Degrowth

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints. Please improve the article or discuss the issue. (March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Degrowth is an

Degrowth theory's main argument is that an infinite expansion of the economy is fundamentally contradictory to the finiteness of material resources on Earth. It argues that economic growth measured by GDP should be abandoned as a policy objective. Policy should instead focus on economic and social metrics such as life expectancy, health, education, housing, and ecologically sustainable work as indicators of both eco-systems and human well-being.^[10] Degrowth theorists posit that this may increase human living standards and ecological preservation, even while GDP slows down or decreases.^[11][12][3]

Degrowth theory is highly critical of

The "degrowth" movement arose from concerns over the consequences of the productivism and consumerism associated with industrial societies (whether capitalist or socialist) including:^[15]

• The reduced availability of energy sources (see peak oil)
• The destabilization of Earth's ecosystems upon which all life on Earth depends (see
  global warming, pollution, current biodiversity loss
  )
• The rise of negative societal side-effects (see unsustainable development, poorer health, poverty)
• The ever-expanding use of resources by Global North countries to satisfy lifestyles that consume more food and energy, and produce greater waste, at the expense of the Global South (see neocolonialism)

In 2017, Inês Cosme and colleagues summarised the research literature on degrowth, finding that it focused on three main goals: (1) reduction of environmental degradation; (2) redistribution of income and wealth locally and globally; (3) promotion of a social transition from economic materialism to participatory culture.^[16]

Decoupling

This section may be unbalanced toward certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (July 2023)

The concept of decoupling denotes decoupling economic growth, usually measured in

As economies expand, there is a corresponding increase in the demand for resources, unless there are improvements in efficiency or shifts in demand prompted by changes in prices. ^{[citation needed]} Non-renewable resources, like petroleum, have a limited supply and can eventually be exhausted. Similarly, renewable resources can also be depleted if they are harvested at unsustainable rates for prolonged periods. An example of this depletion is evident in the case of caviar production in the Caspian Sea.^[22]

Supporters of degrowth contend that reducing demand is the sole permanent solution to bridging the demand gap. To sustain renewable resources, both demand and production must be regulated to levels that avert depletion and ensure environmental sustainability. Transitioning to a society less reliant on oil is crucial for averting societal collapse as non-renewable resources dwindle.^[23] Degrowth can also be interpreted as a plea for resource reallocation, aiming to halt unsustainable practices of transforming certain entities into resources, such as non-renewable natural resources. Instead, the focus shifts towards identifying and utilizing alternative resources, such as renewable human capabilities.^[24]

Ecological footprint

The ecological footprint measures human demand on the Earth's ecosystems by comparing human demand with the Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area required to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste.

According to a 2005

Degrowth ideology opposes all manifestations of productivism, which advocates that economic productivity and growth should be the primary objectives of human organization. Consequently, it stands in opposition to the prevailing model of sustainable development.^[27] While the concept of sustainability aligns with some aspects of degrowth philosophy, sustainable development, as conventionally understood, is based on mainstream development principles focused on augmenting economic growth and consumption. Degrowth views sustainable development as contradictory because any development reliant on growth within a finite and ecologically strained context is deemed intrinsically unsustainable.^[28] Development based on growth in a finite, environmentally stressed world is viewed as inherently unsustainable

Critics of degrowth argue that a slowing of

A 2022 paper by Mark Diesendorf found that limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees with no overshoot would require a reduction of energy consumption. It describes (chapters 4–5) degrowth toward a steady state economy as possible and probably positive. The study ends with the words: "The case for a transition to a steady-state economy with low throughput and low emissions, initially in the high-income economies and then in rapidly growing economies, needs more serious attention and international cooperation.[30]

"Rebound effect"

Technologies designed to reduce resource use and improve efficiency are often touted as sustainable or green solutions. Degrowth literature, however, warns about these technological advances due to the "

Scientists report that degrowth scenarios, where economic output either "declines" or declines in terms of contemporary

In 1973, Richard Easterlin published a paper entitled "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence" which finds that after a certain income level or "satiation point", income does not affect happiness levels.^[41] The Easterlin Paradox has been reassessed multiple times with varying conclusions.^[42][43][44] Furthermore, Easterlin writes consumption levels directly correlate with income level, indicating that after reaching a certain satiation point increased consumption does not affect happiness levels.^[41]

Open Localism

Open localism is a concept that has been promoted by the degrowth community when envisioning an alternative set of social relations and economic organization. It builds upon the political philosophies of localism and is based on values such as diversity, ecologies of knowledge, and openness. Open localism does not look to create an enclosed community but rather to circulate production locally in an open and integrative manner.^[45]

Open localism is a direct challenge to the acts of closure regarding identitarian politics ^{[citation needed]}. By producing and consuming as much as possible locally, community members enhance their relationships with one another and the surrounding environment.

