The profound socio-environmental crisis of our current civilizational formula – with its emphasis on productivism, lack of attention to care and fantasies of sustained economic growth – has become a central theme in all our conversations. What perspectives, concepts, experiences and practices do we need to bring together to see where we are and how we can move through the crisis?

This course raises one of those perspectives: degrowth. Degrowth has been consolidating in the last decade as an approach that transcends disciplinary barriers and brings into dialogue ecological economics, social movements, agricultural issues, anti-colonial struggles, political structures and different cosmologies. However, it is very often presented as an approach canonically directed to the “Global North”. Faced with this, can we talk about degrowth in Chile and Latin America? If so, how and what implications would it have?

From the Center for Socio-environmental Analysis, with the collaboration of the Energy and Equity Working Group and the Just Transition for Latin America initiative, we will explore these questions in 6 modules, over 7 weeks. Each session will address different topics, moving from the socio-historical diagnosis to the visibilization and opening of possibilities for the transformation of our ways of inhabiting and co-creating worlds.

Modality:

The course has a horizontal learning approach and includes individual written work that will be evaluated and commented by the teaching team. At the beginning of the course, a booklet of readings and conceptual framework will be handed out to guide the discussions of the face-to-face sessions.

The synchronous classes will have a duration of 2 hours, will be from 11:00 to 13:00 hrs and will be held via Zoom platform. We will use the google classroom platform to share resources and conversations. A dedication of 5 hours per week is expected, including the two hours of lectures, readings and written work.

A certificate of participation will be issued to those who fully attend the course and hand in the final paper on time.

Contents of the course:

Week 1: Saturday, September 30 – Module 1: The persistence of the growth horizon and the global socio-environmental crisis

We will review the socio-historical transformations that at the global level have facilitated the persistence of growth as the cornerstone of the productivist, extractivist and colonial model. In the Chilean context, we will give special focus to the last years of neoliberal hegemony, with its continuities and ruptures with respect to previous developmentalist projects.

Week 2: Saturday, October 7th – Module 2: Principles of a degrowth perspective

How does degrowth respond to the diagnosis of the socio-environmental crisis? In this module we explore the fundamental concepts of degrowth, such as sufficiency, radical abundance, conviviality and limits. We situate them in dialogue with Latin American schools of thought and perspectives, understanding that degrowth in the Global North is post-extractivism in the Global South.

Week 3: Saturday October 14th – Module 3: Political economy of growth and degrowth.

We delve into one of the main critiques made by the degrowth perspective: the consequences of living in a fossil, labor-centric civilization whose social and political institutions depend on high levels of energy and material consumption. We delve into the often unexplored relationship between economic growth, money, and debt; and how it is linked to the social organization of time and care.

Week 4: Saturday, October 21 – Tutorials

Week without classes. Individual tutorials will be scheduled during class time with one of the teachers of the course to review the progress of the written work.

Week 5: Saturday, October 28 – Module 4: Alternatives and transformative ruptures.

We visited different antidotes to this civilizational model addicted to growth, which have gained relevance in the context of the pandemic: feminist perspectives, focused on the care of the commons, movements for the Buen Vivir and anti-colonial re-existences. We will also delve into alternative ways of measuring and understanding well-being and practical experiences of transformation in Chile.

Week 6: Saturday, November 4th – Module 5: (Inter)subjective dimensions of growth and degrowth.

In the last lecture of the course, we connect the themes of the previous sessions and focus on affects and desires in our current paradigm of scarcity. With this look we remember that the challenge of transformation is not “out there” but in our own feelings and actions.

Week 7: Saturday, November 11 – Module 6: Closing of the course

After individual mentoring and tutoring, in this session the final works of the course participants will be presented in an interactive format.

Teaching team:

Is made up of academics from the Center for Socio-environmental Analysis (CASA). Guest teachers to be confirmed

Coordinating Team:

In charge of communications, individual work and course material.

• Gabriela Cabaña: sociologist, graduate in social ecology and political ecology, PhD candidate in anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Part of Degrowth London and the Chilean Basic Income Network.
  Email: gabriela@centrosocioambiental.cl.
• Mariana Calcagni: sociologist, graduate in socio-environmental studies, master in environmental governance and doctoral candidate in sociology at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Co-founder of CASA and member of Common Ecologies.Email: mariana@centrosocioambiental.cl.
• Valentina Pineda: geographer, master in Urbanism and postgraduate in Social Ecology and Sustainability. Email: valentina@centrosocioambiental.cl

Fees

The course has differentiated costs depending on the applicant. There are 3 types of fees. All values are in Chilean pesos and payments will be received via electronic transfer before the beginning of the course to ensure your place.

Option 1: Full price (for people with income): $80.000. By paying this price you cover the basic costs of the course and make it easier for others to receive a half or full scholarship.

Option 2: Half Scholarship: $40,000. For those who require support and cannot afford to pay the full price.

Option 3: Full Scholarship: $25,000. For students and those who are not receiving income.

To access any of the half scholarship or full scholarship options, you must complete the box indicated on the application form.

Application: Applications for the 2023 course are now closed. Applicants will be emailed shortly

Please note: the course is fully delivered in Spanish.