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159/2/2024 iir ▷ cjir
LILIAN PUNGAS Inst itute for Sociolog y at Friedri ch Schiller Un iversity Jena , Germany
E-MAIL lilian.pungas@uni-jena.de
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3867-679X
ONDŘEJ KOLÍNSKÝ Czech Techn ical Univers ity and the Ass ociation for Int ernationa l Affairs i n
Prag ue, Czech Republ ic
E-MAIL ondrej.kolinsky@cvut.cz
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5966-3269
THOMAS S. J. SMITH Ludwig- Maximi lians-Un iversität (LMU), M unich, Germ any
E-MAIL thomas.sid.smith@gmail.com
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4381-9409
OTTAVIA CIMA Inst itute of Geogra phy, Univer sity of Bern, Sw itzerland
E-MAIL ottavia.cima@unibe.ch
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9236-6760
EVA FRAŇKOVÁ Ma saryk Unive rsity, Brno, Czech Re public
E-MAIL eva.slunicko@centrum.cz
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5874 -7690
AGNES GAGYI Univers ity of Gothenbu rg, Sweden
E-MAIL agnes.gagyi@gu.se
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8124-4530
Degrowth from the East – between
quietness and contention.
Collaborative learnings from the
Zagreb Degrowth Conference
iir ▷ cjir 59/2/20242
MARKUS SATTLER Leibn iz Institut e for Regional Ge ography, Leipzi g, Germany
E-MAIL m_sattler@leibn iz-ifl.de
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7253-291X
LUCIE SOVOVÁ Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
E-MAIL lucie.sovova@wur.nl
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003 -2906-2144
abstract
Whi le degrowth as a p lural and deco lonial movement a ctively invit es the
Global S outh to be par t of its transfor mative projec t, the current N orth-
South d ichotomy threat ens to miss th e variety of sem i-periphera l contexts.
Agai nst this back drop, we aim to cont ribute to dia logues on degr owth from
the oft en-overlooked ‘ East’ – spec ificall y post-socia list Centra l and Easter n
Europe (CEE). I nstead of bei ng viewed as a site fo r transform ative examples
and inspiration for degrowt h-oriented socio-ecological tran sformation,
CEE is of ten portraye d as ‘laggi ng behind’. Probl ematising su ch reductioni st
narr atives, this e ssay explores C EE as a lively and r ich site of postc apitalist
alter natives. Bas ed on two specia l sessions orga nised at the 20 23
Inter national Deg rowth Confe rence in Zagre b, we reflect up on insights
gather ed on various deg rowth-al igned tradit ions and pract ices in CEE wi th
a goal to 1) adva nce an equita ble dialogue b etween the glob al degrowt h
scholar ship and the Ea st, and 2) streng then a context-se nsitive degrow th
agenda i n CEE.
KEYWORDS degrowt h, Central an d Eastern Eu rope (CEE), qui et sustain ability, semi -
periphery, catch-up development, post-socialism
DOI https://doi.org/10.32422/cjir.838
published online 19 June, 202 4
Lilian Pungas et al
359/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
1. INTRODUCTION
Discussion of degrowth has grown in academic, activist, media and policy
circles
(HICK EL 2023; KA LLIS 2018; KING ET A L. 2023; MONBIOT 2021)
. Emerging principally
in Western European academia and activism in the 1970s, this controver-
sial ‘missile word’
(DREWS – A NTAL 2016)
has moved during the last two decades
from being alesser-known ‘activist slogan’ ( HANAČEK E T AL. 2020) to garnering
discussion in mainstream publications and even the European Parliament
(BEYOND GROW TH CONFERENC E 2023)
. As degrowth gains increasing inf luence and
reach, it is important to reflect on how the concept travels across different
contexts. With this paper, we consider the possibilities and limits of de-
growth from the perspective of post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe
(CEE) as aspatial/historical category and the ‘East’ as an epistemic and
performative category (MÜLLER 2020).1
Our understanding of post-socialism is based on the argument
made by scholars such as Aradau ( 2024), who contend that besides being
aspatio-temporal descriptive term
2
and acontested analytical dimension,
postsocialism is also asituated experience and amethod of inhabiting
and productively exploring contradictions. As amethod, post-socialism
calls for attending to the “messiness of the present and avoiding pronounce-
ments of either rupture or continuity” (IBID.: 3). Accordingly, our application
of post-socialism in this contribution “enables an exploration of socialist leg-
acies on multiple scales, expanding beyond state socialism and the Communist
International, and how these have (or have not) remained constitutive of con-
temporary radical and decolonial imaginaries of collectivity and political ac-
tion” (ATANASOSK I – MCELROY 2018: 277). While acknowledging that there are not
only plural legacies of multiple socialisms but also vast differences within
post-socialist CEE along various intra-European hierarchies, we apply the
term as an exploratory method that intends to pluralise (and problematise)
some of the tropes employed in degrowth discourse and related movements.
Our contribution draws inspiration from aconference session and
workshop we organised (titled ‘Degrowth from the East’) at the 2023
International Degrowth Conference in Zagreb, Croatia. Our own collective
positionality with this regard is hybrid and “messy”, as the East appears as
aplace of origin, residence and/or research in our biographies, which are,
however, also intertwined with Western institutions, connections and/or
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
4▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
funding. As agroup we thus seem to embody the in-betweenness associ-
ated with post-socialism: on one hand we are (at least temporarily) priv-
ileged as part of the academic class of the Global North (‘insiders’), while
on the other hand we remain ‘outsiders’ and embedded in our respective
Eastern contexts. The same applied to most of the 30 participants of our
workshop in Zagreb – many of the participants were from CEE but based
in Western countries, but persons with an Eastern background based in
CEE countries also made up asignicant part of the group.
The Global North-Global South axis is akey point of departure
for most degrowth discussions. It has been noted that most of the de-
growth literature emanates from high-income, Western European states
for whom degrowing their economies is aprominent topic (CABAÑA ALVEAR
GABRI ELA – VANDANA 2023 ; HANAČEK E T AL. 2020 ; WEIS S – CATTANEO 2017). Beyond this,
Gräbner-Radkowitsch and Strunk (2023: 4) identify diverse debates regard-
ing degrowth and the Global South in the current literature: the South is
often identied and recognised as “an origin of and inspiration to degrowth
in the North”; degrowth in the North is seen “as aform of decolonization of
the South”; and degrowth “also applies to the South in the sense that the South
should not follow Western development paths and (continue to) resist growth-
based capitalist development”. More critically, however, question marks re-
main over the applicability and resonance of the term in Southern contexts,
or even the neocolonial implications of amovement driven by Northern
scholars and activists displacing local frameworks and cosmovisions
(DENGL ER – SEEBAC HER 2019).
So where does CEE t in this schema? While there has been aprom-
ising evolution towards including non-Western knowledges in degrowth
theorising, this has tended to reinscribe the dominant North-South dis-
tinction that sidelines much of the world (KOTHAR I ET AL . 2019). In their review
of literature on degrowth and the Global South, for instance, Gräbner-
Radkowitsch and Strunk (20 23) include astudy undertaken in Croatia,
though whether this approach is adequate is by no means clear. When
Hanaček et al. (2020: 9) discuss degrowth ‘from the margins’ and the need
to go beyond Eurocentrism, they admit that Eastern Europe is barely pres-
ent in the degrowth literature. If the South has increasingly provided case
studies and borrowed concepts for degrowth, then it is clear that the same
cannot be said for the East
(CHERTKOVSK AYA 2019; GEBAUER ET AL . 2023; KOČOVI Ć DE
Lilian Pungas et al
559/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
SANTO – DOM PTAIL 2023). As Müller (2020: 740) writes, “unlike in the South, people
have not found in the East acause for compassion, global activism or asource of
alternatives to neoliberalism [and] environmental destruction”. The East has
fallen ‘between the cracks’ (IBID.: 735) in terms of epistemological visibility
and remains stuck in this in-betweenness socially, economically and po-
litically. This diagnosis condemns the mainstream Western-dominated
analysis and public discourse of invisibilising yet again the critical anal-
ysis that Easterners themselves produced about post-socialist crises and
their global connections (GAGYI – SLAČÁ LEK 2022).
