Practices of Conviviality
Towards an Abolitionist Degrowth
By Stephanie McDonagh and Luis Carlos Barrera
The third edition of our Deep Dive Online Courses is titled “Practices of Conviviality: towards an Abolitionist Degrowth”, taught by Stephanie McDonagh and Luis Carlos Barrera, with classes of 2.5 hours each Monday starting on April 13th till May 11th, from 5pm to 7.30pm.
Course format
The Deep Dive at a glance
This course brings together two proposals that have gained significant attention in recent years: Degrowth and Abolitionism. Both offer compelling theoretical and practical responses to the violence produced by the decline of late-stage capitalism, offering ways out of the multi-crisis.
The course seeks to explore and interweave some of the shared understandings and convergences between these approaches, with the aim of building bridges across movements and strengthening the foundations of Degrowth both as a theoretical framework and as a social movement grounded in militant practice.
The class will foster a space of mutual learning, where participants are encouraged to share their lived experience and knowledge as part of a collective process of reflection and transformation.
Requirements
Knowledge of the foundations of Degrowth; an interest, and ideally experience, in abolitionism, social movement organising, mutual aid and anti-punitive forms of justice. For an overall introduction to degrowth, check our course “Introduction to degrowth” on our webpage.
Target
This course is aimed at changemakers, students, academics and curious minds who want to explore what a Degrowth world would look like in practice from the point of view of feminist abolitionism. Both academic and non-academic knowledge, aquired through practice, militancy or lived axperience are equally welcome.
Class format and learning tools
The course is taught with a variety of teaching methods that include frontal presentations, and peer-to-peer learning moments such as plenary debates, facilitated discussions, and group work in break-out rooms. The course is not designed with an academic focus.
Participants should be ready to come prepared to class with doing the necessary reading, to foster active and informed participation and ensure a fertile learning environment for everyone.
Timeline
Classes will be 2.5 hours each Monday starting on April 13th till May 11th, from 5pm to 7.30pm (CET) .
April 13th – Laying the Ground: Foundations & Conviviality
April 20th – Alternatives for a Feminist Abolitionist Degrowth
April 27th – Organising for Degrowth: Mutual Aid and Degrowth Practices
May 4th – Justice for Degrowth: Transformative/Restorative/Communal Justice
May 11th – Closing & Integration: Visioning Post-Carceral Degrowth Futures
About the teachers
Stephanie McDonagh works at Research and Degrowth organising educational programs and facilitating networking spaces in the Catalan/Iberian and Mediterranean contexts. Since obtaining a Master’s in Political Ecology, Degrowth and Environmental Justice at ICTA-UAB, she has been active in militant spaces in Barcelona over the last 6 years. She is particularly passionate about exploring the theory and practice of care in mutual aid contexts.
This interest was initially developed while practicing Transformative Justice in a feminist mutual aid group in Barcelona.
She later developed its link to Degrowth via two workshops at the Zagreb and Pontevedra Degrowth conferences, with the collaboration of fellow partners and alumni of the Degrowth Masters.
With the desire to complement that work with a formal education, she completed a facilitation course with a Restorative Justice focus at Fil a L’Agulla.
Luis Carlos Barrera, from Abya Yala, has been militant in struggles againts the violence of the colonial regime for the last 8 years. His work has centred around the liberation of mother Earth and human emancipation.
He has been involved in student, peasant, and workers’ political processes oriented towards food autonomy, anarcho-syndicalist struggles and building prefigurative spaces to support the people of Abya Yala in the making of a new world. He’s an avid reader and a firm believer in direct action, mutual aid and horizontality.
Applications and pricing
Applications to the “Deep Dive” Online Course open from March 23rd to March 30th. Registrations will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. We encourage you to apply early to secure your spot. After registration closes, all applicants will be notified. Once notified, accepted participants will have one week to confirm their spot by paying the course fee.
Price
This online course uses a sliding-scale system
We want to make this online course accessible to everybody, in the spirit of solidarity and internationalism. to identify the fee that you fit into, see which category has criteria that most fits your life situation
This fee will almost exclusively apply to working class/low-income participants from the Global South and/or GS partipants who live in the Global North with restricted access to income or uncertainty around residency status.
- I sometimes stress about meeting basic needs
- My rent represents most of my income and my housing situation may be unstable
- I may be employed in the informal economy, or do seasonal work
- I struggle to access health care (in a country with no universal public healthcare), or I may not have access to public healthcare
- I have no access to financial savings
- I have no or very little expendable income
- I don’t have an inheritance
- I may be financially supporting one or more family members and sometimes struggle to support them with basic needs
- I cannot usually afford a vacation or to take time off without it being a financial burden
- I don’t usually stress about meeting my basic needs
- My rent is approximately 40% of my income, and I don’t have the privilege of choosing to live in my own place, or I live in the Global South either in my own property or renting in a wealthy area.
- I have employment and I earn in euro or in a higher-value currency, though I might work and live in a poorer country of Europe, or I’m on a high income in the Global South.
- I have access to health care
- I might have some financial savings
- I have some expendable income
- I may have an inheritance (e.g. my parents own their home)
- I may financially support one or more poeple but it does not prohibit me from meeting my or their basic needs
- I can go on holiday/travel every year without financial burden
* If your university/institution can fund you, please select this option. Use your own discretion to choose what amount to apply.
- I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic needs
- I own my home/ rent in a wealthy area or may have the privilege of being able to rent my own place without needing to share
- I am employed and earn in euro or a higher-value currency or I do not need to work to meet my needs. If I live in the Global South, my income may be comparable to, or higher than, an average wage in the Global North.
- I have regular access to health care, and I may be able to access private health care.
- I have access to financial savings
- I have an inheritance
- I may financially support another person/people but it does not prohibit me from attaining mine or their basic needs
- I have expendable income