Source,Section,Notes
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Preface,"We need to define not only the destination at the end
of that path, but also be able to share with other people how to find
the trailhead and get started in a very practical way"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Preface,"All these pathways
intersect and lead us into the same direction of a future based on
justice, decolonialism and care for one another"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"are not unfortunate coincidences caused by
humanity as a whole but the outcomes of a system oriented toward
perpetual economic growth and capital accumulation. It is a system
characterised by brutal injustices within and across societies – based
on class, gender and racial divisions, and uneven relations between
the Global North and the Global South"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"social movements have to confront the
agendas driven by corporate and state actors, who have the power
to ignore, water down, co-opt and criminalise transformative
efforts. Social movements often lack time and energy, capacities and
resources, and it is easy to run out of steam and feel that efforts to
bring change are futile"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"organise better within and across the movements we
are a part of and to develop a more clear-eyed perspective on how to
confront the powerful interests and structures standing in the way of
systemic change. This is why the question of strategy is so important
for anyone engaged in efforts for social-ecological transformation"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"degrowth as a democratically deliberated absolute
reduction of material and energy throughput, which ensures
well-being for all within planetary boundaries. Contrary to
perpetuating economies driven by growth and profit, degrowth
offers an alternative vision for societies, centred on life-making,
ecological sustainability and social justice. Since degrowth is based
on the principles of autonomy, solidarity and direct democracy,
bottom-up organising is seen as key to making an equitable and
just transformation happen"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"degrowth
also acknowledges the historical inequities of colonialism and neo-
colonialism, and therefore demands that the Global North reverse
the social and ecological burdens it imposes on the Global South."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"degrowth is not a
unified scientific paradigm (Paulson 2017)"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"Whatever one’s take on how to characterise
the institutional set-up of degrowth, we can see that multiple
international and regional groups have emerged and stabilised as
relevant actors within degrowth activism, albeit mostly in Europe."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"the book puts forward our approach to selecting, framing and advancing key
debates."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"potential dangers of an unreflective
application of strategy to degrowth thinking might include creating
a vanguard group concerned exclusively with strategising that
stands in hierarchical relation to the rest of the movement, thereby
stifling attempts to build more horizontal forms of governance
and potentially depriving the strategising process of feedback and
creativity."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,We need to avoid creating a hierarchical group that tells the rest what the strategy should be
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,Strategy is a thought construct that details how one or several actors bring about systemic change
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,Strategy is in practice context specfici and dynamic
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"Strategy is more than a plan, the details are adapted over time and one must react to the actions of allies and oponents, as well as changing circumstances"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,"It is vital that the strategising process is guided by degrowth values like autonomy, care, conviviality, democracy and equity"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,The creation and execution of strategies depend on the existence of collective actors
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,How to organise can be see as both the fundation for and a deliberate part of a successful strategy
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Introduction,Strategy without theoretically informed considerations risks being reduced to short term objectives without a vision
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,"The transformations required are subject to historical and current experiences, uncertainties, social and technological innovations and plural forms of knowledge"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,"The new orthodoxy presupposes that with good arguments and learning processes, all relevant actors will gain adequate insights to the required transformation. This discurse have little understainding of the conflict driven character of modern societies, of power and domination."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,We need to look at societies as systems of power and domination
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,"Degrowth aims to create transformations by design and not by disaster, where choices, designs, decisions, conflicts and alliances are deliberatively taken; with long term thinking"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,"Deliverying strategy will required changing power relations, blocking devastation economic practices, redesigning the state and public policies, and questioning the capitalist"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,A strategy is not a property of an organization and should not be reduced to effects opr reached goals