Degrowth's ideas around open localism share similarities with ideas around the commons while also having clear differences. On the one hand, open localism promotes localized, common production in cooperative-like styles similar to some versions of how commons are organized. On the other hand, open localism does not impose any set of rules or regulations creating a defined boundary, rather it favours a cosmopolitan approach.^[46]

Feminism

The degrowth movement builds on

Centering care goes hand in hand with changing society's time regimes. Degrowth scholars propose a working time reduction.^[51] As this does not necessarily lead to gender justice, the redistribution of care work has to be equally pushed.^[50] A concrete proposal by Frigga Haug is the 4-in-1 perspective that proposes 4 hours of wage work per day, freeing time for 4 hours of care work, 4 hours of political activities in a direct democracy, and 4 hours of personal development through learning.^[52]

Furthermore, degrowth draws on materialist ecofeminisms that state the parallel of the exploitation of women and nature in growth-based societies and proposes a subsistence perspective conceptualized by Maria Mies and Ariel Salleh.^[53][54] Synergies and opportunities for cross-fertilization between degrowth and feminism were proposed in 2022, through networks including the Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance (FaDA).^[50] FaDA argued that the 2023 launch of Degrowth Journal created "a convivial space for generating and exploring knowledge and practice from diverse perspectives".^[55]

Decolonialism

A relevant concept within the theory of degrowth is

In practice, decolonial practices close to degrowth are observed, such as the movement of Buen vivir or sumak kawsay by various indigenous peoples.

Policies

There is a wide range of policy proposals associated with degrowth. In 2022, Nick Fitzpatrick, Timothée Parrique and Inês Cosme conducted a comprehensive survey of degrowth literature from 2005 to 2020 and found 530 specific policy proposals with "50 goals, 100 objectives, 380 instruments".

emissions, not-for-profit cooperatives, holding deliberative forums, reclaiming the commons, establishing ecovillages, and housing cooperatives

.

To address the common criticism that such policies are not realistically financeable,

economic anthropologist Jason Hickel sees an opportunity to learn from modern monetary theory, which argues that monetary sovereign states can issue the money needed to pay for anything available in the national economy without the need to first tax their citizens for the requisite funds.^[60]

Taxation, credit regulations and price controls could be used to mitigate the inflation this may generate, while also reducing consumption.

Origins of the movement

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The contemporary degrowth movement can trace its roots back to the anti-industrialist trends of the 19th century, developed in Great Britain by John Ruskin, William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement (1819–1900), in the United States by Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), and in Russia by Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910).^[61]

The concept of "degrowth" properly appeared during the 1970s, proposed by

E.F. Schumacher, Erich Fromm, Paul Goodman and Ivan Illich, whose ideas reflect those of earlier thinkers, such as the economist E. J. Mishan,^[62] the industrial historian Tom Rolt,^[63] and the radical socialist Tony Turner. The writings of Mahatma Gandhi and J. C. Kumarappa also contain similar philosophies, particularly regarding his support of voluntary simplicity

.

More generally, degrowth movements draw on the values of humanism, enlightenment, anthropology and human rights.^[64]

Club of Rome reports

The world's leaders are correctly fixated on economic growth as the answer to virtually all problems, but they're pushing it with all their might in the wrong direction.

— Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems^[65]

In 1968, the Club of Rome, a think tank headquartered in Winterthur, Switzerland, asked researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a report on the limits of our world system and the constraints it puts on human numbers and activity. The report, called The Limits to Growth, published in 1972, became the first significant study to model the consequences of economic growth.^[66]

The reports (also known as the Meadows Reports) are not strictly the founding texts of the degrowth movement, as these reports only advise

environmental problems such as pollution, shortage of raw materials, and the destruction of ecosystems. The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update was published in 2004,^[67] and in 2012, a 40-year forecast from Jørgen Randers, one of the book's original authors, was published as 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years.^[68] In 2021, Club of Rome committee member Gaya Herrington published an article comparing the proposed models' predictions against empirical data trends.^[69] The BAU2 ("Business as Usual 2") scenario, predicting "collapse through pollution",^[69] as well as the CT ("Comprehensive Technology") scenario, predicting exceptional technological development and gradual decline, were found to align most closely with data observed as of 2019.^[69] In September 2022, the Club of Rome released updated predictive models and policy recommendations in a general-audiences book titled Earth for all – A survival guide to humanity.^[70]

Lasting influence of Georgescu-Roegen

Main article: Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen

See also: Steady-state economy § Declining-state economy

The degrowth movement recognises

Georgescu-Roegen's intellectual inspiration to degrowth dates back to the 1970s. When Georgescu-Roegen delivered a lecture at the University of Geneva in 1974, he made a lasting impression on the young, newly graduated French historian and philosopher, Jacques Grinevald [fr], who had earlier been introduced to Georgescu-Roegen's works by an academic advisor. Georgescu-Roegen and Grinevald became friends, and Grinevald devoted his research to a closer study of Georgescu-Roegen's work. As a result, in 1979, Grinevald published a French translation of a selection of Georgescu-Roegen's articles entitled Demain la décroissance: Entropie – Écologie – Économie ('Tomorrow, the Decline: Entropy – Ecology – Economy').^[76] Georgescu-Roegen, who spoke French fluently, approved the use of the term décroissance in the title of the French translation. The book gained influence in French intellectual and academic circles from the outset. Later, the book was expanded and republished in 1995 and once again in 2006; however, the word Demain ('tomorrow') was removed from the book's title in the second and third editions.^{[73]: 1742 [76][77]: 15f}

By the time Grinevald suggested the term décroissance to form part of the title of the French translation of Georgescu-Roegen's work, the term had already permeated French intellectual circles since the early 1970s to signify a deliberate political action to downscale the economy on a permanent and voluntary basis.^[15]: 195 Simultaneously, but independently, Georgescu-Roegen criticised the ideas of The Limits to Growth and Herman Daly's steady-state economy in his article, "Energy and Economic Myths", delivered as a series of lectures from 1972, but not published before 1975. In the article, Georgescu-Roegen stated the following:

