Degrowth

What Greece’s Alternative Food Networks Teach Us About Degrowth

August 27, 2026 Eirini-Erifyli Tzekou, Resilience. Create! Cooperatives, Degrowth, Food Security, Greece, Local Economy

When people hear the word degrowth, if it is not problematized or framed as a rejection of the growth paradigm, they often imagine a future that still needs to be invented. But in many places, parts of that future already exist. In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, a wide range of grassroots food networks have emerged over the last fifteen years: cooperative grocery stores like Allos Tropos, BiosCoop, Eklektik, and To Koukouli; cooperatives operating in the food processing sector or the food services industry, like To Oraion Ntepo or Rediviva...

Real Existing Degrowth

June 25, 2026 Grace Wright-Arora, Red Pepper. Create! Capitalism, Degrowth, New Economy, Real Existing Degrowth (RED)

Real Existing Degrowth (RED) is an emerging scholarly idea. In many ways, it’s the 2020’s climate politics version of previous efforts to locate radical alternative economies in daily life, such as actually existing socialism and everyday communism. Rather than asking whether degrowth is possible in the future, RED asks to what extent elements of it already exist today. Its proponents stress that REDs are messy and incomplete – but that does not negate their existence as alternatives to capitalism. This article gives some concrete examples of where they manifest, from a self-sufficient community in rural Somerset, to a volunteer women-run community kitchen in Veracruz, Mexico, to convivial folk dances on a ‘left behind’ Greek island.

Transition Towns Are Key To Degrowth; Current Movements Are Too Reformist

May 5, 2026 Ted Trainer, Resilience. Strategize! Adaptation, climate crisis, Degrowth, Sustainability, Transition Towns

Resources are dwindling, including minerals, timber, water, and soils. Almost all ecosystems are being damaged, including the atmosphere, oceans, and forests. Species are being lost at an alarming rate. Seven of the nine major “planetary boundaries” impacts have now exceeded safe levels. The World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) “Footprint” measure shows that Australians today are using five to seven times the per capita amount of productive land that would be available to all in 2050. Then there are the social and cultural effects. Inequality is rising, and social cohesion is decaying.

Degrowth And Its Future

March 2, 2026 David Bollier. Create! climate crisis, Degrowth, Sustainability, The Commons

Humanity cannot continue to expand production and consumption exponentially on a finite planet. It’s biophysically impossible. The carbon emissions are already producing more volatile weather patterns, more frequent floods, droughts, and wildfires, and disruptions of agriculture, commerce and global supply chains. And yet the US Government and respectable opinion remain in zones of denial or deflection. The Trump administration is savaging climate science, environmental regulation, and international treaties, while saner responsible adults are at least focused on energy efficiency and renewables.

You Don’t Miss What Doesn’t Exist

February 2, 2026 Don Fitz, Popular Resistance. Educate! Anthropause, Biodiversity, Book Review, COVID-19, Degrowth, Transformation

“Anthropause” is an amazing word and the latest book about it is an eye-opener. Stan Cox’s Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth (2026, Seven Stories Press), does what far too few degrowth books do – it first focuses readers’ attention to the positive experiences we could enjoy in a society less dedicated to producing unnecessary stuff. It then details the destructiveness of overproduction. As the inside jacket describes, “In the spring of 2020, people worldwide found themselves confined to their homes due to pandemic lockdown orders.

Reclaiming Traditional Foods For A Degrowth Food Future

January 26, 2025 Christiane Heisse and Sevgi Mutlu Sirakova, Resilience. Strategize! Capitalism, Degrowth, Fermentation, Food, Indigenous Knowledge

Crusty Bread, creamy cheese, bubbly kimchi or refreshing tepache – all cultures have fermented foods and beverages with their own traditions, language, and cultural heritage surrounding them. Fermentation, in this sense, is a living food culture that taps into ancient skills and traditional knowledge. But this knowledge is under attack. As capitalism continues its onslaught on rural, indigenous, communal, and non-commodified ways of life, traditional food practices are slowly dying out in the contexts in which they originally emerged.

Degrowth Aims To Achieve ‘Frugal Abundance’

August 26, 2024 Adrien Plomteux, Resilience. Strategize! Degrowth, New Economy, Prosperity, Sustainability

Degrowth is about building societies in which everyone is rich – without much material. It is a desirable project to strive for. For critics, degrowth is not very appealing. According to them, it means impoverishment, restraint, scarcity, austerity or recession. It is seen as a project to reduce the overall prosperity of individuals and societies. In contrast, in a recently published academic article, I argue that degrowth aims to achieve abundance, prosperity and richness. Other degrowth advocates have reached a similar conclusion, but here I claim that it first requires rethinking the dominant meaning of abundance. It is impossible to promise everyone to achieve high levels of consumption.

Eco-Collapse Hasn’t Happened Yet, But You Can See It Coming

April 30, 2024 Stan Cox, Resilience. Create! climate crisis, Degrowth, Ecological Collapse, Environment

Something must be up. Otherwise, why would scientists keep sending us those scary warnings? There has been a steady stream of them in the past few years, including “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency” (signed by 15,000 of them), “Scientists’ Warning Against the Society of Waste,” “Scientists’ Warning of an Imperiled Ocean,” “Scientists’ Warning on Technology,” “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence,” “Climate Change and the Threat to Civilization,” and even “The Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future.” Clearly, there’s big trouble ahead and we won’t be able to say that no one saw it coming. In fact, a warning of ecological calamity that made headlines more than 50 years ago is looking all too frighteningly prescient right now.