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,"Strategy is a process of a series of states, each one quite not anticipated; which is governed by the starting and not the end point"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,Degrowth as an explicity movement will remain too weak to achieve such radical changes alone
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,The state will be required at least to the mid term to block powerful interest and give emancipatory demands and achievements certain durability
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,The degrowth strategy needs a strategy for the state
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 1: the importance of strategy for thinking about transformations,"Alliances and engagement with institutions should not be seen as tactial, but rather a necessary condition of such a broad change"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","A strategic canvas helps to identify priorities, tensions, and think about how to avoid co-optation in building their strategies."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright",Degrowth actors should put special emphasis on strategies that build power outside of the capitalist system and be very cautious of those who merely seek to tame capitalism
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","Wright (2009, 2019) identified three modes of transformation:
ruptural, interstitial and symbiotic.4 Ruptural transformations seek
a direct confrontation or break with existing institutions and
social structures. Interstitial transformations involve building new
forms of social empowerment on the margins of capitalist society,
usually outside of spaces dominated by those in power. Symbiotic
transformations, in turn, are aimed at changing the existing
institutions, and growing power within the current system so as to
ultimately transform it."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","The interstitial transformation is crucial for degrowth as a
movement and might be seen as its basis. Indeed, degrowth is
about resistance to the capitalist and growth-centric system, and
building directly democratic bottom-up alternatives is one of the
key principles for the politics of degrowth"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","The organising practices
we consider degrowthian – which work for open relocalisation and
repoliticisation, such as cooperatives and commoning – operate
within the interstitial mode, too. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","The state
and its institutions have been identified as key spaces through which
symbiotic transformation in line with degrowth can be pursued"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","While ruptures are to be cautious
about, making sure that the means are in line with the ends, I would
not dismiss rupture as a mode of transformation. Instead, I suggest
recognising different scales at which ruptures can take place – so that
they refer not only to system-level break of nation-states, but also to
small-scale and temporary overhauls of capitalism"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","egrowth, as a movement,
needs to engage with all of them; with interstitial transformation
at the core of degrowth practice, symbiotic transformation helping
to expand the horizons for radical possibilities, and temporal and
localised ruptures enabling radical change by taking power."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","degrowth is not only anti-capitalist, but also anti-
productivist, which will have implications for building strategies."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","By introducing the strategic logic
of building alternatives, I argue that interstitial alternatives can go
beyond escaping capitalism or the economy "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","Without
taming, dismantling might not be enough. For example, dismantling
practices, such as supporting cooperatives or locally anchored
organisations institutionally, may be a drop in the ocean when
powerful corporations are not tamed and existing institutions are
still oriented towards growth. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","While dismantling without taming can be insufficient
to bring about social-ecological transformation, it is possible to
imagine taming being pursued without leading to dismantling, thus
co-opting the efforts for symbiotic transformation"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","waiting for symbiotic
transformation to bring the legislation and institutional changes
that would support the transition of power from capital might
mean that such transformation would never materialise"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 2: A strategic canvas for degrowth: in dialogue with Erik
Olin Wright","occupying
in an urban landscape – whether a house or a plot of land – as
done by squatters (see e.g., Cattaneo and Gavaldá 2010), enables
its reclamation from capital, whilst also opening the possibility of
converting the occupied space into a commons. Small-scale ruptures
can encourage others in similar situations to take power in the spaces
where they operate. Moreover, having such examples in place and
demanding their recognition can ultimately push for symbiotic
transformation towards cooperativisation and commoning. Despite
such potentialities, it is important to be aware that actions within
the strategic logic of smashing can also be criminalised, punished or
delegitimised by authorities."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 3:
Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far","degrowth is not just
a process but also a concrete utopia"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 3:
Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far","2nd International Degrowth Conference in Barcelona
(2010). The final sentence of the one-page declaration from that
conference reads, “The challenge now is how to transform, and the
debate has just begun.” "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 3:
Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far","degrowth
lacks a theory of social change, and therefore cannot account for
why a degrowth transformation is not happening and is unlikely
to happen."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 3:
Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far","Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth highlights
central questions on this topic and flags the need for degrowth to
devote more attention to “political subjectivity and strategy” due to
“the lack of a clear political strategy”"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 3:
Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far","D’Alisa (Ibid), and then later D’Alisa and
Kallis (2020), suggested that degrowth should adopt a Gramscian
understanding of the state and approach its own transformative
ambitions as a counter-hegemonic struggle. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 3:
Taking stock: degrowth and strategy so far","This therefore requires coordinated and meaningfully inter-linked
actions, since plurality alone is not a strategy. On the other hand,
a key feature of using strategic assemblage as a term is that it
acknowledges the diversity of degrowth, and the multitude of actions
and approaches associated with it. Therefore, such an assemblage
would accommodate plurality but also necessitate prioritization7 and
an intentional consideration of how strategic actions can (or in some
instances cannot) inter-relate and the role of coordination towards
such an assemblage."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 4:
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring","latest book (Malm
2020), he deepened these arguments, arguing that in today’s chronic
(climate) emergency hard state power is required, starting with
“draconian restraints and cuts”, including economic plans, covering
all branches of economic activities, and nothing less than ecological
war communism (Ibid., 46). An ecological Leninism for Malm is
the “only one that can point to an emergency exit”, foregrounding
“speed as paramount virtue” (Ibid., 47), and imposing, in a way that
resounds with the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat, the will of
one part of the population upon the other"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 4:
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring","Malm’s position seems to be poles apart from other degrowth
authors’ invocation of the deepening of democracy as part and
parcel of the degrowth transformation, or visions of a bottom-
up constitution of local communities or demoi federated at
different levels"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 4:
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring","while there is “plenty of Leninist will”
(take state power), there is “little to say about the processes of class
composition which allowed Lenin’s rise”, thus relying on a “popular
power it cannot bring into being, and that it does not respect, even
as it mythologises it”"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 4:
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring","what defines
us the most is our theoretical frame, rather than a profile of action
or practical activism (…) and those who define our identity are
mainly academics.”"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 4:
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring","Having ascertained that the degree of diversity is substantial in
some respects (ideologies and strategic logics) but more limited
in others, the question is whether this degree of diversity is unique
or exceptional in social movements, and how such diversity can be
integrated into a common narrative."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 4:
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring","according to a prefigurative understanding of social
movements, a movement’s internal organisation counts as one
main dimension of a movement strategy, because means and ends
should not be overly detached and a movement’s internal practices
and organisations are themselves strategic"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 4:
Strategising within diversity: the challenge of
structuring","In the 1970s, Jo Freeman (1972) referring to the women’s liberation
movement, famously argued that structurelessness led to the
production of elites not accountable to the rest of the movement. procedures for the selection of delegates and their rotation,
accountability mechanisms, allocation of tasks/distribution of
labour and type of relationships among the nodes of the network,
distribution of authority and of resources, and diffusion of
information to everyone."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","With plurality,
self-determination and decolonisation as core principles, it
would be imprecise – and some would argue undesirable – to
describe degrowth as a movement, in the singular form. In
fact, it is more of a network, or movement of movements, and
an overarching discourse that touches upon and intertwines
with a myriad of social movements striving for social-ecological
transformation "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","degrowth.info, has its roots in the Leipzig conference, and
some members of our collective have been involved in the Local
Organising Committees of the degrowth conferences in Vienna
(2020) and in The Hague (2021). As already mentioned above, we see
our contribution mostly in the provisioning of degrowth information
and resources, as well as serving as a platform for bringing together
the wider degrowth networks"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","Therefore the Support Group, albeit as a non-central
body, does control the most visible and substantial strategy within
degrowth networks and has a de facto leadership position."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","With poor communication
across degrowth actors, similar statements were written many times
by different people in different places (to name a few: degrowth.
