In recent years, the topics of post-growth and degrowth have seen unprecedented development. Hundreds of academic studies, research projects, and policy proposals are emerging, seeking pathways to an economy capable of ensuring a dignified life for all within planetary boundaries. Yet, this debate often remains confined to academic circles, making only limited inroads into formal education, public discourse, or youth work.
We decided to bridge this gap – at least partially – between post-growth research and educational practice through the project Future Shift: Post-Growth Transformative Education project. The project was a collaboration between IPE and the Czech organisation NaZemi (lead).
The project had two main goals:
- to develop high-quality educational methodologies on post-growth for non-formal education,
- to foster connections and the exchange of experiences among those engaged in post-growth education across Europe.
New Methodologies for Post-Growth Education
The project’s primary output is the publication Transformative Education for a Post-Growth Future: A Toolkit of Methodologies, produced in English, Czech, and Croatian.
We piloted the individual methodologies in various educational settings throughout the project.
Ultimately, we developed 10 educational workshops covering a wide range of topics related to the post-growth transformation. They focus, for example, on:
- critiques of growth-oriented economies,
- the relationship between social justice and environmental sustainability,
- the links between masculinity and growth ideology,
- decommodification and ways to ensure access to basic needs
- post-growth entrepreneurship,
- cooperative and solidarity-based economies,
- post-growth policies,
- strategies for societal transformation,
- pirate care,
- eco-anxiety,
- systems thinking and working with complexity.
The methodologies combine principles of transformative education, systems thinking, and futures studies with specific case studies from around the world. Our goal was to create materials that are practical, accessible, and usable for educators, even those without prior knowledge of post-growth theories.
You can find the full publication and the individual methodologies in English HERE.
Gathering of European Post-Growth Educators
The second part of the project involved connecting people dedicated to post-growth education across Europe.
To this end, in 2025, Nazemi organized a nine-day “Gathering for Post-Growth Educators,” attended by 16 educators from the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Belgium, Slovenia, Finland, Slovakia, and Spain.
The gathering was built on the principle of co-creation. Participants shared their own methodologies, educational approaches, and experiences working on topics related to socio-ecological transformation. This created a space for deeper understanding, mutual learning, and relationship-building across countries and organizations.
The project resulted not only in a new set of methodologies but also in the seeds of a European network of people who believe that education can help create a fairer, democratic, and ecologically sustainable post-growth future.
The project “Future Shift: Empowering Educators for Post-Growth Transformation” was funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme.
