The Post-growth Economics Network (PEN) serves as a collaboration platform for researchers working on topics around post-growth economics. Our mission is to create a space to collaborate, exchange ideas, share information and foster higher visibility for research on post-growth economics throughout Europe and beyond. Ultimately, our aim is to connect post-growth economists to build a strong network that can push for post-growth ideas – backed by economics research – in policy, education, and wider society.
PEN is organized as an open, welcoming and collaborative research network, which is structured in a decentralized manner and operates on trust and shared values. A mailing list serves as the main channel of communication, and working groups take care of both day-to-day activities of the network as well as specific projects. An elected coordination group facilitates the communication between the working groups and organizes an annual organization meeting online to discuss structural matters. Beyond this, the aim of our network is to keep debates on organizational structures to a minimum and focus on content-related exchange.
Our members benefit from a network of like-minded people who seek to collaborate on post-growth research. Collaboration is facilitated via various formats, such as networking events or content-related exchange through regular webinars, meetings or workshops. A working paper series ensures that we stay up to date on each other’s ongoing research and allows for dissemination of research output beyond the network. We moreover share practical information on job postings, news articles or relevant projects, and collaborate on the design of policy proposals and teaching materials. Through public events and the compilation of policy papers from our members’ research output, the research we generate gains visibility. Overall, the output of our network is a host of activities that circle around regular network events which promote the emergence of a shared research agenda and collaborative projects.
The overall aim of these collaboration efforts is to support societal socio-ecological transformation processes by backing them with sound economics research. PEN contributes to the growing discourse on the awareness of limits to growth and offers economic post-growth arguments. Connecting in a network allows for a greater visibility of existing research on policy alternatives and thereby constitutes a powerful force against practical constraint arguments that uphold the current status quo. By offering scientific expertise in matters of socio-ecological transitions, our network serves as a crucial source of information for policy makers who aim to make a change. Overall, we aim at connecting the scientific debate on post-growth economics to society and thereby aspire to be an important agent in the socio-ecological transformation of our economies and societies.