info 2020; Chassagne 2020; Kallis et al. 2020), and there was little
reflection on how to be inclusive, whose voices get the most visibility,
and what decision-making processes to use."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","We connect with those that we are already in contact with
and we refer and give voice to those who already occupy privileged
and high-profile positions – often meaning white European middle-
aged cis men"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","Another crucial point is that the vast majority
of degrowth organising is done on a voluntary basis, which makes
it less accessible to those with little financial security."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","Degrowth networks could seek to
proliferate degrowth as a frame for action, bringing in ever more
people and projects to take action under the degrowth banner."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","thinking intentionally about
strategy and organisation in degrowth networks is not only desirable
but required, if we are to avoid the perpetuation of patriarchal,
colonial and hierarchical dynamics within our discursive practices
and organisational structures."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","A Degrowth International can provide the structures necessary
for the degrowth community to communicate, co-create
multi-scalar strategies, understand each other’s strategies,
set priorities for the networks, and address tensions as they
emerge. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 5:
Degrowth actors and their strategies: towards a
Degrowth International","Different degrowth strategies need to be debated and
prioritised as appropriate for different contexts."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","Oppositional strategies create counter-hegemonic power through
various forms of public mobilizations and actions. These include
protests, demonstrations, strikes, direct action, civil disobedience,
blockades, flash-mobs, occupations, or even insurrectionary tactics of
riots and the demolition or sabotage of property. In recognising that
not all of these actions are legal, it is key to understand that almost
all the rights movements have struggled for throughout modern
history, including the end of colonialism, women’s and workers’
rights were also achieved by acts of resistance and civil disobedience
(Federici 2004; Harman 2008).  can be highly effective: a recent study
has shown that Indigenous campaigns of resistance against fossil
fuel expansion across what is currently called Canada and the
United States of America, which included militant actions, civil
disobedience, and sabotage, have effectively stopped or delayed
greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least 25% of annual U.S.
and Canadian emissions. Often, oppositional strategies create
powerful symbols that define entire eras, motivate and transform
people, and shift existing power relations in society, thus making
things possible that hitherto seemed unachievable. A key limit of
oppositional strategies is the difficulty of including visionary politics
and alternatives in the struggles, which often focus on opposing
the destruction of something rather than imagining or creating
something new"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","Communication strategies are central to many academics,
professionals in non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
journalists, and activists that engage with and in social movements.
Their aim is to change paradigms and to create narratives of
transformation. A
good speech, a well-articulated demand, a powerful political slogan
– all of these can make a significant difference, in particular, if they
are framed in a way that people perceive them as a new common
sense. communication
strategies lack the actors and the power to fight for and implement
change. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","An interesting case is trade unions, which historically
have started mainly through oppositional strategies, but now – as
discussed in one contribution in Degrowth in Movement(s) – largely
focus on the reform strategy of changing laws. As a social movement
strategy, reforms are important insofar as they can improve concrete
situations and lives through incremental but legally secured change
that cements what movements have been fighting for, and because
reforms can generalise certain rights and practices that had hitherto
only existed in alternative niches"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","Practice or prefigurative strategies through which practitioners
and activists create post-capitalist nowtopias in the here and now
seek to experiment with new institutions, infrastructures, or forms
of organisation. They are laboratories in which new social practices
are intentionally developed, tried out, and practised. They emerge
within and despite the old system and prefigure post-capitalist
relations on a small scale. One strength of many of these initiatives is a relatively low
threshold for participation. Since these projects often do not involve any political engagement
or commitment, they risk remaining focused on their local
situation and do not connect to wider struggles, nor do participants
necessarily politicise their practices."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","combination of strategies as the best way forward. The question is,
then, how the degrowth community can widen their repertoire and
combine different strategic approaches"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","We suggest that the degrowth movement
build on its strengths and collaborate with other social-ecological
movements and initiatives that have different foci and areas of
expertise. To be more concrete, we make the case for three tasks for
the degrowth movement: firstly, to intervene in ongoing debates,
struggles, and conflicts; secondly, to provide visions and narratives
that are concrete; and thirdly, to actively reflect, change attitudes,
and act towards intersectional justice."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","Degrowth has its strength in discussing and arguing for alternative
economies in an academic context and increasingly in public debates
around the future of economics and climate justice. Beyond that,
it is, however often a struggle to explain what degrowth really is
about. To make degrowth common sense, we need a language,
narratives, and visions that are concrete and easy to communicate.
