My colleagues and I wrote an initial blog post arguing that the question of strategy has received too little attention in the degrowth movement, and by degrowth scholars. Further, we observed that the discourse on strategy in degrowth was excessively plural, being open to all strategies in all contexts, rather than considering case-appropriateness (spatially, temporally, sectorally etc.).
Therefore, we argued that degrowth’s approach to strategy could be described as “strategic indeterminence”, accepting all strategies as valid, equal, and non-conflicting, without critically evaluating the possible tensions between strategies and inadequacies of some strategies in certain contexts . We postulate this indeterminence originates from the degrowth movement’s lack of coherent ‘goals’ (where to move towards?) and systemic understanding of transformation processes (or a theory of change). This makes it incredibly difficult to then make an informed evaluation of strategies and support practitioners in co-creating strategies for degrowth. We hope to open up more space for reflection on these important questions in order to further support and learn from practitioners, activists, and policy-makers working towards degrowth. Towards this end, we invited the degrowth community to respond to our piece and commence a dialogue. We are very excited to share the responses and grateful to the authors for their insights, support and critiques. Lastly, this series has become more relevant in the last year as a group of organizers and academics in Vienna have come together to organize a thematic conference on strategy in degrowth for 2020.
Ten-part series on Strategy in the degrowth movement
0. Beyond Visions and Projects: the need for a debate on strategy in the degrowth movement (Christoph Ambach, Nathan Barlow, Pietro Cigna, Joe Herbert, Iris Frey)
1. On strategies for socioecological transformation (Panos Petridis)
2. Before strategy, who is strategising? (Jocelyne Sze and Omar Saif)
3. Degrowth and transformation: a reflection (Christos Zografos)
4. Paving the way for post-growth policy-making: A co-creative process to advance the degrowth movement ()
5. Strategies for a degrowth transformation: How useful are historical analogies? ()
6. Strategies for Cultural Change: Degrowth and the Use of Space (Francesca Van Daele)
7. Entry Points for Transformative Politics: The Power of Unstated Premises (Timmo Krüger)
8. Building Counter-Institutions: A Call for Activism beyond Raising Awareness (Joël Foramitti)
9. From Taming to Dismantling: Degrowth and Anti-capitalist Strategy (Ekaterina Chertkovskaya)
10. Reflecting on the emerging strategy debate in the degrowth movement (Nathan Barlow and Joe Herbert)
In Rojava (Northern Syria), in the midst of a raging war, a society based on the values of women's liberation, radical democracy, and ecology is being built. In early 2018, we, people from across the world, launched the campaign 'Make Rojava Green Again' in co-operation with the newly-established local autonomies to help find solutions to the vast destruction of nature that has resulted from de...
For the third year in a row, the Degrowth Summer School is being held on the Climate Camp in the Rhineland. It runs from the 18th to 23rd of August. Just 10 days before the start of the Summer School the foundation „Stiftung Umwelt und Entwicklung Nordrhein-Westfalen“ has cancelled our funding. The reason they‘ve given us: The Summer School takes place too close to actions of civil disobedience...
Interview with Katja Kipping Katja Kipping is chairwoman of the German Left Party and Member of the German Parliament. Besides her engagement for good working conditions in her capacity as spokesperson for social affairs, she supports the exchange between party politics and civil society through engaging in social movements such as the network for unconditional basic income. For this interview...
