Contents

Mental Infrastructures: The Culture of Growth

The last decades have rendered clear that a set of multiple crisis requires to fundamentally change the lifestyles of the societies in the Global North. Regarding the ecological crisis, it has so far not been possible to attain a sustainable level of resource consumption in the early industrialized countries. Thus, technological measures are insufficient to tackle the problem. They need to be complemented by profound political measures as well as a fundamental cultural change – by a change of our concepts of a good life and consequently by a change of our motives of action, of our desires and striving. This promises to also positively contribute to the solution of other crisis, like the humanitarian, the democratic and the economic crisis, since cultural change necessarily concerns the modalities of interaction – of how we deal with ourselves and others.

So far, cultural change has mostly been debated theoretically. We have gathered a large amount of knowledge about it. However, the main challenge remains its implementation (Hunecke 2013: 104), since we find it tremendously difficult to change our habits only by knowing things. But why? This is the opening question of Harald Welzer's influential paper “Mental Infrastructures – How growth entered the world and our souls“ (Welzer 2011). According to Welzer, a German psychologist and sociologist, mental infrastructures of growth are a persons' psychological, social and cultural settings. At the moment the latter are strongly shaped by a growth-oriented pattern which is linked with central aspects of European and thus globalized “modernity”. It affects our concepts of the good life, of social and individual development, our desires and thus also our daily routines. Moreover, mental infrastructures are mostly unconsciously internalized. By consequence, we don't change our lifestyles towards more sufficiency, since the cultural growth paradigm is so deeply rooted in our mindsets and so “normal” to us that we are mostly unable to question or even perceive it. Indeed, the extension of individual experiences and options, closely connected to material values and status, seems still to be a major aim of personal striving for many people in the Global North (Hunecke 2013: 12).

Welzer claims that mental infrastructures of growth are interdependent with material infrastructures of growth (such as energy systems) and institutional infrastructures of growth (such as the growth dependent design of our social systems) (Welzer 2011: 14). Hence, it is most important to understand that we won't be able to achieve a social-ecological transformation of our societies if we don't find a way to change our mental infrastructures.

Cultural change requires to identify major aspects of our mental infrastructures in a first step. This will be the content of the first part of this introduction. Yet and as already pointed out above, just knowing more won't solve the problem. Although it might be a significant achievement to deconstruct our daily actions and to understand which cultural ideals drive our habits, this still does not change our behavior. It rather seems that we need to practice new habits in order to change. Explaining why an embodiment of knowledge is required and how this can be achieved, will be part of the second subchapter.

Importantly, the chosen focus on cultural and individual change should not inspire the idea that lifestyles may be transformed by the efforts of individuals only. As mental infrastructures are interdependent with material and institutional infrastructures, a social-ecological transformation will fail to meet the challenges of the multiple crisis if we just focus on one of the three dimensions. Thus material and institutional infrastructures need to be reformed as well.

Mental infrastructures of growth

The notion of mental infrastructures as outlined by Harald Welzer remains largely vague. Yet, he alludes to various cultural concepts that can also be be found in publications of other thinkers dealing critically with neoliberal capitalism and its social as well as psychological consequences. This especially applies to Hartmut Rosa's considerations regarding cultural drivers of social acceleration and Ulrich Bröckling's concept of the so called enterprising self. The latter deals with the economization of the social and with aspects of self-optimization. Both phenomenon, social acceleration very clearly and the economization of the social up to a certain degree, depend on the increase of time saving efficiency. Thus, module four of the Leipzig course focused on “Experiencing (In-)Efficiency” from a practical perspective. Another deeply rooted mental infrastructure which is not identified by Welzer, but which must be understood as an indispensable prerequisite for economic growth, is the modern perception of a divide between humans and non-humans allowing the exploitation of nature. As this mental infrastructure was not part of the Leipzig course, we decided not to respect it in this introduction. For details on this mental infrastructure see: Sanders 2014.

The mental infrastructure of acceleration

In his central work “Acceleration - The Change in Temporal Structures in Modernity“ (Rosa 2012), Hartmut Rosa claims that the main processes of modernization (individualization, rationalization, differentiation and domestication of nature) may be interpreted as functions of social acceleration (ibid.: 440-441). Basically, social acceleration refers to the increase of quantity per time unit. According to Rosa, it can be best described by a self-reinforcing circle of acceleration comprising technological acceleration, the acceleration of social change and the acceleration of the pace of life.1 Yet, the speed of social acceleration is further increased by external motors impacting on specific elements of the circle. Although it is generally crucial to understand that technical acceleration is driven by a capitalistic economic motor (time is money)2, in the context of this article the cultural motor is of particular interest:

Rosa states that social acceleration is, among others, driven by cultural ideals of modernity. The wish to change for the sake of change (Friedrich Ancillon) was incrementally institutionalized in our societies since the beginning of the modern era. Although this process was surely influenced by the evolving of industrial and capitalist production the “ideal formulated by Ancillon is the consequence of a conception of life in which the good life is the fulfilled life, a life that is rich in experiences and developed capacities“ (Rosa 2009: 90). The reason for the wish of modern individuals to speed up their lives in order to be able to appreciate as many of the options of the world as possible, lies within the cultural problem that the time of the world dramatically diverges from our individual life time. In the pre-modern era the solution for this problem was provided by religions offering the concept of the endless afterlife. However, with secularization the hope for eternity lost its strength and was replaced by the ideal of the fulfilled life – the idea of living as many lives as possible within one life time.3 The promise of acceleration is complemented by the promise of prosperity, since money allows to fulfill the wish for acceleration and is also able to compensate for those uncertainties that a high-speed society involves for everyone (Rosa 2012: 285). Finally, another complementary cultural driver that motivates us to speed up our lives is fear (ibid.: 284-285). As already mentioned in footnote 2, in an accelerating and competitive capitalist society, standing still is equivalent to falling behind. “Thus, people feel pressed to keep up with the speed of change they experience in their social and technological world in order to avoid the loss of potentially valuable options and connections“ (Rosa 2009: 88).

To sum up, the ideal of the fulfilled life in combination with the fear to fall behind is a deeply rooted cultural concept and can thus be labeled as a mental infrastructure of growth. Speeding up the pace of our lives would not be possible without time saving measures of self-optimization. As it is the case for social acceleration, we will realize in the following that self-optimization in modern times is a result of both, a culturally shaped desire of individuals and a structural necessity.

