Emergence of a Post-Growth Society?
How do societal transitions happen, and what can history teach us about navigating them? How can we better address resistance to change, and understand today’s crises through a transition lens?
Our society is built on fossil fuels, colonial structures, and entrenched injustices. Power and capital keep us locked in stagnation. Yet this path is unsustainable. We face a choice: ecological collapse or transformation toward a nature-positive future. Signs of systemic breakdown are already visible, and new alternatives are emerging that challenge centralized power and exploitative systems. Transition research works at the heart of this shift, collaborating with communities, organizations, and individuals to imagine radically different futures and explore how to get there. In this talk, Derk Loorbach will explore the idea and realities of societal transitions, offering research-based perspectives on today’s ecological crises and our collective loss of direction. He will share concrete examples of how transitions play out on a local scale while touching on cities, urban mobility, food systems, health care, and the social domain.
This event is an initiative by the Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena (DIEP) with the support of the University of Amsterdam. Science & Cocktails Amsterdam is presented in cooperation with Paradiso Amsterdam.
Talk by
Derk Loorbach
Derk Loorbach is director of DRIFT and Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and serves as academic figurehead of the Dutch Climate Research Initiative (KIN). A pioneer in the field of transition management, he works at the intersection of science and practice to explore how societies can shift toward more sustainable, just, and resilient futures. His approach, rooted in action research, connects academic insight with real-world transformation in policy, business, and communities. Over the years, he has shaped national and international debates on sustainability, co-curated the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, advised the UN Environment Programme, and initiated new platforms for educational and research innovation.