[Authors who] were set exclusively on proving the impossibility of growth ... were easily deluded by a simple, now widespread, but false syllogism: Since exponential growth in a finite world leads to disasters of all kinds, ecological salvation lies in the stationary state. ... The crucial error consists in not seeing that not only growth, but also a zero-growth state, nay, even a declining state that does not converge toward annihilation, cannot exist forever in a finite environment.^[78]: 366f
... [T]he important, yet unnoticed point [is] that the necessary conclusion of the arguments in favor of that vision [of a stationary state] is that the most desirable state is not a stationary, but a declining one. Undoubtedly, the current growth must cease, nay, be reversed.^[78]: 368f [Emphasis in original]

When reading this particular passage of the text, Grinevald realised that no professional economist of any orientation had ever reasoned like this before. Grinevald also realised the congruence of Georgescu-Roegen's viewpoint and the French debates occurring at the time; this resemblance was captured in the title of the French edition. The translation of Georgescu-Roegen's work into French both fed on and gave further impetus to the concept of décroissance in France—and everywhere else in the francophone world—thereby creating something of an intellectual feedback loop.^{[73]: 1742  [77]: 15f  [15]: 197f}

By the 2000s, when décroissance was to be translated from French back into English as the catchy banner for the new social movement, the original term "decline" was deemed inappropriate and misdirected for the purpose: "Decline" usually refers to an unexpected, unwelcome, and temporary economic recession, something to be avoided or quickly overcome. Instead, the neologism "degrowth" was coined to signify a deliberate political action to downscale the economy on a permanent, conscious basis—as in the prevailing French usage of the term—something good to be welcomed and maintained, or so followers believe.^{[72]: 548  [77]: 15f  [79]: 874–876}

When the first international degrowth conference was held in Paris in 2008, the participants honoured Georgescu-Roegen and his work.^{[80]: 15f, 28, et passim} In his manifesto on Petit traité de la décroissance sereine ("Farewell to Growth"), the leading French champion of the degrowth movement, Serge Latouche, credited Georgescu-Roegen as the "main theoretical source of degrowth".^[71] Likewise, Italian degrowth theorist Mauro Bonaiuti considered Georgescu-Roegen's work to be "one of the analytical cornerstones of the degrowth perspective".^[74]

Schumacher and Buddhist economics

E. F. Schumacher's 1973 book Small Is Beautiful predates a unified degrowth movement but nonetheless serves as an important basis for degrowth ideas. In this book he critiques the neo-liberal model of economic development, arguing that an increasing "standard of living", based on consumption is absurd as a goal of economic activity and development. Instead, under what he refers to as Buddhist economics, we should aim to maximize well-being while minimizing consumption.^[81]

Ecological and social issues

In January 1972, Edward Goldsmith and Robert Prescott-Allen—editors of The Ecologist—published A Blueprint for Survival, which called for a radical programme of decentralisation and deindustrialization to prevent what the authors referred to as "the breakdown of society and the irreversible disruption of the life-support systems on this planet".^[82]

In 2019, a summary for policymakers of the largest, most comprehensive study to date of biodiversity and ecosystem services was published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The report was finalised in Paris. The main conclusions:

1. Over the last 50 years, the state of nature has deteriorated at an unprecedented and accelerating rate.
2. The main drivers of this deterioration have been changes in land and sea use, exploitation of living beings, climate change, pollution and invasive species. These five drivers, in turn, are caused by societal behaviors, from consumption to governance.
3. Damage to ecosystems undermines 35 of 44 selected UN targets, including the UN General Assembly's Sustainable Development Goals for poverty, hunger, health, water, cities' climate, oceans and land. It can cause problems with food, water and humanity's air supply.
4. To fix the problem, humanity needs transformative change, including sustainable agriculture, reductions in consumption and waste, fishing quotas and collaborative water management. Page 8 of the report proposes "enabling visions of a good quality of life that do not entail ever-increasing material consumption" as one of the main measures. The report states that "Some pathways chosen to achieve the goals related to energy, economic growth, industry and infrastructure and sustainable consumption and production (Sustainable Development Goals 7, 8, 9 and 12), as well as targets related to poverty, food security and cities (Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2 and 11), could have substantial positive or negative impacts on nature and therefore on the achievement of other Sustainable Development Goals".^[83][84]

In a June 2020 paper published in

In June 2020, the official site of one of the organizations promoting degrowth published an article by Vijay Kolinjivadi, an expert in political ecology, arguing that the emergence of COVID-19 is linked to the ecological crisis.^[87]

The 2019

plant-based diets, "shift from GDP growth and the pursuit of affluence toward sustaining ecosystems and improving human well-being by prioritizing basic needs and reducing inequality."^[88][89] In an opinion piece published in Al Jazeera, Jason Hickel states that this paper, which was has more than 11,000 scientist cosigners, demonstrates that there is a "strong scientific consensus" towards abandoning "GDP as a measure of progress."^[90]

In a 2022 comment published in

IPBES "suggest that degrowth policies should be considered in the fight against climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, respectively".^[91]

Degrowth movement

Conferences

The movement has included international conferences promoted by the network Research & Degrowth (R&D). The First International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Paris (2008) was a discussion about the financial, social, cultural, demographic, and environmental crisis caused by the deficiencies of capitalism and an explanation of the main principles of degrowth. Further conferences were in Barcelona (2010), Montreal (2012), Venice (2012), Leipzig (2014), Budapest (2016), Malmö (2018), and Zagreb (2023). The 10th International Degrowth Conference will be held in Pontevedra in June 2024. Separately, two conferences have been organised as cross-party initiatives of Members of the European Parliament: the Post-Growth 2018 Conference and the Beyond Growth 2023 Conference, both held in the European Parliament in Brussels.

