# NOTES FROM DEGROWTH NARRATIVE WORKING GROUP *scroll down for historical info* ## **Living degrowth - the resource list** *fit in existing category where possible OR add a new one - if it's a video, image, PDF of other file add it on the [Degrowth Cloud](https://cloud.degrowth.net/s/j8zRiF9TnYSizmA)* **COMMUNICATING DEGROWTH** 1. http://bivanje.odrasti.si/ - Ahac's Living Degrowth website | Ahac 2. Using humour: Stand up for environmentalism: https://www.maffick.com/ | Ahac 3. [Calling all the polite, well-mannered people I know: now is the time to rebel.](http://www.withmanyroots.com/blog/calling-all-the-polite-well-mannered-people-i-know-now-is-the-time-to-rebel) | blog post using humour | Sophia **NARRATIVES** 1. [A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez](https://youtu.be/d9uTH0iprVQ) |Youtube video| **FOOD** 1. [First steps to growing your own food](https://www.withmanyroots.com/blog/sprouting-her-first-seeds-a-photo-diary) | Sophia's personal blog | Format: words |Sophia 2. [How to grow your own food indoors](https://pebblemag.com/magazine/eating-drinking/how-to-grow-your-own-food-indoors) | Pebble Mag | Format: words | Sophia **LIVING** 1. [From freecycling to Fairphones: 24 ways to lead an anti-capitalist life in a capitalist world](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/10/from-freecycling-to-fairphones-24-ways-to-lead-an-anti-capitalist-life-in-a-capitalist-world) | The Guardian | Format: words | Sophia 2. Consumer Research magazine and website in UK: [Ethical Consumer](https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/) | Format: words | Sophia **CIRCULAR ECONOMY** 1. [Circular Economy Decoded: Let's Talk About Biomimicry](https://soundcloud.com/thinkdif/circular-economy-decoded-lets-talk-about-biomimicry-dif) | DIF | Format: Podcast | Frederikke 2. [BinnUp: cutting student waste with new rental scheme](https://www.withmanyroots.com/blog/binnup-cutting-student-waste-with-new-rental-scheme) | Format: Written Interview | Sophia 3. [Free Space Culture](https://www.facebook.com/FreeSpaceCulture/) in Sweden | Joshua 4. [Participatory City](http://www.participatorycity.org/), Dagenham | Initiative | Joshua **ACTIVISM** 1. EXTINCTION REBELLION - [intro video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2VkC4SnwY0) 50 mins 2. Sami people against Arctic Railway - [Photo Essay](https://ifnotusthenwho.me/indigenous-sami-defend-land-against-arctic-railway/) 3. #FridaysForFuture in [Växjö](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_G3q1oh6qs) | Video | Monu 4. [Consctientious Protectors and Ecocide](https://www.missionlifeforce.org/conscientious-protectors) | Legal campaign | Sophia 5. [Birthstrike](http://www.sustainababble.fish/?p=812) (Note: not re population) | Podcast | Sophia **BOOKS / ARTICLES** 1. *Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right* is a 2016 book written by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. The book aims to explain the worldview of supporters of the Tea Party Movement in Louisiana. The concept of "deep story" is used to explain the motivations and emotional stances of people making (environmental) political decisions that are seemingly against their best interest. 2. [Deep Adaptation](https://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf) - Jem Bendall - been downloaded over 500 000 times 3. Hartmut Rosa on Social Accelaration * [TEDx talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uG9OFGId3A) 4. Harald Welzer - [Mental Infrastructures: How Growth Entered the World and Our Souls](https://www.boell.de/en/2013/12/09/mental-infrastructures-how-growth-entered-world-and-our-souls) 5. Guy McPhearson - [Nature Bats Last](https://guymcpherson.com/) **EVENTS** 1. [Degrowth Summer School](https://summerschool.degrowth.org) Barcelona/Can Decreix (June 2019) 2. Global Degrowth Day (1 June 2019) 3. Degrowth Conference Manchester 2020 **GROUPS** 1. [Positive Deep Adaptation](https://www.facebook.com/groups/deepadaptation/) - Facebook - Started by Jem Bendall 2. [Climate Psychology Alliance](https://www.facebook.com/Climate-Psychology-Alliance-566192400064048/) - Facebook ## **Minutes 23 April 2019** Present: Ahac, Monu, Sophia, Wojtek 1. Ahac: Slovenia update * Living Degrowth event - partnering up with other organisations doing related activities. Continuing collecting stories in Slovenia, that Ahac hopes will be relevant International. * Slovenian version of the Vocabulary on Degrowth. Events happening soon over this book * Attended workshop on using humour, communicating ideas in an approachable way. * Living degrowth event- comming soon 2. Wojtek: Working on Earthstrike - Academy in Poland * Wojtek has been talking about de-growth locally, quite a lot of interest in Global De-growth Day - 1st June, find local events. * Continuing workshops touching on degrowth - did stuff together, then weave in theory. * Translating Vocabulary of Degrowht into Polish, Wojtek on the editorial team. Published later this year * Earth Srike Academy coming up on Friday 3. Monu - A bit let down by local initiatives not willing to be associated with or acknowledge Extincion Rebellion and it's impact. Attended a virtual conference on climate change