Activities for Principle#1 of TL for Degrowth

Critical Reflective Visioning Spaces

Aim: Create a learning space where participants critically reflect on the need for economic growth and co-create alternative visions.

Table of contents

Description

Organize critical reading circles using selected materials (readings, videos, podcasts, non-formal learning interactive activities) on growth and dominant socio-economic structures and their critiques. Participants think about alternatives and collectively envision a degrowth society. They are encouraged to imagine alternative systems for meeting human needs (e.g., food, energy, housing, and transportation) while prioritizing relationality, ecological health, and justice.

Materials needed

Selected materials (readings, videos, podcasts, non-formal learning interactive activities) on critiques of economic growth and alternatives. Try to choose and combine different materials based on your group characteristics and resource constraints (e.g., time).

Paper, pens, flipchart or whiteboard, markers.

Level of complexity: Low - Medium

Estimated time: 2 hours

  • Provide the central theme of climate justice and have participants create visual maps of how various ideas, practices, and systems (economic, political, cultural, ecological) intersect and influence one another.
  • If participants are already aware of degrowth but they do not know each other, invite them to share personal stories or perspectives on degrowth. Prompt questions: What does degrowth mean to you? What is the relationship between sustainability and justice?
  • Invite participants to engage in a personal or collective visual visioning exercise about their preferable degrowth futures.

Level of complexity: Low - Medium

Estimated time: 3 hours

  • Ask participants to listen in advance to the podcast “Is GDP fit for purpose?” with Bob Costanza, Kate Pickett, and Sandrine Dixson-Declève.
    Podcast: Is GDP fit for purpose? 
  • Use the “Growth Quarters Activity” to learn more about GDP and discuss its pros and cons.
    Growth Quartets | Endlich Wachstum 
  • Collectively create Gibson-Graham’s iceberg model of diverse economies based on our everyday socio-economic experiences, relationships, and interactions. This exercise helps us understand that many aspects of our lives cannot be measured and that a good life and well-being extend beyond economic growth.
    Diverse Economies Iceberg
  • Briefly introduce the concept of degrowth and invite participants to engage in a personal or collective visual visioning exercise about their preferable futures.

Level of complexity: Low - Medium

Estimated time: 3 hours

  • Use the “Opinion Barometer” as a starting activity and select some of the statements to understand the different arguments the participants may have for and against growth.
    Opinion barometer | Endlich Wachstum 
  • Use “The Two Sides of a Coin” to go deeper into the pros and cons of economic growth.
    The Two Sides of a Coin | Endlich Wachstum 
  • They collectively reflect on possible alternatives. Prompt question: What alternative ideas, models, and narratives could we use to move beyond growth? How can these ideas be applied in practice and in our everyday lives?
  • Briefly introduce the concept of degrowth and invite participants to engage in a personal or collective visual visioning exercise about their preferable futures.

Alternatively, for a more simplified version, use the toolkit “Let’s talk about degrowth” and implement the first part of it, inviting participants to respond to the following questions:

  1. What are the underlying assumptions, narratives, and myths that make economic growth necessary and desirable?
  2. Can you think of examples where economic growth has led to negative consequences for society and the planet?
  3. They collectively reflect on possible alternatives. Prompt question: What alternative ideas, models, and narratives could we use to move beyond growth? How can these ideas be applied in practice and in our everyday lives?
  4. Briefly introduce the concept of degrowth and invite participants to engage in a personal or collective visual visioning exercise about their preferable futures.

“Let’s talk about degrowth" toolkit