The mental infrastructure of self-optimization and enterprising

This mental infrastructure of growth can be best understood when briefly referring to the study field of “governmentality”. Here, social scientists largely deal with the work of Michel Foucault. The term of “governmentality” already implies their main interest – the relationship and the coincidence of government and mentality. Foucault analyzed in many of his works how government techniques changed by increasingly including control techniques that allowed to govern modern individuals from within themselves.

In the context of mental infrastructures of growth, this perspective allows us to understand that individuals to some extent govern themselves as they are supposed to do from the ratio of the capitalist system. Why this is the case and how we are asked to increasingly act economically in all spheres of our lives is the main topic of Ulrich Bröckling's work “The Enterprising Self” (Bröckling 2007). At the core of his book lies Foucault's analysis of neoliberal thinking. Importantly, Bröckling states: “If the ratio of neoliberal thinking results in the generalization of the mechanism of competition and in the establishment of the market as the universal model of socialization, the figure of the enterprising self turns into the vanishing point of our subjectivation“ (Bröckling 2007: 107; translated by the authors). To put it more simply: If neoliberal thinking tries to establish the market logic in all spheres of society and not only in the economy, then we will increasingly act economically. This is exactly why the construct of the Homo oeconomicus as a rational agent, who tries to optimize his_her decisions regarding costs and benefits, “is not a random narrative construct in economic theory but a cipher for the function-specific expectations of the economic system, which defines how human beings should understand themselves as agents and how they have to act in order to participate in the market“ (Bröckling 2012: 4). However, “the real-fiction of the Homo oeconomicus in no case merely translates the functional requirements of the economic system into a role script. Rather it is dependent on becoming subjectivated, which means dependent on generating the individual resonances in the form of altered self-interpretations and self-practices“ (ibid.). In order to translate the premises of neoliberal economy into our mentalities, structural incentives and constraints are certainly important. Yet, Bröckling stresses the relevance of what is called interpellation (Bröckling 2007: 27-31). We are invocated to understand ourselves as Homo oeconomicus and/or enterprising selves and to act accordingly. But only if the call resonates in us, it becomes powerful and the process of subjectivation takes place. Often we unconsciously respond to calls that are vastly present in our daily lives (for example in discourses, publicities, party platforms or guidebooks), since we wish to stay connected in communication and because of our fear to be socially excluded, if we resist to adapt to mechanisms of socialization which are shaped by the logic of the market (Bröckling 2007: 47).

To summarize: As the Homo oeconomicus and the enterprising self are neither abstract models, nor are they directly translated into reality. But as they get partially real through interpellations and corresponding processes of subjectivation, they can be labeled real-fictions. Or as Bröckling puts it for the enterprising self: You are not an enterprising self but you are supposed to become one. And you only can turn into one, since you are already addressed as such (Bröckling 2007: 47).

Yet, it is important to distinguish between the real-fiction of the Homo oeconomicus and the real-fiction of the enterprising self. The latter diverges from the former, since the enterprising self passes the threshold of uncertainty. What does this mean? The enterprising self cannot translate uncertainty into calculable risks as the prototype of the manager does, since an enterprising self acts against the background of insecure information and lacking pathways. This is why Joseph Schumpeter identifies the entrepreneur as a modern hero (Bröckling 2007: 116). The entrepreneur is the creator of the new and the defeater of the unknown. The entrepreneur produces for the market and its decisions depend on uncertain demands. Thus, the enterprising self acts to some extent beyond rationality, which is supposed to be compensated by unresting activity (Bröckling 2002: 9-10; Bröckling 2007: 116-123). Not surprisingly, activation is one of the central invocations in guidebooks, which are understood by Bröckling as manuals for neoliberal thinking. He identifies a semantic of total mobilization (Bröckling 2007: 117; Bröckling 2012). Accordingly, he quotes Tom Peters, one of the gurus of personal and business empowerment: “Just throw enough spaghetti against the wall, maybe something will stick to it“ (Bröckling 2002: 10; translated by the authors).

If the enterprising self turns into the vanishing point of our efforts of subjectivation, what everyone is supposed to become is precisely what threatens everyone. Why is that? On the one hand, the logic of comparison and competition produces the feeling of lack, incompleteness and guilt. This is the actual reason for the never ending restlessness of the modern individual. On the other hand, if the market mechanism increasingly shapes socialization, the interpellation to act economically is on the verge to become hegemonic.4 Ultimately, the possible result of the ongoing economization of the social is dystopic: “As there is nothing less at stake than the own life, there is no space for playful easiness and noble fairness. Thus, the enterprising self is not only a general orientation but also a bugbear. What everyone is supposed to become is precisely what threatens everyone“ (Bröckling 2007: 126; translated by the authors). Just as Hartmut Rosa does when describing the consequences of social acceleration for the modern individual, Bröckling refers to Alain Ehrenberg's work “The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age“ when outlining the flipside of the enterprising self (Bröckling 2007: 289; Rosa 2012: 388-390): exhaustion and depression.

Just as the wish for acceleration can be described as being unquestioned, since it is linked to our cultural ideal of the good life, the economic view on ourselves and our fellow men and women becomes an increasingly dominant and unconscious mentality. It perfectly fits the logic of social acceleration and it is massively enhanced by neoliberal thoughts that have great impact on the governing of the social.

Embodying knowledge and practicing cultural change

So far, we presented two different mental infrastructures of growth that are shaping our actions and routines. They are deeply internalized and largely unquestioned. Knowing them is crucial to deconstruct our behavior – no matter if we talk about most basic daily habits or abstract life visions. However, the cognitive process of deconstruction is insufficient to actually change our lifestyles for several reasons: Firstly, we positively associate them with our understanding of a good life. Secondly, most habits that make up our lifestyle are simply too automated to change them just by knowing about them. Finally, external conditions are of great importance for individual transformation. Currently, they are preserving the logic of growth, increase and acceleration.5 By consequence, Welzer even remarks that “a bigger part of the knowledge assets which currently get effective in discourses, will only be of relevance after the change of practices – not before” (Welzer & Gießmann 2009: 107; translated by the authors). For Welzer only concrete practices allow to transform the existing knowledge into effective one, since practices built the bridges between abstraction and the realities of people (ibid. 106).

