Abstract for: Leverage Points Towards Degrowth: Insights from an Exploratory Study with Housing Associations in London

There is no better place to start thinking of a world beyond growth than social housing. Originally devised as an affordable and secure form of tenure, social rented housing in England is now entangled in capitalist market dynamics and associated tensions between economic, social, and environmental targets. Degrowth proposes to reconcile these goals by moving away from the dominant economic growth paradigm, prioritising justice and well-being within planetary boundaries. Developing alternatives to omnipresent growth narratives requires engaging all actors involved in the management and delivery of social housing. Therefore, this study explores the compatibility of a degrowth agenda with that of housing associations (HAs), the largest social housing providers in England. In a workshop with four London-based HAs, we used participatory system dynamics (SD) to elicit perceptions of the interventions needed in the social housing system. Through degrowth and systems thinking frameworks, we then assessed the potential of the proposed interventions to effect change, and their alignment with approaches to creating degrowth value. Interventions at shallow leverage points in the system were more frequently linked to reducing resource use and addressing equality. Instead, the most transformative interventions were associated to promoting democratic governance and overcoming growth dynamics. Our findings highlight the potential of SD to guide interventions in the social housing system that address growth-driven structures and their systemic consequences.