Which direction for the degrowth movement in the years ahead?

Over the past two decades, organisations such as the Support Group for International Degrowth Conferences, the International Degrowth Network (IDN), Degrowth.info and Research & Degrowth have each played a significant role in building the international degrowth movement. Through research, political engagement, communication, networking, grassroots experimentation, international conferences and cooperation, together with all of you, we have collectively contributed to making degrowth a credible and increasingly influential social, political and intellectual project.

Today, we believe it is both timely and necessary to come together.

The world is entering an era of profound instability. Escalating wars, accelerating climate disruption, biodiversity collapse, widening inequalities both between regions shaped by colonial and neo-colonial dynamics and within societies themselves, democratic backsliding, the rise of the far right, and the spread of increasingly dystopian techno-solutionist narratives all point towards a systemic collapse. Beyond ecological and economic dimensions, we are also facing deep cultural, anthropological and existential crises.

At the same time, degrowth has never been more relevant.

Public awareness is growing. Recent opinion polls suggest increasing support for many policies associated with a degrowth agenda. Our movement has developed a rich body of research, concrete policy proposals, democratic organisational practices, and numerous practical experiences in territories, municipalities, cooperatives, communities and institutions around the world.

The international dialogue has also deepened. Exchanges between the Global North and the Global South, and between Western, Central and Eastern European perspectives, are enriching degrowth while highlighting the importance of justice, reparations, debt, peace and plural pathways of transformation. Connections with municipalities, political parties, civil society organisations, trade unions, think tanks, practitioners and international institutions—including promising dialogues within the UN system—open new possibilities for collaboration and impact.

Yet despite this momentum, our collective resources remain extremely limited. Our organisations often work in parallel, sometimes duplicating efforts, while facing similar financial and organisational challenges. Strengthening cooperation, solidarity and strategic coordination could considerably increase our collective capacity without compromising the diversity, autonomy and strategic pluralism that are among the movement’s greatest strengths.

The mentioned organisations are therefore meeting for a retreat end of November 2026, conceived as a space for strategic reflection, mutual learning and collective imagination.

Rather than arriving with fixed answers, we invite everyone, through an open questionnaire, to contribute ideas, questions and proposals on how we can reinforce the international degrowth movement in the years ahead.

Possible themes include:

• Governance, cooperation and synergies: strengthening cooperation between the different nodes of the international degrowth ecosystem while respecting their diversity and autonomy.
• Welcoming and connecting newcomers: facilitating meaningful participation and creating pathways for newcomers to find their place, connect with others and contribute to strengthening the international degrowth movement.
• Collective capacities and movement education: developing collective capacities through transformative learning, facilitation, strategy development, conflict navigation and other forms of movement education, while sharing good practices, experiences and resources.
• Strategic alliances and articulation: building alliances and modes of articulation with social movements, municipalities, NGOs, political actors at different scales, researchers, practitioners and other potential allies.
• Solidarity-based funding and shared resources: developing creative funding models and shared commons inspired by mutualism, cooperativism, open-source communities and the commons movement.
• Knowledge commons and collaborative infrastructures: developing shared knowledge, open resources and collaborative infrastructures that reduce duplication and strengthen collective learning.
• Communication and experimentation: improving communication within the movement and increasing the visibility and accessibility of degrowth beyond our existing circles, while fostering experimentation with new forms of organising.
• Degrowth voices in public and political debates: strengthening our collective capacity to respond to rapidly evolving political situations with thoughtful, plural and timely public voices. How can we identify a limited number of shared strategic priorities while preserving diversity, autonomy and experimentation?
• International Degrowth Conferences and the next four years: coordinating around the upcoming International Degrowth Conference in Cork, satellite events in Portugal and Romania, and further initiatives emerging through the IDN Event Call, while discussing possible follow-up processes and milestones for the coming four years.
• From degrowth research and practice to political proposals: strengthening our capacities to support processes leading to political proposals and policy programmes aligned with degrowth at different territorial scales. This could build on initiatives such as the UN work on Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth, ongoing large-scale research projects, and political platforms developed around the Beyond Growth conferences in parliaments.
• Strengthening the International Degrowth Network: expanding participation in and strengthening IDN, including more equitable participation and shared leadership across regions, particularly through deeper collaboration with Global South organisations and anti-colonial perspectives.
• Emerging priorities: identifying other issues, opportunities and priorities that deserve collective attention.

Our ambition is modest but important: to leave this gathering with stronger relationships, clearer priorities, practical commitments and renewed energy for advancing degrowth as a diverse, democratic and transformative international movement.

Support Group for International Degrowth Conferences, the International Degrowth Network (IDN), Degrowth.info and Research & Degrowth