European Green Deal is an ambitious and at least one decade long program of the European Commission which – although under impact of the pandemic and war in Ukraine – designs and determines measures with which the EU is supposed to implement a green and just transition, thus becoming a climate neutral continent and a political community focused on the well-being of citizens living off an economy that operates within ecological limits. This ambitious plan is very often threatened by economic and financial interests of various governments and corporations which aim to implement it under the umbrella of green growth, in an authoritarian, technocratic and technology dependent manner. The social and democratic dimension of the Green Deal largely remains absent, and the prosperity of citizens in such a narrative is again linked to the idea of indefinite economic growth. Therefore, we will – after the keynote lecture delivered by Giovanni Allegretti – dive deeper into the debate and the critical reading from the perspective of challenges related to deliberative democracy/civic participation, but also from the perspective of post-growth or degrowth, a concept that approaches the question of well-being as not dependent on the idea of growth. Discussants from Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade will share with us insights on the reception of the concept of degrowth in the European semi-periphery, in the context of the European Green Deal, with the additional purpose of announcing the 9th International Degrowth Conference, which will take place in Zagreb in August 2023.
Introduction: Vedran Horvat (Zagreb)
Lecturer: Giovanni Allegretti (Coimbra)
Discussants: Ajda Pistotnik (Ljubljana), Predrag Momčilović (Beograd), Jelena Puđak (Zagreb)
Moderated by: Mladen Domazet (Zagreb)
The lecture and discussion are organized in collaboration with the Institute for Political Ecology and the Green European Foundation, with financial support from the European parliament.
The lecture will be held at Botaničar Café (Trg Marka Marulića 6, Zagreb).
