Energy • 21.10.2021
What is the role of ‘sense of place’ discourses in anti-fracking struggles and can the degrowth movement learn anything from them? To understand the role of place in socio-ecological struggles it is important to move beyond the conventional view whereby places are reduced to physical locations. Instead, space becomes a place when actors ascribe physical locations with specific meanings, experiences, memories, emotions, and symbolic value. Human geographers refer to these socially constructed aspects of place as sense of place, which form the basis of collective (political) identities, cultures and practices.
Education • 07.10.2021
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is the educational stream of the sustainability discourse. One rather critical component of ESD has a lot in common with the degrowth discourse. Nevertheless, ESD has blind spots that prevent it from effectively contributing to socio-ecological transformations. Key points from the degrowth discourse could help making a degrowth-informed ESD an active part of positive socio-ecological transformations.
Strategy • 29.09.2021
Degrowthers have recently seemed to find a lot of inspiration in Erik Olin Wright’s framework of political strategies for transformations beyond capitalism. In this blog post, we wish to highlight some crucial insufficiencies of Wright’s framework in relation to degrowth transformations, and propose some adaptations which can enhance its utility for further strategy discussions.
Decolonisation • 22.09.2021
Will degrowth as a discourse and movement extend coloniality, by aiming to make just one world out of the many that form the earth’s pluriverse? Or will degrowth be decolonial, by helping to sustain and grow a many worlds world in which diverse ways of living and relating can thrive? These are the questions we ask in this brief essay.
Reviews • 13.09.2021
A year ago, in August 2020, we launched our jointly authored book Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide (Pluto Press). ‘The book you hold in your hands’ states Jason Hickel of the University of London and author of Less is More 2020, ‘paints a picture of the new economy that lies ahead — an economy that enables human flourishing for all within planetary boundaries.’ Discussion about degrowth has exploded since then when a cluster of general interest books on degrowth appeared in 2020.
Cities • 26.08.2021
The idea of the ‘15-minute city’ has recently gained traction amongst policy-makers as an urban innovation with the potential to address intersecting social and ecological challenges of the post-COVID world. But its lack of an embedded politics presents a danger as much as it does an opportunity.
