Feminist & Indigenous Ecological Economics

Feminism? Indigeneity? Equality? What do these ideas have to do with economics, and what does it mean to build an economics from the ground up based on these principles? Ecological Economist Ronald Trosper, Feminist Degrowth scholar Susan Paulson, and Indigenous Climate Action Directior Eriel Deranger will explore these ideas in a primer for the conference.

Degrowth and Ecomodernism: Divergent Futures?

Will technology save us? Is it enough to invest in further innovation and free markets? Do we need to fundamentally rethink our relationship to technology, wealth, economic systems, and the rest of the planet we live on? Ted Nordhaus represents a leading think tank of techno optimists dedicated to engaging meaningfully with ideas counter to their own. Giorgios Kallis is the degrowth theorist most deeply analyzing and responding to the arguments for a techno-utopian future. Their conversation with each other won’t be anything other than fascinating.

Ethics and Politics in Ecological Economic Practice

The challenges we collectively face are not merely technical, but are ethical, political,and cultural in nature. Dr. Jem Bendell and Dr. Jessica Dempsey will outline the significant implications of ecological economics as a political practice, which must be incorporated into the work of scholars and activists alike. This demands radically alternative skillsets for how we know, think, and relate to one another and to nature in a post-growth society.

Green Politics and the Right: Possible Alliance?

Come hear the municipal government leader of a small rural Ontario county committed to eliminating poverty, achieving zero waste, and 100% renewable energy discuss the journey to making these commitments. Then Sociology Professor Stephen Quilley and the Ontario Green Party’s Director of Outreach Paul Gregory will imagine a new political landscape: What would make (rural) conservatives and petrol-heads vote Green? Is there a way for Greens to ride the populist wave and escape the constraining binary logic of left(liberal) versus right?

Wicked Tensions of Transitions

Members of this panel will tease out the ‘wicked tensions’ that persist between the biophysical and social realities of sustainability on a finite planet. Can the priorities of social justice advocates be achieved in the context of ecological overshoot?

Financing the Transition

There’s no two ways about it: a transition to a socially just low-carbon sustainable economy will be expensive. And business is often seen as standing in the way. But Ralph Hall has a plan to transform the Industrial State, and he’s ready to share.

Caring for the Commons

Exploring the diverse extra-market economies and non-market logics that persist outside of relations of capital, we return economic study to the original meaning of oikonomia – management and care of the common home – and escape from the modern economics of market exchange outside the household. Members of this panel highlight care, commoning, and decolonizing.