Format/Structure

Panel of papers and a discussion

Long Abstract

Rejecting totalizing frameworks of both capitalism and Communism, now more than a decade ago David Graeber gave us the gift of the idea of everyday communism, distinguishing “everyday” practices of communalism between people from the mythic communist ideals that Marxists have seen both in their readings of human prehistory as well as humanities’ future as Communism: the phase of classless, egalitarian social organization theorized to come after socialism. With ideas of how to organize human economic activity increasingly oriented around concerns of nature, we take the actually existing practices of what we call "everyday degrowth" as a source of latent political potential for new ways of living that center the ecological question, helping clarify the political power of often mundane human relations. Rather than seeing everyday degrowth practices as elements to design a utopian society projected into the future, the significance of these practices lies precisely in that they are carried out, sought after, and prioritized on a daily basis by many people in the here and now.

This panel invites contributors to think through the political power and potential of "everyday degrowth", from the mundane to the remarkable, from the rural to the urban, of everyday forms of escaping, eroding, starving, and confronting capitalism and instead embodying and practicing the many diverse forms of actually existing degrowth.

This Panel has 6 pending paper proposals.
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