Fire on oil depot in Tehran after US and Israel strikes on March 7, 2026
Rights reserved: Sasan/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty
Humanity has been getting into so much trouble lately that the climate crisis, our most imminent collective existential risk, seems to be pushed to the back of current affairs. Our news feeds and headspace seem to be overwhelmed, struggling to keep up with a continuous flux of blood, devastation, terror and endless idle tabs in our browsers. The world’s elites keep putting all of our remaining eggs into the techno-frenzy basket, turbocharging the lunacy around Artificial Intelligence, placing all their bets on the (quite unlikely) case that the machines will out-evolve and replace humans, before their resource-hogging infrastructures burn us to the ground or the financial bubbles building them bring the global economy to its knees. Simultaneously, the stack of authoritarian technologies is feeding anew the military-industrial complex from which they emerged, jumping ahead from the genocidal grounds on which they have been piloted to wage wars within and beyond the pale. Fairy tales of the past, such as the infamous ‘Green Growth’ and the false promises of prosperity, vegan flat-whites and air-fryers for all, have been replaced by calls to arms, survival kits, and rapture prophesies.
Our conviction has never been stronger that the root cause of all the above multi-faceted terrors remains the same: the capitalist drive for accumulation and growth upon which a rotten political economy and perverse social forms have been built. We set off once again from breaking the rugged individualism and isolation forced upon us to internalise inhumane atrocities, and seek to re-establish how we value, care for, and nurture our collective affairs in community with others and the world around us. We turn to the grammar of the commons to make sense of a human condition that is inherently relational, collective, and creative. To embrace the enchanting human capacity to imagine and prefigure worlds not-yet thought of, to bring back utopia, not as a blueprint, but as a method of thinking and doing, as a vision.
Life after growth has been a project rummaging for fragments of hope amidst hopeless times. We invited others to join us in a collective exploration of learning, acting and imagining in common, ‘for the knowing of this world; and the making of new worlds.’ Our project turned into a school; participants became facilitators, co-organizers; from which a tentative community has formed and started to flourish. Now, we as a community seek to figure out what it is. Which shapes does and should it take? What are its contours and membranes, how do they function? All of these questions and more is what we would like to ponder and start to answer collectively.
For this reason, Life after growth 2026 attempts to shift gears and change the rhythm of the world (at least temporarily). To curate the time and space to reflect upon what it is that we are and what we could be. This summer, from July 3 to 5, we are gathering for three days, trying to figure out a structure, a recipe, a ritual, an organization of some sort to address these questions. Hopefully, this process will put us in a position to forge ahead stronger and more capable to cater for different people and activities in the future.
Instead of an open call for new participants, this summer we aim to facilitate an introspective process within the Life after growth community. Any form of commoning requires clearly defined boundaries encircled by semi-permeable membranes. Hence, we are inviting all of you, using the link below, to share feedback, ideas and insights on how this introspection might take place and, if you are able and available to travel and have the skills and experience to contribute, we would be honoured to join us to facilitate this exploration. Additionally, while we are not openly sharing this invitation with the world, we remain open to suggestions of individuals or groups that you know of and feel should be included.
The event will take place in the same region around Ioannina, Greece. More details will be shared soon, based on the requirements that will emerge (inter alia) from your ideas! We are truly looking forward to your ideas and proposals! As this remains a self-organized event with few resources, we can only accommodate for a limited number of guests, so our apologies in advance in case we have to place ourselves in the uncomfortable position of only selecting a few of them!
This Life after growth event is financially supported by the Estonian Research Council (Contract No. PUTJD1204) and Tallinn University of Technology. The seminars and the workshops will take place in facilities and buildings kindly provided by the Municipality of Northern Tzoumerka and the Cultural Society of Kalentzi. We thank them deeply.
For any queries you may contact Alex Pazaitis at: alex.pazaitis@gmail.com.
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