Background
As background to our story, the 2018 Housing for Degrowth collection grew from an open call at the 5th International Degrowth Conference in Budapest (30 August–2 September 2016). Subsequently, the book was launched at the 6th International Degrowth Conference in Malmö (August 21–25 2016) with many contributors present. Afterwards, co-editors Anitra Nelson and François Schneider toured the book around Europe on degrowth transport – foot, bike, train and ferry with 27 events in 11 countries within 40 days.
Contributors and degrowth groups in various places enabled the whole exercise. We agreed to speak for free if they arranged and promoted events – typically in social centres and universities – to discuss degrowth with them on panels focusing on local themes and encouraging audience participation in political discussions. We were rapt as many of our hosts accommodated us for free and showed us what was happening in various locales by way of prefigurative activities. We gifted and sold discounted book copies covering some transport costs.
A two-year project
Subsequently, the 9th International Degrowth Conference in Zagreb (29 August–2 September 2023) enabled Anitra to finalise contributors not already in place for the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth, a project solicited and contracted by the publisher earlier that year. Vincent Liegey promptly came on board as the editorial advisor, reviewing the proposed contents, offering essential advice on contributors to approach, the development of their chapters and, later, reviewing both initial and final drafts.
A great amount of voluntary work goes into creating such a collection. Contributors just get a copy of the publication, and the editorial work is remunerated by a couple more copies and often a pittance in royalties. A substantial minority of contributors are not, or only loosely, affiliated with institutions such as universities, that give credit to such work. So, contributions are made mainly for the movement, spreading the word in works for educational purposes.
We expected the hardcover to be expensive and paperbacks in this series are only issued 12 months later, so we arranged for open access. The handbook recovers various developments in the history of the degrowth movement, including its initial pillars and ambitions; shows how degrowth concepts work on the ground and articulate with theory, and canvases themes and strategies for degrowth futures. It needed to be freely available to movement activists.
Vincent was especially keen to tour the handbook as with the Housing for Degrowth book. Never flying (from Australia) unless there are many reasons to do so, Anitra was reluctant. But the 18th Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics and 11th International Degrowth Conference held in Oslo in late June coincided with the books release, offering an ideal venue for the handbook’s international launch and the opportunity to celebrate it with numerous contributors participating. And an unexpected invitation to Anitra to speak on degrowth at the annual symposium of the Royal Danish Academy of Architecture Design and Conservation late in April clinched the other bookend for a European tour.
Realising the dream
Initially, we let the other 54 contributors and numerous degrowth groups know about our plan, seeding a tour that incorporated 25 events in 10 countries in nine weeks with no budget. Given that the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth centres on movement perspectives, our tour showed how degrowth activists, advocates, practitioners and scholars network efficiently and effectively. We coordinated with groups on similar terms to the earlier tour, this time amply assisted by an intern at the degrowth cooperative Cargonomia based in Budapest. Emma Berthelot joined Cargonomia’s open university and agreed to focus part of her time on communications for the tour. Vincent decided it was best to time his French events later in 2025, so we have continued to do webinars and further events outside and within Europe ever since.
Often people at our events imagined that the publisher had financially supported us. In fact there wasn’t any support of any kind. It was mainly a money-free venture relying on extensive donations of time and effort. Because the handbook’s publication was later than first expected we had no handbooks to sell along the way. Rather, Vincent distributed popular ‘do it yourself” second-hand T-shirts featuring degrowth prints made by Cargonomia for donation and some of our sole and jointly authored work, such as Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide (Pluto Press, 2020). Some hosts offered us free board, some drew on university funding for travel and accommodation for what became guest lectures opening out into Q&As and informal discussion afterwards in social spaces, pubs and cafes.
In many ways our approach mimicked political solidarity campaigns of old.
Outreach
Many organisers were delighted that the events they arranged attracted interest from lots of people outside the movement. Groups got to speak to new locals about their activities and encourage them to join in. We were asked to do interviews with the press and podcasts, as well as certain events in hybrid form being recorded for internal and/or public release. Everywhere the events were distinctive, targeting different audiences, and customised to highlight themes identified by the organisers.
The first talk and discussion took place in a beautifully refurbished historical space run by Malmö’s Workers’ Educational Association (ABF) – Sweden’s primary association for adult education. As inspiring murals over the walls stimulating our imaginations, handbook contributor Nick Fitzpatrick, a researcher at Aarhus University (Denmark) joined Anitra in a conversation with Ekaterina Chertkovskaya and Marcus Falk, researchers at Lund University. The event was supported by degrowth groups from Lund and Malmö, Research & Degrowth International, the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies (Lund) and ABF. A key challenge raised by attendees was how activists and advocates could make degrowth interventions in a context of the two-sided sword of a benevolent Nordic state wedded to growth.
The four events in the United Kingdom (UK) included one organised by defashioning activists, Fashion Act Now (FAN). It was held at, supported and promoted by the Islington Climate Centre (London). FAN activist Sara Arnold joined Canadian–Dutch cultural anthropologist Sandra Niessen, who read from her defashioning manifesto handbook chapter. We found this a lively session raising the challenges of decolonisation, overconsumption, toxic textiles, and degrowth activism in a climate where the UK media focuses on national cost of living pressures over food and housing.
Several events such as those in Leeds, Turin, Amsterdam and Groningen focussed on spatial, planning, aspects. Another, generally underrated and under researched, theme was creativity and degrowth. The ‘Art and society through feminist degrowth’ event in Copenhagen was organised by, and featured the performance art of, The Syndicate of Creatures (tSoC or KRÆ). The latter have initiated and organised annual Degrowth Festivals in Copenhagen (2023–2025). The discussion identified modest and radical approaches to commoning, care and creativity to break free of our economistic Western society. We questioned: ‘How can art help as a catalyst for systemic transformation?’ This immersive event was held in a waterside venue, Islands Brigge 18, where annual degrowth festivals take place. It involved, and was supported by, the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Applied Ecological Thinking in the form of Associate Professor Rebecca Rutt who is active in the University of Copenhagen Degrowth Network.
We wound up the handbook tour with numerous events involving Vincent, Anitra, and other contributors at the week-long Oslo conference. Alexandra Köves, who wrote a handbook chapter on utopian thinking, convened the international launch. She introduced it via questions to us as the editors. Afterwards a queue of around ten contributors trouped one by one onto the stage to take a few minutes to describe their particular chapters. Then we surged out into a central forum where each and every contributor formed a ‘living library’. Participants moved to and from clusters around each contributor engaging with them on their favourite topics and themes – the kind of self-organising event that characterised all our tour and our convivial vision of Degrowth.
