A "Degrowth" House on Spanish-French Border

Distributing responsibility in groups that aim to have a flat power hierarchy is one of the most recurring challenges in collectives I’ve been part of.

In Cerbère, France at Can Decreix I was introduced to an approach to sociocracy (in which decisions and management are done by committees that reach consensus) that sparked my imagination.

To skip the discussion of sociocracy and go directly to the silly stories, jump to the video at the bottom.

My (quick) overview of Can Decreix

Can Decreix (which translates as Degrowth House) started 13 years ago as a lab to practice and demonstrate how to live while satisfying multiple ethical priorities at the same time—“knitting ethics,” as they say at Can Decreix. The ethical concerns, as shared in the materials provided to us before we arrived, are as follows (this is not an exhaustive list): satiety, warmth, shelter, conviviality, health, safety, diversity, beauty, animal welfare, ecological well-being, and human welfare. A deeper understanding of each of these concepts requires deeper conversation -- see their website: https://candecreix.degrowth.net/

Overall, my impression of Can Decreix is that it exists to demonstrate that you can live a full, beautiful life while also living sustainably and democratically.

Can Decreix is a space to practice degrowth. What is degrowth?

In the words of one of my instructors at the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Giorgos Kallis, “degrowth refers to a radical political and economic reorganization leading to drastically smaller, and much more equitably shared, resource and energy use” (Kallis 2023). Basically, degrowth is a movement to more equally distribute resources, and that movement is made possible by restoring democracy.

The term “degrowth” is intended as what has been called a “missile concept.” French scholar Paul Ariès coined the term “missile concept” to describe how “degrowth” is meant to be provocative, kicking off debate about economic growth and sustainability (Ariès 2005).

Can Decreix exists as a space to practice and demonstrate that a beautiful life is possible using very few resources.

Sociocracy practiced at Can Decreix

First, what is sociocracy? Sociocracy is an approach to governance in which decisions are made in circles that are empowered with some level of decision-making power. These circles reach decisions through consensus rather than a majority vote. Sociocracy prizes transparency and is one model of horizontal management. I was first introduced to sociocracy through my organizing with Black Youth Project–100, and it continues to be a key practice in my organizing with Baldwin House, the New Economy Coalition, and many other groups.

Sociocracy at Can Decreix is anchored in what they call “flows.” There are 36 flows, ranging from natural elements like water to child care (a full list of flows is in the appendix at the bottom). Each person (or, if scaled up, a team) can be responsible for a specific flow. The stewards of each flow are called “Flowers” (which, of course, I found delightful 🌸🌼🪻). Organizing by flows counters the risk of thinking in silos.

To give an example, as the Flower for water, I would follow the cycle of water throughout its lifecycle at Can Decreix—from water collection through rainwater barrels (or the well or public water from the town grid), to setting up taps for water use in the kitchen or bathrooms, to water discarded from these functions and perhaps reused in the olive groves. By tracing the flow of water, I’m playing an active role in contributing to multiple key areas—kitchens, bathrooms, and farming.

A flow that requires a bit more imagination is the human flow. François Schneider, the primary steward of Can Decreix, presented on the flows at a conference in Zagreb in 2023. Here is his description from the slides of the human flow, with the note that “this ‘flow’ is clearly special. All members take care of aspects of it.”

Applying these lessons on sociocracy to my food cooperative in Washington, DC

City Garden is an undercover food cooperative in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. I say “undercover” because, despite almost 45 years of existence, we operated as a food buying club without a registered legal entity. Eventually, our bank started asking questions, and a few years ago (with the help of Beloved Community Incubator), we registered as a nonprofit. We’ve been in the same basement of a residential home in Mount Pleasant, and access is all word of mouth.

The approach of distributing responsibilities by flows maps pretty neatly onto how we operate City Garden. City Garden has a team of 11 managers, each with distinct roles, such as buying produce or coordinating social activities for the cooperative. There are also various work teams, coordinated by managers, that handle roles such as cleaning, distributing items (like peanut butter) we buy in bulk into smaller containers, or slicing large wheels of cheese into smaller portions (my highly coveted role).

If we were to treat cheese as a flow, we would see that the Cheese Manager follows the cheese throughout its lifecycle—from ordering it and arranging delivery, to coordinating the team of members who cut and label it, to noting the rate at which the cheese is bought or spoils in order to inform future orders.

Managers track flows, but independent members of teams attend to an item at one stage in its lifecycle and may not see the full flow. This runs the risk of the silos warned against by Can Decreix, and we do see this play out somewhat in the co-op, in my experience.

Applying lessons from Can Decreix’s approach to flows shows that we are often responsible for an item at a specific point in its lifecycle rather than the full cycle.

For more on my experience at Can Decreix, below is a silly video of me affectionately sharing photos and stories from my few days there, October 18–20, 2025. (All credit for good photos goes to my friend, Paul Musso.)

Thank you to François and the stewards of Can Decreix for the visit. I hope to be back.

Appendix: List of Flows

Here is the list of the different flows at Can Decreix, organized into four circles.

1. Materials circle

These flows come from industrial society, which generates enormous amounts of waste.

1. Plastics

2. Metals

3. Glass

4. Textiles

5. Processed wood

6. Paper

2. Natural elements circle

These flows are non-living natural elements.

7. Stone and sand

8. Limestone

9. Clay

10. Humus (part of soil but directly linked to living beings)

11. Sun

12. Water

13. Wind

3. Plants circle

Green life. These flows come from plants and sustain life; ultimately, their energy comes from the sun.

14. Roots/tubers

15. Plant fibers and natural wood

16. Flowers and herbs

17. Vegetables

18. Fruit

19. Grains

20. Oil

4. Animals circle

Living, moving beings that eat mainly plants or other living beings.

21. Domestic animals (goats, donkeys, chickens, dogs, cats)

22. Worms

23. Wildlife

Humans

The animal circle has an important subcircle represented directly in the Can Decreix general circle.

24. Child care

25. Welcome

26. Vibe-watcher

27. Life doctor

28. Elder care

29. Administrator

30. Reporter

31. Artisan

32. Celebration

The Can Decreix general circle

33. Can Decreix secretary

34. Coordinator

35. Facilitator

36. Representative of Can Decreix (all representatives and coordinators of different inner circles)

Citations

Ariès, P. (2005). Décroissance ou barbarie. Golias, Lyon.

Kallis, G. (2023). Degrowth and the Barcelona School. In S. Villamayor-Tomas & R. Muradian (Eds.), The Barcelona School of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology (Studies in Ecological Economics, Vol. 8). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22566-6_8

Schneider, F. (2023, August 31). Role division along flows at Can Decreix [Presentation]. Can Decreix. https://candecreix.degrowth.net/experimentations-in-can-decreix-of-role-division-along-flows-have-been-presented-at-zagreb-degrowth-conference/