Escaping from the economy: the politics of degrowth

Abstract

Purpose-Whilst there is a growing recognition of environmental degradation, the policies of sustainable development or ecological modernisation offered by national governments and international institutions seem to do little more than ''sustain the unsustainable''. By promising to reconcile growth with the environment, they fail to question the economic principle of endless growth that has caused environmental destruction in the first place. In this context, alternatives based on critiques of growth may offer more promising grounds. The aim of this paper is to explore how the degrowth movement that emerged in France over the last decade resonates with, and can contribute to, green politics. Design/methodology/approach-After locating the movement within environmental politics and providing a brief account of its development, the paper focuses on its core theme-escaping from the economy. Findings-Here it is argued that the movement's main emphasis is not merely on calling for less growth, consumption or production, but more fundamentally, in inviting one to shift and re-politicise the terms in which economic relations and identities are considered. This politicisation of the economy is discussed in terms of the movement's foregrounding of democracy and citizenship, and it is argued that the articulation of these two concepts may offer interesting points of departure for conceptualising and practising alternatives to consumer capitalism. Originality/value-The final part of the paper explores how the degrowth movement's stance on democracy and citizenship could help address two problematic issues within environmental politics: that of inclusion, and motivation Keywords Citizenship, National economy, Public policy, Sustainable development Paper type Conceptual paper At a time when it has finally become widely accepted that climate change was caused by man-made emission of CO 2 , the exploration of alternative economic models to consumer capitalism seems a more than ever pressing issue (Wall, 2007). Within this context, the degrowth movement that emerged in France over the last decade may have some interesting contribution to make. Yet whilst the movement has made its way into other European countries, especially Italy and Belgium, its ideas have hardly made an appearance in Anglo-Saxon academic or public debates; indeed, at the time of writing this paper I found only three English-language articles on degrowth (Baykan, 2007; Fotopoulos, 2007; Latouche, 2007) beside a few articles by Latouche published in the English version of Le Monde Diplomatique (Latouche, 2004b, 2006b). No doubt, the ideas that circulate within the degrowth movement in France resonate with critiques of growth made elsewhere in green politics or development politics (see for example,

Assessing the degrowth discourse: A review and analysis of academic degrowth policy proposals

“…For characterizing the theoretical pillar of degrowth it is important to differentiate between the French décroissance movement (see Fournier, 2008) and the sustainable degrowth literature, mostly explored in the ecological economics field of research (see Kallis, 2011). While the contemporary French décroissance movement has its historical origins in the critique of development, modernity and political ecology concerns, the sustainable degrowth movement is usually traced to the critique to economic growth and the notion of a necessary "declining" state of the economy argued by Georgescu-Roegen in his influential works (Georgescu-Roegen, 1995;Kerschner, 2010;Martínez-Alier et al, 2010).…”

The World is Yours: “Degrowth”, Racial Inequality and Sustainability

“…The dire circumstances, according to Fournier, are "accepted" and have circulated throughout various movements around "green politics" and "development" [17]. Likewise, Peter Victor in his article, "Questioning economic growth," in the publication, Nature, in 2010 also cites "climate change" as the problem in need of a more drastic solution, something he specifically describes as reducing "greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent" over the next 50 years.…”

Free Economy! On 3628800 Alternatives of and to Capitalism

“…In fact, the idea of a function system equalizer may help to explore and experiment with modulating the frequencies of individual or collective forms of attention to certain function systems. At the individual level, one important outcome of these experiments may be that we reconsider our only two-dimensional fascination for minutest adjustments of the economic and political slide controls, which is currently being re-popularized by claims for a repoliticization of growth (Fournier, 2008), in the context of which growth is commonly being equated with economic growth (Latouche, 2009;Romano, 2012;Urry, 2010). The question of 'Degrowth or regrowth' (Whitehead, 2013), however, is maybe not only about more or less of the economy, but rather about more or less of growth within the entire constellation of function systems.…”