While knowledge from the core sets the agenda, research from the
East is often deemed only relevant to context-specic ‘area studies’ and,
as such, “continues to be excluded from […] circuits of cosmopolitan knowledge
production and communication” (JEHL IČKA 2021: 1219). Aprocess of invisibilisa-
tion and exclusion has been noted, for instance, with regard to practices
of ‘quiet sustainability’
3
(SMITH – J EHLIČ KA 2013) in the peripheralised East,
which are often overlooked in favour of more explicit environmentalism
and frameworks set in ‘core’ contexts (JEHL IČKA 2021). Similar arguments re-
garding geographical biases and the overlooking of CEE in the literature
have been made in relation to urban theory, sustainability and climate
change (FERE NČUHOVÁ 2016, 2020; PUNGAS 2023). The East is marginalised or ‘oth-
ered’ as grey, uninteresting, backward, inferior, and non-modern, and as
aperennial learner and aregion of shortage (MÜ LLER 2020; C IMA – SOVOVÁ 2022).
With respect to ‘provincialising’ knowledge production but also
advancing the degrowth agenda on an equal footing, the following three
key aspects of CEE states demonstrate the necessity to thoroughly en-
gage with CEE contributions to the degrowth activist scholarship: i) the
expert knowledge of various stakeholders – including practitioners – on
the ground; ii) the experience with an alternative economic system and
the subsequent transition; and iii) aspecic position(ality) of liminality in
terms of identity and world politics.
Firstly, the region’shistory as adiverse hot-bed of neoliberal but
also simultaneous non-capitalist economic experimentation underlines
the importance of the respective ecological movements and reproductive
economies in (post-)socialist states
(GILLE 2007; JACOBSSON – KOROL CZUK 2020 ; SARR E
– JEHL IČKA 2007 ). This lived experience of Eastern activist-intellectuals but
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
6▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
also practitioners on the ground makes them experts with valuable practi-
cal knowledge that can be used in the degrowth transformations that they
aspire towards
(PUNGAS 2024)
. Johanisova et al.
(2013)
were perhaps the rst to
forge acontemporary link between degrowth literatures and CEE in their
study of eco-social enterprises and degrowth in Czechia (SEE ALS O DANĚK –
JEHLIČK A 2020). More recently, Domazet and Ančić ( 2019) demonstrated that
a‘passive degrowth’ attitude is prevalent in Croatia: “the specicities of sys-
tems of values and beliefs recorded in Croatia and the European semi-periphery
[…] show apotential alignment with ademocratic shift to post-growth oriented
societies ”. Meanwhile relevant cases have emerged in scholarship examining
Estonia
(PUNGAS 2024)
, Romania and Bulgaria
(VELICU 2019)
, Hungary
(STRENCHOCK
2021; SZÁKAL – BAL ÁZS 2021)
, Poland, Armenia and the former Yugoslavia
(KOČOV IĆ
DE SANTO – DO MPTAIL 202 3). From such work, it becomes clear that diversity is
the rule, not the exception, and that differences in socio-political systems,
histories and cultures require more nuanced approaches.
Furthermore, as in the cases of other semi-peripheries, the East’sre-
lation to global capitalist development has been conflictual, as it was torn
by internal tensions between those promoting modernisation projects in
the hope of benetting from them, and others who rejected them for their
costs. This has been the case for socialist development too, the specic
characteristic that set the Second World apart from other global semi-pe-
ripheries, and granted it its status of agreat power and political adversary.
The collapse of socialism, while happening largely along the same lines as
the debt-driven crises of African and Latin American import substitution
industrialisation regimes, had aparticularly symbolic impact. Globally, it
seemingly conrmed that there is no alternative to neoliberalism. Locally,
it induced acrisis of self-identication which many now argue has aggra-
vated the suffering of the transition crisis
(E.G . HOLME S – KRAS TEV 2020)
; (for
adiscussion of “change fatigue”, see)
(M AU 20 19)
. The grand erasure of the
East from global narratives of progress has temporarily succeeded in mak-
ing the memory of socialism as areal existing alternative system disap-
pear. However, as the ecological crisis makes the search for alternatives
ever more necessary, questions regarding the historical signicance of
state socialism, its ambivalent heritage, and the experience of neoliberal
‘Europeanisation’ as destruction of socialist reproductive infrastructures,
are becoming relevant to global debates.
Lilian Pungas et al
759/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
Finally, the East remains “too dierent to be included in the North, [and]
too European to be included in the South” ( MÜLL ER 2020: 740). The position of CEE
within, yet at the margins of, Europe, enables this region to provide valua-
ble insights that neither the Global North nor South has experienced. For
instance, far from being simply ‘othered’ victims and passive recipients of
Western-prescribed norms (as often claimed by critical scholarship), CEE
national actors did hold various forms of agency and did exercise power
in shaping the post-socialist era along with its nationalist and neoliber-
al institutions
(ARA DAU 2024: 6)
. Indeed, the concept of neoliberalism itself,
rather than simply being imported from the West, was co-developed by
economists, politicians and activists from both the Global South and CEE
(BOCK MAN – EYAL 20 02; CONNE LL – DADOS 2014).
Given this context, we note the importance of recognising the spe-
cic histories, fears and preferences present in CEE that influence how
transformative approaches like degrowth ‘sit’ in such contexts. While de-
growth’sprominence in Western discussions may serve as asource of jus-
tication of the concept for local movements in CEE which try to raise the
topic in public debate, it is crucial that degrowth does not become another
subject of catching-up with the West, as previously happened with ideas
like civil society and the market economy after 1990
(GAGYI – SLAČÁ LEK 2022)
or
‘alterglobalisation’ in the 2000s (GAGYI 2014). We view degrowth not as one
‘solution’ or totalising system, but as aframework which always needs to
be related to the local context. Context particularly affects how criticism
of capitalism and growth is perceived in CEE (for instance, advocates of
degrowth might summarily be dismissed as ‘Communists’, as they would
be associated with the prior authoritarian regimes). Furthermore, as the
region has extensive negative experience with forced collectivisation and
state-controlled cooperatives, in CEE the collective organisational forms
favoured in the degrowth literature suffer from alegacy which taints the
people’swillingness to countenance cooperative economic forms to this
day
(JOHANISOVA ET AL. 2020)
. This reminds us again of different legacies of mul-
tiple forms of socialism and calls for apluralistic, context-sensitive lens.
Post-socialism as amethod enables us to explore precisely this
pluralism along with its potential contradictions. Holding space for this
tension and carefully examining the contradictions opens the way to re-
construct them into productive and inclusive opportunities that would
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
8▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
pluralise our option space for pathways towards degrowth. While (semi-)
peripheral countries are often portrayed as fodder for extractive capi-
talism, we supplement this by asking how they can also be lively sites of
postcapitalist alternatives. We approach this inquiry as engaged scholars
who, rather than merely observing and describing these dynamics from
aneutral point of view, strive to support the degrowth agenda in CEE in
ways which consider and t the local context.
The following discussion draws on dialogues between the authors
and the participants of the workshop and thus represents apartial view-
point on the degrowth debate in CEE, identifying possibilities for further
discussion and research. Following this introduction, the piece is struc-
tured around four framing questions (Sections 2.1–2.4) which guided our
process, and which were drawn from the theoretical contributions pre-
sented during our conference session titled ‘Degrowth from the East’. This
is then followed by adiscussion (Section 3) which derives some general
conclusions as well as recommendations for further degrowth practice
and agenda in CEE. The four questions we set out with were:
1. How do we cultivate common languages and understand-
ings around degrowth in the East?
2. How can we counteract and overcome notions of catch-up
development in CEE?
3. Which practices that exist or have existed in the East are
potentially relevant for degrowth futures?
4. How can we build bridges and alliances between the de-
growth movement and degrowth-aligned practitioners on the
ground?
