Sziasztok,

We are Enora, Tom and Perrine, three French students from the Institute of Political Studies of Rennes, and trainees at Cargonomia since September 2021..

As young people, we will be, and already are, facing ecological issues. However, we find ourselves in a feeling of powerlessness in front of the ecological crisis. Then, by studying political studies, we are carrying our reflection of the subject through the analysis of economic, political and social models. We are questioning the models and paradigms that have brought us here and are also looking for solutions and ways to rethink our society.

In this process, joining Cargonomia was a way to discover a new concept, and a controversial alternative to sustainable development : degrowth. It was also a way to get involved in the protection of the environment in our everyday life (participation in the life of an organic farm, repairing bicycles..). We are attached to this dual theoretical and practical approach of ecology.

Because degrowth is a radical and a global alternative to the current system, we wanted to question it. That’s why, as part of our internship, we decided to interview ecological committed people and organisations  in order to write articles about them and their ways of thinking in the particular context of Hungary. The idea would be to give a voice to those who know about degrowth, put it into practice, but also to those who engage in ways that degrowth is likely to support.

We have identified seven main themes related to the concrete application of degrowth : Awareness and Communities, Economics, Ecofeminism, Energy, Housing and Urbanism, Politics and Democracy and Social and Civil Movements. These interviews would then be means to synthesise our reflections, answer our questions, or not, open the debate on certain issues…

Our aim is to discover sustainable actions which could be part of a degrowth society in the 21st century, so let’s discover the potential of degrowth and theories of transition in practice.

Welcome to EXPLOR2ING : Approaches of sustainable initiatives and degrowth in Hungary !