The 2020 organising team of the Degrowth Summer School Barcelona in collaboration with Research&Degrowth is excited to present our “Degrowth Talks – Unmuted” webinar series. It is the continuation of the “Degrowth Talks – NoBackToNormal” series organised by the UK Degrowth Summer School. In this series, we brought together degrowth in conversation with other transformative movements and practices to jointly reflect upon current struggles and strategies. Now more than ever we need to think about ways of building alliances for a more environmentally and socially just future!
Webinars are available to watch on Research&Degrowth YouTube channel and on our webpage.
In the first talk Global Protest – Another World Is Still Possible invited speakers discussed recent mobilizations for democracy and socio-ecological justice, their strategies, ideas, challenges, and connections. Presented perspectives include the climate justice and degrowth movements in Europe, the anticapitalist and feminist mobilizations in Chile, the role of women in the protest and uprising in Sudan, and a reflection on social movements in times of the pandemic. Speakers reflected on the possible pathways towards building new alliances.
For the second talk, Community Organizing for Solidarity speakers discussed community-organized initiatives in a context of institutional or environmental racism and neoliberal, privatized approaches to care. This panel explores the connections between care, anti-racism, and climate justice at the community level with invited speakers from various geographical backgrounds. Speakers presented examples of social solidarity networks and of decolonial and anti-racist community-organizing in both the Global South and Global North. In doing so, the webinar highlights the role of (informal) care networks, especially in the context of the pandemic, and give voice to grassroots activists who put “solidarity” in practice.
The third webinar Climate and intersectionality brought together academia and activism, where speakers reflected on aspects of gender, race and class in the climate crisis, and colonial continuities in both the climate movement and mainstream environmental discourses. How is (neo-)colonial extractivism challenged by people and groups that are usually invisibilized? Can degrowth align with decolonial, intersectional climate movements and support powerful inclusive narratives?