2. REFLECTIONS FROM THE ZAGREB CONFERENCE
ON ‘DEGROWTH FROM THE EAST’
For the sake of facilitating agroup discussion, we chose the world café
method to structure the interactive session.4 We had two rounds of par-
allel conversations (with each table addressing one of the four respective
questions) hosted by afacilitator and anote-taker. Each participant was
thus able to choose two of the four questions and share their views on
Lilian Pungas et al
959/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
them by discussing each one in asmall group for approximately 20 min-
utes at the respective table. We opened the workshop with abrief plenary
introduction, and concluded by harvesting key take-aways from each table,
which were reported to the whole group. In what follows, we summarise
and reflect on the results of the four respective group discussions (2.1–2.4).
2.1 CULTIVATING ACOMMON LANGUAGE
During the sessions in Zagreb, language took centre stage as atool that
can both connect and separate at the same time. While we appreciated the
opportunity to be inspired by the scholar-activist debates on degrowth at
the Zagreb conference, this also begged the question of whether the spe-
cic language used in regard to degrowth might be one of the obstacles
to reaching more people in the CEE region. The session started with the
question “How do we cultivate common languages and understandings
around degrowth in the East?” as we were concerned with identifying
acommon language for degrowth around which activists, practitioners
and organisations with different backgrounds could nd ashared under-
standing. However, the conversations at this table led us to rethink this
framing. Rather than seeking commonality or unity in ashared language,
the participants’ contributions re-considered the value of embracing adi-
versity of vocabularies undergirding degrowth practices. This recognition
stems not only literally from the diversity of languages used in the East,
but also from examples in which the use of language separates rather than
assembles members of possible alliances. Early during the workshop, for
instance, one participant reported the friction at aprevious degrowth gath-
ering where degrowth was immediately seen by activists from the ‘West’
as positively aligned with ‘communism’. Given that the understanding of
communism in the East is tightly connected with lived experiences under
the oppressive rules of Communist parties, such arhetorical move served
to distance rather than bring together potential allies. This was observed
even amongst activists from the East who strongly sympathise with the
concept of degrowth.
This input advanced the assumption that the degrowth vocabulary
might be in need of diversication and that the existing pluralism in de-
growth debates, as well as the interest in the philosophies, vocabularies
and practices in the South
(KOTHA RI ET AL . 2019)
, should be likewise applied
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
10 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
to the East. There can be no claims to strategies or vocabularies that per-
fectly align with each other across different contexts. Rather, context
sensitivity should be the starting point. The participants said that this
would rst require aform of genuine listening and learning from the East
as away to enhance or diversify the vocabulary – as illustrated by one par-
ticipant’songoing work in revaluing the ‘forgotten stories of yogurt’
(M U TL U
SIR AKOVA 202 3) in Bulgaria and Turkey. While valuing diversity was arguably
the most prevalent theme at this table, it also touched upon further di-
mensions that are worth reflecting upon. As these topics emerged during
aflowing conversation, there is no claim that these dimensions cohere
harmoniously. Rather, we acknowledge the tensions between these strat-
egies and encourage further examination concerning their compatibility.
How could arecognition of diversity (and perhaps aproliferation
of new vocabularies) be supported and achieved in practice? The discus-
sion indicated that degrowth principles might be particularly relevant to
specic communities in the East which in their everyday life are engaged
in avariety of degrowth-aligned practices or civic engagement (see also
Section 2.3) despite a) not always being well versed in English (the lan-
guage in which most degrowth-related publishing and discussion take
place); and b) often being marginalised or operating under certain nan-
cial insecurities. Integrating such groups into degrowth debates would be
aided by amaterial commitment from degrowth scholars and activists to
consider allocating resources (e.g. funding, organising accessible spaces
and meetings, translation) as ameans to support such groups. This would
enhance the possibility of hearing adiversity of voices in more equitable
dialogues, as well as mitigating the risks of appropriating the visions and
practices of others. The issue of appropriation not only concerns taking
symbolic credit for other initiatives’ or communities’ practices but also in-
cludes the possibility that scholars, operating in ‘abubble’, apply degrowth
labels to communities which might seriously question this label. The key
questions which arose here were the following: While frugal lifeworlds
are widespread in the East, should they be identied as degrowth-aligned
practices? Might they be underpinned by altogether different motivations?
Is it more appropriate to view them as the product of alarger history of
enclosing the commons? What would be the political effects of misrecog-
nising social exclusion as degrowth?
Lilian Pungas et al
1159/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
With the call to be attentive to Eastern voices, however, the conver-
sation turned to challenges which can arise with this strategy. In particu-
lar, aquestion arose around the possibility that the radical potential of
degrowth to imagine and enact possible futures is jeopardised by including
an even broader spectrum of voices. Admittedly, this broadening might
even have adverse performative effects, contributing to what one partic-
ipant termed ‘degrowth-washing’: that is, using the increasing normative
appeal and prominence of degrowth as away to legitimise questionable
practices, initiatives and projects in the East (or elsewhere). Negotiating
this will become paramount as not all vocabularies related to practices
of low energy throughput and resource extraction in the East should be
termed as (avoluntary, self-chosen) degrowth. This matches with wider
tendencies to stretch degrowth to aquestionable extent: With the term
degrowth increasingly cropping up in the corporate sector, it can be seen
how low-carbon trajectories might be compatible with continued capital
accumulation and exploitation of wage labour, thus contradicting the spe-
cic aim of degrowth, namely to imagine convivial, just futures.
Finally, as developmentalist visions are particularly powerful in the
East, the workshop participants also pondered the risks and possibilities
of re-appropriating semantic elds while imbuing them with degrowth
signications so as to leverage wider audiences and foster unlikely al-
liances. Concepts such as ‘innovation’ might be appealing even though
they are also lled with connotations related to catch-up development in
Eastern contexts (see Section 2.2 for more on this debate). To what extent,
then, is it desirable to imbue such concepts with new, degrowth-inspired
meanings
(SEE AL SO PANSER A – FRES SOLI 2021; SATT LER 2024)
? The concern here is
not only about importing terminologies from elsewhere (e.g. social inno-
vation, circular economy) and thus keeping the mastery of the North in
place. Rather, the discussion made it clear that it is more appropriate to
listen to, make visible and revalue existing languages and practices in the
East, and start a conversation about whether the current signiers of such
practices (such as ‘traditional’ or ‘backward’, say) are simply a reflection
of symbolic power differentials. Such framings can further marginalise
knowledge systems due to their association with the past. Such knowledge
systems clearly evolve over time, adapting to changing climatic, political
and cultural conditions (K IKVIDZE 2020), thus pointing toward more ecocen-
tric and convivial futures. Resignifying such practices as innovative might
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
12 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
open space for new alliances and economic interventions: New options
for policy-making, or leveraging nancial resources as a means to nurture
degrowth practices, may then also emerge.
2.2 OVERCOMING CATCH-UP DEVELOPMENT
The semi-peripheral position of CEE countries, along with their geograph-
ical proximity to the Western European core, makes for unique dynamics
of economic development. While the imaginary of historical delay or back-
wardness is common to all ‘developmental’ contexts, here the coveted result
is (seemingly) within reach, aborder away – it just requires alittle sprint to
join the peloton. In the context of post-socialist crisis, deindustrialisation
and marketisation dependent on Western investment, efforts to ‘catch up’
have dominated CEE’seconomic policies and imprinted themselves on peo-
ple’sself-perception. Therefore, the discussion question at this table was
‘How can we counteract and overcome notions of catch-up development in
CEE?’, referring to the struggle of becoming ‘one’ with Western Europe via
quickly boosting economic growth and implementing pro-market policies.
The abrupt transition from asocialist, centrally-controlled economy to lib-
eralised markets came to be known as ‘shock therapy’ (GHODSEE – O RENST EIN
2021) and resulted in avariety of post-socialist versions of capitalism ( BO H LE
– GRESKOV ITS 2 012). In this context, catching up gained ageopolitical as well
as economic signicance: the promise to overcome the economic gap was
tied to areturn from ‘Eastern’ state socialism to ‘Western’ market democ-
racy, and claiming arightful place within the European core.
