Degrowth
(RBDS) in the Senate. On March 29th of the
following year, another public hearing was held
on the topic “Superfluous Consumption” and
hosted by Edson Franco, also from the RBDS.
In his speech during the opening of the
International Society for Ecological Economics
Conference held in Rio de Janeiro in June of
2012, the senator questioned about who and what
might grow, mentioning degrowth movement and
the main issues and ideas defended in contrast to
the green economy of Rio+20. Moreover, this
Senator defended the degrowth in speech in the
tribune of the Senate33, and he released an article
about the degrowth in that assumed to be
inevitable that the idea of happy-degrowth will
win adherents, spread and be accepted34.
The existence of the virtual group, allowed
the integrated participation on the international
event “Global Pic-Nic for Degrowth” designed
and very active in the Northern hemisphere. In
2010 this event attracted people from over 70
cities and 20 countries to meet and discuss the
proposals of Degrowth. On June 5th, 2011, Brazil
timidly participated for the first time, with small
groups organized in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Sao
Paulo and the South region.
5 – Virtual environment
In order to facilitate the communication,
access to academic texts in portuguese and to
encourage debate around degrowth, the
interaction and communication between some
existing blogs in Brazil resulted on the creation of
a discussion and study groups around degrowth.
It started to be organized in a national network by
April, 2011. People from across the country were
invited or joined the virtual mailing group hosted
on the YahooGroups web tool, which allowed and
facilitated the exchange of news and information
33 Pronouncement of 25 October 2010, Senate.
http://www.senado.gov.br/atividade/pronunciamento/det
Texto.asp?t=385896 [visited on 20/08/2012]
34 Fat and growth (Gordura e Crescimento).
http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/noblat/posts/2010/11/20/g
ordura-crescimento-342296.asp [visited on 20/08/2012]
among people who were interested on the
subject. A year later, the same initiative gain the
social networks such as Facebook35 and
Cirandas36 (the Brazilian solidarity economy
network).
Currently the mail group has 166 active
people and over 600 on Facebook. Since its start,
the group exchanged more than 2360 messages
(170 messages per month in average) and
gathered a notable material for studies and
insights on the topic.
Other Internet-hosted tools, such as
virtual meeting rooms and shared networked
environments, include other siblings movements,
enable the co-creation of documents and texts
and help the connecting people from this
continental dimensioned country in a more lively
way.
6 – Brazilian Network for Sustainable
Degrowth
Perhaps two of the more recent discussed
subjects in the virtual group was the
formalization (or not) of the group. It started with
the idea of structuring a formal association in
order to create visibility and to materialize,
somehow, the movement in Brazil. Its interest
was precisely to connect with groups, associations
and individuals that question the globalization of
the dominant social and economic systems,
gathering, creating and promoting concrete field
actions that attempts to build post-growth
societies or organize actions for this end.
Nevertheless, the formal structure wasn't
consensually accepted and thus, a few people
from the group decided to create an informal
network in order to organize actions, firstly to
integrate the Earth Summit events and further,
national meetings and support local initiatives.
The first national meeting took place in Rio de
Janeiro on June 19th, 2012, gathering during a
half-journey event more than 60 people from at
least 5 different countries37. Among them,
representatives and contributors from the
Research&Degrowth Association, the Brazilian
Transition Towns, the French ATTAC%, the
35 https://www.facebook.com/groups/decrescimento
.brasil/
36 http://cirandas.net/decrescimento
37 http://decrescimentobrasil.blogspot.com.br/2012
/06/encontro-sobre-o-decrescimento-na.html
[visited on 20/08/2012]
project for an International Degrowth Network
and several other projects from the solidarity
economy, besides academicians, Professors and
even politicians.
During the meeting, followed by a brief
historical of the group, the creation of the
Brazilian Network for Sustainable Degrowth
(RBDS) was announced. A few participants of the
meeting also met for the global demonstration
organized on the first day of the official UN event.
