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Redistribution, not growth - why the Left should embrace degrowth

09.11.2015

By Giorgos Kallis

A new Left has to be an ecological Left, or it won’t be left at all. Environmental change ‘changes everything’ for the Left too, Naomi Klein argued. Capitalism requires constant expansion, an expansion predicated on exploitation of humans and non-humans, that irreversibly damages the climate. A non-capitalist economy will have to sustain itself while contracting. But how can we redistribute or secure meaningful work without growth? There is not yet a concrete ‘economics of degrowth’. Lamentably, Keynesianism is the most powerful tool the Left, even the Marxist Left, has for dealing with issues of policy. But this is an economics of the 1930s when unlimited expansion was still possible and desirable.

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Degrowth and Feminism

By: Corinna Dengler, Birte Strunk

How a feminist degrowth approach can alleviate ecological and gender injustices Is it possible to reconcile sustainable development, a fair distribution of both paid and unpaid work among genders, and an economic strategy based on growth? In our article “The Monetized Economy versus Care and the Environment? Degrowth Perspectives on Reconciling an Antagonism”, a contribution to the 2018 Femini...

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The decoupling debate: can economic growth really continue without emission increases?

By: Mark H Burton

By Mark Burton Most ecological economists argue that continued economic growth is incompatible with ecological safety. That is to say continued increases in Gross Domestic Product, (GDP and also Gross Value Added, GVA) cannot happen while reducing ecological impacts in general, and climate change-causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in particular. It isn’t a popular message, and is one that ...

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Der "Stream towards Degrowth" gerät in Bewegung!

Der Stream towards Degrowth gerät in Bewegung! In den Strom einer wachstumskritischen Öffentlichkeit reihen sich politische, künstlerische und wissenschaftliche Institutionen, Initiativen und Einzelpersonen. Mit der Tagung "Wege aus dem Wachstumszwang" am 27. November in Jena haben wir den Startschuss gegeben. Wir freuen uns darauf, auf dem Weg zur Konferenz vielseitige Debatten, Positionen und...