The organizing team behind the Degrowth Summer School 2020, like many educational and non-profit initiatives, has also been trying to assess and respond to the rapidly changing social and economic situation affecting individuals and systems on a global scale due to the coronavirus pandemic. The social justice implications of the lockdown and self-isolation measures implemented in many places across the globe are certainly worrying. A reflection on the pandemic from a degrowth perspective can be found here.

The summer school has customarily been taking place in late June- early July. Due to continuously evolving circumstances and an impossibility to predict what social and educational projects will look like over what could realistically be a timeline of a few months, and to honor the gravity of the emerging crisis in the most vulnerable sectors of the population, we are postponing the call as well as the actual summer school. The pandemic highlights the cracks in the system brought about by decades of neoliberal, capitalist, extractivist, individualist policies and the fallout is projected to be tremendous. In times like these it is crucial to highlight alternatives to narratives, social, political and economic ways of organizing society and the summer school aims to be a part of this coming political project in a meaningful way.

We are planning to update the page with relevant information as soon as it is realistic and useful to do so. In the meantime, the summer school organizing team would like to thank you  for your interest in this project and to send to all our intentions of hope, resilience, solidarity and strength.

— The Degrowth Summer School 2020 Organizing Team

Please direct email inquiries to degrowthsummerschool@tutanota.com.