Psychic resources for a degrowth society

Against this backdrop, the psychologist Marcel Hunecke stresses that processes of reflection need to be embodied in order to support personal change. Moreover, he also highlights the relevance to connect these processes with positive emotions (Hunecke 2013: 32). People in the Global North will barely change lifestyles that are connected with still dominant cultural concepts of the good life (like the mentioned prevailing attractiveness to extend personal experiences by consuming as many world options as possible), if change is not associated with an improvement of individual well-being.

Yet, the experience of pressure and stress caused by the need of constant innovation, acceleration, activity and efficiency are perceived by large parts of the population in the Global North as a loss of well-being as well as a risk for physical and psychological health (ibid.: 9). These forms of suffering provide possibilities for interventions that Hunecke wants to use to activate and strengthen a set of six psychic resources. These are not postulated from a normative perspective but derived from empirical research. He deems them helpful to cope with the exigencies of highly dynamic societies but likewise crucial for a sustainable lifestyle, an increase of individual well-being and for a social-ecological transformation towards degrowth societies. Basing his work largely on results of positive psychology, but also of environmental psychology, resource based coaching and social-ecological research, he identifies the following resources: The capability to enjoy, self-acceptance, self-efficacy, mindfulness, construction of sense and solidarity. For Hunecke these resources have the potential to mutually strengthen but also enclose each other (for details see: ibid.: 120f.).

In the context of our topic, the development of the six psychic resources allows to identify and to tackle a variety of problematic consequences of the mental infrastructures that have been identified above. 1) According to Hunecke the capability to enjoy facilitates experiencing more intense moments of life instead of just increasing the quantity of consumed world options. Here, wealth of time, regionality and seasonality are important concepts to connect this psychic resource with a possible degrowth lifestyle and altered concepts of the good life. 2) Self-acceptance prevents people from compensating perceived unsatisfactoriness by material consumption to increase their social status. As shown above, the feeling of unworthiness can be perceived as a consequence of the extension of competition and interpellations to act in the sense of the enterprising self. 3) Self-efficacy strengthens the conviction to be able to contribute to the change of personal and societal environment (ibid.: 120f.). 4) Mindfulness allows to get aware of problematic habits by increasing the sensitivity for the needs of oneself and of other beings and is conducive to experience joy. This turns mindfulness into a crucial psychic resource that may help to reduce the gap between nature and humans. 5) By getting aware of ones own needs and those of others, mindfulness also opens the way to more general questions about the sense of individual action and being (ibid.: 69) as well as to the psychic resource of solidarity. 6) The latter one allows cutting through the dominant paradigm of competition which was identified in this article as driving force for acceleration, self-optimization and the mobilization of the self.

Due to the potential of the identified psychic resources to deconstruct mental infrastructures in an integral way and to gradually transform them, the reader will realize that the pedagogical program of the training on mental infrastructure in many ways tried to refer to these resources and to activate them. In that regard the course was also inspired by Harald Welzer's attempt to identify and support alternative and succeeding counter practices with the help of the foundation “FUTURZWEI”. The same applies for Christine Ax's work on the so called “skilled society”. Both may be well interpreted in the context of embodying knowledge and practicing change. Thus, they will be shortly presented in the following as an inspiring end of this introduction.

The skilled society

Christine Ax notices that modernity goes along with an the unlearning of practical skills as more and more processes are machine based (Ax 2009: 25; 28ff.). Yet, the development of skills is most crucial for a happy life: Firstly, skills provide autonomy. If you are skilled, you depend less on money and/or on the skills of other people and/or the decay rates of knowledge. Secondly, skills may activate various of the mentioned psychic resources – e.g. self-efficacy, mindfulness and enjoyment.

Against this backdrop, Ax argues for a skilled society. Her vision of such a society fundamentally differs from the ideologically driven knowledge society (Ax 2009: 254), since in a skilled society people work under the condition of freedom (ibid.: 259). Here people are able to realize their needs by having more personal responsibility for the own work. In the context of cultural change, a combination of differently organized work and an emphasis on skills (without ignoring the importance of knowledge) provide the possibility to change mental infrastructures: As already mentioned, it allows activating and strengthening those psychic resources which may be relevant in a degrowth society. Moreover, working in the skilled society facilitates embodying strategies. As skills cannot be digitized (Ax 2009: 53), skilled people will most likely deal less with computers than workers in a knowledge society, but will interact with a much greater variety of those forms and shapes that the world hosts.

Promoting succeeding counter practices

Besides the problem of the deep internalization of ideals and routines, Welzer remarks that we also don't change our practices, simply because we don't have experienced better ones (Welzer & Gießmann 2009: 108). Of course, this lack also prevents political measures that would greatly facilitate and promote individual transformation. Thus, he seeks to spread and support changed practices in order to link up abstract knowledge to the realities of the people. In his understanding these practices serve the project of a reductive modernity, “a society which keeps its civilizational standard while considerably reducing its material and energy consumption as well as seriously decreasing consume but increasing personal autonomy” (Giesecke, Tremel & Welzer 2015: 6; translated by the authors). For this project, he founded the foundation “FUTURZWEI”6 which gathers examples and stories of succeeding counter practices to publish them regularly and in a prominent way. FUTURZWEI is understood by its members as a public relation agency for a social movement that searches for ways to realize a reductive modernity (ibid.). This may be possible by breaking up patterns of (re-) production in a practical mode of change allowing people to make new experiences with themselves (Welzer 2015: 36).

GROWL and the 4th International Conference on Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity

The Course "Mental Infrastructures and Degrowth Transformation" adressed the topic of the „Culture of Growth“ from different perspectives. It discusses the mental infrastructures of growth and their historical background theoretically. Moreover, it allows the reflection of our personal mental models and encourages experimenting with their convertibility by offering a variety of experience-based workshops.

The course comprised four main parts:

1. Presentation of the concept of „Mental Infrastrutures“ and a plenary discussion
2. Performance-Workshop „Strategies of Self-Improvement“
3. Self-reflective workshop on „Growth and social acceleration“
4. Practical Workshop: Experiencing (In-)Efficiency

A set of methodological modules was developed and experimented during this course.

