Dialogues about post-growth futures – notes on the transition conference in Umeå

Author: Maxim Vlasov, Umeå University, maxim.vlasov@umu.se

The interest in degrowth is booming, at least in the academic circles. More and more papers engage with this umbrella term, there is a vibrant online community, and the international biannual conference attracts hundreds of activists and researchers.

In Sweden, where downscaling the economy appears especially relevant, disillusionment by the story of perpetual growth is also entering the societal debate. Last year, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) published a report about possible future scenarios for Sweden that does not depend on GDP-growth[1]. Media are addressing the limits to growth too[2]. Even Johan Rockström, professor in environmental science at Stockholm University who had shown much hope in technological progress, recently came out with a statement that green growth is “wishful thinking”[3].

Back in the summer of 2018, at the Degrowth conference in Malmö, the idea for a transition conference focusing on post-growth futures was born. While by day I work on my doctoral project, much of my energy outside the university walls goes into the transition movement. Transition movement defines itself as “a movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world”. It could be described as a search for local solutions to the global challenges of ecological and geopolitical crises. Transition Network Sweden (Omställningsnätverket) is a national branch of this trans-local movement. It is a non-profit association that aims to educate, encourage and support local transitions initiatives in Sweden that break with the fossil-based growth economy. We organize courses, spread information and good examples, network and organize an annual conference.

This year, Umeå took the turn to host the annual conference, and degrowth seemed like an urgent theme to engage with. The goal with the conference was to offer a meeting space where the participants could explore, together and from a multitude of perspectives, possible futures where ecological balance justice and well-being are more important societal goals than economic growth. The conference welcomed over 180 participants from all over Sweden and also Finland. It featured activities, talks and workshops by over 30 inspirators who work with transition in their daily lives. It also had nine partners and sponsors, all coming from different societal sectors – from business to civil society to public sector.

As Pella Thiel, who started the Transition network in Sweden along with many other initiatives including End Ecocide and Rights of Nature, said during her keynote: “There is a fear that the end of growth would entail asceticism, that we would not get to satisfy our needs, that we have to refrain”. But does it need to be like this, or can an economy with less metabolism offer something better to us, humans and other beings, than what we have today? 

Much of the discussion about sustainability transitions is always concentrated on the so called “outer” dimensions that can be measured. The figure below shows that outer transitions concern our individual choices and lifestyles, as well as the large socio-technical systems such as energy, transportation and construction. There is no doubt that these thing need to change – that we need to eat and move differently and we need alternative systems of provision of energy, food, housing etc that do not rely on fossil fuels for example. But without turning to the “inner” dimensions, such as feelings, needs, values, or shared societal norms and worldviews, it might be hard and even impossible to write new stories and change the expansionist system in its root.

Figure 1. The four dimensions of transition, based on Hillevi Helmfrid/Ken Wilbur[4]

This holistic framework on transitions offered a fruitful ground for the conference. In line with conferences of the past, the event was organised as a co-creative effort where presentations and talks were blended with interactive dialogues under the guidance of two professional facilitators, Amanda Martling and Emilia Rekestad. We invited those researchers from KTH to present their scenarios. We also got to hear about downshifting, local economy, alternative business, Gross National Happiness, hunter-gatherer perspectives on living, ecosystem-based forestry, non-violence, active hope and much more.  

It is with both excitement and sadness one leaves conferences like this to return to the “normal” of life and work, which are deeply enmeshed into the growth machinery. It feels great, or as some say “cosy”, to have such spaces where one can dare to imagine something radically different. But as long as these spaces remain at the margins of the economy it becomes hard to even believe that systemic transition to a post-growth economy is possible. A local food market here and a downshifter there have their value, but they remain so far from the deeper transformations that are required in the highly developed world. Indeed, thinking and working with these issues is a no less than a self-sacrifice. I have already lost count of the moments when I felt desperate, both as activist and as researcher. 

It is perhaps here where the critical distinction between optimism, pessimism and hope is useful. As Johan Örestig notes in his sharp analysis, hope is different from the first two in how it is constantly pushed about, strengthened and weakened with time and through embedded human experience[5]. In this sense, all kinds of action that are currently challenging the expansionist patterns of the growth economy deserve hopeful attention and critical discussion. This includes the growing protest movements such as Fridays For Future or Extinction rebellion, which are disrupting the system by means of civil disobedience. These movements arise as a moral response to the emergency and desperation, even if they face the critique of hypocrisy and lack of inclusion of a larger society beyond its core of “middle class” activists. Another example are the numerous local transition initiatives. These initiatives balance on the day to day basis between activism and entrepreneurship, idealism and pragmatism, to organize for alternative way of living. Hope is at the core of resistance, and resistance can take different forms: whether it is protesting on the streets, or developing practical alternatives to the growth economy while remaining pretty much in it.

It might well be so that degrowth, in one or another form, is already the inescapable fate of humanity. The remaining question is whether we will be forced into it, or whether we can find a “prosperous way down”.  

Over 180 people from Sweden and Finland participated in the transition conference in Umeå

The transition conference Dialogues about post-growth futures was organised in Umeå, 21-22 September 2019. The website (in Swedish) can still be accessed via the link https://bortomtillvaxt.weebly.com/      

[1] KTH, Bortom BNP-tillväxt project web, http://www.bortombnptillvaxt.se/

[2] SVT, Ny studie: Grön tillväxt är inte möjlig i stor skala, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/ny-studie-gron-tillvaxt-ar-inte-mojlig

[3] SVD, Johan Rckström, Önsketänkande med grön tillväxt – vi måste agera, https://www.svd.se/onsketankande-med-gron-tillvaxt--vi-maste-agera

[4] Amanda Martling, Inre omställning https://urkarlektilljorden.se/2018/07/24/inre-omstallning/

[5] Johan Örestig, Från optimism och pessimism till hopp https://www.vk.se/2019-10-21/fran-optimism-och-pessimism-till-hopp