Hard infrastructure

Infrastructure like open pit mines, highways, aiports, thermic or nuclear plants, cement factories and incinerators are structures that enable the high flows of resources in society. Infrastructure includes areas like transport, cities, tourism and various other sectors of production. They are highly interlinked and as such need to be understood as a system.

Some of the possible degrowth proposals in this field, developed at the Second International Conference on Degrowth (Barcelona 2010) are illustrated below:

> Some infrastructure projects (nuclear-based production, incinerators, high-speed trains and large scale dams) should be abandoned, while others (highways, ammonia-based production and airports) should be drastically limited.
> Reduce and eliminate production infrastructure of toxic chemicals. Reduce the transport infra-structure and make it more collective.
> Companies that build or use infrastructure which are currently indebted, such as building and transportation companies, should be closed with state support and support for their workers should be provided.
> Support social campaigns that change the imaginary of people regarding the need to travel, long distance travel, levels of consumption and production and the dependence on infrastructure.
> Support communities that fight against large infrastructure projects.
> Cities should be reshaped and reformed on the basis of smaller distances and size, including a reduction in urban sprawl.
> Car-based infrastructure should be converted to walking, cycling and open common spaces. Urban life is to be relocalized keeping or developing its multifunctionality and its public spaces.
> Make eco-cities for all, rather than for a gentrified minority. Build local social and ecological resilience in cities, use zoning to bring back nature in the city, and keep neighbourhoods compact.
> Proximity relationships are fostered through urban redesign-re-organization and the use of environmentally friendly regional materials and bio-climatic design.
> Make eco-cities for all, rather than for a gentrified minority. Build local social and ecological resilience in cities, use zoning to bring back nature in the city and keep neighbourhoods compact.
> Degrowth challenges centralized decisions for mono-functional use and the involvement of urban dwellers in transforming the social, political, and economic relations in urban spaces. Ecological degrowth neighbourhood plans (including which areas to remove, to recycle, preserve, etc) need to be decided and implemented through collective decision-making.

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