@Sofia Greaves
When: 21 -23 October 2026
Where: Amsterdam, The Nerthelands
Degrowth has gained wide traction as both a critique of contemporary capitalism and an agenda for emancipatory and democratic spatial politics. Despite its increasing visibility and popularity in both research and practice, degrowth still lacks a thorough and systematic development of a spatial perspective.
Space is a relation of power, a material condition, a means and a target of degrowth politics. A degrowth transformation necessarily implies a reorganization of socio-metabolic relations and socio-material flows of matter, capital and energy across spatial scales, as well as a different cultural imaginary of how we as humans, think about our relation to spatial dynamics. Space is also a target of radical politics that aims to address the destructive impact of endless economic growth upon marginalized social groups and endangered ecosystems, while guaranteeing the provision of essential and universal goods and services for all. Degrowth envisions a spatial politics that questions hierarchies and borders and surpasses the underlying socio-cultural frames that sustain intrinsically toxic growth, like militarization, colonialism, anthropocentrism, patriarchy and racism.
A spatial perspective which is multiscalar and relational can help to both calibrate radical degrowth practices to specific socio-cultural contexts and to interconnect them across scales and sectors. This is the challenge that this conference will tackle, both for research and for practice.
This conference brings together contributions from both research and practice to develop tools for degrowth-oriented thought and action.
If you have questions for the conference organizers you can reach them over email: degrowthpsconference @ proton.me
Technological pipe dreams and the fixation on perpetual growth have prevented effective climate policies for decades "Happiness does not pay pensions", said the Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos. The statement aimed to criticize the idea of a “post-growth” or “degrowth” society, which has received increasing attention in light of the climate crisis....
When the BBC asked me if I would participate in a debate panel on climate change, capitalism and democracy, I first panicked and then said yes. All I really wanted to do this week was finish up and (re)submit some research I started a long time ago. This research shows that, despite their massive growth, energy and carbon emissions cannot (statistically) explain improvements in international li...
The wider degrowth-community is asked to participate in a short survey on sustainable mobility which should not take more than 10-15 minutes: The results will be used as a part of Justin Hyatt´s academic work at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Netherlands). It is also intended to publish and widely disseminate a separate report. ...