This catch-up narrative dominated regime changes (LONG 2005) and
enjoyed alasting hegemony despite the social pain and rupture of the tran-
sition. In this process, catching up and the promise of Westernisation took
over the heritage of opposition movements, (see more about the concept of
“post-dissent”) (FEINBERG 2022), downplaying their socially critical elements
as amere tactic to overthrow socialism. Ironically, current opponents of
degrowth in CEE associate degrowth with the former regime rather than
with the opposition movements which set aradical subversive agenda.
Critical scrutiny of developmentalism is therefore key to reinterpreting the
heritage of socialism, its opposition movements, and the whole post-so-
cialist period.
MARK SACHLEBEN
1359/1/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
The post-socialist catch-up narrative is problematic in several ways.
Throughout the table discussion, there were expressions of critical reflec-
tions that are structured here into the following six central points (which
are also established in the respective literatures):
First, the ‘catch-up’ narrative pictures development as atemporal
rather than acontext-specic and relational characteristic. Instead of in-
dividual countries undertaking autonomous developmental paths at dif-
ferent speeds and in different directions, the global interaction between
countries and their diverging development stages impact the countries
through policies and trade. Accordingly, this means that convergence on
the European, let alone on the global level, may be an illusion ( H OF BAU E R –
KOMLOSY 20 00; MÜL LER 2020).
Second, CEE is not ahomogeneous block as there are internal cores
and (semi-)peripheries in it. As such, an analysis at the level of aregion or
even acountry may be misleading. Aggregate data will typically conceal
local injustices, with the pursuit of acatch-up trajectory easily backring
specically in these internal peripheries
(PÓSFAI – NAGY 2 018)
. Furthermore,
countries differ in their geographical and symbolic distance from ‘the
West’, which means that some of them enjoyed ahead start in the race.
Third, the catch-up narrative (re)constructs an older socialist identi-
ty that is supposedly ‘underdeveloped’ and anew ‘developing’ one to replace
it. This ‘doing away’ with the old selves in the East is rooted in aprocess
of self-colonisation and can dangerously reduce all economic, cultural,
and social legacies to outdated remnants of atotalitarian past (ANNUS 2017:
88; LOT THOLZ – M ANOLOVA 2023).
Fourth, in the ‘catch-up’ narrative, there is no consideration for the
Global South and its own right to development. CEE’sclaim to aplace in
the core is thought to be backed by history and should thus have prece-
dence over that of non-Europeans (KALMAR 2023). While catch-up development
is not necessarily aracist project from the outset, it is prone to suprema-
cist interpretations whenever there is aconflict between the interests of
Eastern Europeans and non-white others (N ICO LES CU 2 023).
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14 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
Fifth, identifying CEE as apart of the core that is simply lagging
behind, and deploying core-like policies, may result in selective blindness
towards and (unintentional) crowding out of various good practices on
the ground
(SEE, E .G., PUNGAS 2023)
. According to this logic, the West is promot-
ed as the universal place to learn from, while the East (and the ‘Eastern’
practices along with it) is (are) perceived and treated as something to be
overhauled (JEHLIČK A 2021; MÜLLER 2020).
Sixth and lastly, the very notion of ‘development’ stems from aprob-
lematic assumption about the universality of the Western-European eco-
nomic and cultural model, and is rooted in the colonial dynamics of pushing
other countries to follow the same trajectory as Western Europe (ZI AI 2015).
It is clear from the above criticisms that catch-up development can
easily turn into asocietal split between and within CEE countries (C HI R OT
1989; BOATCA 2006). Internal peripheries often remain left behind when they
bear the negative impacts of development (social, environmental), but gains
primarily flow to the internal cores. Conversely, people in the internal cores
may feel that others are not making asufcient effort to catch up and are
thus slowing down the whole project. Both of these frustrations are bound
to escalate if the catching up takes longer than originally envisioned.
The case of Hungary presented by Gagyi
(2016)
was brought up in the
discussion as amodel illustrating such divisions within post-socialist coun-
tries. It describes the political ideologies of the two elite blocks that dom-
inated Hungary’spost-socialist development as amirrored contradiction
between anti-populist democratisation and anti-democratic populism. The
rst denotes aprogram of Westernisation based on market liberalisation,
and carried out in the name of democratisation. When social groups hurt
by marketisation express their grievances, they are dismissed as back-
ward and non-democratic. Conversely, the competing elite bloc promotes
protectionism and development through national capital. Politically, this
promises to protect Hungarians from Western exploitation, unmasks the
ideology of Western democratisation as economically oppressive, and sup
-
plants this image with the one of national development, obscuring differ-
ences in interests between domestic capital and domestic labour through
references to organic national unity. While anti-populist democratisation
internalises East-West hierarchies by downplaying domestic populations
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as backward, anti-democratic populism uses the ideological promise to
overcome this hierarchy only to reenact it in the form of oppressing local
labour to enhance domestic capital’scompetitiveness.
One solution proposed in the discussion focused on a‘balanced
self-condence’: avoiding both the notion of the superiority and that of
the inferiority of the whole nation. This also means – and is conducive to
– not concealing the political and economic contents of policies with nar-
ratives of the nation’shistorical role. An inclusive reflection on develop-
ment policies and asocietal debate on what the desirable future economy
should be like (e.g. which particular sectors should grow or decline) are
more empowering than the all-encompassing ethos of either catching up
or preserving the national identity intact.
Another proposed emancipatory strategy was embracing some char-
acteristics as culturally specic rather than viewing them as belonging to
alower stage of development. This might include self-provisioning or vari-
ous infrastructures for collective needs satisfaction inherited from former
regimes (more on this in Section 2.3) and it would counter the economic
reductionism of one-size-ts-all development, allowing for aless prejudiced
discussion about local specics, habits or good practices.
Finally, describing some obstacles to development as structural rath-
er than culturally determined or caused by insufcient effort can have an
emancipatory effect. Astructural analysis of CEE’sintegration into global
capitalist processes can help us understand region-specic degrowth-com-
patible practices in their relation to the global economy, allowing us to
compare them with similar practices elsewhere, and think strategically
about expanding them. In this light, taking inspiration from and collabo-
rating with the Global South seems like aworthwhile alternative that can
be utilised while exploring CEE’sown development pathways. This calls
for widening and/or shifting the current focus a) from the Global North
as auniversal blueprint for development to global (semi-)peripheries and
their rich practices of coping with and resisting dominant economic forces;
and b) from nations as aunit of analysis to regions, communities, grassroot
movements and single organisations as indispensable actors and possible
allies in domestic political analysis and struggles.
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16 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
2.3 EXPLORING OVERLOOKED
DEGROWTH-COMPATIBLE PRACTICES
Building on local experiences, rather than providing one-size-ts-all solu-
tions, is strongly embedded in the ethos of degrowth. As the degrowth
movement gains momentum in CEE, debates emerge about existing local
practices which embody the ideals of frugality, sustainability and collec-
tivism envisioned in degrowth futures. As such, the third framing ques-
tion – ‘Which practices are potentially relevant for degrowth futures but
are overlooked due to their association with the East?’ – offered aspace
for acollective inventory. The participants shared their experiences of the
socialist era, of travelling in the region, and of navigating everyday life in
the East today.
Do-it-yourself and food self-provisioning have already featured in
literature discussing practices of ‘quiet sustainability’ and ‘inconspicuous
adaptations’5 in the East (FER ENČUHOVÁ 2022; GIBAS – NY KLOVÁ 2020; SMIT H – JEHL IČKA
2013) . Food self-provisioning in particular has come to epitomise a popular
yet politically neglected contribution to sustainability (and possibly de-
growth) by widespread and long-lasting traditions in CEE.6 Cultivating,
foraging and preserving food provides joy and social connections while
reducing dependence on monetised markets and increasing the consump-
tion of local and seasonal food. Similarly, constructing, reusing, and repair-
ing objects, infrastructures, and buildings reduces material throughput
while increasing the lifespan of materials and providing opportunities for
meaningful work. The workshop participants also mentioned sustainable
travel in the form of camping and hitchhiking as a frugal practice that was
widespread during socialist times and remains popular today.
