Care: the theme of Global Degrowth Day 2021

In this announcement, the Global Degrowth Day organising team talk through the selection of care as the theme for the 2021 edition of the event. In our search for a theme for next year’s Global Degrowth Day, taking place on June 5^th 2021, we launched a call for ideas back in October, and a poll in November. These were the results: The results reflect the multiple angles and aspirations of degrowth, and resonate with ongoing struggles. The most popularly selected themes reflect degrowth’s ambitions for social and climate justice, for acknowledging the key importance of care, for abolishing structures of oppression as the patriarchy, colonialism, the military and prison industrial complexes, and for embracing the multiple possible alternatives (pluriverse). They also embody degrowth’s desire to re-assess values, income and technologies, enhance subsistence and food sovereignty, and build commons predicated upon conviviality and solidarity, in the Global North and the Global South. While “Degrowth in Practice” received the most votes in the survey, we realized that putting degrowth into practice has always been the main idea behind the Global Degrowth Day. So while we are glad to see a lot of interest in that, our aim was to find an additional flavour for the action day. Accordingly, we would like to propose the theme of “Care” for next year’s Global Degrowth Day. So on Global Degrowth Day 2021, besides sharing practical alternatives to a growth-based society, we also encourage you to choose an activity to illustrate degrowth and care (e.g. caring in our local community, caring for all beings, caring for the planet, caring for loved ones...). Early next year, we will provide further input on this topic, focusing on how to incorporate it into the Global Degrowth Day. So stay tuned and see you in 2021! The Global Degrowth Day Team