International Degrowth Network

The conferences have also been accompanied by informal degrowth assemblies since 2018, to build community between degrowth groups across countries.^[92] The 4th Assembly in Zagreb in 2023 discussed a proposal to create a more intentional organisational structure and led to the creation of the International Degrowth Network, which will organise the 5th assembly in June 2024.

Relation to other social movements

The degrowth movement has a variety of relations to other social movements and alternative economic visions, which range from collaboration to partial overlap. The Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie (Laboratory for New Economic Ideas), which hosted the 2014 international Degrowth conference in Leipzig, has published a project entitled "Degrowth in movement(s)" in 2017, which maps relationships with 32 other social movements and initiatives.^[93] The relation to the environmental justice movement is especially visible.^[61]

Although not explicitly called degrowth, movements inspired by similar concepts and terminologies can be found around the world, including Buen Vivir

Rojava or Eco-Swaraj in India, and the sufficiency economy in Thailand.^[95] The Cuban economic situation has also been of interest to degrowth advocates because its limits on growth were socially imposed (although as a result of geopolitics), and has resulted in positive health changes.^[96]

Another set of movements the degrowth movement finds synergy with is the wave of initiatives and networks inspired by the commons, where resources are sustainably shared in a decentralised and self-managed manner, instead of through capitalist organization.^[10][61][97] For example, initiatives inspired by commons could be food cooperatives, open-source platforms, and group management of resources such as energy or water. Commons-based peer production also guides the role of technology in degrowth, where conviviality and socially useful production are prioritised over capital gain.^[98] This could happen in the form of cosmolocalism, which offers a framework for localising collaborative forms of production while sharing resources globally as digital commons, to reduce dependence on global value chains.^[99]

Criticisms, challenges and dilemmas

Critiques of degrowth concern the negative connotation that the term "degrowth" imparts, the misapprehension that growth is seen as unambiguously bad, the challenges and feasibility of a degrowth transition, as well as the entanglement of desirable aspects of modernity with the growth paradigm.

Criticisms

Negative connotation

The use of the term "degrowth" is criticized for being detrimental to the degrowth movement because it could carry a negative connotation,^[100] in opposition to the positively perceived "growth".^[101] "Growth" is associated with the "up" direction and positive experiences, while "down" generates the opposite associations.^[102] Research in political psychology has shown that the initial negative association of a concept, such as of "degrowth" with the negatively perceived "down", can bias how the subsequent information on that concept is integrated at the unconscious level.^[103] At the conscious level, degrowth can be interpreted negatively as the contraction of the economy,^[100][104] although this is not the goal of a degrowth transition, but rather one of its expected consequences.^[105] In the current economic system, a contraction of the economy is associated with a recession and its ensuing austerity measures, job cuts, or lower salaries.^[104] Noam Chomsky commented on the use of the term: "When you say 'degrowth' it frightens people. It's like saying you're going to have to be poorer tomorrow than you are today, and it doesn't mean that."^[106]

Since "degrowth" contains the term "growth", there is also a risk of the term having a

backfire effect, which would reinforce the initial positive attitude toward growth.^[100] "Degrowth" is also criticized for being a confusing term, since its aim is not to halt economic growth as the word implies. Instead, "a-growth" is proposed as an alternative concept that emphasizes that growth ceases to be an important policy objective, but that it can still be achieved as a side-effect of environmental and social policies.^[104][107]

Marxist critique

See also: Steady-state economy § Capitalism without growth

Traditional Marxists distinguish between two types of value creation: that which is useful to mankind, and that which only serves the purpose of accumulating capital.^{[4]: 86–87} Traditional Marxists consider that it is the exploitative nature and control of the capitalist production relations that is the determinant and not the quantity. According to Jean Zin, while the justification for degrowth is valid, it is not a solution to the problem.^[108] Other Marxist writers have adopted positions close to the de-growth perspective. For example, John Bellamy Foster^[109] and Fred Magdoff,^[110] in common with David Harvey, Immanuel Wallerstein, Paul Sweezy and others focus on endless capital accumulation as the basic principle and goal of capitalism. This is the source of economic growth and, in the view of these writers, results in an unsustainable growth imperative. Foster and Magdoff develop Marx's own concept of the metabolic rift, something he noted in the exhaustion of soils by capitalist systems of food production, though this is not unique to capitalist systems of food production as seen in the Aral Sea. Many degrowth theories and ideas are based on neo-Marxist theory.^[4] Foster emphasizes that degrowth "is not aimed at austerity, but at finding a 'prosperous way down' from our current extractivist, wasteful, ecologically unsustainable, maldeveloped, exploitative, and unequal, class-hierarchical world."^[111]

