Former Editions of the conference
In 2026, the Economy for the Common Good International Conference will have its fourth iteration. Compared to its start in 2019, the conference grew quite a lot over the years.
This time, it will be our pleasure to welcome you in Amberg, Germany. Together, we will further pursue the interdisciplinary approach of the first three events.
Read more about former editions
2024: Third Edition of the ECGIC
The third edition of the conference was held in June 2024 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. It was hosted by a consortium consisting of the European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, and the ECOnGOOD Science and Research International Hub. The program of the ECGIC 2024 structured the conference into three parts: The first day was dedicated to scientific findings, the second dove into practical examples, and the third conference day focused on implementing the learnings gathered over the previous two days.
During the three days, a plethora of relevant topics explored the economy needed to address future, as well as regional development needs. With more than 230 attendees from all over the world, the ECGIC 2024 was the biggest conference thus far. This demonstrates a growing interest in the format, not only from researchers but also from the general public.
Converging to a future-fit economy was the main theme of that edition. Topics such as “social and environmental impact”, “democracy and governance systems” and "post-growth economics" were at the forefront, allowing for interesting debates. The highlight of the conference was a roundtable discussion on the convergence of future-fit economic models. Five prominent representatives from several economic movements participated in the discussion: Christian Felber (Economy for the Common Good), Jason Nardi (Social and Solidarity Economy), Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics), Lebohang Liepollo Pheko (Wellbeing, Decolonial and Feminist Economics), and Paul Schenderling (Post-growth).
2022: Second Edition of the ECGIC
The second conference, entitled “A Common Narrative for a Pluralist World?”, took place in Valencia, Spain, in March 2022. Organized by the University of Valencia, the event picked up the key domains of the first ECGIC, such as sustainability reporting or tax justice, but also introduced more specialized topics like gender diversity management or sustainable olive cultivation.
The ECGIC 2022 was opened by universtity representatives like Vanessa Campos, the principal organizer, as well as government officials such as Rafael Climent González, the former Minister for Sustainable Economy in the Region of Valencia. Christian Felber delivered the opening keynote. The conference spread over three days, throughout which multiple speakers presented their findings. ECG spokesperson Katrin Muff from the Rome Business School closed the event with her keynote.
The conference attracted more than 70 researchers and participants from around the world and included presentations such as “How to successfully develop a Ph. D. dissertation using the ECG sustainable framework”, “Embedding Sustainability into Strategic Management Processes” and “How to shift towards creating a positive impact”.
2019: First Edition of the ECGIC
In November 2019, the first ECGIC was held in Bremen under the title “A Common Standard for a Pluralist World?” and set the idea for all future events. The conference brought together people from various fields who work on topics related to the economy for the common good and related concepts. The objective of the event was to critically review these concepts and provide space for fostering transdisciplinary relationships.
The conference was organised by Hochschule Bremen, in association with the Research Council of the Economy for the Common Good and the ECG Science & Research Hub. In 2019, more than 2,000 companies, mainly small to medium-sized enterprises were registered as supporters of the ECG movement. Despite the fact that the format was completely new, the ECGIC 2019 surpassed expectations with about 120 researchers and people from the interested public attending.
Throught the three day period, panel disscusions and keynotes touched upon a variety of topics, making the disscusions lively and interessting. Presenters such as Daniel Dahm, a member of the World Future Council, underlined the necessity for change in our economic system and emphasized the core issue of success being defined by economic factors only.