Module 1: Getting to know a concept – What are mental infrastructures of growth?

Module overview

Total: 3,5h

General aims of the module

• Participants understand what the term „Mental infrastructures of growth“ means and how it can be filled (here: by Harald Welzer)
• Participants critically discuss and question the concept and its limits
• Participants link the concept to their personal lives
• Participants evaluate the possible impact of mental infrastructures for a social-ecological transformation

Module Description

1. Presentation (30')
The module starts with an introductory input on the concept of mental infrastructures. The presentation aims at explaining what mental infrastructures are and why they are relevant. It then focuses on three mental infrastructures (or „socio-cultural schemes“) that currently sustain the growth oriented society and that are specifically addressed within this course in the following workshops:

a. Bookkeeping and the „Economic Man“ (see Module 2)

b. Acceleration and the Shrinking of the Present (see Module 3)

c. Efficiency and the Knowledge Society (see Module 4)

2. Open Plenary Discussion (30')

This open phase aims at clarifying open questions and expressing doubts and critique concerning the concept.

3. Worldcafé (60')

In this part the participants wrap up the core of the concept, transfer it to concrete examples and make a link to their personal lives. In order to do this, the room is set up with tables (approx. 1 table for every 5-6 participants), where the following questions are discussed seperately in a „Worldcafé“:

a. Find a coherent working definition for „Mental infrastructures of growth“ based on the presentation. What are examples for it according to your definition?

b. How are you affected by „mental infrastructures of growth“ in your personal lives – within your family, friends, work, your own habits...?

c. How do you deal with or react to them?

Each questions is discussed for 20 minutes within groups of 5-6 participants. Then the participants change tables and come together in new combinations. A „host“ stays at each table to introduce the newcomers to the previous debate which is the basis for the discussion of the next question. For further explanation of the worldcafé method see: http://www.theworldcafe.com/method.html.

4. Break (15')

5. Presentation of the World Café results (30')

First, the different working definitions (Question 1) are presented and evaluated in the plenary: What are the differences? Can they be integrated to a common/ coherent definition? Or are there aspects that cannot be harmonized?

In a second step, the hosts are invited to give an overview of the further discussed topics and share especially interesting points with the whole group.

6. Collective mapping (30')

This last step aims at clarifying the concept by mapping existing mental infrastructures of growth, which we see within society and in our personal lives around the newly developed working definition. If needed, it is possible to form another small group that integrates the different definition proposals into a common definition, which then can be placed in the middle of a big wallpaper. All other participants are invited to write down the mental infrastructures they discussed within the worldcafé and illustrate the map with colours, drawings etc. This is supposed to be interactive, creative and fun and serves as a base for further discussions within the seminar.

The wallpaper is put up in the seminar room and can be complemented in the following days.

7. Wrap-up and outlook (15')

At the end, there should be some time to embed the concept into the following parts of the seminar – that this seminar aims at giving the chance to experience our own mental infrastructures and the role they play in our lives as well as to experiment with alternative experiences that may have the potential to change our mental infrastructures.

Module 2: Performance Workshop “Strategies of self-improvement and competition as mental infrastructures of growth”

Module overview

Total: 7 h (+ circa 2h of breaks)

General aims of the module

• Participants know important imperatives and strategies of self-improvement
• Participants relate strategies of self-improvement to (the mental infrastructure of) competition and reflect on problematic dimensions of that relation
• Participants experiment in a playful way with different forms of coping with the imperative of continuous self-improvement
• Participants include cognitive, emotional and physical dimensions in their approach (holistic approach)
• Participants have the possibility to enjoy working and experimenting together in a cooperative way (experience of cooperation)
• Participants develop a joyful and playful attitude towards failure during the workshop (experience of „not improvement/optimization“)
• Participants find artistic-performative forms of expression for their work and show them to others

How this documentation is made

In the workshop a lot of theatre-methods, games, and exercises are used. Usually these methods work like frames and can include a lot of different possible variations and fillings. These can vary from situation to situation and can be filled with other methods that future trainers might bring from their respective backgrounds. Please be aware that it usually makes sense to have experienced a method at least once before you facilitate it yourself.

For those of you who don't know so many exercises or don't remember them, you can have a look here: http://www.keithjohnstone.com/writing/ and here: http://improwiki.com/en or here: http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?nodeID=52

Although this workshop is explicitly not based on the “Theatre of the opressed” nor within improvisation theatre, you can find exercises in these fields that are applicable and useful for the Performance-Workshop as well.

Module Description

1. Warm-Up (15')

Before you start the workshop, make sure to offer one or two warming-up exercises that you like a lot. They should a) wake people up and b) be fun.

2. Introduction to the workshop (30')

• „We will work with different text-based materials and create own small text components. Later we will also write monologues.“
• Sitting in a circle the facilitator explains what will happen during the workshop and what is his/her personal approach, regarding both the approach to the content as well as to aesthetics. What will happen in the workshop? What was said more or less was the following:
• „We will move a lot and we will develop our own movements with our bodies: We will do a lot of games and exercises that will allow us to have fun and create movements in a simple way. We will work with music. And we will create our own movement vocabulary, we won't dance ballet“
• „We will try to combine brain and body, and have a look at the effects this connection might have if we combine them in different ways.“

3. Let's start! Theatre Exercises (60')

• Exercise in the room to feel comfortable in the room, to come in (physical) contact with the room and with the others: people scatter in the room and go around, find their own rhythm of going, say hello to the others in different ways, etc.... You find some basic „room-exercises“ here: http://improwiki.com/en/wikis
• „The running train“: Exercise with music. Two people come together. One person stands behind the other, looking in the same direction, the person in the front starts to go through the room, inspired by the music. Step 1: The first person turns around and the second person has to react and turn around as fast as possible, too. Now the second person is the first, the roles are changing. Step 2: The second person can stop the first person by giving a pat on the back. Then the second person “draws“ something on the back of the first person with the finger and the first person transforms the drawing into a movement . Step 3: Groups of 2 persons go together and build groups of 4 persons, then groups of 8. The groups start to react to the other groups in their movements in the room. Music used: „Je veux“ by Zaz
• 1,2,3 from Bradford: you find a description of the method here: http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/dbi/content/two-three-bradford
• Exercise on subtext in a circle, e.g. with the words „you“ and „here“. The chosen word is expressed by every person in the circle with a different subtext / imitating different possible situations. In the second round with the second word in addition the next person reacts to it.

