Degrowth in Practice

CSAs are community-run projects for food production, reducing energy use by eliminating logistics chains. The model relies on collective investment, fostering collective decision-making and commitment.

Community gardens offer transformative experiences, reconnecting people with nature and fostering cooperation. Groups can organize collective or individual plots, with local authorities often providing land for cultivation.

To combat planned obsolescence, repair workshops help extend the life of items, reducing unnecessary consumption. They teach repair skills and help build community.

Time volunteering, such as time banks, allows people to exchange services based on time, not money. It fosters solidarity and community relationships, with over 100 time banks already active in Spain. Services like cooking or repairs are traded using hours as currency.

Community-based systems where people can access shared items-such as tools, kitchen appliances, sports gear, food or camping equipment-instead of buying to access them. Members can borrow, reserve, or sometimes rent items for short-term use.

People exchange goods or services directly without using money. For example, someone might trade homemade bread for gardening help, an old pair of shoes, or clothing repairs. 

Energy communities are groups of residents, small businesses and public bodies that join forces to generate, own and manage renewable energy locally, sharing the electricity or income among members and keeping the benefits within the community. By pooling resources they can install solar arrays, wind turbines or micro-hydro systems, lower utility bills, and give participants a direct voice in energy decisions, which helps democratise the sector and cut emissions. 

Cooperative housing is a form of living affordably where inhabitants collectively own their own dwellings and share many essential facilities: meals, tools, vehicles, or anything that makes no sense to own individually, such as a lawnmower. 

These are food stores owned by employees, customers, or producers who form a cooperative to manage the store. They focus on local, sustainable products and fair labour practices. Members decide on supply chains, prioritising ecological and socially responsible products.

The Transition Movement is framed within the context of how to adapt to energy descent. It aims to rely entirely on renewable sources, owned by local communities, allowing for more resilience and nurturing a culture of creativity and conviviality.

In essence, it seeks a profound transformation in how communities organise and live. As of 2024, the Transition Network website lists 27 hubs and over 1,000 groups worldwide, such as Squat!net, ClimateSafe Village, Global Ecovillage Network, Diggers & Dreamers, Transition Towns. 

For this transition to take place, convivial technology must be developed. ​Wind Empowerment is an example of a business that manufactures small wind turbines for sustainable rural electrification. L’Atelier Paysan or Farm Hack are other good examples, cooperatives that empower small-scale farmers to design and build their own agricultural tools and structures. 

ZTDs occur when activists physically occupy a space to block the development of polluting projects. The most famous ZTD took place in France, where activists set up a camp for over a decade to block the construction of an airport. The blockade succeeded, and certain activists are planning to stay permanently and are in the process of obtaining permits. 

Commoning is the act of creating and maintaining relationships between people and communities around the use of a particular key resource or space. Commoning aims to maintain the availability of a resource for the use of all members of society. It is the opposite of privatisation of resources for profit. Creative Commons (external link) is a good example of this, providing copyright licenses to allow free sharing, retaining certain rights.