While these practices predate state socialism and continue to thrive
after its end, the socialist regime created – intentionally or not – afavour-
able ground for their consolidation. Difculties in accessing consumption
goods during socialism contributed to strengthening both food self-provi-
sioning and do-it-yourself traditions, even though both have accommodat-
ed awide array of needs in different times in history, ranging from subsist-
ence and economic motives to self-fullment and creativity. Some socialist
product designs remain models of aesthetics, practicality, affordability and
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long product lifespans even today, while organised collection points for
spare parts and scrap material facilitated repairs and reuse.
Other practices directly promoted by socialist regimes also resonate
with degrowth ideas, especially with regard to the provision of universal
basic services (education, health, transport, and social security) and public
infrastructure. Sufciency and affordability were at the centre of socialist
housing design as well as socialist urban planning, with facilities such as
schools, transport links and recreational zones integrated into modular
neighbourhoods. At the enterprise level, socialist companies offered not
only employment but also leisure and recreational activities and vari-
ous types of benets (LIUH TO 1999: 14). Interestingly, some flagship capitalist
companies today are revisiting this concept by integrating recreational
activities for their employees into their programmes – albeit in amore
commercialised way.
Conviviality and collectivism are at the core of another set of Eastern
traditions, in particular the important (today as in the past) convivial mo-
ments that reinforce asense of community and trust. These include com-
munity and family celebrations, country fairs, as well as collective care of
people and the environment. Volunteer reghter collectives and options
for free-time activities for children and adults (e.g. forest theatres) were
widespread in socialist times and often withstood neoliberalisation. The
collective cleaning of public space and other similar tasks, known as sub-
botniki or Action Z(SEE CHASE 1989) emerged often as voluntary and bottom-up
initiatives and were later formalised as top-down requirements through the
structures of socialist companies. These activities had an equalising effect
by pausing hierarchies for the duration of the work, as everybody would
carry out the same tasks. In relation to collectivity, the greater tolerance
towards nepotism and informality in the East was also discussed during
the workshop. Western readings that frame the importance of personal
connections in social organisation immediately as clientelism or corrup-
tion might prevent one from seeing these as signs of interpersonal trust
and community resilience (THELEN 2011).
While contemporary and historical practices in CEE offer a potential
inspiration for degrowth futures, they should not be over-romanticised.
Indeed, framing parts of the social organisation under state socialism in
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
18 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
positive terms remains problematic, as these benets were overshadowed
by state violence and major violations of human rights. In relation to more
grassroots practices, some revisions might be required in terms of inclu-
sivity and gender equality. Furthermore, some practices – being rather in-
formal, ‘inconspicuous’ and ‘quiet’ – do not necessarily challenge existing
structures but instead work around them, and in some cases may help to
maintain power structures in place (PUNGA S ET AL. 2022) . Apart from raising
the question of their transformative potential, this might also represent
a challenge for intergenerational skill transfer if the youth is attracted to
more ‘vocal’ movements while the elderly remain cautious about explicit
political activism.
The nal part of the discussion addressed possible reasons for why
proponents of degrowth often overlook this richness of traditions. Within
the East, certain practices are refused precisely due to their association
with apast authoritarian regime. Collective projects are sometimes re-
ceived with suspicion, which echoes the past resistance towards communal
activities that were presented as voluntary but in reality were imposed in
atop-down fashion. These experiences, paired with neoliberal narratives
of individual responsibility, also lead to concerns that collective care will
result in a‘tragedy of the commons’.7 However, there are also some hope-
ful examples of reclaiming relevant practices from their past negative
connotations: for instance, the cooperative movement, while previously
co-opted by socialist regimes, seems to be regaining its ethos in recent
years
(JOHAN ISOVA ET AL. 2013, 2020)
. In other cases, though, there remains an
internalised othering,8 where local actors feel that good examples and best
practices need to be searched for elsewhere (mostly in the West).
The reasons for marginalising ‘Eastern’ practices are not necessarily
directly related to their association with state-socialism or the East, but
instead they are related to their developmentalist framing as ‘backward’.
Practices such as food self-provisioning, creative repair, non-monetised
mutual care and trust relations are often framed as remnants of tradition-
al (in the sense of non-modern), rural societies. If there is astigmatisation
of Eastern practices as Eastern, it intersects with other forms of othering
which see non-market economies, traditional forms of knowledge, informal
trust-based relations, the reproductive sphere and rural areas as inferi-
or to market, expert-based, productivist and urban visions of modernity.
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2.4 BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN EXISTING GRASSROOT
INITIATIVES AND THE DEGROWTH MOVEMENT
The prevalence of various degrowth-compatible practices in the East,
as discussed in the previous section, seems like apromising ground for
degrowth activists to learn from and engage with. However, as we have
experienced at multiple degrowth conferences and activist-academic en-
deavours, the respective communities of practice in CEE (whether in food
self-provisioning, workers’ cooperatives, social cafés or other activities)
have been largely overlooked by the Western degrowth scholarly/activist
movement. Despite various publications emphasising the urgent need for
alliances (KNO E 2017; BARLOW ET A L. 2022), with regard to CEE in particular ( SE E
GEBAUER E T AL. 2023), bridges between the degrowth movement and Eastern
practitioners on the ground are yet to be built.
Moreover, missing recognition is not the only obstacle. Even within
the CEE context – where such recognition may indeed exist – there is a
tension between the approaches and narratives of ‘quiet’ practitioners and
the degrowth movement: while the practitioners mostly prefer to remain
‘quiet’ in the political sense (i.e. they mostly refuse to be seen or present
themselves as ‘alternative’, ‘green’ or even ‘anti-capitalist’) (JACOBSSON 2015;
LEIPN IK 2015; PUNGAS ET AL . 2022)
, the degrowth movement is political by de-
nition. Considering the temporal urgency of striving for a socio-ecologi-
cal transformation and systemic change, the degrowth movement urges
us to consider that ‘there is no time to be quiet anymore’. Therefore, our
last discussion table in Zagreb addressed the following challenge: “How
can we build bridges and alliances between the degrowth movement and
degrowth-aligned practitioners on the ground?” It explored the existing
obstacles to cooperation between the two groups and gained insights
from the attendees, who – in many cases – did have valuable experience
in bringing both milieux together.
The most prominent obstacle voiced by the attendees was that of
‘different everyday realities’ that are not sufciently considered by – in
many cases, urban, young, university-educated and liberal – degrowth
activists, as they do not sufciently reflect upon their own privileges
(such as their legal, economic or educational status, citizenship or other
privileges). In addition, explicit political activism within the movement
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
20 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
might end up marginalising, devaluing or judging ‘quiet’ initiatives on the
ground for their mundane struggles, having ‘too limited afocus’ or not
being ‘radical enough’.
Furthermore, the more revolutionary and radical approaches of the
degrowth movement often reflect abstract theories that may not promise
any concrete benets or practical usefulness for practitioners. This might
be connected with different everyday realities, aspecic use of language
(e.g. Marxist terminology, see also Section 2.1), or the habitus of propo-
nents of degrowth (perceived as operating in an exclusive academic ivory
tower and/or as too ‘radical’). If these differences are not taken seriously
they will reproduce prejudices and alienate the two groups, instead of cre-
ating acollectively shared space for building alliances and joining forces.
Finally, as many scholars (E .G. JACOBS SON – KOROLC ZUK 2020; LE IPNIK 2015;
REKH VIA SHVILI 2023; PUNG AS 2023; JE HLIČK A ET AL. 2019) have explored, political and
civic engagement in the ‘Global East’ (and elsewhere) often manifests itself
in less formal and organised forms and rather ‘quietly’ in ‘everyday resist-
ance’. This by no means should make it less worthwhile or give cause for
its subordination by more explicit political activists. It is equally important
to bear in mind that in the East, political opposition was suppressed and
persecuted for decades, and leftist values around solidarity are heavily
discredited in the current political context. All in all, this might not allow
for the same radical and ‘loud’ anti-capitalist struggles as those within
Western movements.