4. Gallery of self-improvement (30')

Before the workshop: prepare a wall full of images that have to do with the topic. I chose images from self-management, time-management, diet, yoga, networking, etc. Self-improvement can be described and analyzed in a lot of elements of our lives. (see Material 2)

Participants have time to watch the wall, to relate it with their own lives and thoughts and to get inspired by it. In the 30 minutes they have, each person writes down three imperatives of self-improvement that start with „you“ and put it on the wall. During the exhibition I put music by “Apparat”.

BREAK

5. Performative exercise „What's the time, Mr. Wolf“ (45')

(German name „Ochs am Berg“),You find a description of the game here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_the_time,_Mr_Wolf%3F

If the sun is shining, go outside. After playing it several times (in the variation “low countries”) change the rules of the game step by step:

• If one person is caught by Mr. Wolf, the whole group has to start again.
• Mr. Wolf is invisible. The group has to imagine Mr. Wolf, stop when the imagined Mr. Wolf turns around. You can do that in separated groups already.
• Last step: Divide the group, so that you do not have more than ten people in one group. The small groups repeat the last step, but now they use the texts about self-improvement that they wrote in the gallery-phase and speak them with different subtexts in the freezing phases. The audition-group(s) describe(s) effects (1) and interpretations (2). As this last step is a kind of performance (and people can get nervous), I went inside the main room to use an adequate room with a stage for it.

6. Monologues and Movements (90 minutes)

The following part is a combination of working with creative writing methods and working with methods of new/contemporary dance. I switched between writing and moving parts, so that the participants did not have to write/dance all the time at a stretch. I will describe the two parts separately.

Writing Monologues based on associations

Participants get two papers and a pen each. They sit in a circle and write „self-improvement“ on the first and „failure“ on the second paper. They write the words in the center of the paper and make a circle around them. Then they start to write associations to these words, building chains from the circle to the border of the paper. This can be e.g. like this: self-improvement – healthy food – apples – apple tree – forest – lord of the rings – my first girlfriend Eva – etc...

Always associate to the word you wrote before. Participants do this until their papers are full (6-10 chains should emerge).

Participants do that with both words/papers and then change the papers with their neighbors. On the neighbors papers they underline on each paper three words they find interesting and then give them back.

Now everyone writes a monologue from one of the following perspectives:

• The „I“ is in the mode of self-improvement and describes it's everyday habits or
• The „I“ tries to reflect on it's own strategies of self-improvement, tries perhaps to change them and describes how that works

After writing the monologues two people come together and present their monologues to each other. They decide for one monologue they want to continue working with but they can also try to integrate passages they don't want to lose from the other monologue. At the end they have a text that they want to use for the rest of the workshop.

Creating movements and a first choreography

Before writing the monologues start with the movement/dancing-part: For every word that is underlined, the participants find a movement. Then they find a nice combination of the movements.

The participants start with this exercise in the same groups of two as above. At the beginning one person is the „mover“ and the other is the „reader“, after finishing they change the roles: One person (the reader) reads a word (e.g. „forest“) from his papers the other (the mover) creates spontaneously a small movement. Then the next word is read and the next movement is created. Then the „mover“ links movement 1 and movement 2. After working through all six words from the two papers, the participants change the roles. Now they work in the same way with the papers of the former mover. The result are two choreographies of six linked movements. These choreographies should be precise, so that participants can repeat them exactly and also teach them to other participants.

Exercises that helped us with the preparation of the movement parts

• Room-Exercises with spontaneous statues to terms (I used terms from the lunch-break, some easy to translate in physical like „tired“, some more difficult like „pasta“, some really difficult like „green“). After working with statues you can go to small movements.
• Puzzling: All participants are standing in a circle: One person goes to the center and goes into a free position. Freeze. Now a second person goes to the first and tries to find a position, that „fills“ blanks in the position of the first without touching him or her. Freeze. The first person tries to leave without touching. A third person is coming into the circle and so on.

7. Staging the monologues and choreographies (90')

In the groups of two from 7) the participants start to combine their text and their two choreographies. They start to experiment with different forms of combination. Questions that could support them:

• „Who is speaking which part of the text?“
• „Which parts do we speak together (if any)?“
• „When does which part of which choreography take part?“
• „Which parts do we move together (if any)?“
• „What are you doing, when you don't have anything special to do on the stage? How can you give focus on the main performing person?“

At the end each pair has a small performance.

In the last step the participants go together in groups of three or four pairs and combine their performances, keeping the same questions in mind. As they are six to eight people in each group, they can also work with choirs, speaking choirs as well as moving choirs. Additional tasks are now:

• „Find an order for the three/four performances that makes sense to you“
• „Decide how your performance will start and how it will end“
• „Think about rhythmical questions: when are you loud/quiet, when fast/slow.“
• „Think about subtexts and attitudes of the performers“

8. Presentation of the performances and feedback (60')

Finally the groups can present the results of their work on stage. For non-professional actors the facilitator should explain the difference between a private place and a stage, where every movement is significant and can be interpreted by the audience. I usually mark the border of the stage with a tape and explain, that crossing that border implies that you are not a private person anymore but someone performing. As such, you are performing a role which may differ from your private roles.

After the performances we had a small break and then gave feedback in two different ways:

• In a circle: „What do you want to say concerning the workshop, which experiences do you want to share with us?“
• In anonymous: At the end of the course we put papers for every workshop on the floor and left the room, so participants could write down detailed feedback.

Module 3: Self-reflective workshop on growth and social acceleration

1. Harald Welzer and Hartmut Rosa provide the theoretical background to link the concepts of growth and acceleration to our daily lives. Rosa claims that competition and the promise of eternity are the main engines for acceleration. They trigger acceleration in other areas, such as technology, and therefore provide the basis for economic growth. Welzer introduces us to the concept of mental infrastructures.
2. The workshop aims at connecting Rosa’s and Welzer’s theory with our own biographies. How has acceleration and growth influenced our lives? What do our mental infrastructures look like? What are barriers that hinder us from thinking, feeling and acting differently? Which ideas help us change?
3. The workshop will combine theoretical input and practical exercises, most of which are based on self-reflective elements.

