Degrowth and the Caring Economy

The pursuit of endless economic growth is harmful, for the planet and for our health. Activists, policy makers and scholars all over the world are exploring alternatives to growth-centric politics, towards a vision of ‘degrowth’.

Together, we are rethinking and redesigning society beyond the hegemony of growth. We not only propose the redistributive downscaling of the biophysical size of the global economy, but also envision a new, feminist-inspired paradigm in the form of a caring economy: a socio-ecological transformation centered around the key values of care, autonomy and sufficiency.

June 2022Start Interparliamentary workgroup for Postgrowth

In June 2022, we took the initiative to establish a cross-party working group for and with parliamentarians from the First and Second Chamber in the Hague, that would function as a sound board, inspiration hub and an instigator of postgrowth thinking within national politics in The Netherlands.

March 2022Start article series: Responding to degrowth critics

Even though the effect of the ecological crisis is already a daily reality for many people living in the Global South, those who have an interest in preserving the status quo continue to defend why we need more economic growth in the Global North. In this series of articles, we respond to their arguments one at a time.

November 2021Publication of our Manifesto for a Caring Economy

We publish our Manifesto for a Caring Economy, which is a plea for caring as an antidote to neoliberalism. In it, we argue for a regenerative and provisioning economy in which caring communities are the foundation of a truly democratic and sustainable society.

July 2021Publication of Living well on a Finite Planet with a launch at the Barcelona Fearless Cities Conference

We publish our new book which is the result of a two-year exploration of the degrowth movement, merging planetary health thinking, feminist economics and fieldwork from Dutch caring commoning practices.

March 2021Publication of our research into the future of social security

Our new publication (in Dutch) about the future of social security in the Netherlands is launched! Based on our collaborative theoretical and empirical research with the innovation lab Novum, the book contains a rich bundle of insights about a possible new meaning of the term ‘social security’ – one that is built around values like care, reciprocity and trust. We then discuss a set of ‘building blocks’ and ‘transition paths’ towards a society that serves this novel understanding of social security.

March 2020Start of our research into Degrowth and Health

We kicked off our new research to explore what a degrowth transformation could mean for how we think about health and organize care. We dived into literature on degrowth & (planetary) health and conducted fieldwork to caring citizens collectives in the Netherlands part of NLZVE.

January 2020Start of our exploration of the future of social security, together with Novum (SVB)

In 2020 Commons Network worked together with Novum, the innovation lab of the SVB, which is the institution responsible within the Dutch government for national insurance schemes, to find out what the commons can teach us about social security.

Start Common In: An open manifestation on the intersection of commons and art

We start Common In: A half year-running project together Art Collecive TAAK on the intersection of commons and art. Common in is a process of collective imagination, where artists, organizers and participants together experience a commons-inspired world.