The solely face-to-face Planet, People, Care: It Spells Degrowth! 9th International Degrowth Conference (29 August – 2 September) will take place within Degrowth Week, a free arts and conviviality festival, in Zagreb (Croatia) but organised cooperatively with neighboring capitals.
As part of that wider week, on 28 August a hybrid (online and face-to-face) 4th International Assembly of the Degrowth Movement will discuss a proposal for a new structure and way of functioning working from the basis that the degrowth movement has generally operated in a horizontalist network globally and regionally without any clear HQ. In previous assemblies, a central organisation has been a highly controversial proposal and never got off the ground. Perhaps the new proposal will satisfy and respect horizontalist ways of working while creating supportive structures for the same.
At the conference, there will be all kinds of academic and activist sessions, workshops, performances and screenings. I and Vincent Liegey will co-convene a workshop on Degrowth: A Monetary or ‘Real Values’ Economy? We will present another session together on our co- written work Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide — ‘Exploring Degrowth: Three years on’. I am excited to join a panel in yet another session lead by the co-editors of the forthcoming De Gruyter collection Handbook of Degrowth, which contains a chapter of mine ‘Degrowth: Monetary and nonmonetary economies’. Most of my contributions draw from Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy available free to download here. The international degrowth conferences offer great opportunities to network. A loose informal network of Australian degrowth activists, scholars and advocates has recently emerged into a formal Degrowth Network Australia (DNA) with a public launch in a participatory degrowth workshop on 26 February 2023 within the National Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne (Victoria). Nearby, in New Zealand, there are allies in the non-aligned Degrowth Aotearoa NZ (DANZ) and the Degrowth Greens Network of The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Many Australian and other Oceanic and Pacific First Nations communities steadfastly hold to cultures and everyday practices that nurture Earth and care for people, making them implicitly degrowth in their approaches and values. They are under increasing pressure from both climate change impacts and global powers trying to further commercial interests. DNA hopes to collaborate with other Oceanic and Pacific communities on degrowth activities.
To contribute, join the network or get more details, contact Anisa Rogers at degrowthnetwork@proton.me or Natalie Lowrey at natalie.lowrey@gmail.com or campaign@aidwatch.org.au