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An open letter to the “post-growth” movement
Post-growth is described as a stance on economic growth concerning the limits-to-growth dilemma, i.e. on a planet of finite material resources, extractive economies and populations cannot grow infinitely. Post-growth advocates try to encourage, connect and further develop already existing ideas, concepts, technologies, systems, initiatives, and actions.
The vast majority of the ideology of “post-growth” has been developed within white dominant culture with a cursory (though mostly absent) acknowledgement of the destructive effects of European colonisation and continued extreme consumption of the Global North. It is an ideology centred in systemic privilege and the ignorance associated with that, and it appears to be unaware of its own privilege and ignorance.
For Giving Tuesday 2022, the Post Growth Institute published an article originally titled “80 Post Growth Organisations To Follow And Support” (as posted on LinkedIn and Instagram), listing POSSIBLE FUTURES within the article alongside powerful and influential post-growth organisations and initiatives who are overtly white supremacist and ecofascist.
We immediately responded in protest (LinkedIn, Instagram), pointing out P2P Foundation as just one example of white supremacy within the published list.
The Post Growth Institute removed POSSIBLE FUTURES from their article and apologised, later changing the title of the article, and issuing a public statement of acknowledgement that, as per our request, “demonstrates satisfactory understanding of why it is harmful to co-opt anti-oppression efforts by seeking to integrate them with colonial futuring”. The PGI’s full statement was posted on LinkedIn and Instagram.
The PGI had also requested to consult us for further assistance in identifying other problematic organisations cited in their original Giving Tuesday article.
We clarified that it is not as straightforward as going down the list of 80 organisations and marking each one as “acceptable” or “unacceptable”. There are fundamental Global North-centric outlooks and worldviews present that need to change. While degrowth is…