in Stockholm https://wedonthavetime.confetti.events Wrote a song for the earth called [Save this place](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdtMp8t_5C) 4. Sophia - totally absorbed by Extinction Rebellion in London and amazed by how many members of the public are open to the climate crisis. Manning this Twitter profile for anyone curious: [@XRChelmsford](https://twitter.com/XRChelmsford/) * Hosting monthly Eco Talks with Digital Nomad women - interesting that we really struggled to paint a future that we all wanted. Do we lack imagination? Can we expect people to fight for a future that they can't imagine? - one for Fredderikke to consider! * Attended a [Climate Psychology Alliance](https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/) event (thanks to Fredderikke for letting Sophia know about it!) fascinating to think about the need for theraputic support as people 'wake up' to the climate and ecological science. ## **Minutes 19 March 2019** Present: Ahac, Monu, Joshua, Sophia 1. Ahac, Living Degrowth event organised in Ljubljana for 30th March * Friday’s student march - 5000 people, mostly kids and students. Speaking with some of the other people, adults were playing a supportive role. Really youth led event. Finished in front of the parliament, they did speak with the President of the Parliament. Free from politics. * Exploring despair and humour and motivating people into action - attending comedy workshop this weekend 2. Joshua * XR in Sweden, there is some actions being organised for International Rebellion, currently in secret * Josh involved in training some people up and bringing people to Stockholm on 15th * Also participating on constructive direct action (vs destructive direct action) via a free shop outside H&M, start of community building exercise that will underpin the transition - called Free Space Movement - link above 3. Monu * Filming events like FridaysForFuture + FreeSpace Movement - links above * Working on a sustainability platform with links 4. Sophia * Attended Spring Uprising (XR) last weekend, very empowering and rejuvenating * Trying to embed 'tell the truth and act on it as though it is real'. Translates into more writing and * Starting a Eco-talks pilot with digital nomad girls * Pursuing 'eco-mentor' idea - aiming to launch in June (soft launch) * Resigned to being back in the UK but feels more connected to, and excited about everything that's going on. * Will meet Frederikke in Copenhagen next month! Monu will host the next session ## **Minutes 26 February 2019** Present: Fredderikke, Monu, Sophia, Josh, Ahac 1. Fredderikke: [UN Live Museum](https://www.unlivemuseum.org/#hiring) - deadline 15th of march. I (Frederikke) am not going to apply for any of the positions as it is, but I am thinking of how to convince them to incorporate a new strategy. In this respect I am wondering: Could the Museum of the UN be convinced of 1) the need for narratives of sustainable life, 2) the importance - but also potential - of making a platform that can secure a worldwide co-creation of such narratives, 3) and the function of the sensemaking-troika stories + imagination => mobilization. Question: How to best go about this? Any thoughts on this subject are more than welcome!!! 2. Ahac: [A Greener Festival](https://www.agreenerfestival.com) a possible means to understand how this sector of human activity related to leisure addresses the environmental aspects of producing gatherings of people. I plan to apply for assessor training in June. • Also working on translation of degrowth vocab in Slovenien • Living regrowth workshop at the end of March 3. Monu: Preparing to deliver a degrowth workshop at his university and connecting with other activists Mentioned the [Degrowth Summer School](https://www.degrowth.info/en/summer-school-2019/) currently open for applications 4. Sophia: getting more involved with XR in the UK, taking Non-Violent Direct Action training in preparation for Rebellion Week in April. • Currently 'studying' [What's Really Happening to Our Planet?: The Facts Simply Explained](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29757907-what-s-really-happening-to-our-planet?ac=1&from_search=true) • Keen to explore what kind of stories and messages will work with the [climate apathetic](http://www.withmanyroots.com/blog/what-to-do-about-climate-apathy) • She is actively looking for opportunities to build up her public speaking 5. Josh: update on XR in Sweden, direct action is fairly new in Scandanavia so they are training people up actively. Rebellion week likely to be much smaller in Sweden. • Was curious to hear what people thought of as ways of 'dividing up life', what will be essential on the 'other side or not'. Different workshop ideas were discussed. 6. Eco-grief was covered - as a real reaction to facing our cliamte reality. This group can act as a safe space to face those fears, worries and grieve. To steal the XR phrase: Grief is welcome here. 7. The next Degrowth conference is confirmed for Manchester in 2020 ## **Minutes 22 January 2019** Present: Frederikke, Wojtek, Monu, Sophia 1. Wojtek: Coming out of Poland COP [Earth Strike](https://www.earth-strike.com/) is getting a lot of attention, youth involved, space to talk about degrowth. 