Presentation and transcription of an oral session by Pascal van Griethuysen at the Second International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Barcelona on the topic "Degrowth, Capitalist Institutions and Democracy".

Abstract: Reorienting the current unsustainable and inequitable path and implementing the necessary degrowth process in an ecologically sustainable and socially equitable manner requires a shift from the property‐based hierarchy of social norms, where social and ecological considerations are subordinated to the capitalist economic rationality towards an eco‐social rationale, where economic activities are subordinated to social and ecological considerations and imperatives. Such an eco‐social rationale could subordinate property capitalist expansion through the following, interrelated ways: scoping the domain of property; regulating capitalisation practices, orienting investments, allocating returns and distributing created wealth, confining property’s capitalist expansion. However, such a radical shift will inevitably face a systemic opposition from the capitalist/industrial expansion.