Degrowth is a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological
economics, anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist ideas. It is also
considered an essential economic strategy responding to the
limits-to-growth dilemma. Degrowth thinkers and activists advocate for the
downscaling of production and consumption—the contraction of
economies—arguing that overconsumption lies at the root of long term
environmental issues and social inequalities. Key to the concept of
degrowth is that reducing consumption does not require individual martyring or
a decrease in well-being. Rather, 'degrowthists' aim to maximize happiness
and well-being through non-consumptive means—sharing work, consuming less,
while devoting more time to art, music, family, culture and community.
Background The movement arose from concerns over
the perceived consequences of the productivism and consumerism associated
with industrial societies including: The reduced availability of energy
sources The declining quality of the environment
The decline in the health of flora and fauna upon which humans depend
The rise of negative societal side-effects
The ever-expanding use of resources by first-world countries to satisfy
lifestyles that consume more food and energy, and produce greater waste, at
the expense of the third world = Resource depletion =
As economies grow, the need for resources grows accordingly. There is a
fixed supply of non-renewable resources, such as petroleum, and these resources
will inevitably be depleted. Renewable resources can also be depleted if
extracted at unsustainable rates over extended periods. For example, this has
occurred with 'caviar' production in the Caspian Sea. There is much concern as to
how growing demand for these resources will be met as supplies decrease. Many
organizations and governments look to energy technologies such as biofuels,
solar cells, and wind turbines to meet the demand gap after peak oil. Others
have argued that none of the alternatives could effectively replace
versatility and portability of oil. Authors of the book Techno-Fix criticize
technological optimists for overlooking the limitations of technology in solving
agricultural and social challenges arising from growth.
Proponents of degrowth argue that decreasing demand is the only way of
permanently closing the demand gap. For renewable resources, demand, and
therefore production, must also be brought down to levels that prevent
depletion and are environmentally healthy. Moving toward a society that is
not dependent on oil is seen as essential to avoiding societal collapse
when non-renewable resources are depleted. "But degrowth is not just a
quantitative question of doing less of the same, it is also and, more
fundamentally, about a paradigmatic re-ordering of values, in particular
theaffirmation of social and ecological values and apoliticisation of the
economy". = Ecological footprint =
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.
It compares human demand with planet Earth's ecological capacity to
regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea
area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to
absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste. According to a 2005
Global Footprint Network report, inhabitants of high-income countries
live off of 6.4 global hectares, while those from low-income countries live off
of a single gHa. For example, while each inhabitant of Bangladesh lives off of
what they produce from 0.56 gHa, a North American requires 12.5 gHa. Each
inhabitant of North America uses 22.3 times as much land as a Bangladeshi.
According to the same report, the average number of global hectares per
person was 2.1, while current consumption levels have reached 2.7
hectares per person. In order for the world's population to attain the living
standards typical of European countries, the resources of between three and eight
planet Earths would be required. In order for world economic equality to be
achieved with the current available resources, rich countries would have to
reduce their standard of living through degrowth. The eventual reduction of all
available resources would lead to a forced reduction in consumption.
Controlled reduction of consumption would reduce the trauma of this change
assuming no technological changes increase the planets carrying capacity.
= Degrowth and sustainable development = Degrowth thought is in opposition to all
forms of productivism. It is, thus, opposed to the current form of
sustainable development. While the concern for sustainability does not
contradict degrowth, sustainable development is rooted in mainstream
development ideas that aim to increase capitalist growth and consumption.
Degrowth therefore sees sustainable development as an oxymoron, as any
development based on growth in a finite and environmentally stressed world is
seen as inherently unsustainable. Critics of degrowth argue that a slowing
of economic growth would result in increased unemployment and increase
poverty. Many who understand the devastating environmental consequences
of growth still advocate for economic growth in the South, even if not in the
North. But, a slowing of economic growth would fail to deliver the benefits of
degrowth—self-sufficiency, material responsibility—and would indeed lead to
decreased employment. Rather, degrowth proponents advocate for a complete
abandonment of the current economic system, suggesting that relocalizing and
abandoning the global economy in the Global South would allow people of the
South to become more self-sufficient and would end the overconsumption and
exploitation of Southern resources by the North.
= "The rebound effect" = Technologies designed to reduce resource
use and improve efficiency are often touted as sustainable or green
solutions. However, degrowth warns about these technological advances due to the
"rebound effect". This concept is based on observations that when a less
resource-exhaustive technology is introduced, behaviour surrounding the
use of that technology may change, and consumption of that technology could
increase or even offset any potential resource savings. In light of the
rebound effect, proponents of degrowth hold that the only effective
'sustainable' solutions must involve a complete rejection of the growth
paradigm and a move toward a degrowth paradigm.
