Activites

A great opportunity to engage in the European debate on sustainability transition with several experts, scholars, EPMs, EC representatives, organizations, and activists, who represent the main target audience of our project! Participating to the Beyond Growth annual conference was the occasion to explain the approach, perspective and objectives of the SPES project but also to raise interest and attention to SPES foreseen results and deliverables. Mario Biggeri (University of Florence), SPES scientific coordinator, Andrea Ferrannini (University of Florence), SPES project manager and Katja Reuter (Social Platform), SPES Impact Manager actively participated in several plenaries and focus panels over the three days of the Conference.

About Beyond Growth

The Beyond Growth 2023 Conference is a multi-stakeholder event aiming to discuss and co-create policies for sustainable prosperity in Europe, based on a systemic and transformative approach to economic, social and environmental sustainability and its encompassing governance framework.

With this conference, the organisers aim to challenge conventional policy-making in the European Union and to redefine societal goals across the board, in order to move away from the harmful focus on the sole economic growth – that is, the growth of GDP – as the basis of our development model. The conference will put into practice the idea of a post-growth future-fit EU that combines social well-being and viable economic development with the respect of planetary boundaries.

The conference addressed the following guiding questions:

1. What narrative is needed to guide progress towards a European Union that aims to prosper, rather than to grow?
2. What policies and indicators are needed to build a society that focuses on satisfying the well-being of its citizens while respecting planetary boundaries?
3. What governance structures are needed to deal with today’s interlinked environmental, social and economic challenges and ensure that all policy areas contribute to the EU’s common objectives?
4. How to address inconsistencies between existing EU policies and a European post-growth economy agenda, and how to realign priorities accordingly?