Beginning Again
Updates and Personal Reflections
"The degrowth community is very good at communicating what degrowth is NOT. However, a clear definition or simple description of what degrowth is, cannot be provided by most people in the degrowth community. This illustrates the complexity of explaining it in layman's terms. You want to give a convincing elevator pitch, not bore them for 15 min and have them walk away with a 'sure, that'll never happen’ - feeling"
Such a brutally honest comment we received from a participant in a survey I conducted about communicating Degrowth. Many others shared their struggle with articulating the ever-evolving concept of degrowth, specifically when it comes to making it relevant and actionable for the majority of the audience.
Here are the other key challenges we identified from the survey -
Degrowth ideas being too complex to explain in a short time
People not being able to make the topic relevant to their audience
Concepts being non-actionable and inconcrete
Facing dismissal like “it's impractical”, or “it is what it is”
The word "Degrowth" is not very helpful to start with
Apologies for the long break!!
Reviving this Substack is one of many things I intend to do to explore these challenges and address them as well as I can. I put this blog on hold for the last few months as multiple other projects demanded most of my attention, all concerned with degrowth communication in one way or another, and I’m very excited to talk about a few of them.
New Normal - Card Game
Along with another Master’s Student, Fanny, I have been working on creating a card game called the New Normal, which aims to make it easier for people to engage with and communicate degrowth-aligned ideas better. After working on it on and off for about a year and half, we finally hosted our first prototype testing in the real world with real people at DeSchool, Chicago, and gathered a lot of constructive and critical feedback on which we are iterating right now.
The game is built upon the Theory of Common Sense by Antonio Gramsci, which says that in our society, there are a certain set of beliefs and ideologies that people hold about the "natural order of things," which is often shaped by the dominant culture to maintain the status quo. The game aims to challenge these prevalent capitalist-imperialist common senses and replace them with more eco-socialist values instead, by incorporating effective and strategic narrative tools.
It is still a work in progress, and there’s a lot that needs to be done before it can be moved to production, but we are very happy to achieve the first important milestone of prototype testing.
Degrowth Workshops
Ever since I finished my master's, one of my key goals has been to be able to speak about Degrowth in a room full of people and face their curiosities and questions with conviction and confidence.
In the last few months, I hosted 2 in-person (Thanks to The Climate Party) and few online sessions dedicated to exploring Degrowth ideas, with an audience ranging from people who have never heard of this concept to people working in the policy-making space, from students to lawyers, from start-up founders to social workers, and woah, what a thrilling experience it has been!
So fortunate to have gotten these opportunities, and for everything that I learnt in a relatively short amount of time. Here are a few key lessons from all these workshops -
Degrowth is in Demand!
The most important thing I learnt is that there is an appetite for such conversations in India. My biggest fear before these sessions was what if nobody cares about it here in India? What if they think it’s a completely unnecessary and irrelevant concept for us Global South folks here!
But I realised that most people are just so fed up with the current socio-economic-political structure, the cracks in the system are very clearly visible to most now and people are hungry for fresh perspectives and new narratives. My audience not only resonated with everything I presented, but they also built on it, shared their experiences, and validated my belief that there is space for such discussions here.
Hyderabad Community
Second, the workshops expanded my network of people interested in exploring degrowth ideas within India. The Masters has given me a wonderful set of friends and collaborators from across the world, who keep me sane, grounded, and in high spirits.
But as I am based out of India, I think it is vital to have a community of people operating within a similar context so we can organise more meaningful and impactful actions.
With another friend, Ira, we are thinking of starting a community based in Hyderabad, which can come together to discuss, brainstorm, and strategize for a better economy and society. If you are based out of Hyderabad, please reach out, we’d love to know more about what you are up to and how we can support each other’s work.
Finding Order in Chaos
Third, because of the workshops, I had to take a bird’s eye view of the entire degrowth literature and come up with a neat, coherent narrative that flows and makes sense. Here’s where things get really interesting because I’m going to use the same narrative structure to organise this Substack publication in the coming months.
As someone who is constantly trying to find order in chaos, here’s how I would organise the massively complex web of degrowth ideas -
Why? - Degrowth, first and foremost, is a critique of the destructive nature of capitalism, its relentless pursuit of growth, and the resulting multi-dimensional polycrisis.
Origin of Growth Paradigm
Infinite Exponential Growth
Growth at all costs
Growing the wrong things
Unequal and colonial growth
What? - If not this, then what? Well, Degrowth envisions a future rooted in well-being, sustainability, justice, and democracy. It draws inspiration from diverse sources, including Southern alternatives and existing examples of degrowth in various sectors.
Origin of Degrowth ideas
Theoretical Foundations of Degrowth
Different Approaches to Degrowth - Biophysical, Systemic, Cultural
Criticisms and misconceptions of degrowth
Grassroots Alternatives to Growth
How? - Lastly, Degrowth is a growing movement driving this transformation through activism, community-led initiatives, and policy interventions.
Policies for Degrowth
Putting Degrowth into Practice
Communicating Degrowth ideas effectively
Reigniting Hope
Ofcourse, one can talk about all the wonderful principles, policies, and examples without ever using the word “Degrowth”, but for now I’m gonna give it the due credit for opening my eyes, and for acknowledging and channelising the anger and frustration I feel with the way things are right now.
Most of us are aware of and deeply affected by the extent of injustice and violence the current system is inflicting on the world (prayers for Palestine), and I wouldn’t want to do anything less than ruthlessly attacking it, which is precisely what the word “Degrowth” does. After enduring years of hopelessness and helplessness in the climate movement, I found my hope back in Degrowth, and I wish my work instills some of that in you, too.
Good to see you here. Arketa Institute is going to steal that graphic!
When can I get the card game?