What post-growth activities are already happening?
The Post Growth Encyclopedia
So many aspects of an equitable, post-growth, post-capitalist society have already been conceived and implemented.
From the world’s 57,000+ credit unions, to the reciprocity-based Kula Exchange of the Massim archipielago and the emphasis on measuring Gross National Happiness in Bhutan, these practices, approaches, and ideas operate within, and often despite, the pressures of a globally dominant capitalist system. Such activities are part of a broader, often disconnected, evolving tapestry that is rarely acknowledged for its transformative impact in creating a thriving future within ecological limits.
The Post Growth Encyclopedia (PGE), currently in development, will be an online, searchable database of hyperlinked terms (examples below), seeking to celebrate and connect people to existing, cross-cultural practices, approaches, and ideas that can inspire a faster, more holistic transition to a truly sustainable future (one in which money, power and natural resources inherently circulate, rather than accumulating).
Examples
Concepts and Principles
Buy local; Seasonal eating; Passive solar design; Systems thinking; Downshifting; Volunteering; Ethical consumption; Co-housing; Potlucks; Anti-consumerism; Buen vivir; Place-based education
Models and Indicators
The Simpler Way; Degrowth/Decroissance; Voluntary simplicity; Gross National Happiness; Slowcialism; Genuine Progress Indicator; Ecological economics; Wellbeing manifesto; Low gini coefficients
Activities
Composting; Seed saving; Seed swapping; Donating blood; Car-pooling
Technologies and Methods
Composting toilets; Rainwater tanks; Straw bale houses; Solar ovens; Unpackaged products; Sociocracy; Talking sticks; Appreciative Inquiry; Asset-based community development; Open source appropriate technology
Events, Programs and Movements
Transition towns; Open source software; MakerLabs; Men’s sheds; Local Exchange Trading Systems; Playback theatre; CopyLeft; WWOOFing; Free Money Day; Creative commons licencing; community supported agriculture; Buy Nothing Day; Vipassana; Random acts of kindness; Peer-to-peer lending; People’s Health Movement; Dances of Universal Peace; Kibbutz; Zero waste groups; Freecycle; CC Salons; Esperanto; Go-Get car scheme; The Shed Online; Wikipedia; Appropedia; JAK member’s bank; Ithaca Hours; Gaviotas; Ozrecycle; Life Change Experiment; Ozharvest; Six Items or Less; No Impact Man; Auroville; Neighbour Day; Christie Walk; Mondgragon Corporation; Via Campesina; 100 thing challenge; The Small School; Renew Newcastle; 106 acre challenge; Walking school bus; Bolivia’s ‘Mother Earth’ law; Berkshares; Bioviva; The Compassion Project; Pre-school philosophy; The Food Forest; Landshare Australia; Garage sale trail; Cartoneando