Cities Beyond Growth is an adult education program that demystifies postgrowth concepts and translates them into actionable strategies, tools, and practices. It emphasises marginalised neighbourhoods, community-led transitions, and democratic city planning
We developed an open-source online course available in five languages. It invited participants to critically engage with post-growth urbanism, an approach that challenged the dominance of GDP growth as a measure of progress and instead centred ecological sustainability, social justice, and collective wellbeing. Each week, we examined a key domain of urban life, including housing, mobility, energy, digitalisation, food, democracy, and care, and asked: How can essential urban systems be reimagined to serve people and planet, rather than profit and accumulation?
In addition, we offered tailored modules in-person in five European cities: Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Zagreb, and Prague. The tailored modules equipped communities and local governments to design and implement post-growth initiatives suited to their regional contexts as well as fortify the local networks underpinning post-growth transitions. Next to that, we developed two key publications: The Post-growth Cities Educational Handbook and The Post-growth Cities Primer.
Through real-world examples, policy experimentation, and grounded community practice, the course offered both analytical tools and practical inspiration for those working to reshape cities from below and above.
In collaboration with: Transnational Institute, FUHEM, NaZemi, Oikos, and IPE – Institute for Political Ecology.
