The Danish De-growth Network / NOAH - Friends of the Earth Denmark

A workshop on the issue of de-growth was held at the Danish Social Forum in 2007. This was the onset for creating a de-growth network, that has slowly sprouted since then and led to the founding of the Danish De-growth Network.

The constant and somewhat manic striving towards economic growth has resulted in increasing ecological destruction and “social erosion”, which cries for alternatives to the current growth-paradigm. The present food-price-crisis, global warming, and growing social inequality are all symptoms proving that something is essentially wrong with the way our society is structured. But although the problems are strikingly visible, the causes behind them seem less apparent.

For the Danish De-growth Network, it is clear that the devastating environmental problems that we are facing are the result of a blind and unquestioned striving for economic growth. Our goal is to promote possible solutions and alternatives to the present cultural and societal derailment.

Focus and work of the Danish De-growth Network run along following lines:

• to understand why we are caught in the “claws” of economic growth, so as to steer our action and search for alternatives.

• to define the concept of ‘de-growth’, and determine its relevance from a local, national and international perspective.

• to initiate an international de-growth network.

• to engage in discussions of how the Danish De-growth Network, along with international de-growth movements, ought to be understood in a wider historical context.

• to envision and develop ways of moving beyond the current growth-paradigm, and how to push for genuine and long-term societal and human development.

We are at present working on an anthology. The idea is to define the concept of de-growth clearly for a wider audience of non-initiated, by showing how the current growth paradigm is contributing to increased pollution, unhealthy food systems, deterioration of livelihoods and working conditions for current and future generations, increasing inequality, illnesses and stress, as well undemocratic practices, that undermine the development and evolution of dignified human society. The idea is also to emphasise the necessity to bring forward practical and conceptual alternatives.