Second IDN Quarterly Newsletter

Dear Friends, Members, and Allies of the Degrowth Movement,

Welcome to the second International Degrowth Network newsletter!  You will be able to read an update per circle.  Hope you enjoy it!

Our main highlights

Arguably the biggest event on our radar since the last update was the The 5th International Assembly of the Degrowth Movement, which took place on June 17th 2024 in Pontevedra, Spain and online. It was a transformative and convivial space, with lots of complex and productive discussions taking place. You can read more about the outcomes of the assembly here https://degrowth.net/assemblies/pontevedra-assembly-2024/.

We continued to grow our membership and are now up to 60 member organisations! You can check out the info of all our member organisations on https://degrowth.net/members/ - external link  

Our digital home, this website, is where you can learn about the IDN, including our aims, structure, and membership. It also serves as a hub offering resources both for and from our members.

Everything we do is only possible because of the countless hours of volunteer work done by dozens of people and organisations believing in degrowth. 

Circle Updates // Calls to Action!

In this section you’ll find updates sent in from the various circles that make up the IDN as well as individual IDN members, with lots of opportunities to get involved!

IDN Blog

Member organisations are invited to share their news and updates for the IDN Blog, a new feature of the IDN website. We hope that this will allow member organisations to share learning, pose questions and start conversations across the Network. Blog entries should be sent to info@degrowth.net

Each blog entry should include:

  • An author name (this can be an organisation)
  • At least one photo
  • Details regarding how the author can be contacted

We are also recruiting a blog administrator to format and post entries. If this could be you, please raise a hand/get in touch at the email above.

Design skills wanted!

There are some skills that could really help us out at the IDN!

  • Graphic design
  • FOSS Cloud/drive software
  • PR/Partnerships
  • Finance & legal

If you have any experience in the above fields please do reach out to info@degrowth.net :)

Degrowth Network Australia

They will be holding their second degrowth festival in November! Here is a little video from their first one. https://www.instagram.com/degrowthnetworkaustralia/reel/Cy0fj99rhOq/

Book Club

An IDN degrowth book club has recently formed and all IDN members are welcome! We will meet monthly to discuss and share ideas. The first book is MAKE CAPITALISM HISTORY by Simon Sutterlütti and Stefan Meretz.

For more information on how to access the book, and meeting times, join the Bookclub room on Matrix #degrowthbookclub:matrix.org

What is your narrative?

We want to spark the dialogue around degrowth narrative(s) so that the IDN can confidently share our vision. To help with that we would love your answers to the following questions: What is your personal degrowth narrative? You could think of it as your vision of the world and/or what you hope we achieve through degrowth. Can you put down in one sentence what you stand for? Maybe you have a slogan or mission statement.

You are free to use any format, but if possible try and use less than 100 words. You can also supply a link, but if it is for a large body of text we would appreciate it if you could provide a summary instead. We will use your answers on the IDN website. This may include sharing entire personal narratives. If you prefer that we don’t use your narrative in this way, please let us know.

Share them in the narratives room on Matrix, or by email to Jerome at jeroen@guts2trust.org.

Social Media Diffusion

Member organizations! If you are posting about an event on instagram, tag us and we will repost to stories 📢

European Circle:

The European Circle have continued to send out monthly newsletters, which can be seen here:

September 2024

August 2024

July 2024

Transformative Learning Circle:

They are in the process of developing a creative zine with content, proposed processes and activities for transformative learning spaces for degrowth, particularly to support the organisation of degrowth conferences given the critiques after the Pontevedra conference that have been heard here and there. Check out the Google doc here and get involved:

You can also read a summary of the outcomes of the Transformative Learning Spaces for Degrowth workshop which was organised in Pontevedra and makes proposals for organising future degrowth conferences.

Help a Degrowth Academic

IDN member Arwen has a questionnaire for her degrowth master’s thesis, for which she is designing an Intro to Degrowth course with a decolonial orientation. She’s seeking input on how college students in the Global North can participate in meaningful decolonial activity - fill out her questionnaire here her questionnaire here

Organising Circle:

The Organising Circle continues to be busy and running with little capacity. They are looking for extra support on specific things, whether you’re experienced or just motivated doesn’t matter! You can help with:

  • Finance – setting up our funding and finance guidelines and methods
  • Legal entity – exploring the options and how to start a legal entity in France.
  • Engagement - making the IDN engaging and easy to navigate for new and old members alike
  • Tech - maintaining our tech infrastructure, thinking of viable drive alternatives, etc.

If any of these sounds interesting to you and you have a couple spare hours a week, join the OC general room on matrix and drop a note saying how you’d like to be involved! Remember that the IDN is a co-created place: if you notice things that aren’t working well, help fix them!

Membership and Onboarding Circle:

The Membership and Onboarding Circle will be hosting another set of open sessions for anyone (but especially new members) to come and get assistance with anything IDN-related. We will be available to answer any questions about how to get more involved, how to use Matrix, or anything else.

The next sessions will be held on Thursday 24 October. The early session will be at 10AM UTC (12PM CEST) at meet.google.com/gcc-coii-rkj The later session will be at 5PM UTC (7PM CEST) meet.google.com/bfp-zcdo-nku

Practice Circle:

The practice circle has begun making connections with the ecovillage space, setting up upcoming talks with the Global Ecovillage Network as well as Ecolise, the European Network for Community-Led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability.

Become a part of something bigger (and smaller). The IDN represents a critical step towards uniting the degrowth movement in these rapidly evolving times. Your participation, whether as an individual or an organisation, strengthens our collective voice and impact. Together, we can forge a path toward a just, sustainable world.

Got questions? Like what you hear? Wanna get more involved? Feel free to respond to this email and someone will point you in the right direction.

With care and solidarity,

The IDN Team