Seminar: "Environmental sociology, ecological crisis & degrowth", by Richard York and Stefano B. Longo

The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) is excited to announce that Richard York and Stefano B. Longo will present a public talk as part of our monthly public seminar series.

Seminar: "Environmental sociology, ecological crisis & degrowth" 

Speakers: Richard York, University of Oregon, & Stefano B. Longo, University of Gothenburg.

• Date: Tuesday, April 28th, 2026
• Time:  12 -13h (CET)
• Venue: Sala Z/032 ICTA-UAB and online: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89902459669?pwd=3mnkCJeyZ6o60nIIAXHHJNsh1qPZ5k.1

What social structures drive societies beyond planetary boundaries? Drawing on York’s analyses of energy, pollution, and technological displacement and Longo’s work on global development, food systems, and critical sustainability science, this talk examines the growth-dependent political economies that lock modern societies into ecological overshoot. It argues that contemporary provisioning systems reproduce unsustainable resource use and unequal exchange, obstruct just North–South convergence, and help explain why techno-fixes and mainstream sustainability approaches so often fall short. Bringing environmental sociology into dialogue with degrowth and post-growth scholarship, the talk examines the structural and political-economic drivers of ecological change and the constraints they place on more just and ecologically viable forms of social provisioning. 

Richard York is Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. An environmental sociologist working at the intersection of human ecology and political economy, he studies how the structural characteristics of modern societies shape energy use, resource consumption, and pollution, and has been especially influential in showing the limits of technological substitution as a sustainability strategy.

Stefano B. Longo is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg. His research examines global development, agri-food and marine systems, and the social drivers of ecological change, while also advancing a more sociologically grounded sustainability science attentive to power, historical specificity, and just transitions.