2. People are reaching out to Wojtek to organise around Degrowth - a new discussion group on FB has been established 3. How can we communicate degrowth to teenagers? * Use Greta Thunberg videos * [TEDtalk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAmmUIEsN9A) * Asking the children to bring in 3 days of waste * Wearing it? * Think about it from a historical perspective? * Come up with ideas that could benefit their small community 1. Monu: is talking about Extinction Rebellion and Zero-Waste to his university 2. Has published one more video; **https://youtu.be/U3-8SthCg2U** 3. Has published the first episode on the podcast: **https://soundcloud.com/user-862442008/1-kevin-anderson-on-climate-change** 4. Looking for more people to interview 1. Sophia: has had her first article published on Growing Your Own Food (see above), getting involved with Extinction Rebellion UK, April 15th is main day of action 2. **Can we offer a communications 'service' translating the dense degrowth academic literature into everyday language?** By interviewing some of the authors. Sophia is keen to explore this - Wojtek to send on some accessibly papers as he gets them. ## Other movements * https://wedonthavetime.org * https://www.earth-strike.com/ Frederikke is collecting nuggets on the reality and urgency to use for a frame of reference: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pisUKxXGTWCGhB5M4P44jASyGw3U9QB88dCu9sy8nZM/edit?usp=sharing Please do join in! (Doc. is shared between several groups, please be gentle with it;), but add whatever you think is relevant. criteria for information in the top paragraph). ## Agenda for next call At minimum: What literature, movements or moments have we translated for wider audiences? ## **Minutes 11 December 2018** Present: Frederikke, Ahac, Wojtek, Monu, Sophia 1. Topic for discussion: Circular Economy a. Podcast shared by Frederikke: https://soundcloud.com/thinkdif/circular-economy-decoded-lets-talk-about-biomimicry-dif - "nature is circular economy in practice" **Ahac** 2. People's stories on how they practice degrowth a. Michnai's students will be working on degowth narratives in Portland b. Living degrowth events in Slovenia (Ahac) last event went well, looking to do one event per month. Growing something that can open up the conversation. Very tangible activity, hopes to build up a workshop model that can be replicated, titled "Living/Being Degrowth" but aiming to reach those outside the degrowth bubble c. Slovennian context, 6 articles on degrowth, there is a momentum, vocabulary is being translated d. Working on abstract on Food for degrowth (for Anitra) e. Working on a skeleton of an idea on living degrowth, for more accessible audiences **Monu** 3. Attended Students for Sustainability Summit in North of Sweden, start of XR in Sweden, which is gaining a lot of momentum. a. Interviewed Kevin ?? - that is in the edit process for a possible podcast series, on the 1.5C and on not flying. b. Further leads form the summit, including XR and Zero Carbon - getting organisations to sign up to mandate, and divest - goal to find students to can push this. c. Greta Thunberg, 15 y.o. student from Sweden, is really inspiring at COP24. Danish Schools are striking every thursday morning **Frederikke** 4. Frederikke, a few years ago tried to make a podcast series, Transmissions from the Future, wanting to mix fact and fiction and inspire stories from various points. Has experience in this **Wojtek** 5. Recently attended cooperative conference in North Poland, disseminiating degrowth a little bit, talking about food and other cooperatives in Poland.The group is small but is making waves across Poland. So did not make it to COP24 but there was a strong presence from the food sovereignity groups. Alex Ruleman (?) organsing degrowth discussions. a. Pushing for research grants, all being well, starting next year researching the new peasant movemnent in Poland and Spain. There is not much data on this at the moment. Opportunity to forge some strong sustainability narratives, out of urban movement. Not all decisions should be taken in the cities from the city perspective. b. They will be producing video content from the research, produce even short clips c. Idea: Collect small videos about local things that can be part of one or more of these narrative categories: - home practices - consumer practices - philosophical concepts - political actions - community practices **Sophia** 6. Focus has mainly been on content and interviews with eco people while she has been in Estonia. Including tapping into the [Grow Your Own Food Indoors movement](https:www.withmanyroots.com/blog/sprouting-her-first-seeds-a-photo-diary), [Interview with Anitra](https://www.withmanyroots.com/blog/life-long-activism), [Cutting back on flying and offsetting](https://www.withmanyroots.com/blog/guilty-digital-nomad-one-tried-and-tested-way-to-offset-your-emissions) a. Futur.io and Redbull competition on the search for future narratives. Please share and circulate, could be an interesting exercise in and of itself: https://www.redbullfutur.io/global-en/ - share your vision of a desirable future - competition deadline Feb 2019 b. Working on an eco-mentor idea, aimed at those who are warm to making some changes in their life but don't know where to start and offering 121 handholding and accountability. Sophia is working on the survey and will be piloting it this month. Is on the look out for some constructive feedback as she works through her minimum viable product. ## DECISION **We all have nuggets of the degrowht narrative in our minds, in our work, in our networks, so let's start aggregating them and thinking of small snippets on content we can create and then share** 1. ADD ANY INTERESTING OR RELEVANT LINK IN OUR LIST ABOVE (GIVE IT A CATEGORY AND A SHORT EXPLANATION) 2. FOR FILES: Link for our shared folder on degrowth.net: https://cloud.degrowth.net/apps/files/?dir=/Common%20pads%20and%20files%20for%20the%20Narratives%20group/Degrowt%20inspiration&fileid=46516 We will collect all those bits and pieces that inspire us there:) ## **Minutes 13 November 2018** Present: Fredderike, Monu, Wojtek, Sophia 1. Appreciation for Monu's videos - his contribution has been valued. Also an appreciation for Fredderike's efforts to keep the group going 3. Concern about time restrictions and conflicting commitments: How can we move forward as a group? How do we navigate the decision-making process when not all the group is able to make it? **ACTION: Fredderike would like to handover the mantel for a few months - Sophia will take over chair for the next 3 months** 3. There was a consensus that there is already a value in just us coming together, sharing things we do, what we've been working on or struggling with, opportunities we can cooperate on and learn more about * *For example - Wojtek working on a tight deadline to identify stories in Just Transition and End-Coal stories ahead of COP * Alex Rueman is creating a newsroom and there is space to voice degrowth perspective in there! We can share this opportunity, very concrete space to get voices in * Sophia has written a [blog post](https://www.harathelabel.com/blogs/news/1-5-to-stay-alive-the-time-is-now-to-act-on-climate) trying to translate the IPCC report into layman's terms and would love feedback from the group* DECISION: That even if the timing is not right for us to tackle the bigger DEGROWTH issues and narratives there is value and potential in curious and dedicated people coming together to share their stories and explore the issues that degrowth throws up. So at minimum that is what this monthly call will facilitate. - **Wider Group updates** 9. Wojtek attended Francois and Anitra's talk in Warsaw - and it was very encouraging to see the breadth in the audience, the room was full. It renergised Wojtek that Poland is ready to have degrowth conversations, visited a DIY community - was really inspiring for Wojtek. Some interesting ideas blooming about 10. Sophia and Jayme caught up with Ahac in Ljubljana 11. Sophia is in touch with Elgars and is hoping to visit his eco farm in Latvia **Ideas Brainstorm** 10. Ideas from Fredderike - targeting sutdents studing economy where the old paradigm is still being brought - a taskforce is possible 11. Idea from Wojtek - we have more questions than answers - one way to go forward with the degrowth narrative is to discuss things like circular economy - discussion meetings around a certain theme eg circular economy and how does it fit to degrowth **ACTION:Attendees to share 1 link to something they've read, written, been inspired by, questioned around the wider degrowth movement/narrative - with the aim to gradually build up a pool of resources and knowledge for the wider group.** **NEXT MEETING** approximately 1 month from now around the same time. ******** Meeting in the narratives and storytelling group on 13th Nov. 2018. Please join the meeting by link: https://zoom.us/j/2482482002 Subject: **Potential Purpose(s) of the group** - and how to get there. Aiding questions might be: What do we wish to achieve? How do we think we might best get there? What are our theories of change regarding the intersection of a)narrative and b)change in people and/or society? Agenda: 1. Introduction to the pad if anyone needs it 2. Who will do minutes? 3. Quick update on those present. Just 5 words. Really. 4. A round of suggestions on todays main topic as well as harvesting from the list below 5. ... 6. What would we like to discuss next time? 7. Anything else? Please add to this agenda. (To do so, click the 'split screen' icon on the top left, and a html-field will appear as the left half of your screen. This is where you can edit and add to the pad. If you click the pencil, the 'white' side will dissapear - you can bring it back by toggling between these views using the top left buttons). If you are not able to join the meeting , but would like to add your piece on what the group should work on, or strive for, please do so here: *I think the group should:* 1. .... 