Origins of the movement The contemporary degrowth movement can
trace its roots back to the anti-industrialist trends of the 19th
century, developed in Great Britain by John Ruskin, William Morris and the Arts
and Crafts Movement, in the United States by Henry David Thoreau, and in
Russia by Leo Tolstoy. The concept of "degrowth" proper
appeared during the 1970s, proposed by the Club of Rome think tank and
intellectuals such as Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Jean Baudrillard,
André Gorz, Edward Goldsmith and Ivan Illich, whose ideas reflect those of
earlier thinkers, such as the economist E. J. Mishan, the industrial historian
Tom Rolt, and the radical socialist Tony Turner. The writings of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi and J. C. Kumarappa also contain similar philosophies,
particularly regarding his support of voluntary simplicity.
More generally, degrowth movements draw on the values of humanism,
enlightenment, anthropology and human rights.
= The Club of Rome reports = In 1968, the Club of Rome, a think tank
headquartered in Winterthur, Switzerland, asked researchers at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a report on practical solutions to
problems of global concern. The report, called The Limits to Growth, published
in 1972, became the first important study that indicated the ecological
perils of the unprecedented economic growth the world was experiencing at the
time. The reports are not strictly the
founding texts of the movement, as they only advise zero growth, and have also
been used to support the sustainable development movement. Still, they are
considered the first official studies explicitly presenting economic growth as
a key reason for the increase in global environmental problems such as
pollution, shortage of raw materials, and the destruction of ecosystems. A
second report was published in 1974, and together with the first, drew
considerable attention to the topic. = Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's thesis =
The Romanian economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen is considered the
creator of degrowth, and its main theoretician. In 1971, he published a
book called The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, in which he noted that
the neoclassical economic model did not take into account the second law of
thermodynamics, by not accounting for the degradation of energy and matter. He
associated every economic activity with an increase in entropy, whose increase
implied the loss of useful resources. When a selection of his articles was
translated into French in 1979 under the title Demain la décroissance, it spurred
the creation of the movement in France. = Serge Latouche =
Serge Latouche, a professor of economics at the Paris-Sud 11 University, has
noted that: If you try to measure the reduction in
the rate of growth by taking into account damages caused to the
environment and its consequences on our natural and cultural patrimony, you will
generally obtain a result of zero or even negative growth. In 1991, the
United States spent 115 billion dollars, or 2.1% of the GDP on the protection of
the environment. The Clean Air Act increased this cost by 45 or 55 million
dollars per year. [...] The World Resources Institute tried to measure the
rate of the growth taking into account the punishment exerted on the natural
capital of the world, with an eye towards sustainable development. For
Indonesia, it found that the rate of growth between 1971 and 1984 would be
reduced from 7.1 to 4% annually, and that was by taking only three variables
into consideration: deforestation, the reduction in the reserves of oil and
natural gas, and soil erosion. = Schumacher and Buddhist economics =
E. F. Schumacher's 1973 book Small is Beautiful predates a unified degrowth
movement, but nonetheless serves as an important basis for degrowth ideas. In
this book he critiques the neo-liberal model of economic development, arguing
that an increasing "standard of living", based on consumption, is absurd as a
goal of economic activity and development. Instead, under what he
refers to as Buddhist economics, we should aim to maximize well-being while
minimizing consumption. = Ecological and social issues =
In January 1972 Edward Goldsmith and Robert Prescott-Allen—editors of The
Ecologist journal—published A Blueprint for Survival, which called for a radical
programme of decentralisation and deindustrialisation to prevent what the
authors referred to as "the breakdown of society and the irreversible disruption
of the life-support systems on this planet".
Degrowth movement = Conferences =
The movement has also included international conferences, promoted by
the network Research&Degrowth, in Paris, Barcelona, Montreal Venice, Leipzig and
Budapest. = Barcelona Conference =
The First International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological
Sustainability and Social Equity of Paris was a discussion about the
financial, social, cultural, demographic, environmental crisis caused
by the deficiencies of capitalism and an explanation of the main principles of
the degrowth. The Second International Conference of Barcelona on the other
hand focused on specific ways to implement a degrowth society.