The first collective action after the Rio+20 events
was to write a Intentions Letter with the
summary of the main orientations expressing a
few important agreed positions the adherents
would care and seek for. These guidelines are:
• that human society must be inspired by the
principles and practices of solidarity and
cooperation, equitable distribution of natural
and economic resources, direct and
participatory democracy, the continuous
search for balance between autonomy and
heteronomy on an ecological and sociable way
and Libertarian education for all;
• the “Sustainable Degrowth” is a matrix of
alternatives, guided by principles and
practices that seek to build a human society
which goals are related to a good life for all,
focusing on equitative and solidar human
relations and in balance with the biophysic
environment of which mankind is a part;
• that under the scope of degrowth are the
initiatives that explicitly contribute in
overcoming the unlimited economic growth
society's, which is based on consumerism;
•
•
•
•
•
Thus, the intentions of RBDS are:
to develop a program of practices and
communication targeting the transition to
such proposed society;
to contribute to the understanding and
practical translation of the definition and
meaning of sustainable degrowth, as well as
its dissemination;
to be a space for articulation and convergence
of initiatives working to the proposed
transition;
to implement and systematize concrete
practices for transition;
to identify, articulate, inspire, learn, share
and
cooperate
with
individuals,
organizations,
institutions,
collectives,
movements and networks that share similar
ambitions;
•
•
•
•
to participate in spaces of collective
construction of the proposals for a society
that meets the principles above;
to promote trainings, debates and meetings
on the topic of sustainable degrowth;
to generate, analyze, qualify and share
strategic information to the viability of
actions favorable to the construction of the
proposed society;
to contribute and join an international
articulation for sustainable degrowth;
7 – Integration to other committed groups
Degrowth issues derives basically on the
assumption that humanity shall achieve a life
style based on minimal energy consumption once
the energy crisis is imminent and humanity
resilience to such crisis is, by now, barely
existent. In order to plan such society, one path is
the collective organization for managing the
transition. The RBDS assumes that liberating the
collective wisdom it is possible to draw richer lifestyles, more pleasant and resilient, away from the
actual development model.
Rafael Reinher38, member of RBDS,
proposes the “use of open source communication
and the integration of alternatives, owned by no
one or by a huge coalition of networks and
movements” and to “find tasks and objectives
that can be organically shared between
initiatives”.
The proposed integration to other
committed groups would involve, for instance,
from local initiatives on solidarity-based
economy, to an International Degrowth Network,
as well as the link between theory and praxis,
activism and academia, in order to increase
visibility and open a honest dialogue among
different fronts.
8 – Conclusions and Final Remarks
The Brazilian initiatives that explicitly
assume degrowth, and the convergent elements
that were found in the five groups and social
movements discussed in this paper suggest that
the idea of degrowth is not exotic to Brazil.
Rather, part of its elements have already been
implemented and defended by some social
groups that have relevant capacity to articulate,
38 Presentation on the 1st Brazilian Degrowth Meeting on
June, 19th, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.
besides to already existing government and
private institutional apparatus for implementing
some actions that have synergies with degrowth.
Therefore, we suggest that the answer to
the question of wether degrowth is suitable for
developing or emergents countries must be found
in the analysis of the principles and practices
already present in organized social groups in
these countries.
We suggest degrowth as an “umbrella”
movement promoting the transition towards a
desirable post-capitalistic, post-growth and postproductivist society must start leaving lexical and
superfluous differences and debates in order to
gather strong participation of different currents
of actions.
It is of great importance to recognize
those initiatives that work locally and
acknowledge that these colleagues initiatives can
only offer strength to the global community that
henceforth build the solutions for the
multifaceted crisis of our time.
Another main point to develop is to build
an infrastructure which permit synchronous
communications between networks and further,
defining collaboratively the main tags that matter
for the various movements in order to share a
free and open data for spreading the alternatives
fitting to multiple needs and ideals.
These are remarks that could turn to
result on few flexible terms of governance
between movements and networks. From our
point of view, degrowth partisans are likely to be
open and embrace the all that already begun to
build on the ruins of sustainable development
and the “green-growth”, to show that there are
several paths to achieve a sane future to
humanity.
The converging elements identified in this
article suggest the desirability of further studies
to identify more precisely the synergies between
social actors in this study and the "degrowth
supporters". Finally, we suggest some questions
that may guide future researches, such as: How
can degrowth contribute to a convergence process
of different sectors of Brazilian society? What
degrowth can add to the process of identifying
elements that connect the various social
movements of the Brazilian countryside and city,
from different economic levels, agendas, among
others, that somehow are struggling to overcome
the many social and environmental problems
facing today?
Acknowledgements:
Carlos Alberto Pereira, Daniel Tygel, Isabela
Motta Cardoso, Philippe Léna and Rafael
Reinher.
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