A week after the end of the 15th Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) and the 10th International Degrowth Conference, we take stock of everything that happened at this event, leaving us (the local hosts) with a very good feeling here at the Post-Growth Innovation Lab of the University of Vigo.
With an attendance of more than 1100 people from 48 different countries, it was one of the most well-attended meetings to date, with the participation of academics, activists and, for the first time in this type of conference, students and teachers of secondary education.
Although the official start of the Conference was on June 18, the activities began on the previous Monday with the celebration of the PhD Symposium, which was attended by 40 predoctoral researchers. On Tuesday 18th, the Opening Session took place in the Pazo de la Cultura de Pontevedra, where Mario Pansera, the main organiser of the event, together with the president of the European Society for Ecological Economics, Dan O'Neill, and the representatives of the international degrowth Supporting Group, Vincent Liegey and Brototi Roi, were in charge of welcoming the participants in a completely full auditorium. During this session, the first two plenary presentations also took place, which this year took the form of dialogues. The first of these, entitled "STS in the context of degrowth:science and technology in the era of colonial capitalist expansion", featured Samer Abdelnour (University of Edinburgh) and Annapurna Mamidipudi (Technical University of Berlin) and was moderated by Tess Doezema (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona). In the second, with the title "Introduction to EcologicalEconomics and Degrowth", which will be part of the podcast Economics for Rebels, Joshua Farley (University of Vermont), Giorgos Kallis (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona), and Brototi Roy (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona) participated, with the moderation of the podcast director Alexandra Köves (Corvinus University of Budapest). The Opening Session ended with a concert by the pianist Abe Rábade, who filled the Pazo de la Cultura with magic, performing songs from his album Botánica, accompanied by the musicians and dancers who participated in this work.
Wednesday 19 June saw the start of the more than 220 parallel sessions of this edition, spread over four different venues between the University Campus of A Xunqueira and the Pazo de la Cultura. This first day of sessions also included the third plenary dialogue, "Thepolitics of materials and the plastic industry", with the participation of Ekaterina Chertkovskaya (Lund University) and Alice Mah (University of Glasgow) and the moderation of Vincenzo Pavone (CSIC), and the General Assembly of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE).
On Thursday 20, the parallel sessions continued and dialogues 4 and 5 were held. The first, entitled "What Circular Economy?", featured the expertise of Kersty Hobson (University of Cardiff) and Hans-Christian Eberl (responsible for the Circular Economy in the European Commission's Horizon Europe programme), and was led by Andrea Genovese (Sheffield University Management School). The fifth dialogue was entitled "Technology and Democracy: The Right to RepairMovement", with Javier Lloveras (Post-Growth Innovation Lab) as chair and with the participation of Ugo Vallauri (Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Restart Project) & Blanca Callén (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona).
The last two plenary dialogues took place on the last day of the conference, Friday 21 June. In the first one, "Rethinking Innovation: Alternative approaches for people andplanet", the theme of innovation was addressed by Alejandra Boni (Ingenio - UPV), Adrian Smith (University of Sussex) and Andrea Jiménez (University of Sheffield), under the baton of Aviram Sharma (Post-Growth Innovation Lab). The last dialogue, "Climate Change and Degrowth" was led by researcher Mario Pansera (Post-Growth Innovation Lab) and addressed the topic of climate change with two leading figures, Julia Steinberger (University of Lausanne) and Carlo Buontempo (Director of Copernicus Climate Service of the IU).
The Conference also included an ambitious social programme developed between Monday 17th and Saturday 22nd June with more than 20 activities in Galician, Spanish and English, and with artistic and cultural events, such as film and documentary screenings, dance performances, or a collective mural, among others. The program closed with a concert featuring several musical groups, and the celebration of a great Queimada with live traditional music.
The preparations for the next meeting -- the 18th Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economicsand the 11th International Conference on Degrowth -- are already underway. We look forward to meeting you all again in Oslo (Norway) from 24 to 27 June 2025.