Many young people are living through a present shaped by multiple crises, uncertainty and fundamental questions about the future. The climate crisis, social inequality and geopolitical tensions raise the question of how a good life for everyone might be possible in the years ahead. Political and economic debates still place a heavy emphasis on economic growth as the central solution strategy, yet for many it's becoming clear that these answers are reaching their limits.

Degrowth (German: Postwachstumsökonomie) is a dynamic economic movement that explores what a socially and globally just economic system could look like in the 21st century. Its starting point is that endless economic growth within a planet of finite resources is neither physically possible nor economically, socially or ecologically desirable. Degrowth thus breaks with the common assumption and prerequisite (in politics, economics and largely in research too) that the economy must keep growing, and instead focuses on genuine alternatives beyond this logic. The central question we ask in the IP is what potential the concept of degrowth holds for the economy and society in the future, and what concrete solutions might look like.

The aim of the IP is to shed light on post-growth economics and its scientific findings, and to critically reflect on the various economic arguments and perspectives on the question of growth in the context of planetary boundaries. Students will thus become acquainted with a critical movement that represents a departure from (neo-)classical economic thinking, and will come to recognise the alternative approaches that this way of thinking makes possible. Through group work, students will develop practical pathways, prerequisites and concepts for a good life free from growth – at the societal, economic, political, geographical and individual level.

The exact format of the IP will be developed over the coming weeks. A blocked seminar weekend (e.g. a mountain hut in Styria) is also being considered as part of the IP, to allow for a deeper group process. 

The team is looking forward to your active participation! Students who help co-organise an IP are guaranteed a guaranteed place in it.

If you're interested, please get in touch quickly at jan.stalzer@wu.ac.at — the submission deadline for the IP is 31 January 2026.