Many people see the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic as a more or less necessary consequence of capitalism and its inherent growth imperative. Correspondingly, they perceive the pandemic not only as an urgent warning sign, but also as a unique opportunity to overcome the focus on economic growth. This is assumed to be even more pressing, given the climate crisis and the close linkage between economic growth and carbon dioxide emission (see Chapter 24 ). Is degrowth a realistic perspective or is it a fantasy that cannot be realized, due to economic or
the growth ideology, and have instead promoted economies of reciprocity and shared well-being, with an emphasis on justice for the entire ecological system and future generations (that is, ecological justice ), rather than focusing only on justice for humans (that is, environmental justice ) ( Boetto et al, 2018 ; Rinkel and Mataria, 2018 ; Scott, 2018 ). Situated within this ecosocial lens, the degrowth approach, or simply degrowth , seeks ecological justice as it is conceptualised beyond mere economics to include meaning and relationships, as Kallis, (2018
This book analyses the strategies used by public authorities to expand the UK aviation industry in relation to growing political opposition and the negative impact of flying on local communities and climate change.
Its genealogical investigations show how governmental practices and technologies designed to depoliticise aviation and expand airports have generally failed to constitute an effective political will to counter community resistance and environmental protest. Criticising the dominant logics of UK airport expansion, the authors promote a radical rethinking of our attitudes to aviation in terms of sufficiency, degrowth and alternative hedonism, laying the ground for a more sustainable future.
the work of Ivan Illich (1926–2002), an Austrian American theologian and philosopher who was a radical critic of modern technology and an early proponent of degrowth. His book Tools for Conviviality was popularized in France by André Gorz and received much critical attention around the world. Like his friend Erich Fromm (1976) , Illich believed that it was time to once again prioritize “being” over “having”: a truly convivial society would limit its use of technology, which otherwise may take on a life of its own and cause more problems than it solves ( Illich
, cradle-to-grave carbon emissions in the commodity chains and waste associated with the numerous and various goods and services consumed within city, state or national borders. Still, ecological indictors, such as carbon footprints incorporating all such emissions wherever they take place, are key to establishing zero- and negative-carbon living. This chapter sketches a degrowth paradigm (introduced in Chapters 1 and 10 ) to reveal the challenge of inequities within global production for trade and flows of trade, then offers a Minority World analysis
Degrowth developed as an idea in the latter decades of the 20th century but only emerged as a visibly active movement in the 21st century, initially in France, then Europe more generally. In the mid-2020s, degrowth has come of age. As outlined in Chapter 1 , bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the European Commission now refer to degrowth as a critical element in curbing carbon emissions and achieving ecological sustainability and stability. So, what is ‘degrowth’ (aka ‘postgrowth’)? Degrowth targets growth economies as the
sustainability (for example, 2022 : 5–15). Even more remarkable are the references made by the report to ‘degrowth’. For instance, it observes how ‘several studies find that only GDP non-growth/degrowth or post-growth approaches allow climate stabilisation to reach below 2°C’ (2022 : 3–86). Degrowth is a radical ecopolitical project in that it, unlike the green growth project, points beyond the systemic logic of capitalism ( Buch-Hansen and Carstensen, 2021 ). Indeed, degrowth is both anti- and post-capitalist. It is anti-capitalist in that it revolves around critiques
through policies of environmental sustainability. Some go even further and call for a completely different relationship between human beings and nature, which would abandon a civilisation based on industrialism and would put an end to capitalism. This approach calls for ‘degrowth’ – to reverse industrial activity. Global capitalism, would be replaced by an anarchistic, decentralised, mutualistic, non-hierarchical civilisation 8 – only such a society is able to prioritise environmentalism. Others accept the advances that an industrial civilisation brings to human
affluent countries reduce their environmental impact, while still maintaining a good life? In this article, I engage with people who are ‘living degrowth’ in Switzerland and have voluntarily reduced their levels of consumption. ‘Degrowth’ is intended to operate as a ‘missile concept’ that questions the hegemony of economic growth as a desirable end goal ( Jackson, 2017 : 162). In practice, ‘living degrowth’ relates to people reducing their work time, switching to vegetarian diets or renouncing air travel, among other changes which are significant when it comes to
Key messages Politicians need to drop the idea of green growth and instead define a safe and just operating space to determine what can be done within this space. Investigate consumption in combination with processes of production. The survival of the planet requires holistic approaches to transform society and its exchanges with nature on a scale that we have not yet seen. This transformation needs to be based on principles of degrowth. Introduction At Lund University in Sweden, research on social welfare and environmental sustainability aims