Module overview

Total: 5.30 h (plus 1 h of break)

General Aims of the Module:

1. make acceleration and growth visible in our own biographies (we talk about degrowth but visit one training after another….)
2. some (but little) theoretical background on acceleration (Rosa) and personal growth (humanistic psychology)
3. understand some needs and mechanisms underlying acceleration and why it is so hard to change (barriers)
4. learn about the value-action gap / attitude-behavior gap
5. develop ideas on resources and strategies towards a degrowth society

Module description

Exercise I: Gallery walk

Aims:

• Warm-up and set minds for the topic
• Introduction to the topic: understanding time as a relative perception

Walking through the time gallery:

• Quotes are printed on colorful paper and hung up on a clothesline beforehand.
• Participants move slowly along the clothesline and have time to read and perceive quotes, proverbs and images.

Note: put up music to create a comfortable atmosphere. Participants may talk if they wish to.

Time needed: 15 Minutes

Material: Material 2, pegs, clothesline, pictures (e. g. from a game called „Dixxit“), music, speakers

Exercise II: Walking through the room

Aims:

• Understanding time as a concept shaped by society;
• Feel how different speeds affect us in a metaphorical sense

Procedure:

You should have a present voice and make sure participants use the whole room for this. This includes preparing the room in advance (no tables, chairs etc.)

Read the following script and leave time in between while participants are walking through the room at different speeds.

1) Relaxed
We walk through the room in a very relaxed way, slowly. Give attention to: your breathing........your relaxation..........your look, your posture and the way you walk........feel the ground.........look at the others (you may add: smile)

2) Accelerate – phase I
We walk through the room in a faster pace, almost our normal pace. Give attention to: your breathing........your look, your posture and the way you walk........feel the ground.........look at the others (you may add: smile)

3) Accelerate – phase II
We walk through the room in a fast pace, almost running. Give attention to: your breathing........your look, your posture and the way you walk........look at the others (you may add: smile)

Questions for reflection (shortly):

• How did you feel at the different paces?
• How do these feelings correspond to the quotes you read?
• Did you experience some form of resonance?

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: music, speakers

Exercise II (Alternative): Following hands

Aims: warm-up, coming together

Procedure:

Participants come together in pairs. They should take their hands and use it as imagined magnets. One takes the role of the follower and follows the other hand like a magnet through the room; after a while, they can switch roles.Participants should try different positions and play with their partners. You can encourage an active atmosphere with active music.

Questions for reflection (shortly):

How did you feel while following the hand? How did you feel leading the hand?

Are these feelings associated with the quotes that you have just read?

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: music, speakers

---INTERLUDE---Explaining goals

Aims: Explaining goals of the workshop and making them transparent (see aims after the chart).

[Note: I prefer to explain the goals of the workshop here instead of doing it, how it is usually done, straight in the beginning - participants should not be primed right away as to what they are supposed to think (e.g., while walking through the time gallery.]

Note also: Before you start, you may introduce the FREEZE idea: whenever you feel like the participants are not focused or wandering off with their minds, you might say FREEZE. Everyone will then immediately take a paper (make sure they are available throughout the whole workshop, as well as pens) and write down their thought. Encourage participants to write down whatever is on their mind in that moment. Collect the sheets and make a break. You will get a better idea on where the group is and what they need. Make sure you can adapt your exercises accordingly if you wish to.

Time needed: 10 Minutes

Material: List of the aims as a reminder for yourself if needed.

Exercise III: "I-still-have-to-list"

Aims: experiencing self-constraint on time / internalization of acceleration and how it affects us

Procedure:

Start with a little imagination and take the participants to their home desks: “You come back after this workshop and arrive at home. The next day, you sit at your desk and realize what needs to be done in the following weeks. All the things that you have to do and still didn't manage to do come to your mind. There are the dirty clothes and the food that you need to prepare, but there is also that issue at work and another unfinished task....”

Participants should take a sheet of paper and list all the things they have to do beginning with the sentence "I still have to....". They have 3 minutes for this, so they need to be quick and note as much as they can think of. It should be things that are currently on their mind and that they need to do in the following weeks.

Possible questions for reflection (collect quick impressions):

• What is on the list? Give some quick examples.
• Do you see a pattern?
• Are to-do-lists an example of an overall feeling and tendency in society?
• Why do you feel you still have to do all those things? Who tells you that you have to?
• Where does the pressure “to have to” come from?
• Do you feel it would be possible to ever “finish the list”?

Time needed: 40 Minutes

Material: Paper, Pens

Exercise IV: Reflective walk

Aims:

• making the shortage of time visible in our everyday life
• get activated and share you experiences with someone

Procedure:

Participants should find a partner that they haven't talked to until now.

They go for a walk with their partner. They should take the note sheet with suggested questions for reflection with them (Material 3).

Note: When participants come back, let them know that they will have time later on to exchange with the others and give input and insights from their walk. They may use their newly gained knowledge for what’s coming next, the plan analysis.

Time needed: 30-50 Minutes

Material: Material 3 (Note sheet)

Exercise V: Plan analysis

Aims:

• identifying mechanisms underlying acceleration: needs as a motor for actions
• work out goals and needs behind personal growth and acceleration

Procedure:

Write down the five points in Material 4 on a board/big sheet of paper and explain the idea behind the plan analysis.

The vertical plan analysis is a diagnostical tool that is used in behavioral psychotherapy to assess the needs of clients in relationships. Plans are seen as an expression of different motivational schemes. Behaviors are seen to be indicators for a need: by acting in a certain way, persons are trying to get something they want and need.

Note: This is a modified and extremely brief version, it differs from the original idea!

Participants should think of a situation in which they had the feeling of being in shortage of time. The I-must-have-list might give them ideas for such situations. They should formulate every behavior in a command form. This might seem strange at first, but it will help participants to not lose the focus (explain this to them).

Participants go into pairs of two and take a sheet (material 4). They perform a plan analysis with their partner. When one is done, switch roles. Note: It is important that participants think of a specific situation.

