Growth in Transition

International Conference

High quality of life and sustainable prosperity for everyone

The global production of goods and services has substantially increased during the last years, at least until the current financial and economic crisis. Large parts of society and many countries have achieved a high level of material wealth. However, the uneven distribution of wealth and income has hardly changed within most societies as well as between different world regions.

From an ecological point of view it can be said that the problems caused by increasing production that are strongly linked to the exploitation of raw materials and natural resources are becoming more and more severe. Many of our resources are becoming scarce, biodiversity loss is accelerating, whole ecosystems such as oceans are on edge and systemic consequences like climate change and soil erosion pose enormous social, economic and ecological challenges for all of us.

In order to sustain and increase prosperity and quality of life in the long term, we will need economic strategies which are soundly financed and use the planet’s resources responsibly. They have to satisfy the basic needs of all people and respect the immaterial dimension of being human. In order to achieve this, targeted interventions in the incentive schemes and regulatory framework of national economies are needed. This is the duty of politics, and the specific measures have to be the result of a broad public debate.

The international conference “Growth in Transition” aims at triggering a wide public debate. The conference deliberately tackles a broad range of topics in order to involve as many different stakeholders as possible. The key topics of “Growth in Transition” are being dealt with by key note speeches, discussions and ten partly parallel sessions.