This requires the pursuit of a well-thought-through communication
strategy. For the movement to reach the next level of its potential and
unfold more holistically, intersectional justice needs to become a
priority."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 6:
Who shut shit down? What degrowth can learn from
other social-ecological movements","While engaging with a sorting and labelling exercise, it becomes
obvious that in practice strategies are interconnected – often
employed simultaneously and deeply depending on one another. It is
often difficult to pinpoint where, for example, communicating ends
and reforming starts or when an action becomes a practice. Thus,
while categorising, it is important to remember that strategies are
contingent on one another."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Ecological Economics
Volume 146, April 2018, Pages 157-163","What would it take for a degrowth paradigm shift to take place? deep crisis, an alternative political project, a comprehensive coalition of social forces promoting the project in political struggles, and broad-based consent"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","Social equity is the key to a degrowth transformation
for a range of reasons: political, theoretical, ontological, and ethical
perspectives are all motivations for prioritising social equit"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","Unjust burdens on those providing
unpaid work, care, and physical and social reproduction lead to
gender justice, care economy and frontline worker movements"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","The degrowth
community tends to be mostly white, well-educated, and middle class (Muradian 2019), representing values, concerns and interests
that “create communication and emotional barriers for connecting
with disadvantaged populations in other parts of the world”"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","Some social and environmental justice groups feel that the term
“degrowth” is not appealing or does not match the demands of poor
and marginalised communities; that degrowth may not be taking
into account the multiculturality and pluriversality of different
countries; that degrowth is too anthropocentric; that degrowth
is not even widely known in the Majority World; that degrowth is
inherently Eurocentric (or Northern) in origin, so that it does not
provide much space for resistance from a decolonial perspective, and
puts forth a disconnected framework for those not living in rich,
high-consumption societies "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","Those degrowth activists who are able to recognise shared ideas
and expand their conceptualisations and priorities may be able to
build relationships across ontological divides (Singh 2019)"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","Rather than trying to strategise and lead in decolonial
movements, this means supporting Indigenous struggles while also
fighting broad settler ignorance and complacency:"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","Those seeking to build social equity-focused
alliances need to actively learn about and reflect on the racism,
sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, ableism and so on that currently
exist locally and globally, their own privilege vis-à-vis these systems,
and how to dismantle them. From this new self-understanding they
can reach out to groups concentrating their political work on social
struggles without colonising these struggles, but rather in support of
them (Gobby 2020)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 7:
Social equity is the foundation of degrowth","Commons require a community that is equitably organised and run,
with transparently shared wealth that is cooperatively and socially
produced in ways that strengthen and reinforce communal values.
When degrowth and commons are mutually supporting, livelihoods
and social equity are also reinforced (Caffentzis and Federici 2014)
and inter-personal relationships also grow"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 8:
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations","“nowtopias” (Carlsson and Manning 2010) are prefigurative,
emancipatory initiatives that not only envision but also embody
an alternative model of societal organisation in practice. They
are relevant because, while providing for specific needs (for food,
housing etc.), they also contain the seeds of an alternative model
of social organisation and low-scale generative economy based on
solidarity, collaboration and “commoning” in practice"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 8:
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations","Strategic plurality
is often more likely to contribute to future resilience of degrowth
proposals by helping to keep the big picture in view and see the
interconnections, interdependencies and obstacles that need to be
overcome to achieve and maintain a common goal"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 8:
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations","a ruptural occupation, coupled with
interstitial self-organisation to fair and ecological production, in
urgent need of symbiotic support. This in fact is a pattern commonly
observed when dealing with the institutionalisation of alternative
practices: such initiatives are at constant risk, as long as they are
not covered by a legal framework"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 8:
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations","Conventional reforms such as humanitarian aid, corporate
volunteerism, responsible shopping, or “green growth” investments
have at the very best an ameliorative effect, but basically legitimise
existing power structures, dynamics of accumulation, and political
processes, and in effect achieve no transformative change (Bond
2008). In contrast, non-reformist reforms are incompatible with the
preservation of the current system. They directly empower social
movements and demands and “are conceived not in terms of what is
possible within the framework of a given system and administration,
but in view of what should be made possible in terms of human
needs and demands”"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 8:
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations","hey propose
a way to overcome the historical problem of dualism between the
tactic having to happen now and strategy coming after and intend to
“simultaneously make life better within the existing economic system
and expand the potential for future advances of democratic power”
(Wright 2013, 20). Such “non-reformist reforms” are by nature
subversive, and create the space and conditions for transformative
policies to emerge."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 8:
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations","on institutions that “envision the contours of an alternative social
world that embodies emancipatory ideals and then look for social
innovations that move us towards that destination”, what he called
“real utopias”, such as participatory budgeting, solidarity finance,
worker-owned cooperatives, and unconditional basic income."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 8:
Evaluating strategies for emancipatory degrowth
transformations","A proposal can be hypothesised to
be non-reformist or transformative if: 1) It results from bottom-up social movement demands. 2)It contributes to a set of emancipatory moral principles. 3)It contributes to the building of democratic institutions. 4) It has a place in the current society, but also in the desired
society. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","Degrowth strategising has suffered from a tension between viewing
the state as incapable of initiating transformational change – a
view especially prominent in the Anarchist tradition – and making
a political appeal to it to do precisely this. As Cosme et al. (2017)
first observed, most of the eco-social policies that degrowth activists
promote would require a great deal of intervention by states and/
or international organisations. A limited number of papers have
attempted to bridge this tension by addressing the state as an arena
within degrowth activism."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks (2011) contain a systematic analysis of
the changes in state-civil society relationships in Western Europe
after World War I. Before, the bourgeois rule was characterised
by a direct economic rule coupled with military force. After the
war, however, a new sort of relationship between the state and
powerful classes emerged. The economic and military rule came to
be complemented by hegemonic, civil and political domination.
