Logo degrowth

Blog

"Radical democratization of all public domains"

04.06.2014

Interview with Katja Kipping

Katja Kipping is chairwoman of the German Left Party and Member of the German Parliament. Besides her engagement for good working conditions in her capacity as spokesperson for social affairs, she supports the exchange between party politics and civil society through engaging in social movements such as the network for unconditional basic income. For this interview, she imagines herself living in a post-growth society in 2030, looking back to “past” difficulties and transformative moments on the way. From this perspective, she mainly sees the democratization of public domains as an important step toward a post-growth society.

Please imagine that the world is enjoying a phase of "good living" beyond growth. Let us then take stock of the past decades from the perspective of, say, the year 2030. To what extent was society reliant on growth?

A mode of production geared towards competition and profit has to grow, because only growth allows us to survive in a competitive environment, and because long-term profit is only possible through an intensive or extensive growth of production - and because the pressure to exploit resources for profit has to result in an increased pressure to consume. Boosting production means increasing the use of resources – be they natural or human. Capitalism thus meant an uneconomic waste of valuable common goods – nature, human skills, cultural and intellectual achievements.

What were the obstacles preventing a paradigm shift in growth?

The main obstacle was the pressure to make profit and to compete, which was ideology-driven and institutionally underpinned and only served the interests of a few – i.e. those who ruthlessly achieved gains in profit and power. And it was a cultural orientation which sought salvation in the accumulation of more and more goods, although an oversupply of the items and abilities required for good living had already existed for decades – a dangerous illusion, as we know today.

What was your contribution to a society beyond growth?

Radical democratization of all public domains including the economy and also with respect to the commons. This was a political task I was happy to take on. In addition, I also campaigned for the introduction of an unconditional material safety-net for all by means of a basic income – along with free access to culture, knowledge and education, public transport and high-quality health care. People who are not worried about making ends meet or anxious about being marginalised in society need not be greedy and need not cling to the promises of salvation made by growth ideologists.

In your view, what constitutes "good living" within a society with a deliberately low level of production and consumption?

Time for leisure, friendships and loved ones, time sovereignty, culture, dance, no worries about making ends meet or being marginalised, political and intellectual challenge, living and working in harmony with nature, producing what we need. Attractive products people can enjoy. As you see, it means a great deal of luxury. Good living is the luxurious life which we live today. How wretched we were 16 years ago, afflicted by the misery of growth.

What signs of a world beyond growth could already be seen in 2013?

There were awareness-raising campaigns by wise people critical of growth, grass-roots movements for a solidary and ecological economy, social movements campaigning for a basic income, for free public transport, for access to education, culture, knowledge and healthcare for all, for time sovereignty. Poorer countries who would have had preferred to refrain from the extraction of oil, environmental destruction, climate risks and the destruction of the social fabric in return for a compensation from the rich countries of the global North – which they unfortunately never received. All of them paved the way for the good life we have today.

Share on the corporate technosphere


Our republication policy

Support us

Blog

Degrowth and the emerging mosaic of alternatives

By: Nina Treu, Matthias Schmelzer, Corinna Burkhart

In the face of unfettered globalization, the rise of right-wing movements around the globe and the dangers of climate catastrophe, it seems easier to imagine the end of the world than an end to capitalism, growth and domination. However, in recent years something new has emerged to counter what Mark Fisher has called “capitalist realism:” after decades on the defensive against neoliberalism, th...

Blog

Do we want to advance towards the fourth industrial revolution?

Capture d e%cc%81cran 2019 08 28 a%cc%80 13.02.20

By: Paz Serra Portilla

The arrival of smartphones, self-driving cars and the Cloud are all symptomatic of a profound shift that is re-writing modern society from within: the Fourth Industrial Revolution. New technologies claim to provide answers to a host of problems, but is technology unbound always a force for good? In the first of a three-part series on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, EcoPolítica’s Paz Serra...

Blog

Degrowth through a Post-Development Lens

Wassertropfen auf blatt 612 x 260

If current crises like environmental degradation and social inequality can be seen as result of our economic and social systems, the concept of a degrowth economy has been advanced as a possible solution. Degrowth is in direct contrast to economic systems such as capitalism or sustainable growth, and in fact has much more in common [...]