Systems theoretical critique

In stressing the negative rather than the positive side(s) of growth, the majority of degrowth proponents remain focused on (de-)growth, thus giving continued attention to the issue of growth, leading to continued attention to the arguments that

sustainable growth is possible. One way to avoid giving attention to growth might be extending from the economic concept of growth, which proponents of both growth and degrowth commonly adopt, to a broader concept of growth that allows for the observation of growth in other sociological characteristics of society. A corresponding "recoding" of "growth-obsessed", capitalist organizations was proposed by Steffen Roth.^[112]

 

Challenges

Lack of macroeconomics for sustainability

It is reasonable for society to worry about recession as economic growth has been the unanimous goal around the globe in the past decades. However, in some advanced countries, there are attempts to develop a model for a regrowth economy. For instance, the Cool Japan strategy has proven to be instructive for Japan, which has been a static economy for almost decades.^[113]

Political and social spheres

According to some scholars in Sociology, the

labor market, education, academia, law and finance, have co-evolved with growth to sustain them.^[115] A degrowth transition thus requires not only a change of the economic system but of all the systems on which it relies. As most people in modern societies are dependent on those growth-oriented institutions, the challenge of a degrowth transition also lies in individual resistance to move away from growth.^[116]

Land privatisation

Baumann, Alexander and Burdon [117] suggest that "the Degrowth movement needs to give more attention to land and housing costs, which are significant barriers hindering true political and economic agency and any grassroots driven degrowth transition." They are saying that land (something we all need like air and water) privatisation creates an absolute economic growth determinant. They point out that even one who is fully committed to degrowth nevertheless has no option but decades of market growth participation to pay rent or mortgage. Because of this, land privatisation is a structural impediment to moving forward that makes degrowth economically and politically unviable. They conclude that without addressing land privatisation (the market's inaugural privatisation – primitive accumulation) the degrowth movement's strategies cannot succeed. Just as land enclosure (privatisation) initiated capitalism (economic growth), degrowth must start with reclaiming land commons.^[118]

Agriculture

When it comes to agriculture, a degrowth society would require a shift from

sectors.^[122]

Potential solutions to this challenge include scaling up approaches such as community-supported agriculture (CSA).

Dilemmas

Given that modernity has emerged with high levels of energy and material

unsustainable levels of energy and material use.^[124] Some researchers, however, argue that the decline in income inequality and rise in social mobility occurring under capitalism from the late 1940s to the 1960s was a product of the heavy bargaining power of labor unions and increased wealth and income redistribution during that time; while also pointing to the rise in income inequality in the 1970s following the collapse of labor unions and weakening of state welfare measures.^[125] Others also argue that modern capitalism maintains gender inequalities by means of advertising, messaging in consumer goods, and social media.^[126]

Another way of looking at the argument that the development of desirable aspects of modernity require unsustainable energy and material use is through the lens of the

socioeconomic inequality and ecological devastation, which in turn have also generated a lot of goods through individualization and increased spatial and social mobility.^[127] At the same time, some argue the widespread individualization promulgated by a capitalist political economy is a bad due to its undermining of solidarity, aligned with democracy as well as collective, secondary, and primary forms of caring,^[128] and simultaneous encouragement of mistrust of others, highly competitive interpersonal relationships, blame of failure on individual shortcomings, prioritization of one's self-interest, and peripheralization of the conceptualization of human work required to create and sustain people.^[129]

In this view, the widespread individuation resulting from capitalism may impede degrowth measures, requiring a change in actions to benefit society rather than the individual self.

Some argue the political economy of capitalism has allowed social emancipation at the level of gender equality,[130] disability, sexuality and anti-racism that has no historical precedent. However, others dispute social emancipation as being a direct product of capitalism or question the emancipation that has resulted. The feminist writer Nancy Holmstrom, for example, argues that capitalism's negative impacts on women outweigh the positive impacts, and women tend to be hurt by the system. In her examination of China following the Chinese Communist Revolution, Holmstrom notes that women were granted state-assisted freedoms to equal education, childcare, healthcare, abortion, marriage, and other social supports.^[131] Thus, whether the social emancipation achieved in Western society under capitalism may coexist with degrowth is ambiguous.

Doyal and Gough allege that the modern capitalist system is built on the exploitation of female reproductive labor as well as that of the Global South, and sexism and racism are embedded in its structure. Therefore, some theories (such as Eco-Feminism or political ecology) argue that there cannot be equality regarding gender and the hierarchy between the Global North and South within capitalism.^[132]

The structural properties of growth present another barrier to degrowth as growth shapes and is enforced by institutions, norms, culture, technology, identities, etc. The social ingraining of growth manifests in peoples' aspirations, thinking, bodies, mindsets, and relationships. Together, growth's role in social practices and in socio-economic institutions present unique challenges to the success of the degrowth movement.^[133] Another potential barrier to degrowth is the need for a rapid transition to a degrowth society due to climate change and the potential negative impacts of a rapid social transition including disorientation, conflict, and decreased well-being.^[133]

In the United States, a large barrier to the support of the degrowth movement is the modern education system, including both primary and higher learning institutions. Beginning in the second term of the Reagan administration, the education system in the US was restructured to enforce neoliberal ideology by means of privatization schemes such as commercialization and performance contracting, implementation of standards and accountability measures incentivizing schools to adopt a uniform curriculum, and higher education accreditation and curricula designed to affirm market values and current power structures and avoid critical thought concerning the relations between those in power, ethics, authority, history, and knowledge.^[134] The degrowth movement, based on the empirical assumption that resources are finite and growth is limited,^[135] clashes with the limitless growth ideology associated with neoliberalism and the market values affirmed in schools, and therefore faces a major social barrier in gaining widespread support in the US.^{[citation needed]}

