Workshops | Stay Grounded

(in English with Spanish translations)

Flying is the fastest way to heat the planet. The aviation industry and its climate impact is growing without limits. The Stay Grounded network was founded to globally connect more than 120 initiatives that fight airport infrastructure or work on climate and aviation related topics. This workshop both explains the problems involved with aviation, and the history and activities of the Stay Grounded network.

By Mira Kapfinger, co-founder of Stay Grounded

(In English)

What is degrowth and how does it translate into political action? This workshop will provide a brief introduction to the different concepts of degrowth. In an open discussion, we then want to explore these ideas from a rather pragmatic and activist perspective, and see if they help us to identify how to act in the current political and cultural context of our time. In line with the theme of the conference, we will try to focus especially on the sector of transport and aviation.

By Jöel Foramitti (Research & Degrowth)

(in English with Spanish translations)

In order to be able to discuss useful strategies to degrow aviation in the conference, it can be useful to understand current dominant strategies to deal with aviation emissions, among them the use of biofuels, the plans for synthetic fuels, and offsetting emissions. Can aviation be “decarbonized”? Is climate-neutral growth possible? In this workshop we will discuss the problems involved with such ideas and strategies.

By Magdalena Heuwieser, Stay Grounded campaigner and author of “The Illusion of Green Flying“

(In English, possible translation to Spanish)

The narrative of aviation growth is so strong that it is so hard to imagine another reality. Beyond all the policy-instruments discussed during this conference, we will discuss questions like: What is your vision for long-distance, in particular intercontinental, mobility? How will we travel, who, how often? What about migration, family visits, love miles? Collectively we will develop our imaginary based on the results of two recent events: the Barcelona/Cerbère workshop on transport narratives at the Degrowth Summer School and a workshop in Germany on transport utopias organized by Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie.

By Matthias Schmelzer (Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie), Francois Schneider (Research & Degrowth), Manuel Grebenjak (Stay Grounded)

(Spanish/English depending on the participants)

The aim of the workshop is to collectively reflect on the existing relationships between projects to expand the transport infrastructure and the tourism process in Barcelona, as well as to identify and understand their impacts. We will use a participatory mapping activity, working on a map prepared from a previous mapping exercise with the idea that this mapping is enriched during the workshop based on the contributions of each participant. This workshop is open to all people interested in this topic and/or the participatory mapping tool to reproduce them in other spaces.

By Yannick Deniau (Geocumnes) and Daniel (ABTS)

(Spanish/Enlgish depending on the participants)

By mapping conflicts related to airports around the world, we will identify not only socio-environmental injustices, but also the different forms of resistances and mobilization related to the expansion or construction of new airports or aerotropolis. Moreover, we will reflect and discuss what may or may not be big or small victories/successes of the socio-environmental justice movements: stop, suspend or re-locate these infrastructure projects, increase compensation or reduce the negative effects on the most affected communities.

By Sara Mingorría (EnvJustice, ICTA-UAB)