Logo degrowth

Blog

Degrowth: what?! Summary of our short introductory event

02.09.2014

Introduction

By Chris Ward Despite attending the conference, not everyone will fully understand what ‘Degrowth’ is, or the multitude of related terms that will be mentioned during the conference. Thankfully the first session on the schedule, offered by Federico Demaria and Giacomo D´Alisa was ideally suited for getting your knowledge up to scratch. Judging by audience responses to the question “What is Degrowth?” there isn’t a concrete definition yet, but one is needed to make the term more understandable to the wider world. Currently ‘Degrowth’ is more of an intersection of several concepts, we need to be clearer with our vocabulary to emphasise ‘different’, not ‘less’. ‘Degrowth’ was first mentioned as a term by Gorz and later by Roegen and Grinevald in the 1970s Degrowth lost some interest in 80s and 90s due to the prevailing neo-liberal thoughts of the era. It re-entered the public’s interest in the 00s especially around Europe and Latin America in some of the more traditionally activist countries and those worst hit by the Global Financial crisis. Leipzig is 4th international conference on Degrowth, and now the term is being mentioned in mainstream media, academic courses and articles. Let’s break apart the vocabulary apart a little… The Limits of Growth

  • Growth is uneconomic : Costs are increasing faster than wealth as is inequality and the distribution of wealth.
  • Growth is unjust: Commodification of the world and services, unequal access to resources, it is subsidised by unpaid and low cost labour and does not increase happiness.
  • Growth is Ecologically unsustainable: There is correlation between GDP and Co2 emissions, dematerialisation of economies is not happening and technology cannot solve all our problems.
  • Growth is coming to an end: There are diminishing marginal returns, an exhaustion of technological innovations, limits between demand and supply, limited natural resources and increasing debt in nations and institutions.
  Degrowth as Autonomy This has different meanings with different writers. In summary it means that limitations should be a choice and not an external imperative or pressure, there is an emphasis on collective self-limitations. Degrowth as Repoliticisation Degrowth has come to be a word used by politics to give backing and consensus to sustainable development, which is not always a good thing. It has also lead to the politicising and debunking of science, i.e. climate change. Degrowth and Capitalism Growth is an imperative for capitalism, for technical, economic and socio-political reasons. Frequently capitalists will say that there will be a trickle down to everyone eventually if we continue to grow. Degrowth tries to imagine a non-capitalist society. Proposals for a Degrowth Transition
  • Grassroots economies
  • Welfare institutions without growth: Job guarantees, basic and ceiling income, work-sharing.
  • Money and credit institutions: Community and alternative currencies, public money, debt audits of spending.
  • The politics of such a transition: Uncivil and civil practises, a slow leak into parliamentary politics, taking part in social movements.
  • Nowtopias - Transition towns, Collaborative consumption, share schemes etc.
  Future research proposals
  • The impossibility of dematerialisation
  • Entry of developed economies into systemic stagnation
  • Abandonment of growth will revive politics and democracy (no proof, but we think/hope!)
  > Click here to watch the video of the event!

Share on the corporate technosphere


Our republication policy

Support us

Blog

Degrowth: Some suggestions from the Simpler Way Perspective

Bonfire

By: Ted Trainer

Thirty four years ago I published Abandon Affluence and Growth, with negligible effect, so it has been hugely satisfying to see the recent emergence of a degrowth movement. However, I believe some aspects of the movement need greater attention. Degrowth transition strategies especially should deal more effectively with the sheer magnitude of the problem we are facing. The magnitude of the prob...

Blog

Degrowth Conference 2016 ends with large coverage in Hungarian media

Budapest closing

By: Christiane Kliemann

As Vincent Ligey, coordinator of the Budapest Conference organizing team mentioned in the closing plenary, it was an experiment to hold an international degrowth conference in a former socialist country where the soil for degrowth ideas is not particularly fertile. The more it came as a surprise that the conference had received a widespread coverage in Hungarian media. Szandra Koves, press out...

Blog

A development vision for rural Africa

Tiyeda and seda

Without trying to give definitions of growth or degrowth everybody knows anyway, I would like to emphasize that these phenomena were always subject to discussions. Even a non-economist knows that it is impossible to talk about growth without mentioning ideas like increases in production factors, industrialization or economic development. Any increase has to come to a [...]