The 5th international degrowth conference will take place from the 26th to 28th of November 2025 at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte) in Lisbon, Portugal.
This year’s theme is Collapse and Regeneration: Community-led initiatives prefiguring liveable futures.
We are facing unprecedented times, marked not only by climate collapse, but also the tearing of the social fabric, due to increased socioeconomic inequality, political polarization, mistrust of institutions and expertise, and erosion of an international rules-based order.
The degrowth movement invite researchers, practitioners, activists and policymakers to submit proposals for contributions to this conference, focusing on how community-led initiatives (CLIs) contribute to the regeneration of socioeconomic systems threatened or affected by social, ecological, institutional or political collapse.
Contributions may explore the role of CLIs in the rebuilding of livelihoods and institutions in the following contexts – 7 thematic fields:
- The aftermath of environmental disasters.
- Armed conflicts and peacebuilding initiatives.
- Weakening of the rule of law and emergence of parallel structures of governance based on organized crime.
- Culture wars, political polarization and radicalization.
- Supporting grassroots resistance to authoritarianism, marginalization and oppression, namely through embodied activism and trauma-informed practices.
- Promoting grassroots-led transnational cooperation in a context of increased isolationism and fragmentation of the world order.
- Problematizing current trends in the application and usage of information technologies for collective action, as well as promoting their democratization and accountability.
Keynote speakers are published here, and more information is available here.