Concrete proposals have been developed for future political actions, including:
Promotion of local currencies, elimination of fiat money and reforms of
interest Transition to non-profit and small scale
companies Increase of local commons and support of
participative approaches in decision-making
Reducing working hours and facilitation of volunteer work
Reusing empty housing and co-housing Introduction of the basic income
guarantee and an income ceiling built on a maximum-minimum ratio
Limitation of the exploitation of natural resources and preservation of
the biodiversity and culture by regulations, taxes and compensations
Minimize the waste production with education and legal instruments
Elimination of mega infrastructures, transition from a car-based system to a
more local, biking, walking-based one. Suppression of advertising from the
public space In spite of the real willingness of
reform and the development of numerous solutions, the conference of Barcelona
didn’t have a big influence on the world economic and political system. Many
critiques have been made concerning the proposals, mostly about the financial
aspects, and this has refrained changes to occur.
Criticisms = Liberal critique =
Supporters of economic liberalism believe that economic growth brings
about the creation of wealth, by increasing employment, improving quality
of life, and providing better education and healthcare, in other words, there
should be more resources in order to make and improve on more things. From
this point of view, degrowth constitutes economic recession and is a destroyer of
wealth. An additional liberal criticism of
degrowth is that progress is increasingly linked to knowledge rather
than the use of physical resources, and that the progress of technology will
solve the world's environmental problems. Free-market environmentalism
is a position that argues that most environmental problems are caused by a
lack of property rights and the extension of such to include
externalities. Self-regulation of the market
Supporters of the self-regulation of the market believe that if a particular
non-renewable resource becomes scarce, the market will limit its extraction via
two mechanisms: an increase in price
an increase in funding for the development of alternatives
This position argues that allowing market forces to take effect is the most
rational way of solving the problem, and consider that these forces are more
efficient than centralized decision systems. Market capitalism can take
advantage of the exploitation of energy sources that were not economically
viable 10 or 20 years prior, because under new conditions the required
economic growth will necessitate their use.
In response to the theories of Georgescu-Roegen, Robert Solow and
Joseph Stiglitz noted that capital and labor can substitute for natural
resources in production either directly or indirectly, ensuring sustained growth
or at least sustainable development. Creative destruction
The concept of degrowth is founded on the hypothesis that producing more
always implies the consumption of more energy and raw materials, while at the
same time decreasing the size of the labor force, which is replaced by
machines. This analysis is considered misleading from the point of view that
technological progress allows us to produce more with less, as well as
provide more services. This is what is known as creative destruction, the
process by which the "old" companies from a sector disappear from the market
as a result of the innovation in that sector that brings down costs while
consuming less energy and raw materials in exchange for increased productivity.
At the same time, this reduction in costs and/or increase in profits
increases the ability to save, which simultaneously allows for investment in
new advances, which will replace the old technologies.
= Marxist critique = Marxists distinguish between two types
of growth: that which is useful to mankind, and that which simply exists to
increase profits for companies. Marxists consider that it is the nature and
control of production that is the determinant, and not the quantity. They
believe that control and a strategy for growth are the pillars that enable
social and economic development. According to Jean Zin, while the
justification for degrowth is valid, it is not a solution to the problem.
However, other Marxist writers have adopted positions close to the de-growth
perspective. For example, John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, in common with
David Harvey, Immanuel Wallerstein, Paul Sweezy and others focus on endless
capital accumulation as the basic principle and goal of capitalism. This
is the source of economic growth and, in the view of these writers, is
unsustainable. Foster and Magdoff develop Marx's own concept of the
metabolic rift, something he noted in the exhaustion of soils by capitalist
systems of food production. = Third world critique =
The concept of degrowth is viewed as contradictory when applied to
lesser-developed countries, which require the growth of their economies in
order to attain prosperity. In this sense the majority of supporters of
degrowth advocate the attainment of a certain, acceptable level of well-being
independent of growth. The question of where the balance lies remains open.
= Systems theoretical critique = In stressing the negative rather than
the positive side(s) of growth, the majority of degrowth proponents remains
focused ongrowth, thus co-performing and further sustaining the actually
criticised unsustainable growth obsession. One way out of this paradox
might be in changing the reductionist vision of growth as ultimately economic
concept, which proponents of both growth and degrowth commonly imply, for a
broader concept of growth that allows for the observation of growth in other
function systems of society. A corresponding recoding of
growth-obsessed or capitalist organisations has recently been
proposed. See also
Notes External links
First International De-growth Conference in Paris 18-19 April 2008
2nd Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social
Equity. Barcelona 26-29 March 2010 International Conference on Degrowth in
the Americas, Montreal, 13-19 May 2012 3 hours of audio from Montreal 2012, The
Extraenvironmentalist Video Interviews and Speeches from
Montreal 2012, The Extraenvironmentalist 3rd International Conference on degrowth
for ecological sustainability and social equity
Peter Ainsworth on degrowth and sustainable development Published on La
Clé des langues Club for Degrowth
CBC Ideas podcast "The Degrowth Paradigm"; 54 minutes