On June 6th we will once more celebrate the Global Degrowth Day (GDD). On this day, like last year, we want to show that there are alternatives to the capitalist growth society and that a good life for all is possible! This time of multiple crisis can be overwhelming, but it is also a crucial moment to re-think how we live and how societies are organized. Degrowth is a powerful tool to examine the origins of the several crises we face. It is time to demand and build new roots for a new future, built around values of solidarity, justice, care, wellbeing and sufficiency. Despite coronavirus, there are Global Degrowth Day events planned around the world. See a full list here. Many of these Global Degrowth Day events will be livestreamed, but some will be live, face-to-face, with the appropriate measures for social distancing.
The following text is an excerpt from “Towards an Ecology of Care: Basic Income Beyond the Nation-state (unpublished). Even though the degrowth movement has shown the limits of our civillization’s obsession with growth, and has promoted and proposed complementary currencies, the degrowth critique has yet to consider the role that money/credit creation plays more explicitly. Ecological ec...
Degrowth addresses the negative consequences of consumerism (psychological stress, long working hours and positional competition) and discusses the benefits of frugal lifestyles. Henri Lefebvre, a French philosopher from the 20th century, argues that if ideas or values are not physically implemented in space, they become mere fantasies. As such, if degrowth wishes to prevail, it has to leave it...
Green growth advocates praise resource efficiency for its potential to incentivize the economy and lower its ecological impact. On the other hand, the Jevons Paradox, describes multiple situations (or rebound effects) in which increased efficiency leads to further consumption (either direct or indirect) which offsets the initial ecological benefits achieved. In this piece, I join this discussio...
