Linking the levels: Actors, strategies and alliances for postgrowth transitions
The Scientists view postgrowth transition pathways through the lens of the Multi-Level Perspective, which aims to understand change processes through the interaction between niche innovations, changing landscape factors (e.g., cultural and narrative trends) and the dominant socio-technical regime(s). The workshop examined the role of niche actors in postgrowth transformations based on a comparative case study of an energy cooperative, a community-supported agriculture project and a social-ecological telecommunications business. Another topic was the potential of transformative bridging concepts, like the precautionary postgrowth approach. Insights from a dialog project with German ministries highlights the importance of linking postgrowth ideas to concrete and familiar policy debates. Finally, the workshop addressed one possibility for linking the different institutional levels e.g. by new alliances between social and environmental civil society organizations for a “Just Transition” in Germany.
