A Zero Growth Economy - Worksheet 1

Questions

1. If it could, do we want technology to “save us”?
2. Isn’t the biggest problem population growth?
3. Is it the way we allocate resources?
4. What does Quaker Testimony have to say?

Exercises

Exercise 1 – principles of simplicity

Time: one hour

This is a thoughtful exercise, incorporating individual reflection and group sharing.

Preparation

You will need copies for everyone of the quotation below.

Exercise

Ask the group to take some time to reflect alone on these suggestions from Richard Foster’s Ten Principles of Simplicity* (15 minutes). 

1. Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.
2. Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.
3. Develop a habit of giving things away – de-accumulate!
4. Refuse to be propagandised by custodians of modern gadgetry.
5. Learn to enjoy things without owning them.
6. Develop a deeper appreciation of creation.
7. Look with healthy scepticism at all ‘buy now pay later’ schemes.
8. Remember Jesus’ injunction about plain honest speech.
9. Reject anything that will breed the oppression of others.
10. Shun whatever would distract you from your main goal.

11. Ask them to consider the two questions:

• What does simplicity mean to you, and why is it important spiritually?
• Which of these suggestions do you feel you are incorporating into your life, and which are the most challenging to you? 
•  

Follow-up

The time of personal reflection can be followed by either discussion or worship sharing. Worship sharing will tend to be more personal and less theoretical; the group must be comfortable with the method chosen. (45 minutes)

Exercise 2 – living simply in a consumerist culture 

Time: 45 minutes at least - to allow time to tidy up! 

Preparation

Bring along a selection of catalogues and glossy magazines; plenty of scissors, glue, and big sheets of paper. Divide participants into groups of two - four and give each group a selection of magazines, scissors and glue, and a sheet of paper. (5 minutes.) 

Exercise

Ask the groups to be as creative as they like arranging materials cut out of the magazines in such a way as to make a group statement about the everyday challenges to living a witness to simplicity. (20 minutes)

Follow-up

Allow time for each group to display and explain their creative statement and for group discussion of some of the issues raised. (20 minutes) 

Further Reading

Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy. Professor Tim Jackson, Sustainable Development Commission March 2009 http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=914

Responding to Climate Change – QPSW briefing pack March 2009 available from QPSW

Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy, Peter G Brown and Geoffrey Garver (February 2009) published by Berrett-Koehler available from the Quaker Bookshop

A Green New Deal: Joined-up policies to solve the triple crunch of the credit crisis, climate change and high oil prices – New Economics Foundation July 2008 http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_publicationdetail.aspx?pid=258

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, Jeffrey Sachs, March 2009 Penguin Books, available from the Quaker Bookshop.

“Beyond Growth” articles in New Scientist, 18 October 2008, pp 40 - 54 

* From: Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. Richard J Foster. 1978. Harper & Row