Organisation Team

Vincent Liegey, conference coordinator Co-author of A Degrowth Project, spokesperson of the French Degrowth movement, engineer and interdisciplinary researcher. He is the  coordinator of the degrowth inspired Cargonomia social cooperative, center for sustainable logistical solutions and local food distribution by cargobikes in Budapest. With Stéphane Madelaine, Christophe Ondet and Anisabel Veillot, all french degrowth movement actors, he co-authored the book A Degrowth Project – Manifesto for an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance in 2013 (Utopia et Ecosociété, Icaria, Eszmelet, Ciela, Sanje). He is the international spokesperson for the upcoming Budapest Degrowth Conference.	Dr. Alexandra Köves, Outreach team coordinator Assistant professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest. She graduated from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland with an MA in International Business and Languages and later from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna with an MPhil in Advanced International Studies. In the first decade of her career she worked within the Hungarian public administration – mostly in upper management positions – dealing with development policy, in particular with social development. This period raised a few question marks with regard to the mainstream developmental paths of the economy and society. These reservations led her to do research and write her PhD at the Corvinus University of Budapest on sustainable employment within the research field of ecological economics. In the last years she has participated in a large number of national and international projects as a consultant and researcher especially in the fields of development policy, employment policy and ecological economics. She is the Hungarian spokesperson for the upcoming International Degrowth Conference.
Dr. Mladen Domazet, Scientific team coordinator Graduated in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford and completed a doctorate in Philosophy of Science at the University of Zagreb. He’s a research director at the Institute for Political Ecology in Zagreb, Croatia, and was previously a research fellow at the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb. His research interest currently focuses on scientific explanation, and degrowth-compatible attitudes and social transformation. His publications reflect a diversity of interdisciplinary interests and collaborations, from analysis of Wikipedias as complex networks, through encyclopaedic contributions to Croatian philosophy lexicon, to recent books Alice Returns from Wonderland: Ontological Frameworks for Explanation from Contemporary Quantum Theories (2012) and Sustainability Perspectives from the European Semi-periphery (2014).	Edina Vadovics, Scientific team Research director at GreenDependent Institute and president of GreenDependent Association in Hungary, both with the mission to promote and research sustainable lifestyles, with a focus on facilitating dialogue between research and practice. Related to this, Edina was involved in the organization of conferences and workshops on sustainable consumption as well as leading just lifestyles within ecological limits. While Edina’s research focuses on sustainable communities, small footprint lifestyles and behaviour change, she is also involved in on-the-ground action projects and edits GreenDependent’s monthly Small Footprint (Kislabnyom) newsletter. Earlier, she worked as an external expert to the European Environment Agency and UNEP, and contributed to their key publications. Edina is a member of the SCORAI Europe steering committee, and co-organized the SCORAI special sessions at the Degrowth conference in Leipzig and the ‘Beyond Transition?’ workshop in Vienna.
Adrien Despoisse, Conviviality team coordinator Educational background in transport engineering, agriculture and conviviality, he is the co-founder of the Cyclonomia Cooperative, a DIY Bicycle Cooperative based in Budapest. He designs, researches, welds and constructs trailers, cargo bikes, low-tech experimentation and alternatives solutions. Additionally he organizes educational workshops focusing on self-sufficient, autonomous way of life and open source design.	Katjuša Šavc, Finance team She graduated in European Studies from University of Ljubljana and is currently finishing her Master’s in International Relations. She works as a project assistant for Focus Association for Sustainable development. Her topics are energy, climate, transport and sustainable consumption.
Branko Stanić, Scientific team Completed master studies in Public Sector and Environmental Economics from the University of Ljubljana. He works as a young researcher at the Institute of Public Finance in Zagreb, Croatia. His research interest currently focuses on measuring local budget transparency in Croatia and analysis of EU funds to Croatian local units. He is a Science team coordinator assistant at the 5th International Degrowth Conference 2016 to be held in Budapest.	Cécile Jeanmougin, Conviviality team Graduated from Sciences Po Paris, she is currently in a year off before beginning her Master’s Degree in the Paris School of International Affairs.
Kristóf Vadovics, Conviviality team Executive Director of GreenDependent Institute. He studied History and English, and he also has an MBA (Master of Business Administration). His MBA thesis was on the “Role of the Carbon Disclosure Project in Climate Change Mitigation”. He is a founder and volunteer facilitator of the Gödöllő Climate Club, a low-carbon community group since 2009, and he spent several months at the Schumacher College in the UK. He has extensive experience in managing EU (e.g. IEE, LIFE+, FP7, H2020) projects and international conferences (e.g. on Sustainable Consumption, Equity within Ecological Limits). Kristóf is also an experienced trainer and facilitator.	Zsuzsa Bakonyi,  Conviviality team  Artist, photographer, performer but most importantly a connector and catalyst. Doing my part on making this world a better place.This conference and movement has a special importance to me, since its interdisciplinary approach reflects how we can really make a change: uniting complementary energies.  http://cargocollective.com/bakonyizsuzsa
Peter Valcz, Conviviality team He is a freelancer actor, performer and director of theater. After graduating at University of Kaposvár and Jacques Lecoq School in Paris, he worked together with different companies in Hungary and Germany. In his works, he is focused on the relationships between everyday life and art. He tries to destroy the wall between professional art and the original creativity of the people. Political role model: Pepe Mujica. (He was in Uruguay, but Pepe was not at home. They may meet on September.)	Valentine Porche, Outreach & Conviviality team Student in Political Sciences and European Studies in Sciences Po Lyon (France), she’s currently in exchange program at Corvinus University of Budapest. Formerly activist in Amnesty International, her main fields of studies are politics in Central and Eastern Europe, urban alternatives for Transition and local sustainable policies.
