[Commlist] Commoning Beyond Growth - Workshop - Call for abstracts

*/Commoning Beyond Growth/*

*Workshop - Call for abstracts*

*Nottingham, 5-7 June 2024*

The threat of ecosystem collapse and the threat of extinction of human 
life and large parts of non-human life force scholars to explore 
strategies of response. The commons and a variety of growth critiques 
are two strands of thought for radical socio-ecological transformation 
that have become increasingly influential over the last few decades. 
Both strands of thinking entail the potential to alleviate the 
existential crises of our times.

The commons can be understood as a social practice of governing material 
and immaterial resources that do not belong to the state or the market, 
but to a community of users, the commoners. These commoners create 
institutions to self-govern resources for the collective benefit through 
the collective ‘doing in common’, i.e. commoning. Scholarship on the 
commons emphasises the value of the commons as a potent and desirable 
alternative to capitalist economies based on extraction and exploitation 
(Ostrom 1990; Bollier 2003 and 2014; De Angelis 2017).

Growth critiques have also become a focal point in various academic 
disciplines, and increasingly in social and ecological movements (e.g. 
Krenak 2023).  Growth critiques have operated, since the early 1970s, 
under a range of terminologies – including /degrowth/ (Georgescu-Roegen 
1971; Gorz 1980),/ prosperity without growth/ (Jackson, 2017), 
/post-growth/ (Soper 2020; Jackson 2021), /doughnut 
economics/ (Raworth), the /circular economy/ (Stahel 2019), and 
/eco-socialism/ (Foster 2000, Saito 2017). Debates have recently turned 
from making the case for the urgency of growth critique (Kallis et al. 
2020) to discussing strategic pathways to organise a future beyond 
growth (Soper 2020; Hickel 2021; Schmelzer et al. 2022; Barlow et al. 
2022; Göpel 2023). In May 2023, more than 20 European MEPs initiated a 
four-day conference, recognising on the highest political level the need 
to think /Beyond Growth/.

Over the last 2-3 decades literature in both fields (commoning and 
growth critique) has increased remarkably in size and relevance. 
Degrowth scholars typically point to commoning as a core value. Hickel 
(2021), Kallis (2018), and Schmelzer et al. (2022) argue that commoning 
constitutes a pathway and “central component of a degrowth economy” 
(Schmelzer et al. 2022, p. 217). Scholarship on commoning has so far 
largely abstained from explicitly engaging with growth critique. 
Recently, some scholars have made attempts to build bridges by bringing 
both concepts into dialogue with each other (Euler & Gauditz 2017; 
Helfrich & Bollier 2019; Great & Bollier 2020; Spanier et al. 2023; 
Euler 2019; Wittel & Korczynski 2023). However, a more systematic 
dialogue has not yet emerged.

It is high time for these bodies of literature but also for these 
movements to come together to develop a social force, see their shared 
direction and logic, and thereby increase their potential to initiate a 
transition to a post-capitalist world. Initiating a convergence of both 
fields is more than an academic exercise. This workshop will focus 
strongly on activism and explore pathways to increase their influence in 
the public sphere.

In the workshop, we will consider a range of questions concerning the 
relationship between growth critique and commoning, including but not 
restricted to:

/Political philosophy/political econom/y.  What forms of theorising of 
commoning throw up greater opportunity for an engagement with growth 
critical theorising? For instance, what are the spaces for symbiosis 
between commoning and degrowth when commoning is understood through the 
lens of Ostrom (1990), compared to the spaces when commoning is 
understood through the lens of De Angelis (2017)?  Similarly, what forms 
of theorising of growth-critique offer an opportunity for a productive 
dialogue with theorising on commoning?

/State regulatio/n. Is the state needed to facilitate a transition 
toward commoning beyond growth?

/Actors/. If there are important limitations in what states can do, who 
will likely be the key actors in a (social) movement of commoning beyond 
growth?  Are there key actors who may be important but whose voice is 
systematically marginalised - for instance, non-human species? Are the 
key actors likely to be oriented to the sphere of production, the sphere 
of consumption, the sphere of identity politics, or another sphere?

/The sphere of production/.  What are the opportunities and tensions 
regarding the possibility of a movement towards commoning beyond growth 
within the sphere of production?  Concretely, can production beyond 
growth be organised along principles of commoning?

/The sphere of consumptio/n. What are the opportunities and tensions 
regarding the possibility of a movement towards commoning beyond growth 
within the sphere of consumption?  Are producers or consumers the key 
parties to drive these movements?