Questions for reflection:

• Are there other ways to achieve the needs and goals behind an accelerated life?
• What happens when people oppose “capitalistic” mental structures such as self-optimization? What happens if people “drop out” of the system?

Time needed: 45 Minutes

Material: Material 4

Lecture

Aims:

• understand how and why acceleration and the feeling of shortage of time come into being by getting to know the theory of acceleration by Hartmut Rosa (Why do we have less less and less time, although we save time through efficiency and technological progress?)
• link individual and societal processes: understand growth as motor of social acceleration: to remain stable, you have to grow (both in the economy, as well as individually)
• link personal growth (Humanistic Psychology) with social acceleration and provide a critical reflection on the topic How do personal and economic growth interact, and where are differences?

Make sure the lecture is well prepared: this includes your own preparation (get to know the material – of course you might as well create your own content and presentation – and the preparation of the room (presentation software must work on the computer you use as well as the connection with the projector....)

Time needed: 30 Minutes

Material: Material 5: presentation (online or pdf version), projector, speakers

Source: Online presentation: https://prezi.com/0atu2xtiyl86/acceleration-personal-growth/

// TODO: Get copy of Prezi as open format (PDF) and put it on the course page. Link to it (QR-Code)

Map of change

Aims:

• identify barriers and structural constraints that prevent us from acting
• bring together ideas on strategies that might be useful for a transformation towards a degrowth society
• think about individual resources and societal structures that provide the infrastructure for change

Procedure:

Hang up the map of change (see material 7).

Divide group in two halves – individual vs. societal: Hand out questions to reflect upon accordingly (Material 6)

1. First round: Think for yourself (5 minutes). Make notes if you want to.

After the first round:

Present the map of change and explain the different areas and what you want to do with it. The map of change is a visualization of the mental infrastructures in present society and the ones that are needed for a degrowth society (Alternative Island). It also visualizes the “roads” that might lead to such a transformation – the resources and strategies needed to get there (Resourcelandia). It also projects the barriers that might hinder us (Barrier Woods). The sea surrounding the land and islands may give space to further comments, critics etc (see example in the annex: Material 6).

2. Second round: groups with 5-6 persons (30 minutes).

In the group, they should further collect ideas and examples of a possible degrowth society, the society as we perceive it now, barriers and ways to overcome them. The focus should be on obstacles and strategies on how to overcome ”capitalistic mental infrastructures”, especially if there is not much time.

Each example/idea/concept should be written on a separate card. Provide different colors for strategies and resources, barriers, capitalistic infrastructures and degrowth infrastructures and open questions/comments.

The group should pick someone to present the cards in the plenum.

Remember: this is not an easy task, some people work all their lives on this and yet don’t have answers.

Questions for reflection (basically the same as on the sheet):

What are capitalistic/degrowth mental infrastructures?

What are the obstacles/barriers? Why do you have to run along and when do you manage to get out?

What are ways to overcome these mental infrastructures? How can mental infrastructures for a degrowth society be paved, on an individual and on a societal level? What are mechanisms of change?

Criticisms / Open comments

3. Third round: Each group presents in the plenum (20 minutes)

Have one person from each group present the outcomes from their group discussions. The person should put up the cards according to the area/color.

After each group has presented, you should have a nice collection of all the ideas on the map of change.

4. Fourth round: Group discussion (25 minutes)

Discuss about the different ideas you find on the map. Which are realistic, which do you find difficult?

Where do you feel contradictions and ambivalence?

What are pros and cons of different strategies?

Time needed: 80 Minutes (if you have time and energy, you might take more time for this if you wish to)

Material: Material 6, Material 7, moderation cards in 5 different colors (parts of the map of change), crepe tape

Mindfulness-based exercise

Aims: try a mindfulness-based exercise as a tool for inner change

Procedure:

Make sure everyone can put him- or herself in a comfortable position (either lying down or sitting); participants can close their eyes (which makes it easier to visualize). For this exercise it is essential that no disturbances take place, you provide a comfortable room and have enough time. Read the material beforehand so you have a present and clear voice and don't get confused while reading out loud. Try to soften your voice and leave room between the sentences – the more comfortable you feel during the exercise, the more will the participants.

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: Material 8: Peaceful place

Closing round/Feedback

Aims:

• get feedback of the group
• closing the workshop together

Procedure:

Sit in a circle. Each participant has about one minute to answer the question: “What do you take along from this workshop?” (make sure you include yourself). After you are finished, invite participants to sit with crossed legs and put their hands on the neighbor’s knees. Take time to look at each other and close the round.

Time needed: 20 Minutes

Material: --

Module 4: Practical workshop “Experiencing (In-)Efficiency and the Skilled Society”

Module overview

Total: 3,5h + Dinner

General aims of the module

• Participants experience themselves in a practical activity which differs from their daily work (usually at a computer) – and the usual seminar setting – and which allows to experience another form of self-efficacy by working with their hands and bodies
• Starting from the practical experience they reflect upon their daily work and from there on how work is socially organized within modern societies and what mental infrastructures are linked to it – the idea of efficiency, a strong division between the categories „practical“ and „theoretical“ and as a result the tendency to depreciate practical skills
• Participants know that practical skills are an important issue in the degrowth debate and why. They discuss how a focus on practical skills can foster a social-ecological degrowth society and where the limits of this approach are.
• Participants have fun preparing a convivial meal for all.

Module description

1. Introduction to the Workshop (10')

As an introduction to the workshop the trainer puts up 3 definitions of central concepts shaping the organization of work in modern societies which are in this workshop understood as mental infrastructures supporting the growth society. They will be questioned later on in the workshop. At this point these concepts are very shortly explained – as well as how they are interrelated:

A. Efficiency describes the extent to which time, effort or cost is well used for an intended task or purpose. It defines the relationship between the effort that has been made (resources & working hours) and the outcome. [cf. Wikipedia]

B. The division of labour is the specialisation of cooperating individuals who perform specific tasks and roles. It is historically associated with the growth of total output and trade and with a rise of complexity in industrialised societies. It is in this context expected to increase both producer and individual worker productivity. [cf. Wikipedia]

C. The term Knowledge society refers to a society formation in highly industrialized countries: individual and colletive theoretical knowledge as well as its organization becomes more and more the social and economic basis of these societies. Aside with the tendency to a rising reputation of theoretical knowledge, practical skills are depreciated. [cf. Wikipedia; Ax 2009]

Then the participants can ask comprehension questions, but the concepts are not discussed yet.