Logan Strenchock, Conviviality team He is a researcher and the Environmental and Sustainability Officer at Central European University and the co-founder of Cargonomia, a sustainable urban logistics and local food distribution center in Budapest. He is also a team member at Zsámboki Biokert, an organic and biodynamic vegetable farm in Zsámbok, Hungary. He has gained experience as a researcher and participant in the development and implementation of transparent and localized food networks in the United States and Central Europe.	Márton Angyán, Degrowth Week coordinator Graduated in Social Sciences from Sciences Po, and before continuing his studies in sociological research in Paris, he took a year off to join the Cargonomia collective and to organize the Budapest Degrowth Conference and Week. Born in France from Hungarian parents, he would like to build bridges between those countries, research and implement transition solutions toward sustainable and desirable societies.
Dr. Gualter Barbas Baptista,  IT team He holds a degree in Environmental Engineering and a doctoral degree in Environmental Sciences, specialized in Ecological Economics and Political Ecology. He is actively engaged in civil society movements around environmental, climate justice, food and economics discourses since more than 15 years and has accumulated experience in agile methodologies by working with grassroots communities on hybrid techno-social projects. As the Director of Ecobytes, he works as Drupal developer and maintainer, project and events manager, scrum master and consultant for several non-profit organisations and networks. He teaches at the University of Kassel on “The Limits of Growth: Perspectives for Agriculture” and is a member of the Editorial board of the journal “Ecología Política” (http://ecologiapolitica.info).	Vedran Horvat, Finance team Vedran Horvat is managing director of the Zagreb based Institute for Political Ecology. From 2005 to 2015 he was director for Heinrich Böll Stiftung – Office in Croatia. In the last decade he was also a member of the Council for Strategic Investments in Civil Society in the National Foundation for Civil Society Development in Croatia and their managing board member. Sociologist by training with postgraduate degree in human rights and democratisation, Horvat is an activist, writer and journalist. He authored more than dozen of articles, books and publications on the civil society and social movements, migration, ecological transformation, green politics, commons and the EU affairs.
Ernest Aigner,  Outreach team & Website manager He studies Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy and works as researcher at WU-Vienna. Topics of interest are as diverse as urban agriculture in Detroit, sustainable work, publication structures in the economic discipline and money as debt in a degrowing economy. He published working papers on ‘Climate and labour market policies in Sweden’ as well as ‘Pluralism in the Market of Science?’ and worked with the course ‘The Global Economy – Globalization, Development and Environment’ at Uppsala University in Sweden.	Ajda Pistotnik, Outreach team Project manager and head of research at EnaBanda, Society for cultural and research activities, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She graduated from University of Ljubljana with MSc in Political science on Human right to water and business. During her studies she also completed specialized courses on Human rights and development studies at Washington college of Law and Copenhagen University. Her recent published paper was on ‘Impact of international finance and other institutions on key policies in Slovenia’ and she contributed to the international initiative TroikaWatch as an national editor and news contributor. Earlier, she worked at the Danish Institute for human rights as an analyst and contributed to their publications on business risk and impact assessments. As well as supporting the organization of International conference of the National Institutions for Human Rights (NHRIs) hosted by the Scottish Human Rights Commission, in cooperation with the OHCHR and the International Coordinating Committee of NHRIs, devoted to the role of NHRIs in addressing Business and human rights.
Nikola Zdunić, Outreach team Nikola Zdunić is a project assistant of the Institute for Political Ecology in Zagreb. From 2014 he is volunteering in green-left organization Grupa 22 (Group 22). He is also a member of queer-feminist and LGBTIQ organization Zagreb Pride and was coordinating logistics and PR campaign of the LGBTIQ Zagreb Pride March 2015. With years of experience in activism and with master degree in Political Science (University of Zagreb) Nikola is interested in social movements theory, especially theory concerning queer-feminist, Right to the city and environmental social movements as well as theory of the commons and democratization.	Lidija Živčič Senior expert of Focus Association for Sustainable Development in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her topics are sustainable development, climate, energy, transport, consumption, active citizenship and as of recently also degrowth. After completing her undergraduate studies of economics in Ljubljana in 2000, she completed a MSc course in Environmental Science and Policy at Central European University in Budapest. In 2012 Lidija earned a PhD degree at Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana, with the dissertation on raising awareness on climate change in Slovenia.
Romance Porrot French student in Political Science at Sciences Po Rennes, about to integrate her fourth year to complete her Masters Degree, after a year abroad spent at the University of Edinburgh. As a thesis subject, I would like to focus on the dynamics of direct and participative democracy through the perspective of the Degrowth Movement, with an emphasis on the local scale.	Jérôme Cardinal Is a political sciences student, in Sciences Po Rennes. He made a six-months internship for Cargonomia and came back for the organisation of the Budapest Degrowth Conference. His high interest for concrete alternatives leads him to focus on the link between local experimentation and theoretical construction : in the years to come, he would like to study neo-rural movements in an action-research way.