A Degrowth Coalition
Let's Build One
Photo by Yahya Gopalani on Unsplash
I’ve spent nearly two years in this space talking about degrowth. The purpose behind this blog is to help spread the word and educate people that degrowth is a way out of our economic and ecological predicament. Degrowth policies are popular where they are implemented, and they tend to work. So why isn’t the world swiftly shifting to a degrowth model?
Inertia is a powerful thing. And many vested interests are spending a lot of time, money and influence to make sure the status quo continues as long as possible.
So how do things improve? What is the degrowth theory of change?
Getting enough people, especially people with power to change the system will take nothing less than convincing a number of people to put up with changes to the system that go against their short-term interests, for the betterment of society in the long run.
That is no small task.
Sure, you can assume some revolution will take place in the near future - violent or not - that will change things, and that may very well happen. I’m not wishing for that, or condoning that, but I realize that we have to be prepared for it.
Anyone out there know how to build a coalition?
According to Google Ngram, which searches through a collection of books, documents, and other text sources, "degrowth" has now surpassed mentions of "green growth". Thanks to Gaya Herrington at Schneider Electric for the graphic below, which shows that degrowth surpassed mentions of green growth about 2020, with discussions of planetary boundaries gaining ground on green growth as well.
This shows us that people are primed to discuss degrowth as never before, but political and business leaders aren’t going to adopt degrowth policies tomorrow. We need to build a coalition to keep making the case for degrowth and eventually move humanity to a more sustainable way of living.
Building a coalition is slow, lunch pail kind of work. But it needs to be done. The coalition that prefers business as usual, is much larger, much better funded and has the advantage of being the “default setting” of our economies that people are used to, expect and often see as part of their identity.
You can type in “how to build a coalition” into your favorite search engine or AI and come up with something like this:
To build a coalition, follow these steps:
Identify a Common Purpose
Engage and Recruit Stakeholders
Establish Leadership/Structure of Coalition Interactions
Develop a Plan
Delegate Responsibilities
Communicate Effectively
Evaluate and Improve on steps 1 - 6
I know of some of these things happening here and there, but the level of coordination needed to build, and maintain such a coalition over the long-term is not taking place on any systematic level. That doesn’t mean it can’t.
Here is a view from Anarcasper | Substack who replied when I asked on Friday, what a degrowth coalition might look like.
A US degrowth coalition would look less like a single org and more like a loose, coordinated network. Think frontline climate orgs, Indigenous sovereignty movements, co-op workers, tenant unions, care economy advocates, and folks from anarchist, eco-socialist, and spiritual traditions all pulling in the same direction. It'd focus on building alternatives (like land trusts and public banks), pushing policies that shrink harmful sectors (fossil fuels, real estate speculation), and shifting culture toward sufficiency and shared well-being. The hard part? Staying rooted, equitable, and not getting co-opted. But it's already happening in pockets. The real work is stitching it together.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Do something.
So, I encourage everyone reading this to do something to help degrowth grow. I didn’t know what degrowth was 7 years ago, and now I’ve started a think-tank whose purpose is to normalize degrowth in the financial world, started this blog, and spoken in public numerous times on the topic.
Do what you can. Find and reach out to likeminded individuals. The necessary degrowth coalition won’t be built tomorrow, but it will be built. If you aren’t already, start doing that today.
"Inertia is a powerful thing. And many vested interests are spending a lot of time, money and influence to make sure the status quo continues as long as possible.
"So how do things improve? What is the degrowth theory of change?”
What is the status quo that so many vested interests as spending time, money and influence to perpetuate?
Who are those vested interests?
Any effective Degrowth theory of change has to include a persona of the forces in opposition, and their strategies for opposing.
Because the Degrowth story is a war of words, for control of the narrative that holds humanity together in society.
And in every war requires strategies and tactics for defeating the enemy. Which includes a clear identification of who the enemy actually is.
So who is working to stop the Degrowth narrative from becoming popular?
Who stands to lose wealth and power if the social narrative on being human in the 21st Century turns away from Growth and towards Degrowth?
We are in a sea of information about overshoot and danger, where, even if many more were in it, there's still the idea that one person’s little activities wouldn’t matter. The radical reduction of consumption and the deprivation on the material level that is demanded, even if everyone knew the danger we are in, would still be hard to sell, so then what?
TO BUILD A COALITION, what I see is that you don’t work on the systems, you work on the people. That would be #1. We are overdue to leave the rugged individualist model, to come into caring about each other as the family of humanity, all interconnected, that science in the last 100 years has confirmed we are. And we need a new idea about ourselves. We're not being punished for primordial sinning but are divine creatures in a divine universe. Just look at the heavens. And look at us. We are the only species not running on instinct, and, when you get that we are so privileged to be the universe’s miracle, really get it, you're on the high road.
Work on bringing that about, teach humanity (Brian Swimme is inspirational: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/brian-thomas-swimme), and then, doing the best for the world will be the natural way.