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Contributing £ 17
Thank-you postcard
We will send you a hand-signed thank-you postcard with some nice Degrowth-themed artwork.
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> 28 Co-financiers
About this project
Degrowth policy proposals to stop the climate crisis and transition towards a sustainable, just and democratic society!
Show list of needs
Task
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Minimum | Optimum |
|---|---|---|
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Compensation invited authors
To pay for two external authors to write on the degrowth brief.
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£ 2,070 | |
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Compensation graphic designer
We will hire a graphic designer who will be responsible for the layout of the final version of the degrowth brief.
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£ 414 | |
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compensation part-time project coordinator
We will hire a part-time coordinator to organize the whole project
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£ 828 | |
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compensation editorial board
Our editorial board will edit and put together the different texts of the authors.
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£ 828 | |
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compensation language editors
We want to translate the degrowth brief into other languages (Spanish, Catalan, French) to locally and internationally reach out further.
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£ 828 | |
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Follow-up material and communication
After publication we want to organise some workshops with local stakeholders, have in-person and online panel discussions and create additional educational material.
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£ 828 | |
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New website
After publishing the degrowth brief we want to have it available to read and download for free on our website. Therefore we want to update it and make it appear aesthetically pleasing. We will pay an external programmer to help us with that task
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£ 1,656 | |
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Second degrowth brief
By raising another 6000€ we will be able to publish another degrowth brief to accomplish our goal publishing six degrowth briefs in 2023. With your support we can make it happen.
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£ 4,968 |
Infrastructure
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Minimum | Optimum |
|---|---|---|
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Fixed costs
Our fixed costs consist of office spaces and salaries of people directly or indirectly involved and who support the project.
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£ 828 | |
| Total | £ 4,968 | £ 13,249 |
Necessary
Supplemental
General information
What can you do?
You want to take effective action on climate, but wonder why the average global temperatures and carbon concentrations continue to increase despite the drops in renewables costs and increases in installations. You’re enraged why policymakers continue to subsidize and issue new leases to drill for fossil fuels while claiming to commit to emission reductions.
You’re displeased with policymakers limiting your personal and voting rights, increasing inequality with tax cuts for the wealthy while inflation rages out of control. You are thinking what kind of world are people already living in, and what will it be like in 5 years? You’ve questioned why we have made no progress to reduce global carbon emissions. You are beginning to realize we need to do MORE than to recycle or to make sustainable consumer choices. You are becoming aware of the fact that changes on the individual level will not transform this exponential growth driven system.
You’re brilliant because you suspect we need to degrow! You’re ready to join the fight with us at Research & Degrowth and your support will bring change!
What is degrowth?
At its core, degrowth is the idea of a planned downscaling of production and consumption with the aim of increasing human well-being, ecological sustainability, and social justice.
Degrowth calls for a future where societies live within planetary boundaries, with open, localized economies and resources equitably distributed through new forms of democratic institutions. The movement is aimed at high-income nations of the Global North taking responsibility for the majority of the atmospheric emissions, the current ecological breakdown, and the resulting climate-biodiversity crises.
Degrowth further brings attention to decolonizing debt, the ongoing displacement of indigenous populations from protected lands, and the exploitation of people and resources through unequal exchange with the Global South. They need to be liberated from the imposed development and growth agenda, so that they could focus their resources on their sovereignty and human well-being.
Globally, the patriarchal growth economy invisibilizes care and reproductive work and hardly compensates women, who account for most of the labour. Degrowth puts care at the center of our economies and aims for an even distribution of the workload among all genders.
Main features and goals of the crowdfunding campaign
What are Degrowth Briefs?
R&D envisions Degrowth Briefs as concrete and radical policy proposals backed by science-based academic research addressed towards a wide audience of policymakers, NGOs, social and environmental movements, and more. The overall goal of this project is to publish six issues of degrowth policy briefs to address issues such as the following:
- Degrowing resource-intensive sectors of the economy, such as the automobile, sports (FIFA?) or the fashion industry, in a socially just way.
- Rethinking broad agendas , such as the European Green Deal, the European Growth and Stability pact, or EU innovation policy, from a degrowth perspective.
- Building alliances between the degrowth movement and other movements such as trade unions, agroecological movements, environmental or social justice movements.
- Proposing implementation plans for specific degrowth policies, such as a Universal Care Income or Universal Basic Services.
The aim is to increase the reach, uptake, and impact of these briefs by expanding their dissemination and availability via open-source access on the R&D website. R&D also seeks to translate the publications into multiple languages.
Crowdfunding the Briefs
Your funding support is critical to help us to increase awareness about degrowth and to reach the goal of this campaign: to fund the development of two (2) Degrowth Briefs, rounding out support for the research, drafting, and publication of in total of six (6) Degrowth Briefs in 2023 (inclusive of funding support for the administration of this project).
Funding includes paying authors and editors, a special coach/editor specialized in policy briefs, preparing a dedicated website and printing a sample of the Degrowth Briefs, as well as having a dedicated part-time officer at R&D coordinating the project. Your meaningful contribution will help us reach our goal of raising €16,000 for this campaign.
Would you like to participate in the discussion around the Degrowth Briefs? Great, please tell us which topic you think the next two Briefs should be about here.
Contributions to our crowdfunding campaign on Goteo are tax-deductable in Spain. Find detailed information here.
Why this is important
- To address growing concern that current growth-based economic systems are neither sustainable nor just. Degrowth briefs will offer policies with alternatives to GDP growth in a post-growth steady-state economy.
- To propose concrete, actionable paths forward, clearly articulated for wide audiences, while informed by relevant evidence-based empirical research.
- To anchor high-level academic degrowth thinking to concrete proposals for degrowing specific sectors (fashion, advertising, military, sports, heavy industries)
- To gather industries' experts, academics and activists along with stakeholders to co-develop viable scenarios for implementing degrowth at their respective sectors or for high consumption lifestyles.
For sixteen (16) years, Barcelona-based Research & Degrowth has been a renowned academic association linked to research, education, and advocacy of degrowth. R&D has generated books, academic research and policy briefs, manages two Master's programs on Political Ecology and Degrowth, a summer school, conferences, events and workshops on degrowth. In 2022, R&D has expanded into a research and policy institute, a “think-and-act tank” that promotes degrowth conversations at the international level and offers policy expertise to transition and manage economies without growth.
R&D strives to bring scientists, civil society, practitioners, and activists together to think, imagine, discuss, and create proposals for sustainable degrowth. R&D supports and aims to maintain a diversity of degrowth strategies for achieving social equity and ecological sustainability, including:
- Grass-roots action and institutional interventions
- Academic and practical work
- Building alternatives and oppositions to environmentally and socially destructive projects and policies
- Local and international-level work
R&D presently operates with 28 active members in Spain, France and other parts of Europe and beyond. We have created an informal network with members in more than 40 countries.
Social commitment
Open data
Degrowth policies aim to degrow fossil-fuel dependent and climate harming industries and sectors of our economy while increasing human well-being at the same time. These policy briefs will be available for free and enable all interested policy-makers, NGOs or grassroots organisations to get active in implementing policies locally that will benefit citizens well-being in a sustainable and just way.
Sustainable Development Goals
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Sustainable Cities and Communities
There needs to be a future in which cities provide opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation and more.
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Responsible Production and Consumption
Responsible Production and Consumption
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Climate Action
Climate change is a global challenge that affects everyone, everywhere.