The role of innovations in a degrowth scenario: the experience of the mumbuca community bank in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Lívia Mara Borges
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/20969
• topic: Degrowth; Innovation; Social innovation; Social currency; Community banks; Solidarity economy; Decrescimento; Inovação; Inovação social; Moedas sociais; Bancos comunitários; Economia solidária

In the context of current social and environmental challenges, the degrowth movement aims to propose new alternatives for the assumption of infinite growth from the dominant economic models. For the past 70 years, these models have pointed innovations as the main driver of continuous growth and to achieve profit maximization. On one hand, and from a Schumpeterian perspective, innovation should constantly disturb markets with new products and services to allow the continued growth of economies. On the other hand, degrowth proposes a slowdown in economic activities to the limit of environmental balance. The movement advocates a change in the objectives of the economic and political agenda from the pursuit of growth to the economy of care and solidarity. In this sense, degrowth societies might open new perspectives on the role of innovations. Through a debate with social innovation theories, this work will explore these possibilities, new actors, and their impacts. Based on the case study of the Mumbuca community Bank, this research aims to capture its innovative actions – such as a digital social currency - in the city of Maricá (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Through this example, it is possible to observe how technological and social innovations can increase the well-being and sustainability of local communities.