Green Tease: launch of the creative degrowth network Scotland

Join the launch of Scotland’s Creative Degrowth Network where we bring together people from both creative and environmental sectors to learn more about this new network. Over the course of an afternoon, we’ll expand our knowledge on degrowth and what it means for Scotland. We’ll explore the role of culture, and how we can use it to tell positive post-growth stories in our communities.

At the root of the climate emergency is a crisis of political imagination. Our current political and societal structures are limited in what they can achieve. Economic and societal systems are currently driving the climate crisis in pursuit of profit and power: systems where we have been conditioned to value GDP and economic growth at the cost of people and planet.

Our planet does not have the resources for endless growth, and neither is endless growth working for people, creating an immensely inequitable distribution of wealth. We need radical, collective visions of alternative futures to drive transformative action. Art and culture can help us rethink the systems we have created. This is why we have created the Creative Degrowth Network Scotland, and we want you to take part!

With the launch of this network we aim to challenge and reframe the dominant narratives that have been driving the climate crisis. We aim to build stronger connections between cultural, climate, economic and community professionals in order to develop this urgent work towards a sustainable future. The afternoon will include contributions from Enough! Scotland, and Rachel Grant, Programme Manager at the Barn. You will also hear from members of the network and get a chance to form its future. Together we ask: How can culture play its full role in the necessary transformation of society?

Online participation

We hope you will be able to attend in person, but for those who cannot do so, the event will be available as a live stream on YouTube, where viewers will be able to ask questions and participate via the chat function. This will be hosted on Choirs for Climate’s YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/@choirsforclimate which you just click on to attend. A recording of the live stream will be available after the event.

If you are unable to attend or would like more information, you can join the network by emailing [email protected] and we will keep you updated with all future events and news.

The event is and is a part of Creative Carbon Scotlands Green Tease programme that promotes how the arts and culture can transform society in response to climate change.

Luke Devlin

Luke Devlin is a human ecologist and degrowth advocate. He is Executive Director of the Centre for Human Ecology, and a member of the Enough! Scotland collective. He serves as co-editor of the LESS journal of Degrowth in Scotland and as a broadcaster, writer and commentator on social and current affairs, including as a regular contributor to BBC Radio Scotland’s Thought for the Day. Luke will give a talk with the title: Mutual flourishing for Creatives: how to live well within planetary boundaries: There should be enough for everyone to live well, in dignified sufficiency within healthy bioregions. Industrial civilisation as we know it, however, is based on an impossible promise: that of never-ending economic growth. The impacts and consequences of this idea are testing the limits of survivability on our one precious Earth. Using insights from degrowth, human ecology, and by exploring forms of traditional knowledge, we’ll explore together how to create lifeways that nurture, regenerate and restore self, community and ecosystems- and to create art and culture to inspire, provoke and encourage that vision.

Rachel Grant

Rachel Grant [she/her] is the Programme Manager (Projects and Communities) at the Barn, a multi-arts organisation in Aberdeenshire that develops and delivers creative projects, programmes and learning spaces to create conditions for artists and communities to connect, observe and rethink our relationship to the natural world made possible by the evolving environmental crisis.

She leads on The Far Orchard and Plenty? a festival of more and less. The Far Orchard is a long-term project that connects living systems, food and communities by rethinking a traditional apple orchard. Developed by artists Jo Hodges and Robbie Coleman in collaboration with the Barn. You can read a case study about the Far Orchard by Creative Carbon Scotland here.

Mairi McFadyen

Mairi McFadyen is a freelancer and creative collaborator. Her practice is informed by her background in creative ethnology and in human ecology; both share an emphasis on active engagement and change-making informed by critical scholarship. Mairi is a collaborator with the Enough! Collective, exploring ideas and action around degrowth in a Scottish context. She has brought these ideas into various arts, creative and educational projects including Tobar an Dualchais: Creative Connections, Atlas Arts School of Plural Futures and most recently, A Fragile Correspondence, commissioned by the Scotland+Venice partnership and curated by the Architecture Fringe, -ism, and /other, exploring alternative perspectives and new approaches to the challenges of the climate emergency.

Mairi will contribute an offering in the form of an Offers and Needs session – a simple convivial tool for resourcing new networks and building a local sharing economy. Mairi will also speak to an emerging degrowth discourse and practice in Scotland, and reflect on experiments in building a fledgling Degrowth Network in the Highlands and Islands.

Accessibility

We want to remove barriers to participation in these events and are happy to make adjustments to prevent people being excluded. Please inform us of accessibility requirements during the registration process or get in touch by email if you would like to provide more information or ask any questions. Please see our Safe Working Spaces Statement for more information.

If you have any questions about the event or want to know more, please get in touch with [email protected].

This event is taking place as part of Creative Carbon Scotland’s Green Tease event series, part of the culture/SHIFT programme.