Planning For Degrowth

January 22, 2024 Andrew Curry, Resilience. Create! climate crisis, Degrowth, Sustainability, Transformation

There was an article in Nature from late 2022 on degrowth that got some sudden attention over the holidays because economists and tech bros noticed it and turned out on social media to do some hating. In fact the lead author, Jason Hickel, claimed on Ex-Twitter that as a result the paper was the most-read on Nature during the break. Regular readers here will know that my main issue with the idea of “degrowth” is the name—that if you’re trying to change behaviour around an idea that is deeply culturally embedded in 250 years of modernity, it’s best (a) not to do it head-on, and (b) not to frame it as a negative. But I’ll park that for now.

How Community Energy Initiatives Can Be An Effective Tool For Degrowth

October 23, 2023 Mariana Villegas-Mendoza, Resilience. Create! climate crisis, Communities, Degrowth, Energy

The consensus among scientists is resounding: climate change poses a grave threat to both human wellbeing and the overall health of our planet. We need to dramatically cut down on emissions across all sectors and industries, with bold actions in this decade. This process must be fair and prioritize equity, inclusion, climate and environmental justice, and social justice. At its heart, this process calls for a reevaluation of our approach to “development”. It is evident that ceaseless economic growth driven by capitalism is neither sustainable nor desirable in the long run. Instead, we should strive to downsize our patterns of production and consumption in a way that prioritizes human wellbeing, ensuring that everyone can thrive.

Scientific Consensus On Post-Growth Over Green Growth

October 2, 2023 Teemu Koskimäki, Medium. Educate! Capitalism, climate crisis, Degrowth, Environment, Science

According to new research, a scientific consensus is forming for a new economic paradigm that looks beyond growth. This post presents proof and answers why green growth no longer seems viable. At present, there are two main strategy options for countries to achieve sustainability: green growth and post-growth. The green growth approach seeks more economic growth while decreasing environmental impacts at the same time. There is a good chance this is what your country currently tries to do. In contrast, the post-growth approach seeks to secure the well-being of people and nature regardless of economic growth. It seeks to create a prosperous future beyond growth.

Create A Schumacher Action Lab; Reconstitute The World

September 28, 2023 David Bollier. Strategize! Capitalism, climate crisis, Cooperatives, Degrowth, The Commons

In truth, our times don’t just require a new movement. They require a new type of movement, because the old movements and ideologies and organizations are not achieving what are needed. Too many of them are artifacts of an archaic, fading order of economics and political action. Think about it: It’s been more than three decades since we first learned that science had confirmed the reality of climate change. The 2008 financial meltdown – 15 years ago! -- revealed the arrogant power of global finance and capitalism – and yet the liberal state still has not significantly reformed those financial structures.

The Case Of Sustainable Clothing

April 22, 2023 Amerissa Giannouli, Resilience. Create! climate crisis, Clothing, Degrowth, Local Economy

Since I became familiar with degrowth I have been looking at things more critically. Especially after joining the online master on Degrowth: Ecology, Economics and Policy, I find myself defending the need for transforming a green growth obsessed economy into a degrowth one. Recently, I started working on a project about sustainable fashion focusing on clothing, good practices and youth entrepreneurship. I was sure that presumably sustainable fast fashion practices from big companies such as Zara and H&M would not be on my list of good practices. Although they might use more eco-friendly materials and advocate for these in marketing campaigns, there is still much more to do to address the issue of sustainability and social justice, including fair wages and working conditions throughout their supply chains.

Peak Oil And The Flawed Logic Of Infinite Economic Growth

April 21, 2023 Lee Camp, Mintpress News. Resistance Report Capitalism, climate crisis, Degrowth, Environment

Join activist Keith Akers in a fascinating deep-dive interview on climate change and ecological sustainability. In his upcoming book, Embracing Limits, Akers asks tough questions about the impact of anthropogenic climate change and proposes a truly sustainable future with economic degrowth at its core. In this conversation, Akers discusses his personal journey in learning about climate change, including the concept of peak oil and the flawed logic of infinite economic growth. He explains how fossil fuel extraction technologies have pushed back the point of peak oil, but emphasizes that we need to revolutionize our relationship with natural resources to protect ecosystems, reduce waste, and improve the living conditions of the poor.

Economic Growth Is Fuelling Climate Change

March 30, 2023 Timothée Parrique, Resilience. Create! Book Review, climate crisis, Communism, Degrowth, Finance and the Economy

I’m often told that degrowth, the planned downscaling of production and consumption to reduce the pressure on Earth’s ecosystems, is a tough sell. But a 36-year-old associate professor at Tokyo University has made a name for himself arguing that “degrowth communism” could halt the escalating climate emergency. Kohei Saito, the bestselling author of Capital in the Anthropocene, is back with a new book: Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism. The book is dense, especially for those not fluent in Marxist jargon who, I suspect, care little about whether or not Karl Marx started worrying about nature in his later years.

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