Notes by Wojtek

GROWL @ Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal - notes by Wojtek

Tuesday 7/07

www.vivercor.com
- action research by Veronica Conte in local community (Ruinha street) encouraging repainting walls with decoration and adding personal notes for passers-by to read
- research question: “which human needs can you satisfy with these kind of projects?”
- asked participants to bring objects that are important to them, then noted the stories of the objects and confirmed the notes with participants for greater accuracy
- side project - asking people what they would like to do or see done in the community, then painted these requests in a public space (bus stop). this intervention caused pressure on the authorities to live up to the expectations

Oficinas de Convento
- association working since 1998. the space, water and electricity is supplied by the municipality
- in Southern Portugal, after the revolution in 1974 exists policy of supporting local associations by the municipality
- spaces for children, youth and elders offering space, tools, workshops free of charge
- public services in Montemor-o-Novo are very present, people come from other areas to use the infrastructure. impressive library and hospital. low living costs

Wednesday 8/07

Introduction to Degrowth - Noemie
-Levels of Degrowth:
1. individual
2. collective
3. reflection on the project
4. visibility level
- roots in Frankfurt school philosophy
- authors: Gorz, Georgescu-Roegen, Illich, Debord, Latouche, Castoriadis
- The imaginary institution of society (Castoriadis)
heteronomous society - imaginary coming from outside
autonomous society - imaginary created by the people
explicitly democratic society - responsibility for own action
- concept of magma - cannot be represented - society emerges in processes - many societies in every society

Thursday 9/07

Mapping pathways for public relations - Nuno Videira
- tool to map complex problems and loops of interrelations
- systems thinking toolkit
- cause/effect loops
- “Futures 55” paper

P2P - Stacco Troncoso
- p2p - relational dynamic (not a tech term)
- commons = resource
- cognitive capitalism - patent system, brands - innovation fell from 1,5% to 1% since 1980s
- abundant knowledge - artificial scarcity
- material scarcity - artificial abundance
- Facebook 1,44bln users worldwide
- Blockchain - p2p system used in Bitcoin
- open source ecology - eg. Lifetrak tractor
- www.commonstransition.org

Jose Manuel Henriques
- Schumacher “Small is Beautiful”
- resilience, anti-fragility
- Nassim Taleb “Tough times don’t last, tough people do” :)
- “Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder” - book by N.T. - how can we win with problems/external shock/turbulence
- crisis (from Greek): “structural change”, “final judgement”, “critical judgement”, “critical intervention” (med) - moment in time to take a decision
- to live “always in crisis” is a concept to make us accept a state of suspension of our values, priorities and accept the unaccepted (policies)
- black swans - unknown future
- markets are self-destructive and depend on states (Keynes)

Friday 10/07

Game AND - Fernanda Eugenio
- the rules are present in our lives from beginning - a kind of debt
- use ethnography to never answer the questions but to keep on stating them
- IS - why/who
- AND - what/how/when/where
- consider this game as a degrowth game for children
- creativity/cooperation game
- www.and-lab.org

Philosophical Soccer - Jorge
- play in pairs or in teams (tournament)
- introduce theme (one word)
- going away from subject is counted as out
- skipping logic is counted as offside
- making a point is score
- 7 minutes per half
- 5 minutes preparation
- uncertainties are resolved by throwing dice

Scenario workshop/ adaptation pathways - Andre Vizinho
- 2 days workshops for 35-40 people, stakeholders in the affected locality to create a plan and strategy for an area that needs acting upon
1. present case study
2. divide into groups working on scenarios
3. introduce 3 scenarios, ask each group to work on a 4th scenario
4. present results of group work / discuss
5. find common grounds among results - consensus
6. feedback round

Saturday 11/07

Health Care Systems - Vitor Ramos
- HCS only 310 years old - industrial era invention
- 4 types of HCS:
1. liberal “market” (USA)
2. Bismarkian (Germany since 1882)
3. Beveridge (UK since 1948)
4. “Shemasko” (USSR, Cuba)
- in Portugal hospitals are public but private managers run them for private profit
- Jose Saramago “Intermittent Death”
- Claude Bernard - homeostasis (static equilibrium)
- homeodynamics (dynamic equilibrium)
- in Bruxelles: Health & Consumerism - these two matters should not be dealt with by the same administrative body

Peter Zin
- how to reach 100% food autonomy
- “ou que ilegal e bom!”
- bulota - edible acorns
- Allen Dereira - documentary on uncontacted tribe - message to western people / “Aluna” documentary
- Roger Penrose - mathematician
- Gabor Mate - psychiatrist working with addiction
- Buckminster Fuller

Growth & Anthropology - Rita Alves
 - anthropology = colonial science
- colonialism - central to Europe’s growth and development
- through colonialism Europeans invented “the other” but called it discovering
- “colonialism is violence in it’s natural state” (Fanon)
- country side was less susceptible to the imperial imaginary due to physical distance from the source of imperial ideas
- generalizing “the other” as a monolithic, homogenous group “opposite to us”
- zone of non-being (Fanon)
- by describing the orient you create an ideology towards the orient (Said)
- eurocentric diffusionism (Blaut)
- Paolo Freire - needs of people, agency
- critical whiteness, critical race theory, white privilege
- meritocracy - power relations giving some people privilege over others
- episthemic disobedience (Walter Mignolu)

Sunday 12/07

Feedback round
- moving around was great, making connection with place/topics
- lack of guidance/framing to create continuity
- lack of involving body
- more structure in the sessions - what is the goal, relation to general topic
- people that are not yet involved will not prepare well for the sessions so space is needed for that within the course