Karin de Miguel Wessendorf is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. She was born in Barcelona in 1974 and studied philology and media sciences in Barcelona, Munich and Cologne. Since 2008 she works as an author of TV documentaries and radio features on social and environmental topics for WDR, SWR, NDR, ARTE and other public broadcasters. Her documentary Less is more – The limits to growth and the better life won the Alternative Media Prize and the Prize of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic at EKOTOPFILM – International Festival of Sustainable Development Films in 2014.

Abstract

Economy Without Growth. A Journey to Alternatives in Europe

Economic crisis and climate change have shaken the belief in unlimited growth as a guarantee of prosperity and well-being. More and more people are convinced that a perpetually growing economy is not possible in a world of limited resources. A movement is born which is already looking for alternatives. The documentaryLess is more – The limits to growth and the better life shows activists, communities, enterprises, politicians and scientists that work on the construction of a “post growth society” – a society in which a lower wastage of resources will allow well-being in the long term. Practical examples of sustainable consumption and alternative forms of economic and social organization throughout Europe raise the question of how economy, politics and civil society can design a sustainable lifestyle.