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Blog • 10.04.2020

Growth damages the climate. We need new paths to prosperity

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By: Joël Foramitti

Technological pipe dreams and the fixation on perpetual growth have prevented effective climate policies for decades "Happiness does not pay pensions", said the Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos. The statement aimed to criticize the idea of a “post-growth” or “degrowth” society, which has received increasing attention in light of the climate crisis....

Blog • 02.04.2020

This isn’t the type of downscaling that degrowth thinkers have in mind!

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By: Crelis Rammelt, Willem Hoogendijk, Francis Merson

In the early 17th century, the bubonic plague is said to have played a crucial role in popping the tulip bubble in the Netherlands. Today, the coronavirus (COVID-19) is leading not only to a health crisis, but also an economic one. The outbreak is sparking realistic fears of a deep global downturn. Our globalised, just-in-time, cost-cutting, risk-taking and profit-maximising economy has shown a...

Blog • 26.03.2020

Why degrowth should scare business

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By: Iana Nesterova, Fabian Maier, Ben Robra, and Simon Parker

Recently, an article on degrowth appeared in Harvard Business Review (hereafter HBR). Rather than offering a critique of capitalism, the article proposes that degrowth may not be a threat to business after all, and in fact, there are burgeoning degrowth markets waiting to be tapped into by the risk averse. Although we applaud the authors in getting the word “degrowth” into the illustrious pages...

Blog • 19.03.2020

A degrowth perspective on the coronavirus crisis

By: The degrowth.info international editorial team

Degrowth advocates for a general slowdown and large emissions reductions, minus the pandemic and social distress. The coronavirus (covid-19) has caused upheaval across the world, deaths of the most vulnerable, closed borders, financial market crashes, curfews and controls on group gatherings, and many more devastating effects. Despite observations that pollution and emissions have red...

Blog • 27.02.2020

Money and precarity: degrowth organizing in a not-yet-degrowth world

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By: Nathan Barlow

Degrowth imagines a radically different future, which is why so many have connected to its message. But it is a future which seems very distant from today’s political, economic and social system. So what does it mean, in practical terms, to organize towards a degrowth future in a highly commodified and competitive present? Fundraising for degrowth I have been coordinating the fundraising ...

Blog • 05.03.2020

Entry Points for Transformative Politics: The Power of Unstated Premises

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By: Timmo Krüger

While the limits and failures of our current economic and political system are known and repetitively pointed out by degrowth research, we have a deficit in the area of strategic planning for transformative politics. What is missing are entry points for politicizing and changing social values, norms and institutions. To do this successfully, it is useful to detect how hegemonic values are embed...