Convivial rants and cabaret: reflecting on the 2025 International Degrowth Conference

Several of the plenary sessions created ripples of tension. On the first morning, Njoki Njoroge Njehû of the Fight Inequality Alliance began her talk by making explicit the relatively narrow and privileged demographic of attendees through a hand-raising exercise, which demonstrated that very few people had grown up without things like running water, a fridge, or their own bedroom. Shortly after this, murmurs were heard, and some attendees walked out as French economist Thomas Piketty appeared on the big screen as a remote speaker. Piketty has admitted to domestic violence against a former partner. Although most attendees (including us) seemingly were not aware of this history until word circulated around various message groups, due diligence checks on speakers by conference organisers should have uncovered this and ruled him out. Moreover, Piketty has been strongly critiqued for work on global inequality, which doesn’t recognise the inherently exploitative systems underlying it, as well as being accused of ‘academic extractivism’: ignoring contributions of key scholars, notably from the Global South, such as Samir Amin and Ruy Mauro Marini.

The dynamics between the Global North and Global South that fuel global capitalism were also insufficiently acknowledged in other plenary sessions. In a plenary titled, ‘Is degrowth eurocentric?’, Rajeswari Raina, an Indian scholar whose research focus is the interface between economic development and the environment, somewhat perplexingly argued without equivocation that degrowth is not eurocentric, and that claiming otherwise undermines the movement. She critiqued the utility of the Global North and South as categorical divisions, speaking instead of ‘one class’. In the same plenary, Roldan Muradian, a Venezuelan economics professor, pointed out the reality that we were in Oslo talking about degrowth – and not Ubuntu or Buen Vivir - because it is a concept from the Global North, and so has more access to resources and funding opportunities. Another plenary, ‘Sizing sufficiency: Contested framings of scarcity and limits’, focused on cutting consumption in the Global North, while overlooking the neocolonial global circuits of production that facilitate this consumption.

The Degrowth and Delinking collective, formed at the 2024 Pontevedra Conference, voiced critiques throughout the conference about these structural injustices being insufficiently acknowledged. The collective takes influence from Samir Amin’s work on the concept of ‘delinking’, which describes the need for Global South countries to break free from the global capitalist system that subordinates them to the political and economic interests of the North. When the collective, along with others, made critical interventions that highlighted the under-acknowledgement of the global North’s enduring exploitation of and extraction from the South, plenary chairs and speakers seemed uncomfortable in knowing how to navigate these remarks. A couple of audience interventions were dismissively labelled as a ‘rant’ and ‘speech’ respectively, rather than critiques necessary to drive forward debates that can strengthen the degrowth discourse. It is imperative that the degrowth community facilitates reflection and that conflicting views are not just brushed aside.

The Degrowth and Delinking tent, which was set up on a campus lawn throughout the conference, became one space where attendees gathered for discussions outside of the official programme. The tent hosted a parallel programme which consisted of ‘convivial rants’ (reclaiming the dismissive labelling from the plenary), more intimate discussions with key speakers such as Max Ajl, Clive Spash and Lebohang Liepollo Pheko, and special sessions on Global South perspectives and 'On a scale of yoga mat to molotov cocktails how degrowth are you?'. The collective also pasted Piketty ‘Wanted’ posters across the campus, with links to condemning articles. Some may have perceived such actions as drastic, but they played a valuable role in opening up discussions.

The delinking session in the formal programme was a highlight too, which drew an engaged group of attendees to discuss topics that had received less attention elsewhere, such as Israel’s genocide in Gaza, militarism, the imposition of debt on the Global South, and the colonial nature of science and technology, where a lack of access to funding and patents makes it impossible for the Global South to match technology levels in the Global North. The brief presentations on each of these topics within one session could have been divided into four separate sessions. Hopefully, future conferences will bring such topics to the fore.

