Inspired by Pontevedra’s peripheral or semi-peripheral location within the geographies of degrowth, this special session asks: What kind of knowledges can be gleaned when theorizing and researching from a peripheral position, i. e., in less densely populated areas, that are not centrally located and/or well-connected to major urban centre? How can we theorise transformations and social change from the peripheries?
Degrowth scholars have recently started to engage more thoroughly with questions of transformation (Schmid 2019; Koch, 2020; Smith et al., 2021), planning (Savini et al., 2022), strategy (Barlow et al., 2022) and sustainability transitions (Vandeventer et al., 2019; Khmara and Kronenberg, 2020), but there has arguably been less emphasis on what this might mean away from major population centres. Indeed, empirical work has thus far tendentially focused on case studies in or next to major urban centres (though consider e. g., Guerrero Lara et al, 2023; Lehtinen 2018; Spanier and Feola, 2022).
Furthermore, there has been discussion around the most suitable spatial layout for post-growth, with some championing eco-villages (Lockyer, 2017) or searching the ideal scale for degrowth (e. g., Widmer and Schneider, 2018). Others (Xue 2014) have argued in favour of more ‘compact cities’, reducing particularly transport needs and therefore emissions. However, it appears clear that it is not feasible or sustainable to rebuild current infrastructures to suit such proposals, given that we inhabit a ‘complex system of stratified geographies’ (Krähmer, 2018). At least some of this work is concerned with finding universally applicable spatial configurations (Krähmer, 2022), rather than producing spatially situated knowledges (Kaika et al., 2023), that fully acknowledge conditions ‘not of our choosing’ (Smith et al., 2021) as the point of departure for radical socio-ecological transformation.
We therefore argue that peripheral areas, characterised by lower connectivity, lower population density and larger distance to major urban centres, deserve more attention by those concerned with degrowth transformations. This is particularly the case as these places may challenge conventional wisdom on how transformations may come about and/or be potentially more difficult to transform. For instance, transport and mobility transformations may be more complicated in areas with lacking infrastructures and decreasing populations. More sparsely populated areas may also make conventional modes of organising for degrowth more complicated. In which ways then are trajectories and narratives of transformation complicated when considered from the standpoint of peripheral zones? In which ways can we include such peripheral locations in strategies and planning for degrowth? What kind of practices and mechanisms have been or should be included for degrowth planning and potential processes of institutionalisation?
At the same time, the more limited academic attention to such areas suggests that empirically, transformative strategies or creative solutions for degrowth may be missed out on. More than representing a ‘complication’ for degrowth transformations, such places may offer empirical or theoretical novelty which may further enrich scholarship around degrowth transformations elsewhere, including in major urban centres. For instance, rural transport needs have been met creatively by demand-responsive transport, post busses and rolling supermarkets, potentially offering ways of creatively thinking with diverse spatial configurations. How may thinking-with peripheries challenge and alter dominant ways of thinking about transformation? What kind of grassroots innovations and/or planning decisions emerge that may be relevant for degrowth transformations?
We are three researchers from somewhat peripheral locations (Pontevedra, Spain) and (Jyväskylä, Finland), working in different disciplines and theoretical traditions. This open special session therefore invites fifteen-minute presentation from academics, practitioners and activists who are interested in the above questions. The session would last 2 hours and host five papers, followed by discussion. We hope to create networks, dialogue and resonances between research and practice conducted in and from peripheral positions.
References
- Barlow, N., Regen, L., Cadiou, N., Chertkovskaya, E., Hollweg, M., Plank, C.,... & Wolf, V. (2022). Degrowth and Strategy: How to bring about social-ecological transformation. Mayfly Books.
- Guerrero Lara, L., van Oers, L., Smessaert, J. et al. (2023) Degrowth and agri-food systems: a research agenda for the critical social sciences. Sustain Sci 18,1579–1594.
- Lockyer, J. (2017). Community, commons, and degrowth at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. Journal of Political Ecology, 24(1), 519-542.
- Kaika, M., Varvarousis, A., Demaria, F., & March, H. (2023). Urbanizing degrowth: Five steps towards a Radical Spatial Degrowth Agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency. Urban Studies, 60(7), 1191-1211.
- Khmara, Y., & Kronenberg, J. (2020). Degrowth in the context of sustainability transitions: In search of a common ground. Journal of Cleaner Production, 267,122072.
- Koch, M. (2020). Structure, action and change: a Bourdieusian perspective on the preconditions for a degrowth transition. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 16(1), 4-14.
- Krähmer, K. (2018). Geography matters: Ideas for a degrowth spatial planning paradigm–on Xue and Vansintjan II. In Housing for Degrowth (pp. 217-222). Routledge.
- Krähmer, K. (2022). Degrowth and the city: Multiscalar strategies for the socio-ecological transformation of space and place. City, 26(2-3), 316-345.
- Lehtinen, Ari Aukusti. (2018). Degrowth in city planning. Fennia, 196 (1), 43-57.10.11143/fennia.65443.
- Savini, F., Ferreira, A., & von Schönfeld, K. C. (Eds.). (2022). Post-growth planning: Cities beyond the market economy. Routledge.
- Schmid, B. (2019). Degrowth and postcapitalism: Transformative geographies beyond accumulation and growth. Geography Compass, 13(11), e12470.
- Smith, T. S., Baranowski, M., & Schmid, B. (2021). Intentional degrowth and its unintended consequences: Uneven journeys towards post-growth transformations. Ecological Economics, 190,107215.
- Spanier, J. & Feola, G. (2022), Nurturing the post-growth city: Bringing the rural back in. In: Savini, F., Ferreira, A., & von Schönfeld, K. C. (Eds.). (2022). Post-growth planning: Cities beyond the market economy. Routledge.
- Vandeventer, J. S., Cattaneo, C., & Zografos, C. (2019). A degrowth transition: pathways for the degrowth niche to replace the capitalist-growth regime. Ecological Economics, 156,272-286.
- Widmer, H., & Schneider, F. (2018). Neighbourhoods as the basic module of the global commons. In Housing for Degrowth (pp. 156-170). Routledge.
- Xue, J. (2014). Is eco-village/urban village the future of a degrowth society? An urban planner's perspective. Ecological economics, 105,130-138