As for the positive experiences and suggestions for future alliances
shared at this table, the rst idea voiced was to develop flexible and inno-
vative forms of collaborative action in which different stakeholders come
together with an explicit focus on shared concrete challenges and interests
(CF. GAGYI 2019). The mentioned examples included the Budapest, Brno and
Zagreb degrowth conferences (held in 2016, 2022 and 2023 respective-
ly), during which various social solidarity and degrowth initiatives were
actively encouraged to participate and co-create the cultural festival and
activist programme (e.g. self-care sessions, trips to activist spaces and
open space formats).
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Secondly, an emphasis on common denominators that touch upon
everyone’severyday reality and reproductive needs (such as food, hous-
ing, and mobility) has proved useful, expedient and productive for such
encounters and collaborations. It is also useful as acommunication strat-
egy for building further potential alliances and nding common ground
between stakeholders that – at rst glance – do not seem to have much
in common. For instance, during the discussion at this table and in our
own activist research (PUNGAS 2024), food emerged as an excellent ‘common
denominator’ as it can be everything at the same time: healthy, seasonal,
and tasty nutrition is ashared intrinsic value and motivation for many;
cooking and sharing food together serves as apractice for building com-
munity and trust; and activities around food offer acultural and educa-
tional exchange of know-how. Here, one encouraging example that was
mentioned was aseries of transdisciplinary events that brought together
food self-provisioning practitioners, food scholars and activists in apolit-
ically sensitive context in Eastern Estonia (PUNGAS – K ISS 2023).
However, such acommon ground (e.g. food or livelihoods in rural
areas) can also provoke discomfort and result in unexpected coalitions.
For instance, one workshop participant told us how apolitical action
that involved occupying the Polish Ministry of Agriculture attracted the
questionable support of aright wing party. This demonstrated the chal-
lenges of manoeuvring between an alleged common ground and broader
support, yet politically opposing particular ideologies and value systems
(this is comparable with the expressed concern about ‘degrowth-washing’
in Section 2.1).
Thirdly, embodied and physical spaces of encounter are essential.
Some participants told us that the rst post-socialist food co-op in Poland
succeeded thanks to acollectively shared place to pick up directly har-
vested food (and meet each other). Shared housing was mentioned as yet
another place to (re)connect with each other on aregular basis while en-
gaging in daily activities of social reproduction.
The nal reflection rounds concluded that shared physical encoun-
ters are necessary to enable grassroots activists to communicate the values
of a‘good life’ that lie behind abstract ideas such as degrowth, anti-cap-
italist struggle or food sovereignty. These values are often shared by the
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22 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
majority of people and serve as an optimal common ground for ‘building
bridges’ and getting different stakeholder groups to join their forces to-
gether in order to improve the concrete, tangible, practical daily wellbe-
ing and livelihoods for all. However, it is crucial to be receptive towards
the ‘other’ and their everyday realities – and accordingly use the appro-
priate language, offer flexible/creative formats and communicate values
that do not reproduce further alienation and division. Instead, providing
inspiring yet concrete examples of improved livelihoods while opening
space for genuine co-creation and addressing the mundane challenges of
the people seems like the most promising strategy – but only when done
on an equal footing.
3. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
As discussed in the previous sections, the main aim of this contribution is
to explore and make visible the degrowth-aligned infrastructures, practices
and know-how in the CEE region for international degrowth scholarship
in general, and for local movements in particular. As we are activist schol-
ars, our perspective on degrowth in CEE is not purely analytical – instead,
we also seek practical steps through which the movement can advance
its goals. With this in mind, based on both our world café discussions in
Zagreb, and the subsequent collective reflection process, we conclude by
outlining the main challenges identied and suggesting promising ways
forward.
3.1 DUALISMS AND BINARIES
Dualisms and binaries (e.g. Global North-Global South; East-West; de-
veloped-developing) in the perception of reality were arevolving motif
throughout all the tables. While often auseful analytical tool, they can
lead to oversimplication and polarisation along asingle dimension of
differences. It is therefore necessary for post-socialist degrowth schol-
arship to scrutinise dualisms and prevent these mental constructs from
reinforcing inequality and hierarchies (SEE A LSO AR ADAU 2024: 13). Throughout
the world café tables, three strategies appeared as ways of overcoming
binaries: i) describing shades of grey between two idealised opposites; ii)
nding third ways out of false dichotomies; and iii) nding unexpected
similarities, links, or alliances across them.
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One of the starting points and motivations for this paper is the
problematisation of the dualism between the Global North and the Global
South. Establishing the Global East as athird category (see Note 1) pro-
vides auseful umbrella term but still comes short of capturing the internal
heterogeneity of the region. And while building economic alternatives in
post-socialist contexts needs to consider specic local histories, nding
commonalities beyond this context is equally valuable. Analysing CEE’sin-
tegration in global capitalist processes but also recognising its own role
in shaping the developmentalist narrative (or “developmentalist illusion”,
see Arrighi 1990) is required for examining its region-specic conditions
for degrowth alongside those of other (semi-)peripheries. Notably, the
struggles in the Global South can offer inspiration in terms of analysing
existing power dynamics and identifying leverage points, while critical
scholarship can contribute to acritical examination of internal othering
and self-colonisation.
The temporal dichotomy between past and future presents another
dualism which is accentuated in CEE by the fall of the socialist regimes.
On the one hand, there is asplit between socialist and post-socialist, but
on an even deeper level, this is coloured by adivision between tradition
and modernity. The former two categories (socialist and post-socialist)
are different forms of (aspiring) modernity, but both are oriented towards
productivism and growth (BRKOVIĆ 20 22: 39). Degrowth sees itself as athird
alternative between accelerating globalisation and returning to traditional
lifestyles
(LATOUR 2018)
. But when the political socialisation of people is orient-
ed along the axis of modernity-tradition (or globalisation-nationalism), it is
difcult to nd amiddle ground unassociated with either pole. There is also
amissing vocabulary and creating an appropriate vocabulary will require
reappropriating concepts that are not associated with either of the two
poles (as, for instance, is the case with ‘innovation’ or ‘self-provisioning’).
Further dualisms appear in the political self-identication of individ-
uals and whole communities – including East vs. West, younger vs. older
generations, and rural vs. urban. For instance, the experience of regime
change may project into agenerational split. In its most basic form, it can
be described as anostalgia for socialism (e.g. the so-called ‘Ostalgie’, which
refers to anostalgia for the former East Germany) versus arejection of any
continuities with the former regime. But this is not simply amatter of age,
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
24 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
as older generations can be the most conspicuous critics of the socialist
past. Ashared coping mechanism of internal othering uses references to
the past but increasingly also to ‘Ostalgic’ compatriots who ‘can’t appreci-
ate democracy’ (GAGYI 2016). Such antagonisms are further constructed and
exploited by power coalitions promoting different economic and geopo-
litical strategies. In this situation, discussions about public services, frugal
practices or economic alternatives can easily escalate into aconflict over
the socialist heritage, modernity vs. tradition, or globalisation vs. national
values. Such cracks run across language, everyday practices, and political
subjectivities, materialising the accumulated traumas and socio-political
conflicts of undemocratic regimes, difcult economic transitions, and the
failure of capitalist developmentalism to close the perceived gap between
CEE and ‘the West’. Grievances over the unfullled hopes of post-social-
ist catch-up projects are also leveraged by political elites, for instance, in
neo-nationalist appeals regarding East European claims of belonging in
the Western club of white supremacy, which combine national pride with
anti-immigration sentiments, (for further argumentation and debate about
this, see) (E.G., K ALMA R 2023).
