The Mana Kai Framework: a degrowth lens

MANA for the Ageing

We present a family of Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) using Talking Head technology, along with a program of associated research and user trials. Whilst antecedents of our current ECAs include “chatbots” desgined to pass the Turing Test (TT) or win a Loebner Prize (LP), our current agents are task-oriented Teaching Agents and Social Companions. The current focus for our research includes...

In defence of degrowth

Degrowth with basic income – the radical combination

Basic income and degrowth are both ideas with a great critical potential. They force us to reflect on our views of people and society, on our visions and values. Many of the “truths” related to the industrial society are suddenly watered down and even reversed as soon as we start to take the two concepts seriously. Even if there are moderate versions of both degrowth and basic income that may b...

Ecological Econophysics for Degrowth

This paper outlines a synthesis of ecological economics with econophysics and other complexity approaches to economics. Arguably, the resulting “ecological econophysics” will be scientifically sounder than mainstream economics and much better suited to addressing a major challenge of our times: the development of democratically-based policies to reduce economic throughput to an environmentally ...

Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation

This paper seeks to initiate a conversation between degrowth (DG) and postdevelopment (PD) frameworks by placing them within the larger field of discourses for ecological and civilizational transitions and by bridging proposals emerging from the North with those from the Global South. Not only can this dialogue, it is argued, be mutually enriching for bothmovements but perhaps essential for an ...