The issue of economic growth has been a core issue of the environmental movement from the beginning. It has broad implications for nearly all of Friends of the Earths issues and it has probably been one of our most natural entry points to the overarching debate of economic paradigm shift, that is necessary for a just and sustainable future. In spite of its fundamental importance we have nevertheless often shied away from directly addressing the issue, probably both because of its often rather abstract and complex nature, and because of the perceived futility resulting from the strong reaction and opposition we encounter when directly challenging this core dogma of contemporary politics, economics, and large parts of society as a whole.

Nevertheless, due to the current financial and economic crisis and the perceived failure of the current (neoliberal) paradigm of growth and competitiveness - on top of the ongoing climate/energy, global justice and biodiversity crises - the readiness for "out of the box" thinking has vastly increased and the debate within civil society, but also amongst progressive politicians and economists has considerably gained momentum. Most visible recent initiatives include the Sarkozy initiative (Stiglitz-Sen-commission) and the European Commission communication "GDP and Beyond", the report by the UK Sustainable Development Commission "Prosperity without growth?", as well as an increasing variety of conferences/talks organized by CSOs and (not only) progressive think tanks.

Therefore this workshop intended to initiated a process within the FoEE network on how to position ourselves within this debate and to explore possibilities of strengthening our effort towards directly challenging and transforming the economic paradigm that is so much defined by the race towards ever growing and more competitive economies with all its well-known negative effects on the well-being of people and planet.

The workshop provided an opportunity to:

• share knowledge and experiences with the issue of economic (de-)growth and related issues
• discuss drivers and impacts of our addiction to growth as well as solutions/alternatives
• identify links to existing and earlier campaigns and activities within the network
• brainstorm/discuss possible future activities and identify capacities within the network and with possible allies/other CSO