Nevertheless, co-evolving aspects of global capitalism, liberal modernity, and the market society, are closely tied and will be difficult to separate to maintain liberal and cosmopolitan values in a degrowth society.^[127] At the same time, the goal of the degrowth movement is progression rather than regression, and researchers point out that neoclassical economic models indicate neither negative nor zero growth would harm economic stability or full employment.^[135] Several assert the main barriers to the movement are social and structural factors clashing with implementing degrowth measures.^{[135][133][136]}

Healthcare

It has been pointed out that there is an apparent trade-off between the ability of modern healthcare systems to treat individual bodies to their last breath and the broader global ecological risk of such an energy and resource intensive care. If this trade-off exists, a degrowth society must choose between prioritizing the ecological integrity and the ensuing collective health or maximizing the healthcare provided to individuals.^[137] However, many degrowth scholars argue that the current system produces both psychological and physical damage to people. They insist that societal prosperity should be measured by well-being, not GDP.^[4]: 142

See also

• A Blueprint for Survival
• Agrowth
• Anti-consumerism
• Critique of political economy
• Degrowth advocates (category)
• Political ecology
• Postdevelopment theory
• Power Down: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
• Paradox of thrift
• The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries
• Post-capitalism
• Productivism
• Prosperity Without Growth
• Slow movement
• Steady-state economy
• Transition town
• Uneconomic growth

