(Article written O Caracol Summer 2025 — the quarterly newsletter of the Degrowth Network)

In January 2024, following a friend’s tip, I walked through a door on a street in Lisbon and climbed two flights of stairs with no signs whatsoever. In an attic, a handful of people were gathered around a table. I’d caught a hitchhiking along the paths of Degrowth! After more than a year of meetings, readings, ideas and—above all—conversations, I still don’t quite know where we’re heading on this journey; but, as with hitchhiking, the company and the experience have been what mattered most.

For those who aren’t familiar with the topic, Degrowth is one of several notions that, with optimism, point to ways forward from the apparent crossroads between improving the quality of life and respecting the planet’s limited resources. In the case of Degrowth, the idea is to self-limit our material needs to levels below today’s—and, very importantly though paradoxically, to do so while increasing our quality of life.

One feature of this Degrowth journey—which was formally defined as a word and concept in France in the 1980s and today has members all over the world—is that, in truth, it feels to me as old as all of us. It’s the idea that each of us likes to use only what we need, not because we are forced to, but because it helps us learn and know ourselves by focusing on what is important.

After a few months I realized that the people who gave me a lift into the Degrowth Network in Portugal, up in that attic—and others who introduced me to the International Network—are in this too without really knowing where we are going, with no leaders or a rigid structure. We like to be together, or to think together, because the alternative is to be more alone, without the energy of others.

Many are writing master’s and PhD thesis; several are writing books or scientific articles. More than 1,300 people were in Oslo in July at an international conference on the topic. There are groups on five continents enriching Degrowth with such diverse perspectives. Some want to change everything right now; others want to integrate much of what already exists or is being thought through in other movements. Some think Degrowth should be communicated as a purely economic proposal; others see it as a way of life to apply to everything we do. It’s hard to keep up—and to align our own view with everything that’s happening… but without leaders or formal structures we are free, as in hitchhiking, to take unexpected routes, without GPS or any rush to arrive.

If you’d like to know more, use the resources available—but above all, ask where you can catch a lift near you. Chances are someone is already on the way!

Degrowth Network in Portugal
www.decrescimento.pt/
How to learn more: subscribe to the quarterly newsletter on the website

International Degrowth Network
degrowth.net/
How to learn more: also subscribe to the quarterly newsletter here