An artistic interlude

Thursday night offered something very different to attendees: the world’s (almost certainly) first-ever Degrowth Cabaret, perhaps inspired by previous events such as an open mic night at the Pontevedra conference. Organised autonomously by an international group of degrowthers who had never gathered in person before the conference, the event was held at an anarchist social centre and consisted of musical performances, dancing, theatre, comedy, storytelling, and numerous fungi-themed costumes and props. A string of different performers somehow managed to communicate key threads of degrowth through experimental artistic means, which had the audience laughing, singing, and even crying at points. The Cabaret was an absolute highlight for us and so many others we spoke to, underlining the importance of carving out moments of conviviality and collective joy alongside more formal academic events, while highlighting the power of alternative mediums for communicating degrowth ideas that are still under-utilised in the community.

The strategy question

During presentations on potentially transformative policy proposals or alternative social visions, it was notable that many speakers stated that they saw their ideas as unfeasible in the current political context. While these kinds of recognitions may have very often been accurate and shared by session attendees, they implicitly pointed to an elephant in the room: the strategy question. Strategy is a topic we have long been concerned with at degrowth.info and on which we ran a blog series in 2019 that led to a dedicated conference and book on the topic, steered by Degrowth Vienna. However, despite its significant development over recent years, it often felt at the Oslo Conference like the strategy debate had faded into the background again, even though the conference theme was ‘linking theory and action’.

One moment where strategy was to be brought to the fore was the final plenary on 'Transformation strategies and tactics’. Significant divergences between speakers’ visions were evident. Kate Raworth presented the Doughnut Economics Action Lab’s work with a range of cities around the world that attempt to apply the ‘doughnut model’ locally. Meanwhile, Max Ajl focused on neocolonialism and military, economic and ecological assaults by the North on the South. Ekaterina Chertkovskaya explicitly positioned herself as part of the degrowth movement and used her presentation to trace some of the key themes and debates that had developed over the course of the conference. In a stark contrast to other plenary speakers and chairs, she thanked the Degrowth and Delinking collective specifically for bringing anger and critical reflections to the conference, and stressed the importance of such productive tensions to the degrowth movement.

Conflicting strategic visions became particularly clear when Chertkovskaya asked Raworth where she would position doughnut economics ideologically, since different groups of Chertkovskaya’s students – when studying the concept – had categorised Raworth as both a communist and a capitalist, respectively. Raworth’s response was to evade alignment with any ideology, saying that she prefers to ‘avoid the isms’. Even if indirectly, this response reaffirmed the liberal approach of the doughnut, in contrast with Chertkovskaya’s clear statement of degrowth’s anti-capitalism, and Ajl’s explicit self-identification as a communist. While a deep discussion on strategy may not have emerged, these exchanges around ideology raised pertinent questions for the degrowth movement around how it positions itself and who it seeks to build alliances with. Such discussion of the structural injustices that underpin global capitalism and the ideological tensions the degrowth movement must navigate made this final plenary the strongest of the conference.

Looking forward

As explained in Oslo by the Degrowth Conference Support Group, the international degrowth conferences will be taking a break in 2026 after three consecutive years, with the next to take place in 2027. Holding annual conferences has been a big organisational task for the movement, and a period of reflection is needed to think about how new types of international degrowth gatherings can be organised that go beyond academic formats. There is also the question of tensions within partnerships - even if largely successful - with ISEE and ESEE. We look forward to seeing which smaller regional degrowth events are organised in 2026, while the prospect of an international conference in 2027 that reaches beyond academia is promising. Gaps in discussions at the Oslo conference – such as around strategy and the Global South - certainly point to the need for more movement-oriented gatherings as well as spaces for constructive critical reflection to develop the movement and ensure it represents degrowthers globally.

Nonetheless, this year’s conference brought together a brilliant group of people. The chance to reconnect with familiar faces and make new friendships is always one of the most valuable elements of the conferences, and Oslo was no exception in this regard. While there were frustrations and key issues left under-discussed - as detailed above - we took away many learnings and connections that we will build on moving forward and develop ahead of future conferences and gatherings. We must continue to find the synergies between degrowth and aligned practices all over the world to achieve our common vision of a more just future. Degrowth.info remains one space in which we seek to highlight under-discussed topics within our movement while building connections with other movements. So, if you would like to reflect on the conference, collaborate, or write a blog post on that missing topic (or anything else), please get in touch.