Media, culture and degrowth. Some lessons from Fora doEixo and Mídia Ninja

VILA SEOANE, MAXIMILIANO

Leipzig

Conferencia; 4th International Degrowth conference; 2014

Culture and communication are areas under the all-embracing infinite growth and development discourse, like the popular ?creative industries? approach. However, such frameworks generate in many developing countries dynamics against de-growth projects, because they favor concentration and cultural dominance of small regions over larger ones. This justifies the need to increase research and discussions in such areas, apart from new actions to counterattack these challenges. The aim of my presentation will be to illustrate general points to deal with challenges in the area of culture and communication for any sort of de-growth project, I will base my exposition on the innovative practices that the Brazilian network ?Fora do Eixo? (Off Axis) has been using. This includes: the use of social and solidarity economy practices like having their own currencies; the creation of alternative media that use the web intensively and diffuse different contents; and the creation of a university that aims to create and diffuse commons.