Once again, a middle ground which provides a critical toolbox for
analysing the strengths and weaknesses of both eras is only slowly being
formed by social scientists. Meanwhile, however, surprising connections
are already bridging divides – for instance, when middle class youth – who
are less affected by the culture wars around communism – pick up com-
munity traditions or engage in the practices of their grandparents, such
as foraging or DIY repair
(FER ENČUHOVÁ 2022; JE HLIČK A ET AL . 2020)
. For poorer
households, such practices have remained vital subsistence strategies
and, as such, have often persisted until the present day. These strategies
are deployed with varying levels of political interpretation, and therefore
context-sensitivity is essential. However, simply acknowledging and rec-
ognising the existence of a wide spectrum of motives and activities ( DA NĚ K
ET AL. 2 022) already works to transcend the polarising dualisms.
3.2 REVISIBILISING ANDEPISTEMOLOGICAL
EMANCIPATION
As discussed at the world café in Zagreb, various case studies from the East
demonstrate abroad variety of local specics such as certain mentalities
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2559/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
and practices of quiet sustainability that could be emphasised as necessary
and complementary pathways towards socio-ecological transformation.
This is particularly important with regard to the decolonial ethos of the
degrowth movement. Regional specicities and socialist legacies that are
aligned with the ideas of frugality, sufciency and conviviality should be
recognised, acknowledged and reactivated. As such, it is our task as activist
scholars to carefully (re-)visibilise and (re-)value them as socio-ecologically
valuable practices that demonstrate diverse pathways and possibilities of
other ways of living and consuming.
Revaluing these pathways can also help in nding shortcuts or al-
ternatives leading towards degrowth modes of living, as opposed to the
‘imperial mode of living’ (BRAND – W ISSEN 2021) – without having to undertake
the struggle against the already-entrenched growth ideologies confronted
by the degrowth movement in Western Europe. This is not specically to
call for exploiting the ‘advantage of underdevelopment’
(L IBROVÁ 1997)
or leap-
frogging, as these tropes tend to leave the primacy of the Western trajec-
tory unquestioned. The pathway is clearly not universal (that is, the same
for all) or linear (with predetermined stages in agiven order), and it is not
arace (the logic of ‘being ahead’ loses relevance in adegrowth transforma-
tion). The proposed shortcut simply means nding apathway relevant for
agiven national or local context. It would be based on following particu-
lar standards of a‘good life’ and focusing on the sovereign prioritisation
of various socio-ecological goals while engaging in an active cooperation
and conversation with the rest of the world. The West, epitomised in CEE
as the direction to follow, would thus lose its privileged position and its
status as apoint of reference but remain present in coalitions and good
practice networks on amore equal footing.
Against this backdrop, actors in CEE could promote region-specif-
ic practices and forms of quiet sustainability and civic/political engage-
ment, inconspicuous adaptations, existing infrastructures for collective
and frugal needs satisfaction as well as further cultural specics related
to how the natural world is perceived and lived with. These are all part of
the global transformation rather than mere add-ons to already-existing
Western concepts of sustainability. With regard to epistemological equity,
then, we join the scholars that argue for the East to also become aplace
where valuable knowledge and universal theories are generated (JEHLIČKA
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
26 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
2021; MÜL LER 2020; TRU BINA ET A L. 2020)
. Furthermore, it is important to recognise
how post-socialism, rather than being constrained to aspecic historical
period, constitutes apart of the global present and allows for extending
apolitical imagination (Brković 2022: 35). In order to advance these goals,
establishing alocally-embedded sustainability research basis within CEE
would help to communicate these frameworks both internally and with
the rest of the world, and foster locally embedded emergent collectivities
and political action.
3.3 PRACTICAL STEPS FORWARD
Finally, we want to propose some concrete strategies and suggest
some further steps that emerge from our discussion. Quiet sustainability
practices in CEE should be recognised within the degrowth community as
valuable examples of the ‘pluralist pathways’ towards apost-growth world,
and as inspirational models of frugality, conviviality, grassroots activism,
civic engagement and resilience. Hitherto, they have not yet been consid-
ered as full contributions to the degrowth debate. It is, however, crucial
to keep in mind that anumber of these practices appeared (or thrived)
under (or due to) the undemocratic and authoritarian regimes in CEE or
due to the economic hardship and political instability experienced during
the post-socialist era. Therefore, context sensitivity and caution are re-
quired when suggesting that they are exemplary. Brković (2022 : 42) argues
that while we acknowledge socialist as well as post-socialist failures, the
focus on and locus of everyday lives and practices allow us to avoid the
impasse of ‘either-or’ – between afailed experiment and ablueprint for
autopian future.
Revaluation of socio-ecological practices in CEE is needed not only
internationally but also within CEE itself, where neoliberal elites have
succeeded in framing technological advances as the single key to pros-
perity and sustainability. The region’scultural and social innovations that
actually match state-of-the-art or better-known sustainability examples
worldwide remain under-recognised or are framed as backward. To coun-
ter these narratives, astronger sustainability research network within
CEE could act as ameans of making the inconspicuous innovations more
conspicuous (E.G . CESCA ME 2024).
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2759/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
Furthermore, to achieve this revaluation of overlooked and fringe
practices, new local and global alliances need to be forged. Within them,
diversity and genuine openness should be guiding principles for avoiding
rigid and narrow denitions of sustainability. Even more importantly, these
alliances should guarantee an equal footing between scholars, politicians
and/or journalists on one side, and actual practitioners on the ground on
the other. Intellectual and political discourses on degrowth need to pri-
marily give voice and space to the practitioners rather than merely inter-
preting and representing them. With this in mind, participatory co-crea-
tion and co-design should not operate as mere spaces for self-expression
for the latter, but need to transcend current power structures and political
processes in an inclusive way.
In this regard, we consider it important to collectively reflect on the
aspect of ‘messiness’ and hybridity. Not only are our own positionalities
often hybrid/’messy’ (we are ‘in-between Easterners’ in the sense of being
privileged and outsiders at the same time, as discussed in the introduc-
tion) but so was our learning experience from the Zagreb conference. The
post-socialist condition seems constraining at rst, yet simultaneously it
holds potential. However, for this potential for degrowth from and in CEE
to materialise, we need to strive for an in-depth understanding of the ap-
parent contradictions and learn to reconstruct them productively into
future degrowth opportunities (Sovová et al. forthcoming). As Brković
(2022: 35) describes the challenge: “[it] is about guring out what else there is to
do after the utopian political project you pursued has failed, besides replicating
patterns of (ethno-)racial capitalism”. Our scholarly-activist realisation that
lived degrowth realities are often ‘messy’ and hold (alleged) contradictions
also opens up further space for mutual understanding and mobilisation
with both the South and peripheral groups in the West.
As such, we conclude with aproposition of afour-fold strategy to
pursue inclusive, decolonial and truly sustainable degrowth, both in CEE
and elsewhere:
Firstly, alliances are urgently needed between the degrowth move-
ment and the ‘deprived and discontented’
(BREN NER ET A L. 2011)
; this means
potential coalitions between practitioners on the ground (often impover-
ished and left-behind) and (degrowth) activist-scholars (often from more
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
28 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
privileged backgrounds) (SEE, F OR INSTANC E, PUNGAS – KISS 2 023). Describing this
necessity from astructural angle, Gagyi
(202 3)
also calls for connecting
community-based and mutual help practices with existing organised la-
bour movements (as important allies for degrowth activists in the region).
As ‘there is no time to be quiet anymore’ (areminder repeatedly voiced by
the CEE participants at the Zagreb conference, alluding to the concept of
‘quiet sustainability’), this strategy calls for abridging of the gaps between
these groups and ajoining of their potential forces.
Secondly, we argue that particularly the ‘Western’ degrowth schol-
arship and movement should be further re-politicised with regard to their
decolonial ethos, as they have hitherto overlooked certain regions and pe-
ripheries. For instance, our collective perception at the Zagreb degrowth
conference in 2023 indicated that the East remained a‘blind spot’ (it was
thematically absent, for instance, at panels focused on ‘decolonial de-
growth’) despite the conference itself happening in CEE. As activist-schol-
ars coming from or active in the region, we struggle with the dominance
of Western frames, from which the CEE region’sspecic capacities for de-
growth alternatives are hard to see. In order to discover and harness the
capacities of CEE, we plead for amore serious engagement with Eastern
specics, more conversation with other (semi-)peripheral regions and
groups, and areconsideration of Western examples – they should be seen
not as (role) models but as only one part of aglobal system. We count on
Western degrowthers as our allies and partners in this endeavour.
