When? June 16-19, 2026
Where? Krakow, Poland
Across Central and Eastern Europe, people are experiencing overlapping crises: rising living costs, environmental degradation, work precarity and growing inequalities. Climate and economic transformations are often presented as trade-offs – between satisfying social needs and caring for the environment. Yet many social movements, trade unions, community initiatives and researchers are asking a shared question: how can we ensure good life for all within planetary boundaries? Degrowth offers a framework to imagine a green and just transition that prioritises well-being, care and fairness over endless economic growth, rejecting the need for “sacrifices”.
As a social movement and practice, as well as a field of academic research, degrowth is becoming an increasingly clear and serious proposition, yet it is still mainly voiced by West European theory and practice. That is why this conference want to talk about degrowth in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Countries from the former Eastern Block aspiring to ‘catch up with the West’. Societies that are rather sceptical about climate policies and perceive green transition as a cost rather than an opportunity. Economies largely based on non-renewable energy sources, still experiencing the consequences of an unjust political transition for the world of work. ‘Young’ democracies, increasingly vulnerable to attacks from the far right. Places where discussions about de/militarisation are taking place in the shadow of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the threat of Russian aggression. Let’s talk about degrowth in the CEE region and develop regional responses, tasks, and propositions!
How the conflation with neoliberalism and austerity unfairly reduces the idea of degrowth to absurdity – and where the degrowth movement can turn for answers to the crisis. The degrowth movement has been developed in response to neoliberal reality, neoliberalism's comically reductive view of human nature, its ecological blindness and the rise in social inequality it has brought about. Austerit...
Rob Hopkins is the founder of the Transition Movement. We interviewed him for the Stream towards Degrowth during the launch of his new Book “The Power of just doing Stuff - How local Action can change the World” in Bielefeld. Watch the video to hear more about the connections and differences between the Degrowth and the Transition Movement.
If current crises like environmental degradation and social inequality can be seen as result of our economic and social systems, the concept of a degrowth economy has been advanced as a possible solution. Degrowth is in direct contrast to economic systems such as capitalism or sustainable growth, and in fact has much more in common [...]
