A wave of Beyond Growth economics rolls across Europe

The movement to explore economic systems beyond growth is by now unstoppable. More and more grassroots collectives support this orientation, academic literature on benefits of degrowth is expanding fast and now, local civil society organise conferences to bring these systemic ideas closer to their national politicians – and into their very parliaments.

Between April and June this year, non-profit organisations in Italy, Austria, Denmark and Ireland took the initiative to follow the footsteps of the 2023 European Parliament’s Beyond Growth Conference, for some the highlight of the 2019-2024 legislature. The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), in collaboration with the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, Friends of the Earth Europe and the European Youth Forum, facilitated the Europe-wide collaboration to strengthen the movement and its impact.

Here are some personal impressions from those events:

Ireland – Rethinking Growth Conference

Digging into our values

There was a really beautiful session called ‘Decolonising the Social Imaginary: how can we do Economics in the Fifth Province’ (NB. Ireland has only four provinces but province in Irish language means ‘fifth’).  It was all about the specificities of Ireland’s socio-cultural heritage and how these can be harnessed toward a post-growth transition. This discussion was very different from all the other ones as it reconnected us, participants, with our sense of humanity and made us think about which values we want to celebrate in a post-growth society. It made me reflect deeply on how crucial it is to honour these aspects in the economic policy and campaigning work we do, which can sometimes be quite dry and lack the more spiritual and philosophical aspects which are so central to building a different kind of society.

A provocative star speaker

Saoirse Exton, a youth climate activist, who has led the climate strikes in Ireland, was asked to do a closing speech at the event. She expressed her anger at how youth’s voices were not present throughout, how the issue of Palestine was not brought up to the forefront and how she was overall disappointed by the lack of radicality in the discussions she followed. Despite her provocation, the audience was fully on-board with the issues she raised and it made me think how much appetite there is to be radical in the ways we are holding these spaces – so that we can get to the crux of the issues we want to change. To me, this also reflected the need to put youth, working class, as well as black and brown voices front and centre of these discussions rather than adding them in an effort to increase diversity. The de- or post-growth movement still has a long way to go to honour this but is also well placed to do so.

Contribution by: Emilie Tricarico

Denmark – Wellbeing Economy Conference

Speeches and satire

My prize for best speakers is shared between anthropologist Jason Hickel and performance artist Mette Riise. The former got a standing ovation after talking about the macro transformation needed to make the degrowth transition globally just. The latter presented a brilliant satiric performance about “Denmark as a corporation”, valuing profits from armaments sales and business-as-usual rather than people and planet. It was especially outstanding since a wide range of politicians were sitting there forced to listen.

Not radical enough?

Many felt that the conference was not radical enough and some of the sessions were still dominated by green growth narratives. I believe this trade-off comes from the deliberative attempt to unite stakeholders across the green spectrum and beyond. It was a pity not seeing any labour unions representatives.

Contribution by: Linda Luciani 

Italy – Beyond Growth Italia

Walking the talk

I appreciated that organisers pledged to follow up with concrete actions, including:
General States of Degrowth (Stati Generali della Decrescita) 2025: organising a future major event that brings more of these bottom-up initiatives together in a space where they can elaborate on their joint demands and strategies.
A letter to the Italian MEPs: a joint letter about the urgency for degrowth policy action, like the one sent to the EU commission and signed by scholars and organisations after the Beyond Growth conference in Brussels in May 2023.

Contribution by: Linda Luciani

Austria – Beyond Growth Austria

Creating spaces for intersectional alliance

The event opened with speeches from several high-level politicians, including the president of Austria, all of whom emphasised the critical importance of a broad alliance and the need for a more holistic vision of the economy as part of society. In a new economic system based on human wellbeing and planetary health, a large number of groups needs to support each other, including civil society and workers in the health sector, environmental organisations, trade unions, anti-colonial and anti-imperial movements, people affected by poverty, anti-racism collectives, feminist initiatives, trade experts and academics. Beyond Growth Austria demonstrated very clearly the benefit of inclusive spaces which empower these groups to have explicit discussions on an economy beyond growth.

Social acceptance of degrowth ideas

Sustainability researcher Halliki Kreinin inspired me with her arguments on social acceptance of beyond growth policies. She hit the audience with a sharp conclusion: the awareness around ecological and social crises is definitely present among the broader public, but so is the fear that a transition would (continue to) happen on the backs of those who are already exploited. To avoid this injustice, we  need more radical policy proposals and narratives. For example, acknowledging the social and environmental harm of luxury products could quickly become a social norm and have a transformative effect.

Pro-social behaviour in an (AI-assisted) image

At the event, I spotted “Glimpses of Flourishing”, an exhibition from the Flourishing Society, who translated sociological research into memorable AI-assisted images. As they write: “one key step to shape a successful and sustainable future is to imagine it”.

The Flourishing Society explains:

“In our picture, we have depicted a monument in which the everyday prosocial behaviour of people is honoured. […] It was found that people often act prosocially without considering a benefit for themselves (‘uncalculating cooperation’). Furthermore, people who do this are perceived as more trustworthy than people who cooperate in a calculating manner. […] These findings stand in stark contrast to the observation that materialistic influences reduce well-being […]. Nevertheless, materialistic influences dominate our public space and exert a strong influence on how we construct our reality – and how we make political decisions.”