Political participation. A way towards Degrowth

Degrowth supports a sober and convivial vision of life through principles encouraging equality and social relations. The cultural perspective it proposes is conceived also as the starting point for a concrete political action, and political subjects based on such ideas has risen in several countries. These principles play a key role in favoring citizens’ participation in public life, which is a crucial issue in modern countries. In fact they are facing a decline of political participation, which is becoming more and more relevant because of its link with generational factors. Hence, according to recent studies, there are two different explanations for such phenomenon: the youth are moving from political to civic participation; they are withdrawing from public participation in general. Relying upon these perspectives, we can consider participation as affected by two separate notions. The first is political cynicism, which can be considered as the degree of mistrust towards politics. The second is the involvement in social activities that can become a source of flow of consciousness for individuals, that psychologists consider as a contribute to personal wellbeing. We claim that Degrowth can successfully develop in our societies if it will be able to intercept people quitting traditional political participation. We propose a psychosocial description of people engaged in activism that can fruitfully enlighten such transition.