In the past year, we have launched a survey worldwide for mapping degrowth realities in the world. 114 organisations answered to the call, with nearly 3,000 active people engaged, mostly located in Europe but also in North and South America, Philippines, Tunisia, Turkey, etc. On August 20th 2018, some members from each of them met for the first time in Freetown Christiania (Copenhagen, Denmark). We exchanged good practices around ecological sustainability and social equity, discussed about the future of the planet, and initiated several international working groups (activists and practitioners; researchers; politics; artists; collective actions; communication; education; etc.) that later met throughout the 6th international degrowth conference, which took place in Malmo, Sweden (August 21-25). Since then, such groups have been working in order to provide opportunities for many people in the world to engage in the degrowth movement locally as well as to diffuse degrowth (theoretically and practically) in their own habitats. As an example, on the 1st June 2019 will be launched the “Global Degrowth Day - Good Life for All”, with multiple actions all over the world (further information will be available soon). Everyone is welcome to join and animate such groups (you can find attached the call for activism and research groups)! You can find the map of the first degrowth realities in the world here. In the future the map will be automated. Until then, if your organisation wants to be mapped, please fill the survey. At the same time, you can find an index to get in contact with the groups, as well as a set of tools for communication and collaboration on https://degrowth.net/. For further information about how to get involved, please visit https://degrowth.net/act or write to activism@groups.degrowth.net The Support Group of the international degrowth conferences (pro tempore facilitator of this process)
Degrowth poses a fundamental challenge to a Labour Party that has yet to decide how far it wishes to transcend – and not merely reform – a growth- oriented, capitalist political economy. The British Labour Party has seen a resurgence of radicalism since the 2007-8 financial crash. With the collapse of the authority of neoliberalism, a space has opened for alternative ideologies, theories and...
The concept of convivialism has attracted some attention in recent years. When giving it a closer look – even superficially – it soon reveals its proximity to the degrowth concept and movement. But what exactly constitutes this proximity and where are the differences? Below I will give a short summary of what we can understand by degrowth in practical and theoretical terms. Then I will continue...
By Frigga Haug At the closing event of the attac-congress on capitalism in 2009, the German politician Heiner Geissler pleaded for an eco-dictatorship. After all, even as a prominent member of the Christian Democratic Party he had joined attac out of concern over problems of capitalist society, among them the ecological one - and was now calling on the 2000 or so participants to take action to...
