Harnessing alternative post-growth development pathways in Northampton: learning from innovative green information systems in Bristol and China

This research project is questioning the material and immaterial mechanisms that are contributing to the production and reproduction of the pro-growth order and related Imperial Mode of Living (Brand & Wissen, 2015). Using the concept of degrowth as a key normative anchor, the researcher has studied how to enhance the circulation and legitimation of alternatives social imaginaries and modes of living which are not relying on the globalized fossil-fuel dependent economy. How to create a transformative dynamic able to embark the majority in those alternatives in a way that would challenge the hegemonic social imaginary? She has analyzed, from a Strategic Relational Approach (SRA) (Jessop, 2000, 2005, 2010), the role of Information Systems (IS) in the discursive and material mechanisms that can hinder or facilitate degrowth-oriented transformative networks. She has defined IS as spaces of intersubjective interactions, using the concept of specular interactions developed by Vullierme (1989). What is at stake in this research project is to question how degrowth-oriented agents can strategically use IS to erode and transform (Wright, 2010) dominant strategic selectivities (Jessop & Sum, 2013) of pro-growth society. The key objective of the research project is to develop a framework to envision post-growth transformational IS. Its main contribution is both theoretical in terms of advancing knowledge on the role of IS in post-growth transformational strategies, and practical since the framework developed aims to be useful for small businesses, community-based organizations, and policymakers from Northampton town. The idea is to help them to strengthen their capacity to transform local economic structures towards strong sustainability. Empirical inquiries were conducted in two very different fieldworks in England, Bristol city, and China, Zhejiang province. The researcher has selected and analyzed, in those two fieldworks, different types of IS that have been designed in the name of sustainability, called here green IS. In Bristol she has paid a specific attention to the informational strategies deployed by local actors promoting post-growth social imaginaries. She has questioned what type of green IS can contribute to transform local state structures towards degrowth, and under which circumstances. In China, considering the specificities of the fieldwork in the covid-19 context, she has adopted a national perspective, with a focus on Zhejiang province. She has paid specific attention to the innovative and sophisticated green ISs that have been developed in the name of the Ecological Civilization (EC) project, a green development model promoted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In particular, she has looked at the Ecological Credit System (ECS) which is currently being deployed by the government as part of the Social Credit System (SCS). Drawing on the conclusion of the two fieldworks, the researcher has tried to identify how to design and manage post-growth green IS with the aim of providing Northampton local actors with practical recommendations.