South Warren’s FIRST HARVEST Just Happened!

Historic first harvest at South Warren Community Garden! Fresh peppers and chard went straight to neighbors’ doors. Next week will be even bigger!

https://urbanseed.info/blog/2025/07/19/south-warrens-first-harvest-just-happened/

#Degrowth and the Unmaking of #Capitalism

By Giuseppe Feola, Olga Koretskaya, originally published by Degrowth.info
December 7, 2020

"Our societies are facing multiple interconnected challenges, which include #ClimateEmergency, an unprecedented loss of #biodiversity, growing #inequality and #PlasticPollution. What connects these challenges is the underlying capitalist economic model, which prioritizes #profit-making over #wellbeing and requires endless #EconomicGrowth simply to stay afloat.

"Degrowth offers an alternative vision – it is a project of urgent and fundamental transformation. Degrowth requires reimagining our societies from the perspective of being profit-centred to being wellbeing-centred. This approach distinguishes degrowth from other, more compromising visions of transformation, such as ‘green growth’. But how can society transition towards degrowth?

"One idea that has become prominent in thinking about such a transition is that of ‘#decolonization of the imaginary’, a concept developed by Serge Latouche. This concept signals the need for a disruption of taken-for-granted ways of seeing the world, and their associated practices, rules and social norms. Decolonization of the imaginary questions deeply rooted beliefs about who we are, how we live, and about our place in this world. Are we merely self-interested individuals or are we also care-oriented members of communities? To what extent do technology and #consumption contribute to human wellbeing? Does our constantly expansive economy threaten human communities and the natural world?

"Decolonization of the imaginary has been an inspirational idea for scholars and activists alike. Yet, it alone seems to be insufficient to take us to fully grasping the depth of disruptions of capitalism that have been produced by initiatives such as transition towns, #permaculture farms, and #RepairCafes. Decolonization of the imaginary emphasises the symbolic dimensions of social change but it underplays the material dimensions of such change. It is also usually understood as an end point, and hence fails to help us to recognize – and learn about – what happens along the way.

"How can we think about the processes by which disruptions of capitalism occur in broader, deeper and more dynamic ways? Is it possible for us to better capture what is going on in concrete initiatives?

"In a recent article, Giuseppe Feola proposes that we think about the disruption of capitalism in terms of ‘#unmaking’. He suggests that an unmaking of capitalism is not only necessary, but possibly pre-conditional for a transformation of the magnitude and nature required by degrowth. ‘Unmaking’ refers to individual or collective actions of disengagement or active deconstructions of existing capitalist systems that ‘make space’ for alternatives. Such actions could take the form of a personal decision to limit consumption or to quit a high-paying job at an #OilCorporation. Unmaking can also be recognized in a #CommunityFarm that refuses to submit to market pressure to expand production and instead turns to a #CommunitySupported model to sustain itself."

Read more:
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-12-07/degrowth-and-the-unmaking-of-capitalism/
#SolarPunkSunday #PostCapitalism #SmallScaleRuptures #Polycrisis