2. Introduction to the practical workshops (5')

In the next step the different workshops are presented and the participants decide on which workshop they would like to attend. Then every person receives a little piece of paper with a question on it. He or she will take this question to the workshop and is invited to reflect upon it while doing the practical work. The questions are randomly distributed among the participants, so several people receive the same question. In Leipzig we used the following questions:

• What does efficiency mean to you personally? In what situations do you experience it's positive/negative aspects?
• What positive/negative aspects of the strong division of labour (within our society) do you experience in your personal life?
• What kind of work has made you happy in the past and why?
• What kind of (theoretical and practical) knowledge and skills would you personally like to develop more? Why?

3. Practical Workshops (120')

In Leipzig we offered the following 3 workshops:

1. How to bake your own bread

2. How to produce tasty spreads

3. Harvesting at the CSA project

They were all related to the collective preparation of a meal, but other workshops are also possible, of course.

4. Reflection in small groups (30')

Within the workshop groups the participants exchange about their experiences within the workshop. The reflection is guided by the questions that the participants had received, but also any other experiences can be shared here.

5. Reflection in Plenary (45')

In the plenary then, there is first the opportunity for all to share whatever they want to share with the whole group: an especially interesting issue that had come up in the small group, an open question that could be relevant for further research or reflection etc.

In a second round, we link the personal experiences to degrowth as a societal concept which focuses strongly on the development on practical skills as well as concepts of self-providing. The following questions can help with this:

• Is a degrowth society a more „practical“ society than the present and what does that mean? In which fields?
• What role does self-sufficiency and the development of practical skills play for the transformation towards a degrowth society?
• What are the limits – and risks? - of the strong focus of the degrowth debate towards practical skills and self-sufficiency?

The results of this debate can be found in the Annex (Material 9).

6. Convivial dinner

At the end, we prepare a common meal for all: with a colourful, fresh salad, bread and spreads. It's the direct „practical“, visible and tasteable outcome of the workshops.

Material

For details on the material, please visit the following website and check the longer version of this documentation online:

https://co-munity.net/mental-infrastructures/materials-0/documentation-course

// TODO: Put as box with QR-Code

Literature

• Ax, Christine (2009): Die Könnensgesellschaft – Mit guter Arbeit aus der Krise; Berlin: Rhombos.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2002): Jeder könnte, aber nicht alle können – Konturen des unternehmerischen Selbst; Mittelweg 36, in: Eurozine; http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2002-10-02-broeckling-de.html; Last access: 18.06.2015.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2007): Das unternehmerische Selbst – Soziologie einer Subjektivierungsform; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2012): The Subject in the Marketplace, the Subject as Marketplace, Presentation at the Conference „The Marketization of Society: Economizing the Non-Economic“, University of Bremen, 01./02.06.2012; http://www.mpifg.de/projects/marketization/downloads/Broeckling.pdf; Last access: 12.07.2014.
• Bröckling, Ulrich (2012): Totale Mobilmachung. Menschenführung im Qualitäts- und Selbstmanagement; in: Krasmann, Susanne, Lemke, Thomas, Bröckling, Ulrich: Gouvernementalität der Gegenwart – Studien zur Ökonomisierung des Sozialen; 6th edition; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp
• Descola, Philippe (2013): Jenseits von Natur und Kultur; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
• Gießmann, Sebastian; Welzer Harald (2009): Vom Wissen zum Handeln – vom Handeln zum Wissen: Harald Welzer im Gespräch mit Sebastian Gießmann; in: Gießmann, Sebastian et al.: Politische Ökologie; Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften; 2/2009; Bielefeld: transcript; 103-110.
• Görg, Christoph (2003a): Gesellschaftstheorie und Naturverhältnisse – Von den Grenzen der Regulationstheorie; in: Brand, Ulrich; Raza, Werner (eds.): Fit für den Postfordismus? Theoretisch-politische Perspektiven des Regulationsansatzes; Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot; 175-194.
• Görg, Christoph (2003b): Nichtidentität und Kritik – Zum Problem der Gestaltung der Gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnisse; in: Böhme, Gernot; Manzei, Alexandra (eds.): Kritische Theorie der Technik und der Natur, Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag; 113-134.
• Görg, Christoph (2005): Jenseits von Naturalismus und Naturberrschung – Naturverhältnisse in der Kritischen Theorie; in: Asta der FH Münster (ed.): Alle reden vom Wetter. Wir nicht. Beiträge zur Förderunge der kritischen Vernunft; Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.
• Hunecke, Marcel (2013): Psychologie der Nachhaltigkeit – Psychische Ressourcen für Postwachstumsgesellschaften; München: oekom.
• Rosa, Hartmut (2009): Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a dysychronized High-Speed Society; in: Rosa, Hartmut; Scheuerman, William E.: High-Speed Society - Social Acceleration, Power, and Modernity; Pennsylvania State University Press; 77-112.
• Rosa, Hartmut (2012): Beschleunigung - Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne; 9th edition; Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
• Sanders, Christoph (2014): Societal Relations with Nature and Mental Infrastructures – A critical glance from Buen Vivir and Theravāda-Buddhism; Conference paper for the 4th International Conference on Degrowth; https://co-munity.net/conference2014/science/content/societal-relations-nature-and-mental-infrastructures-critical-glance; Last access: 01.07.2015.
• Welzer, Harald (2011): Mental Infrastructures - How Growth Entered the World and Our Souls; http://www.boell.de/sites/co-munity.net/files/endf_mental_infrastructures.pdf; Last access: 18.06.2015.
• Welzer, Harald (2015): Zukunftspolitik; in: Welzer, Harald; Giesecke, Dana; Tremel, Luise: FUTURZWEI Zukunftsalmanach 2015/2016 – Geschichten vom guten Umgang mit der Welt; Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer; 13-38.
• Welzer, Harald; Giesecke, Dana; Tremel, Luise (2015): Vorwort; in: Dies.: FUTURZWEI Zukunftsalmanach 2015/2016 – Geschichten vom guten Umgang mit der Welt; Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer; 5-8.