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Kallis, Giorgos; Demaria, Federico; D'Alisa, Giacomo (2015). Introduction: Degrowth. In: Kallis, Giorgos; Demaria, Federico; D'Alisa, Giacomo. Degrowth: Vocabulary for a New Era. New York: Routledge. pp. 1–17.
2. ISSN 0959-6526
   .
3. ^
   S2CID 55888884
   .
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} D'Alisa, Giacomo; et al., eds. (2015). Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era (Book info page containing download samples). London: Routledge.
   ISBN 9781138000766
   .
5. S2CID 254614532
   .
6. ^ "Degrowth - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
7. ^ "Degrowth: what's behind this economic theory and why it matters today". World Economic Forum. 2022-06-15. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
8. ^ Horowitz, Julia (2022-11-13). "Degrowth: A dangerous idea or the answer to the world's biggest crisis? | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
9. ISSN 0362-4331
   . Retrieved 2023-09-11.
10. ^ ^{a b} Nelson, Anitra (2024-01-31). "Degrowth as a Concept and Practice: Introduction". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
11. ISBN 9781786091215
    .
12. S2CID 232116190
    . Retrieved 28 April 2023.
13. ISBN 9788193732984
    .
14. ^ "What is degrowth?". degrowth.info. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
15. ^ ^{a b c d e} Demaria, Federico; et al. (2013). "What is Degrowth? From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement" (PDF). Environmental Values. 22 (2): 191–215.
    S2CID 55888884. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2016-05-27.
16. ISSN 0959-6526
    .
17. doi:10.1080/13504509.2015.1088485
    .
18. S2CID 216453887
    .
19. S2CID 153816870
    .
20. ^ ^{a b} "Decoupling debunked – Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability". EEB – The European Environmental Bureau. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
21. S2CID 159148524
    .
22. ^ Bardi, U. (2008) 'Peak Caviar'. The Oil Drum: Europe. http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/4367
23. ^ "Peak Oil Reports". Resilience.org. October 20, 2009.
24. S2CID 254388285
    .
25. ^ "Data Sources". footprintnetwork.org. Archived from the original on 2009-10-01.
26. PMID 37728669
    .
27. S2CID 49362153
    .
28. ^ ^{a b} Latouche, S. (2004). Degrowth Economics: Why less should be so much more. Le Monde Diplomatique.
29. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.08.025
    . Retrieved 21 July 2020.
30. S2CID 248358617
    . Retrieved 1 June 2022.
31. ^ (Zehner 2012), pp.172–73, 333–34
32. doi:10.1016/S0921-8009(00)00214-7
    .
33. S2CID 55830276
    .
34. S2CID 43975556. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2019-06-09.
35. ^
    PMID 33976156. Available under CC BY 4.0
    .
36. ^ "1.5°C degrowth scenarios suggest need for new mitigation pathways". phys.org. Retrieved 14 June 2021.Alternative Link
37. ^ "Green growth vs degrowth: are we missing the point?". Resilience. 2020-12-07. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
38. ^ "Securing decent living standards for all while reducing global energy use". phys.org. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
39. ISSN 0959-3780
    .
40. ^ How the corporate interests and political elites watered down the world's most important climate report MR Online. 2022.
41. ^ ^{a b} Easterlin, Richard A. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence." Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz, Elsevier Inc, 1974, pp. 89–125. Web.
42. ^ Stevenson, Betsey, and Justin Wolfers. "Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox." Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, vol. 2008, no. 1, Brookings Institution, 2008, pp. 1–87. Web.
43. ^ Frank, Robert H. "The Easterlin Paradox Revisited." Emotion (Washington, D.C.), vol. 12, no. 6, American Psychological Association, 2012, pp. 1188–91. Web.
44. ^ Mentus, Vladimir, and Marko Vladisavljevic. "Easterlin Paradox Revisited: Do Increases in Income Bring Higher Levels of Income Satisfaction?" Sociologija, vol. 63, no. 2, 2021, pp. 220–35. Web.
45. ^ Schneider, Francois; Sekulova, Filka. open localism (PDF). Leipzig.
46. ^ Schneider, François, and Anitra Nelson. "'Open localism'–on Xue and Vansintjan III." Housing for Degrowth. Routledge, 2018. 223–230.
47. ISBN 0-333-49262-5
    .
48. ^ Federici, Silvia (17 June 2020). "Feminism and the Politics of the Commons". Retrieved 4 April 2022.
49. ^ Fraser, Nancy (2017). Crisis of Care? On the Social-Reproductive Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism. In: Bhattacharya, Tithi. Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression. London: Pluto Press. pp. 21–36.
50. ^
    S2CID 240534324
    .
51. ISBN 978-1-911116-79-0
    .
52. ISBN 978-978-3-88619-3
    .
53. ^ Mies, Maria; Bennholdt-Thomsen, Veronika (1999). The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalised Economy. Zed Books.
54. S2CID 149712144
    .
55. Wikidata Q118151474. Archived from the original
    on 4 May 2023.
56. ^ Gómez, Martha; Saldarriaga, Dora; López, Maria; Zapata, Lina (2017). Decolonial and Postcolonial Studies. Theories about Modernity, Coloniality, and Eurocentrism.
57. ^
    S2CID 235549247
    .
58. ^ Wuttke, Tobias (2021). Reconciling catch-up industrialisation with de-growth.
59. S2CID
    249875134.
60. ISSN
    0921-8009.
61. ^ ^{a b c} "Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era (Paperback) – Routledge". Routledge.com. p. 134. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
62. ^ Mishan, Ezra J., The Costs of Economic Growth, Staples Press, 1967.
63. ^ Rolt, L. T. C. (1947). High Horse Riderless. George Allen & Unwin. p. 171.
64. S2CID 55508495
    .
65. ISBN 9781603580557
    ).
66. ^ "The Limits to Growth+50". Club of Rome. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
67. ISBN 1931498512
    . Retrieved 27 November 2017.
68. ISBN 978-1-60358-467-8
    . Retrieved 29 March 2019.
69. ^
    S2CID 226019712
    .
70. OCLC 1315537859
    .
71. ^ ^{a b} (Latouche 2009), pp. 13-16
72. ^ ^{a b} Kerschner, Christian (2010). "Economic de-growth vs. steady-state economy" (PDF).
    doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.10.019
    .
73. ^ ^{a b c}
    doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.04.017
    .
74. ^ ^{a b}
    ISBN 9780415587006
    .
75. ^
    ISBN 978-0674257801
    .
76. ^ ^{a b} Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas (1995) [1979]. Grinevald, Jacques [in French]; Rens, Ivo [in French] (eds.). La Décroissance: Entropie – Écologie – Économie (PDF contains full book) (2nd ed.). Paris: Sang de la terre.
77. ^ ^{a b c} Grinevald, Jacques [in French] (2008). "Introduction to Georgescu-Roegen and Degrowth" (PDF contains all conference proceedings). In Flipo, Fabrice; Schneider, François [in French] (eds.). Proceedings of the First International Conference on Economic De-Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity. Paris: European Society of Ecological Economics. pp. 14–17.
78. ^ ^{a b}
    JSTOR 1056148
    .
79. ^ Kallis, Giorgos (2011). "In defense of degrowth" (PDF).
    Great Transition Initiative
    .