/The sphere of identity politics and geopolitics (the Global South)/. 
What are the opportunities and tensions regarding the possibility of a 
commoning beyond growth movement within identity politics and geopolitics?

/The public sphere/: How can we spread the message? How can we deliver 
commoning beyond growth with hope?

The workshop will be held in Nottingham, UK: 5-7 June 2024.

Keynote speakers: Massimo de Angelis, Kate Soper

The deadline for the submission of a 250-word abstract in the form of a 
provocation is 15 January 2024. Submit abstracts with a very short bio 
to (andreas.wittel /at/ ntu.ac.uk) <mailto:(andreas.wittel /at/ ntu.ac.uk)>

Workshop Organisers

Dr. Andreas Wittel (Nottingham Trent University)

Fabian Maier (PhD scholar, University of Nottingham)

Dr. Heather Alberro (Nottingham Trent University)

Prof. Marek Korczynski (University of Nottingham)

*References***

Barlow, Nathan, Livia Regen, Noemie Cadiou, Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, Max 
Hollweg, Christina Plank, Merle Schulken, and Verena Wolf, eds. 
/Degrowth & Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological 
Transformation/: Mayfly Books, 2022.

Bollier, David./ Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of our Common 
Wealth/. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Bollier, David./ Think Like a Commoner/. Gabriola Island: New Society 
Publishers, 2014.

Bollier, David and Silke Helfrich./ Free, Fair and Alive. the Insurgent 
Power of the Commons/ New Society Publishers, 2019.

De Angelis, Massimo./ Omnia Sunt Communia: On the Commons and the 
Transformation to Postcapitalism/. London: Zed Books, 2017.

Euler, Johannes. "The Commons: A Social Form that Allows for Degrowth 
and Sustainability." /Capitalism Nature Socialism/ 30, no. 2 (2019): 
158–175.

Euler, Johannes and Leslie Gauditz. "Commons: Self-Organized 
Provisioning as Social Movements." In /Degrowth in Movement(s): 
Exploring Pathways for Transformation/, edited by Burkhart, Corinna 
Schmelzer, Matthias Treu, Nina, 128-142: Zero Books.

Foster, John Bellamy./ Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature/ NYU 
Press, 2000.

Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas./ The Entropy Law and the Economic Process/. 
Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 1971.

Gorz, André./ Ecology as Politics/. London: Pluto Press, 1980.

Göpel, Maja. /Rethinking our World: An invitation to rescue our future/. 
Scribe UK, 2023.

Grear, Anna and David Bollier, eds. /The Great Awakening: New Modes of 
Life Amidst Capitalist Ruins/: punctum books, 2020.

Hickel, Jason./ Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World/. London: 
Penguin Books, 2021.

Jackson, Tim./ Post Growth: Life After Capitalism/ Polity, 2021.

Jackson, Tim./ Prosperity without Growth. Foundations for the Economy of 
Tomorrow/. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Kallis, Giorgos./ Degrowth/ Agenda Publishing, 2018.

Kallis, Giorgos, Vasilis Kostakis, Steffen Lange, Barbara Muraca, Susan 
Paulson, and Matthias Schmelzer. "Research on Degrowth." /Annual Review 
of Environment and Resources/ 43, (2018): 291-316.

Krenak, Ailton./ Life is Not Useful/. Cambridge: Polity, 2023.

Raworth, Kate./ Doughnut Economics/ Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017.

Saito, Kohei./ Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the 
Unfinished Critique of Political Economy/. New York: Monthly Review 
Press, 2017.

Schmelzer, Matthias. "The Growth Paradigm: History, Hegemony, and the 
Contested Making of Economic Growthmanship." /Ecological Economics/ 118, 
(2015): 262-271.

Schmelzer, Matthias, Andrea Vetter, and Aaron Vansintjan./ The Future of 
Degrowth/ Verso, 2022.

Soper, Kate./ Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism/ Verso, 2020.

Spanier, Julia, Leonie Guerrero Lara, and Giuseppe Feola. "A One-Sided 
Love Affair? on the Potential for a Coalition between Degrowth and 
Community-Supported Agriculture in Germany." /Agriculture and Human 
Values/ (2023).

Stahel, Walter./ The Circular Economy: A User's Guide/. London: 
Routledge, 2019.

Wittel, Andreas and Marek Korczynski. "After-Progress: Commoning in 
Degrowth ." /The Commoner/ (2023).

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