2. .... ***** ## Minutes from Meeting 1 (copied from Google Docs) introduction ahac Agora - ulrich Tour - ulrich Time ahac Video frederikke MOnu isolated frederikke Who will do a summary? Jon did, with a little help from the others! Hello again! Names, Frederikke, Francois, Andreas, Wojtek, Ulrich, Ahac, Jon very brief introduction, what’s going on with you right now? Very brief recap of how we got together and what happened at the Degrowth conference to the benefit of new members (Francois). Also, We left this out as Andreas and Jon didn’t need this intro. Purpose of the group (Frederikke) Introduction for new members. Also, this was left out as new members didn’t need it. Videos (Monu) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkAQoGmthJGb5LBbyFywqTg Impressive work. Well done, Monu! Maybe you will tell us if you need a hand with anything? The Agora (Ahac) How to tell stories? E.g. about Housing, or academic social innovation. This point was discussed under “Concerns” mostly. We shall try to test out the workings of the agora by placing our discussion on the “3 possible purposes” (see further down) of the group here. The housing degrowth narrative tour (francois)- 1 month travel by train- 25 events in 10 countries Events with Ulrich, Wojtek. Francois and Anitra will be going around Europe with 25 stops. Concerns Monu isolated in his work (frederikke) How can we support Monu as he works on the recordings made in Malmö? Monu is on his own, we need to show him support and help out where needed Where to upload videos? (frederikke) Did you get access to https://cloud.degrowth.net ? This is a file sharing, calendaring and contacts environment (Nextcloud). Degrowth.info can take them - we must coordinate with the comms-group. Wojtek voices the need for concrete narrative tools (texts, cartoons, instructions on storytelling etc.) to use in local activities and presentations (rather than be involved in an abstract remote process – at this moment at least) Agora - how does it work? (francois, ulrich) Concern about being able to use communications offline. It needs practice. Interface at https://agora.degrowth.net is more flexible. Email is only secondary. How to ‘drive’ the group communication forward (frederikke) We shall try to get people on the agora and discuss there. Holocratic structure produces fractal clarity. (jon) Housing for degrowth - what kind of format will it be held in (Ulrich) communicating via Agora as a topic for all organisers? Maybe this will be adressed tonight at meeting of coordiantors? Help for the housing tour (François) Purpose and examples of practice: Collect formats: whenever we do projects, we could upload material to inspire each other. These are tools. Upload here: https://cloud.degrowth.net and contact degrowth.info to get them disseminated in the public (or others means) One important discussion is the purpose of our group, as it seems to join different very complementary aspects. 3 possible main purposes: Have convincing stories about degrowth. In our communications, we need sometimes ways to explain the complexity of the world, and the proposal of degrowth, and why it makes very much sense. For this simple stories can sometimes convey much more explanation than a complex rational explanation. Wojtek in the meeting was talking of the importance of such stories to be able to talk to people in Poland. Another aspect to build together our collective degrowth narratives, result of cooperations but also of tensions. It is also our purpose to answer to the belief that there is no alternative to growth or recession. The growth and doom narratives are very strong and we need to build together, and refine, pathways of transformation that shows that another world is possible, responding the old TINA of Thatcher, to the extreme right discourse that promotes closure, and to the desperation of many. Anitra and Francois do a european tour about an housing narrative linking the ideas and practices developed by the many authors of their recent book on “housing for degrowth” Another very important work is to share our stories, about our lives, about our dreams. Things that can create beautiful connections and inspire us. This relates to what was describing Ulli, who organises storytelling events, sharing and exploring stories. Should we cooperate on these 3 questions, maybe on Agora, and comment on each others?! Rounding off: we’re still quite wobbly. Would be good to center on the 3 possible purposes next meeting. Happiness to proceed on the 3 purpose strategy on the way to next meeting. Problem with the structure - we must prepare better before next meeting. “3 possible purposes” generally applauded as something that makes sense to discuss and work on further. Also, a useful tool as we may position ourselves through this work. Future meetings: Let’s try for once a month, fixing dates via doodle. Frederikke will do next doodle. Who will do what: Frederikke will move the “3 possible purposes” to a pad on the agora. Francois will flesh out those 3 possible purposes. And the all can take part in the discussion! Ahac will make a folder in the degrowth-cloud for us to upload material, such as the ideos, to. Projects pointing forward - have anyone had any brilliant ideas or are you working on something that more from the group may be needed on? No, but we may start with defining our purpose Also, ideas for whole projects are welcome. --- … Open to late topics if we have time. Do add topics - we’ll see how far we get:D