Thu 30 January
20:00–22:00
WHO’S TO BLAME? Panel discussion with Sumeyra Arslan, Savriël Dillingh and Winne van Woerden

— Panel discussion on the capitalist class, class consciousness, political alienation, greenwashing, fossil debt, accumulating wealth and systemic change.

The responsibilities and consequences of climate change are spread asymmetrically and unfairly among social classes. The capitalist class amounts to a tiny proportion of the population, yet they exacerbate ecological breakdown disproportionally by imposing systems of production, consumption, and information that reinforce individual responsibility over the degradation of the planet, thus hindering class awareness and solidarity. They do so by means of evading, alienating, and guilt-seeking strategies such as greenwashing and carbon footprint. 

This panel seeks to reveal how and by whom wealth is accumulated at the expense of ecological degradation whilst deepening inequality amongst classes. How is guilt about climate change inoculated and reinforced via politics and mainstream media? How can we displace profit maximisation as the aspiring economic horizon? How can we move towards a common front for systemic change? Echoing the words of Matthew T. Huber, how might we begin to see climate change not as a ‘cost’ to bear or adjust to, but as a crisis requiring fundamental social and political transformations that improve both human and other-than-human lives?

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
⌀ Sumeyra Arslan is a legal expert specializing in international human rights and international law. Her areas of focus include international human rights law, climate litigation, corporate accountability, the fossil fuel sector, human rights and climate change, and the financial sector. Currently, she is a legal expert at the Coalition for the Right to a Healthy Environment at the Council of Europe. She also serves as a legal advisor on the supervisory board of Fossielvrij NL, and as a board member of the World's Youth for Climate Justice.
⌀ Savriël Dillingh is a political philosopher and business ethicist working at the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research involves the political philosophy of markets and the ethics of capitalism, as well as market socialism and political anarchism. As a public philosopher, Savriël regularly publishes in Dutch newspapers and periodicals.
⌀ Winne van Woerden has a background in and passion for socio-ecological justice, heterodox economics and post-development. She works as Lead New Economy at Oxfam. She also is an Affiliate at the Post Growth Institute, and a Fellow at Commons Network. Winne is the main author of Living Well on a Finite Planet and recently gave a TedX talk named Healing the world by abolishing growthism.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
⌀ Date: Thursday 30 January 2025
⌀ Doors open: 19:30 – 20:00
⌀ Start and duration panel discussion: 20:00 – 21:30
⌀ Drinks reception: 21:30 – 22:00
⌀ Admission: €5,00 (panel discussion), €10,00 (panel discussion + exhibition)
⌀ The exhibition FEMKE HERREGRAVEN: DIALECT can be visited on 30 January between 11:00 and 19:00.
⌀ Language: English
⌀ Location: RADIUS Water Tower, Kalverbos 22
⌀ Note that the location is not wheelchair accessible. Please get in contact with us to discuss alternative ways to allow your participation.