Reclaiming sustainable space

Abstract

While degrowth debates typically encompass abstract ecological and economic arguments against growth, our study considers how degrowth-minded activism becomes interwoven with the production and consumption of space and place. Drawing illustrative insights from an ethnographic study in the city of Seville, our findings reveal a configuration of practices (accessibility, self-organisation, reproduction and conviviality) through which degrowthminded activism infuses urban life with non-capitalist processes and logics. Consequently, our work contributes to a paucity of studies theorizing the production/consumption of space in relation to broader processes of capitalist development. In doing so, we also promote a more humane consideration of the spatial dimensions through which more equitable ways of living are constituted.

City, Consumption and Interculturalism: How Cities Can Facilitate Consumer Acculturation

“…The interrelationship between city spaces and consumer identity has been addressed in recent years in marketing and consumer research. For example, researchers have underscored the role of city spaces in consumers’ identity work regarding sustainable activism and resisting capitalist processes (Chatzidakis et al, 2012; Lloveras et al, 2018; Vicdan & Hong, 2018;). Moreover, previous studies have highlighted the excluding and alienating functioning of city spaces, especially for consumers with lower levels of economic, social and cultural capital (Castilhos, 2019; Saatcioglu & Corus, 2016;).…”

Urbanizing degrowth: Five steps towards a Radical Spatial Degrowth Agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency

“…In recent years, debates on degrowth as a means to address the climate emergency received attention in fields as diverse as political ecology (Gezon and Paulson, 2017), ecological economics (Barca, 2018; Kallis et al, 2012), geography (Demaria et al (2019), anthropology (Hornborg, 2021c; Lloveras et al, 2018) and technology studies (Ibrahim and Sarkis, 2020). However, degrowth scholarship has not yet been able to find concrete and satisfactory pathways to operationalise these debates into spatial practices; or to develop tangible methods that can address the urgent urban and regional planning, design, and architecture issues related to housing, energy transitions, water management, or urban mobility needs under a climate emergency (Chertkovskaya et al, 2019; Demaria et al, 2013, 2019; D’Alisa et al, 2014; Nelson and Schneider, 2018).…”

The act of (de/re)growing: Prefiguring alternative organizational landscapes of socioecological transformations

“…intentional movements, eco-communities, social enterprises) (Böhm et al, 2015; Casey et al, 2020; Farias, 2017; Jarvis, 2019; Johanisova et al, 2013; Kociatkiewicz et al, 2021). Yet, while organizational scholars mostly focus on the social processes that build alternatives to capitalist organizations (Parker et al, 2014), degrowth scholars tend to explore how these same alternatives contribute to a degrowth-based economy respectful of planetary biophysical boundaries (Barca et al, 2019; Demaria et al, 2019; Lloveras et al, 2018).…”

“…The interplay between people and their biophysical environment is also a common topic in both debates (Heikkurinen, 2019;Nirmal and Rocheleau, 2019;Phillips and Jeanes, 2018;Skoglund and Böhm, 2020;Vlasov, 2019;Vlasov et al, 2021). Recent research in both fields has also focused on the role of space/place in alternative/degrowth organizations (Demaria et al, 2019;Lloveras et al, 2018Lloveras et al, , 2021Nirmal and Rocheleau, 2019;Reedy et al, 2016;Reinecke, 2018). In particular, the literature on prefigurative organizing acknowledges the importance of 'exceptional spaces' (Reinecke, 2018) or 'negotiable spaces' (Reedy et al, 2016), which enable personal transformations and allow for opportunities to act in novel ways (Casey et al, 2020;Reinecke, 2018).…”