Cities Beyond Growth A Six-Week Online Course
Cities Beyond Growth is a six-week online course that invites you to reimagine urban life through the lens of post-growth thinking, an approach that recognises that more GDP doesn’t always mean better lives, especially when it comes at the cost of social equity and ecological survival.
Pre-register for this online course
We will contact all pre-registrants after the summer, once the Moodle platform is live, so you can complete your registration and start the course.
As cities around the world face deepening inequality, intersecting ecological crises, housing precarity, and care systems stretched to their limits, it has become increasingly clear that business-as-usual approaches are no longer viable. At the same time, cities remain fertile ground for bold and systemic transformation.
Cities Beyond Growth is a six-week online course that invites participants to critically engage with post-growth urbanism, an approach that challenges the dominance of GDP growth as a measure of progress and instead centers ecological sustainability, social justice, and collective wellbeing.
Each week, we examine a key domain of urban life including housing, mobility, energy, digitalisation, food, democracy, and care, and ask:
How can essential urban systems be reimagined to serve people and planet, rather than profit and accumulation?
Through real-world examples, policy experimentation, and grounded community practice, the course offers both analytical tools and practical inspiration for those working to reshape cities from below and above.
The course includes:
- Access to a self-paced online platform (Moodle) with videos, readings, and interactive resources
- A weekly live masterclass on Zoom featuring expert talks, practitioner insights, and case-based discussion (Recording available afterwards)
Participants will gain:
- Practical tools to rethink and redesign urban systems beyond market logics
- Insights into strategies that connect grassroots innovation with institutional change
- A deeper understanding of what post-growth cities might look like and how to help bring them into being
This course is for activists, policymakers, planners, researchers, and all those committed to building cities that prioritise justice, care, and ecological balance.
Masterclass Programme
Every Wednesday 15:30-17:00 CET
Pre-recorded introduction
Wednesday 8 October – Care & Democracy
Explore how post-growth cities can center care and participatory democracy. Featuring Grenoble’s citizen initiatives and Italian examples of community-based healthcare.
Wednesday 15 October – Energy
Learn how cities are addressing the energy crisis by ensuring universal access while reducing emissions. Includes bold municipal strategies and community-led innovations.
Wednesday 22 October – Housing
Examine practical solutions to the housing crisis that go beyond market-driven models. This session looks at affordable, sustainable housing and systemic shifts for wellbeing.
Wednesday 29 October – Food
Discover how cities are reshaping food systems through agroecology, food sovereignty, and local policies — making food a force for ecological and social transformation.
Wednesday 5 November – Urban Mobility
Explore post-growth approaches to transport focused on wellbeing, public infrastructure, and livable urban spaces. Featuring insights from Ghent and Zagreb.
Wednesday 12 November – Democratic Technology
Understand how digital tools can support just transitions. This session looks at democratic tech governance, digital commons, and community-controlled infrastructures.