Degrowth

Not to be confused with downsizing or shrinkage.
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Degrowth is an academic and social movement critical of the concept of growth in gross domestic product as a measure of human and economic development.[1][2][3] The idea of degrowth is based on ideas and research from economic anthropology, ecological economics, environmental sciences, and development studies. It argues that modern capitalism's unitary focus on growth causes widespread ecological damage and is unnecessary for the further increase of human living standards.[4][5][6] Degrowth theory has been met with both academic acclaim and considerable criticism.[7][8][9]

Degrowth's main argument is that an infinite expansion of the economy is fundamentally contradictory to the finiteness of material resources on Earth. It argues that economic growth measured by GDP should be abandoned as a policy objective. Policy should instead focus on economic and social metrics such as life expectancy, health, education, housing, and ecologically sustainable work as indicators of both ecosystems and human well-being.[10] Degrowth theorists posit that this would increase human living standards and ecological preservation even as GDP growth slows.[11][12][3]

Degrowth theory is highly critical of free market capitalism, and it highlights the importance of extensive public services, care work, self-organization, commons, relational goods, community, and work sharing.[13][14] Degrowth theory partly orients itself as a critique of green capitalism or as a radical alternative to the market-based, sustainable development goal (SDG) model of addressing ecological overshoot and environmental collapse.[15]

A 2024 review of degrowth studies over the past 10 years showed that most were of poor quality: almost 90% were opinions rather than analysis, few used quantitative or qualitative data, and even fewer ones used formal modelling; the latter used small samples or a focus on non-representative cases. Also most studies offered subjective policy advice, but lacked policy evaluation and integration with insights from the literature on environmental/climate policies.[16]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference kallis2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Schneider, François; Kallis, Giorgos; Martinez-Alier, Joan (April 2010). "Crisis or opportunity? Economic degrowth for social equity and ecological sustainability. Introduction to this special issue". Journal of Cleaner Production. 18 (6): 511–518. Bibcode:2010JCPro..18..511S. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2010.01.014.
  3. ^ a b Demaria, Federico; Schneider, François; Sekulova, Filka; Martinez-Alier, Joan (2013). "What is Degrowth? From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement". Environmental Values. 22 (2): 191–215. doi:10.3197/096327113X13581561725194. JSTOR 23460978. S2CID 55888884.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference gd01 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hickeletal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Kallis, Giorgos; Demaria, Federico; d'Alisa, Giacomo (2015). "Degrowth". International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. pp. 24–30. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.91041-9. ISBN 978-0-08-097087-5.
  7. ^ "Degrowth: what's behind this economic theory and why it matters today". World Economic Forum. 2022-06-15. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
  8. ^ Horowitz, Julia (13 November 2022). "To save the world, does the economy need to stop growing?". CNN.
  9. ^ Bokat-Lindell, Spencer (16 September 2021). "Opinion | Do We Need to Shrink the Economy to Stop Climate Change?". The New York Times.
  10. ^ Nelson, Anitra (2024-01-31). "Degrowth as a Concept and Practice: Introduction". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
  11. ^ Hickel, Jason (2021). Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. National Geographic Books. pp. 170–179. ISBN 978-1-78609-121-5.
  12. ^ Akbulut, Bengi (2 January 2021). "Degrowth". Rethinking Marxism. 33 (1): 98–110. doi:10.1080/08935696.2020.1847014. S2CID 232116190.
  13. ^ Demaria, Federico; Kothari, Ashish; Salleh, Ariel; Escobar, Arturo; Acosta, Alberto (2019). Pluriverse. A Post-Development Dictionary. New Delhi: Tulika Books. ISBN 9788193732984.
  14. ^ "What is degrowth?". degrowth.info. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  15. ^ Saito, Kohei (2023). Slow Down: A Degrowth Manifesto. Astra Publishing.
  16. ^ Savin, Ivan; van den Bergh, Jeroen (2024-12-01). "Reviewing studies of degrowth: Are claims matched by data, methods and policy analysis?". Ecological Economics. 226: 108324. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108324. ISSN 0921-8009.