The act of (de/re)growing: Prefiguring alternative organizational landscapes of socioecological transformations

Abstract

How does transformative change that restructures humans’ relations to the Earth come into being? The proposal for degrowth calls for a drastic reorganization of societies in order to deal with the current planetary socioecological and climate crises. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of how such socioecological transformations are brought into being. In this paper, we examine prefigurative processes of socioecological transformations. We introduce the concept of the act of (de)growing, a prefigurative practice in which individuals engage at a personal level as they disentangle from organizational spaces governed by growth (act of degrowing), while entangling with nonhumans (cows, sheep, plants and seeds) to consciously make something else grow (act of growing) in the place that they inhabit. Drawing on ten personal stories of degrowth in the Nordics,, we identify four interlinked dimensions of socioecological transformations that bring new degrowth inspired organizational landscapes into being (disentangling from growth; organizing with nonhumans in place; the emergence of novel subjectivities in place; and the formation of translocal networks of support). We discuss the implications that these dispersed situated forms of socioecological transformations have for breaking with the systemic inertia of societal institutions built on economic growth.

Prefigurative imaginaries: Giving the unbanked in Kenyan informal settlements the power to issue their own currency

“…Additionally, our study illustrates how grassroots organizations can use imaginaries to replicate small-scale, localized initiatives across similar interstitial conditions (Monticelli, 2018; Wright, 2011), fostering generative outcomes often overlooked in existing literature (D’Alisa and Kallis, 2020; Schiller-Merkens, 2020). By facilitating trans-local crossing and the bridging of similar interstitial spaces (Casey et al, 2020), emerging imaginaries reshape everyday practices (Ehrnström-Fuentes and Biese, 2022) to address the social challenges. This exploration underscores the potential for grassroots initiatives to transition from localized endeavours to broader deployments, reaching a larger community of beneficiaries.…”

Organizing Sustainably: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…On the consumption side, an adequate response to the climate crisis requires consideration of a post-growth economy (e.g. Carruthers, 2023; Ehrnström-Fuentes & Biese, 2023), including a reconsideration of value and of climate inequality which deals with the large gap between historical emitters and those countries and populations that suffer most of the effects of climate change (e.g. Böhm, Misoczky, & Moog, 2012).…”

The Social Effects of Entrepreneurship on Society and Some Potential Remedies: Four Provocations

“…It is not just a temporary or even medium-term shrinkage of the conventional economy. The degrowth movement begins with the realization that because of ecological limits and social and intergenerational considerations, conventional economic growth as currently measured will generally slow down, and economies will have to fit within socially and ecologically acceptable parameters” (2015, p. 578).Degrowth perspectives are built on a set of principles designed to promote a radically different economy, where “the proposal for degrowth involves both changes in macroeconomic policies (Kallis et al, 2018) and voluntary shifts in individual desires, practices and imaginaries” (Ehrnström-Fuentes & Biese, 2022, p. 1). This movement of scholars and activists across the globe claims that, if we want to actually stay within planetary limits and avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change, this is the only way (see, e.g., Kallis et al, 2018; Hickel, 2020).…”