Results from Barcelona 2010 on the topic Organizing collective action for degrowth

Organizing collective action for degrowth

The following are the results of the GAP at the Degrowth Conference 2010 in Barcelona that are particularly relevant for this working group

The document first presents a summary, including links to other working groups (in red & capital), and then the complete results of those Barcelona working groups with some relations the current one

Summary

Three comprehensive and complementary options are proposed:

Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives. Establish autonomous communities and connect them. Promote this way of living and intervene in the system.

Voice strategy: political movement and activist, a particular engagement. Link environmental movements with social movements and focus on underlying root causes to form alliances.

Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth.

The movement and change from our current situation and position at local and global level should not be only one, and would be based on understanding different cultures and political history contexts and local successful niches of sustainability. (EDUCATION)

Working Groups from 2010 GAP in Barcelona with some connections:

Political strategies

Three comprehensive and complementary options:

• Exit strategy: leaving the system, building alternatives

• Voice strategy: political movement and activist, a particular engagement

• Loyalty strategy: change within the political system, assimilation within the political party system, perhaps too early and perhaps against the ideas of degrowth

Further points:

• Need to learn from other local initiatives, some cases were discussed, and the need to be based more in the grassroots and history of movements, have relevance recognize diversity of socio-cultural and political history contexts

• Need to learn to local initiatives to reply in other local contexts or to extract models that can be expanded at the global level. Degrowth is not an entirely new idea, to take root in the 1970´s, is important to learn about mistakes, need to highlight alternatives of the past and look at how they have worked.

• The discussion have emphasis in understand social, technological, political and economics contexts that made differences between now and 70´s. The movements change from our current situation and position at local and global level should not be only one, but would have to be constructed from an understanding of the different cultures and political history context in determining the emphasis on particular political strategies.

Economic degrowth and the Steady state

StSt and Joint Research:

• How much larger than optimal scale is the natural sustainable scale, and at which one politicking should be directed.

• Study the optimal slope / feasible range of degrowth slopes, for North as opposed to South

• Collaborate to advance international diplomacy for North/South convergence in global ecological footprint / carrying capacity

• Look at How StSt deals with interventions/shocks/group struggles that cause shifts off a StSt path.

• Unite macroeconomic modelling of StSt and ecological economics, endorsing key publications

• Joint investigation of existing international cases of economies that are not growing, ie: Japan, Cuba

• Joint StSt / D publications in journals, for policy briefs, conferences

Policy:

• D and StSt could jointly campaign to Green parties, international forums/orgs, with shared slogans, such as “less is more”

• Initiate a degrowth initiative at CASSE

Disagreement:

• Whether any new terminology: Agrowth; Earth economics; Degrowth plus???; Decroissance…