Thirdly, we propose to ll the abstract and rather theoretical no-
tions of degrowth with lived and ‘messy’ degrowth realities from the
ground (Sovová et al. forthcoming). Though it also manifests elsewhere,
this ‘messiness’ may be particularly relevant in CEE, where sustainability
practices are often imbued with aconservative, nationalist, or isolationist
ethos. Rather than rejecting such combinations right away and looking
solely for a‘pure’ degrowth in line with the Western imaginary, degrowth
scholarship should strive for amore nuanced understanding of practition-
ers and ‘imperfect/inconsistent’ examples on the ground and offer them
the epistemological equity discussed above.
Finally, we believe that the time has come for scholar-activists
from the East to further engage in and pursue aregion-specic and
Lilian Pungas et al
2959/2/2024 ▷ czech Journal of international relations
context-sensitive ‘degrowth strategy/manifesto’ for the post-socialist
semi-periphery. It seems to be of importance to collectively nd answers to
the following challenge: How can we resist the current destructive trajec-
tory and transform towards degrowth while building upon CEE’ssocialist
and post-socialist heritage? Our rst world café in Zagreb has initiated dis-
cussions on exactly these questions and we hope to pursue this endeavour
together with scholars, activists and practitioners on the ground in order
to nd regionally embedded pathways that would allow for a‘good life for
all’ in the semi-peripheral CEE.
Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
30 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
ENDN OTES
1 We primarily r efer to CEE throughout the paper, but a lso discuss it in relat ion to the
broader c ategory of the ‘ Global East ’ where necessa ry. The idea of aGlob al East as a n
epist emic space in c ontrast to the G lobal North a nd South, ha s been increa singly di s-
cusse d and debate d withi n the relevan t scholarsh ip (Müller 20 20; Cima – So vová 2022).
However, in th is contribution we limit the meaning of t he ‘East’ to the p ost-socialist
CEE while acknowledging vast differences w ithin this region. From the viewpoint of
world-sy stems the ory (Waller stein 1974), post-so ciali st Europe – or pr eviously apa rt of
the ‘Se cond World’ – has b een consid ered to be asemi -peripher y (Arrigh i 1990); hence
our refer ence to the Ea st as asemi-p eriphery th roughout th e paper.
2 In t he spatio-t emporal des criptive sen se, the term ‘ post-socia list’ is u nderstood a s re-
ferri ng to aregion (CEE or t he former Sov iet bloc) and/or an epoch (the pos t-Cold War
/ post-1989 era).
3
Smith and Jehlička (2013: 155) have dened quiet sus tain ability as “pra ctices that re-
sult in beneci al environmental or social o utcomes, that do not re late directly or indirectly to
market transa ctions, and that are not re presented by the practit ioners as relating directly to
environmental or susta inability goals.”
4 World café is amet hodology u sed to faci litate g roup convers ations. It i nvolves multi ple
‘tab les’ which gather togeth er groups of par ticipants, a nd each table di scusses apr e-
dened t opic or quest ion. Key point s of the conversa tion are reco rded by anote-ta ker.
Afte r adened per iod of time, t he parti cipants ch ange tabl es and bui ld on the previo us
discu ssions when de aling wi th adiffere nt question .
5
Ferenč uhová (2022: 742) understa nds ‘inco nspicuou s adapta tions’ to b e daily, rout ine,
hidden , habitual, unref lexive, and often “creative respons es which are developed outside
the frameworks of t he market, techno cratic expertise or gove rnance. They include invent ing,
sharing and repr oducing ‘home-ma de’ solutions or lowering one’ssta ndards of comfort.” A s
oppose d to conspicu ous and ofc ial strat egies, the y also encomp ass avariet y of infor-
mal solu tions and kn owledge.
6
O n food self- provision ing as a‘quie t’ degrow th pract ice, see Da něk and Jeh lička (2020).
For empir ical stud ies of food se lf-provis ioning in t he East, s ee, for ins tance, Je hlička et
al. (2020), Punga s (2024) on dacha economie s in Eston ia, and De cker (2018) and Sovová
et al. (2021) on, res pectively, sub sistence fa rming an d urban gard ening in Cz echia.
7
T he ‘trage dy of the comm ons’ is ameta phoric lab el and conce pt put forwa rd by Garre tt
Hardi n for situations i n which individuals have (free) access to co mmon and limit ed
resour ces and tend t o over-consu me them. Th is exhau stion then co mes at the exp ense
of acollect ive. This c oncept ha s been crit icised a nd challe nged by, among ot hers, El inor
Ostrom , who won the Nobe l Prize fo r her life -long work, wh ich she prese nted in her bo ok
Governing the Co mmons (19 90).
8
‘Inte rnal othe ring’ i s underst ood here as aproc ess throu gh which al legedly ‘ backwa rd’
region s, value sy stems and/or min dsets ar e compared t o more ‘moder n’ and ‘prog ressive ’
ones, of ten with in the sam e country o r society. In t his proce ss, the for mer are ‘other ed’
– perceive d as ‘deviant ’, infer ior, or maybe even ant ithetical to t he supposed and d e-
sired nor m and referen ce point (see also Joh nson – Colem an 2012)
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Degrowth from the East – between quietness and contention.
36 ▷ czech Journal of international relations 59/2/2024
NOTE
We are grateful to all our coll eagues and frien ds from the Poličk a Collective that have ins pired
this stimulating re ection process all along. We want to ack nowledge the support of Soph ia
Kevic and Noah Sute r in nalizing the bibliography. Moreover, we want to exp ress our ap-
preciation an d gratitude to all the partic ipants at our world café table discuss ions in Zagreb
for their valuable re ections and trust . Special thanks to Jo sef Patočka for co- facilitating the
workshop. Th omas Smith’sinvolvement in this collaborat ive project was support ed through an
H2020 Mari e Skłodowska-Curie Acti on (grant number 101029512). Markus Sattler’s involve-
ment was support ed by the Deutsch e Forschungsgemeinschaf t [SFB 1199, sub-project A02]. Eva
Fraňková’sinvolvement was supporte d by the project “Resilien ce of Society in Times of C risis
II” (MUNI/A/1510/2 023).
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Lili an Punga s is aresearc her at the In stitute for S ociolog y at Friedr ich Schil ler Univer sity
Jena wit h aresearch fo cus on food sel f-provision ing at the da chas in Esto nia.
Ondřej K olínsk ý is agreen tra nsition re searche r at the Czech Techn ical Uni versity an d
the Ass ociation for I nternati onal Affa irs in Pra gue.
Thomas S .J. Sm ith is apostdo ctoral re searcher i n Human- Environ ment Relat ions at the
Depar tment of Geog raphy, Ludwig-M aximi lians- Universitä t (LMU), Munich .
Ottav ia Cima is ageo grapher ba sed at the Un iversity of B ern, Swit zerland , who has don e
work on agr icultura l cooperat ives in Kyrgyz stan.
Eva Fraň ková is an ec ological e conomis t at the Depa rtment of E nvironme ntal Stud ies at
Masa ryk Univer sity in Br no, Czech Rep ublic. Her lo ng-term i nterests i nclude eco -socia l
enterp rises, lo cal econom ic alternat ives and deg rowth.
Agnes G agyi i s researcher at the University of Got henburg , and co-founder of the
Solid arity Econ omy Center in Bud apest.
Marku s Sattler i s based at t he Leibni z Instit ute for Regio nal Geog raphy (IfL) in L eipzig.
His res earch focus es on diverse a nd communi ty economie s in the South C aucasus.
Lucie Sovová i s based at the Rura l Sociology Group of Wageningen University, the
Netherl ands. Her re search revolve s around alt ernative ec onomies of food p rovision.