80. ^ Flipo, Fabrice; Schneider, François [in French], eds. (2008). Proceedings of the First International Conference on Economic De-Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity (PDF contains all conference proceedings). Paris: European Society of Ecological Economics.
81. ^ Schumacher, E. F. (1973). Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. New York: Perennial Library.
82. ^ "A Blueprint for Survival, The Ecologist Vol. 2, No. 1. Preface". Archived from the original on 2009-09-07. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
83. ^ Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (PDF). the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. 6 May 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
84. ^ "Why Biodiversity Loss Hurts Humans as Much as Climate Change Does". Deutsche Welle. May 6, 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
85. ^ "Overconsumption and growth economy key drivers of environmental crises" (Press release). Phys.org. University of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
86. PMID 32561753
    .
87. ^ Kolinjivadi, Vijay (2 April 2020). "This pandemic IS ecological breakdown: different tempo, same song". Uneven Earth. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
88. hdl:1808/30278
    , retrieved February 21, 2022
89. hdl:1808/30278
    , retrieved February 21, 2022
90. ^ Hickel, Jason (6 December 2019). "The dark side of the Nordic model". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 3 July 2023. The first step is to abandon GDP as a measure of progress – as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently pledged to do – and focus instead on human well-being and ecology. There is a strong scientific consensus forming around this approach. A new paper signed by more than 11,000 scientists argues that high-income nations must shift to post-growth economic models if we are going to have any chance of preventing climate breakdown.
91. S2CID 254614532
    .
92. ^ "Movement History". International Degrowth Network. Retrieved 2024-05-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
93. ISBN 978-1-78904-186-6
    .
94. ISSN
    0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
95. S2CID
    86318140.
96. ISBN 978-0-520-39313-4
    .
97. S2CID
    144023408.
98. ISSN
    0166-4972.
99. ISSN
    1937-0709.
100. ^
     doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.04.001
     .
101. PMID 23404613
     .
102. S2CID 31201262
     .
103. ISBN 9781139032490
     .
104. ^
     doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.09.035
     .
105. ISSN 1543-5938
     .
106. ^ Levy, Andrea; Gonick, Cy; Lukacs, Martin (January 22, 2014). "The greening of Noam Chomsky: a conversation". Canadian Dimension. Open Publishing. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
107. ISSN 1758-678X
     .
108. ^ L'écologie politique à l'ère de l'information, Ere, 2006, p. 68-69
109. ^ https://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb2181/, Monthly Review Press.
110. ^ "Harmony and Ecological Civilization: Beyond the Capitalist Alienation of Nature". Monthly Review. June 2012.
111. ^ Foster, John Bellamy (July 1, 2023). "Planned Degrowth: Ecosocialism and Sustainable Human Development". Monthly Review. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
112. ^ Roth, Steffen. "Growth and function. A viral research program for next organizations" (PDF). International Journal of Technology Management.
113. ^ Tunstall, E. (2015) 'Degrowth: Japan models design for steady state economies'. Swinburne University of Technology. https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2015/05/degrowth-japan-models-design-for-steady-state-economies/
114. S2CID 148366804
     .
115. ^ Luhmann, Niklas (1976). "The Future Cannot Begin: Temporal Structures in Modern Society". Social Research. 43: 130–152.
116. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2018.09.002
     .
117. ^ Baumann, A., S. Alexander and P. Burdon (2020) 'Land Commodification as a Barrier to Political and Economic Agency: A Degrowth Perspective' Journal of Australian Political Economy No. 86, pp. 379–405
118. ^ Samuel Alexander and Alex Bauman, 'Access to land is a barrier to simpler, sustainable living' (22 August 2019) The Conversation.
119. ^
     S2CID 157265598
     .
120. S2CID 15089504
     .
121. PMID 29138387
     . Retrieved 17 June 2020.
122. ISBN 9780203635926
     .
123. OCLC 1083713125
     .
124. ^
     S2CID 144880469
     .
125. ^ Nelson, Joel I. "Inequality in America: The Case for Post-Industrial Capitalism." Research in social stratification and mobility 18 (2001): 39–62. Web.
126. ^ Rosalind Gill, Akane Kanai, Mediating Neoliberal Capitalism: Affect, Subjectivity and Inequality, Journal of Communication, Volume 68, Issue 2, April 2018, Pages 318–326. Web.
127. ^
     doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.08.008
     .
128. ^ Lynch, Kathleen, and Manolis Kalaitzake. "Affective and Calculative Solidarity: The Impact of Individualism and Neoliberal Capitalism." European journal of social theory 23.2 (2020): 239. Web.
129. ^ Lynch, Kathleen, and Manolis Kalaitzake. "Affective and Calculative Solidarity: The Impact of Individualism and Neoliberal Capitalism." European journal of social theory 23.2 (2020): 245. Web.
130. OCLC 1041150387
     .
131. ^ Cudd, Ann E., and Nancy Holmstrom. Capitalism, For and Against : a Feminist Debate. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
132. ISBN 9781786608963
     .
133. ^ ^{a b c} Büchs, Milena, and Max Koch. "Challenges for the Degrowth Transition: The Debate About Wellbeing." Futures : the journal of policy, planning and futures studies 105 (2019): 155–165. Web.
134. ^ Kenneth J. Saltman, and David A. Gabbard. Education as Enforcement: The Militarization and Corporatization of Schools. Taylor and Francis, 2010. Web.
135. ^ ^{a b c} Kallis, Giorgos, Christian Kerschner, and Joan Martinez-Alier. "The Economics of Degrowth." Ecological economics 84 (2012): 172–180. Web.
136. ^ Akbulut, Bengi. "Degrowth." Rethinking Marxism 33.1 (2021): 98–110. Web.
137. S2CID 149177035
     .

Reference details

• ISBN 978-0-7456-4616-9
  .
• ISBN 978-0803237759
  .

Further reading

• Berwyn, Bob (January 9, 2024). "New Research Explores a Restorative Climate Path for the Earth". Inside Climate News.
• Hickel, Jason (October 27, 2020). "Degrowth: A Response to Branko Milanovic". Jason Hickel. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
• Hickel, Jason;
  S2CID 254614532
  .
• Hickel, Jason (2020). Less is More; How Degrowth Will Save the World (Hardcover ed.). William Heinemann.
  ISBN 9781785152498
  . Retrieved 20 January 2021.
• John, K (2023). Foundations of Real-World Economics (3rd ed.). Abingdon-on-Thames, UK; Routledge.
  ISBN 978-1-000-84789-5
  .
• Milanovic, Branko (November 18, 2017). "The illusion of 'degrowth' in a poor and unequal world". globalinequality. Retrieved 25 November 2020.

External links

Scholia has a profile for degrowth (Q611217).

• List of International Degrowth conferences on degrowth.info
• Research and Degrowth
• International Degrowth Network
• Degrowth Journal
• Planned Degrowth: Ecosocialism and Sustainable Human Development. Monthly Reviewissue on "Planned Degrowth". July 1, 2023.