Hence, domination came to be more complex, that is, beyond the
material state apparatus in a narrow sense (“political society”) and
including areas generally regarded as belonging to civil society."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","By establishing “common forms
and categories of perception and appreciation”, the state creates a
pre-reflexive “belief effect” on the part of the dominated, which
helps to explain why the state normally does not have to use physical
coercion for “generalised obedience” (Bourdieu 2014, 166)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","Our three state theorists are in agreement that crises are the
structural background for societal change and provide corresponding
openings for oppositional movements. Humphrys (2018, 38) points
out that Gramsci’s integral state is always and “necessarily unstable.”
This means that in certain instances civil society can “break through
the political container.” "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","subaltern groups
could occupy “centres of resistance” within the state, which were
to be strategically coordinated and increased in number until they
become “real centres of power”, capable of staging “real breaks”
with the established orde"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","Bourdieu points out that, during periods of crisis, there is an
increased chance that alternative ways of thinking and acting
become influential"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","Following Gramsci, a degrowth strategy oriented around state-
civil society relationships would need to be built on a combination
of the theoretical knowledge of “organic intellectuals” of various
kinds and the practical knowledge of subaltern groups engaged in
a range of oppositional practices and struggles. To unite both sorts
of knowledge, Bourdieu (2003) highlights the importance of joint
practical and deliberative exercises as measures of “countertraining”."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 9:
Rethinking state-civil society relations","First, a degrowth strategy exclusively targeted at (certain areas of )
civil society and not the state – or indeed vice versa – is bound to
fail, because state and civil society are interconnected in myriad
ways, that is, the internal structures and struggles within one are
significantly co-produced by corresponding processes in the other."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 10:
Strategic entanglements","To date, degrowth alliances
have foregrounded principles and processes, including participatory
democracy, inclusion, commoning, sufficiency, conviviality, and care."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 10:
Strategic entanglements","Recognizing that it is unlikely (and perhaps not even desirable)
for degrowth to develop into a banner of massive mobilization or
an umbrella coordinating diverse movements, this chapter explores
possibilities of “strategic entanglements"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 10:
Strategic entanglements","Foster mutual learning and nourishment among interlocutors and collaborators in qualitatively different positions
and places. A second move is to heighten awareness of relations of
power and difference among us"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 10:
Strategic entanglements","Strategic entanglements explicitly recognise the class, gender,
colonial, and ethno-racial systems that categorise people into those
unequal relationships and attend to ways in which these systems
constrain and contaminate attempts at alliance-building. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 10:
Strategic entanglements","On all these fronts, resistance to change is fuelled by an
understandable fear of losing personal identities and relationships.
Although conservative ideologies portray current roles and relations
as determined by nature (and, for many of us, they come to feel
natural), historical analyses show that they have been created by
evolving societies (and adapted to support growth). The liberating
empirical record shows that human identities and relations change
historically and can certainly be made more equitable and reciprocal
through human creativity and action."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 10:
Strategic entanglements","Escobar (2015) points to a convergence between degrowth in the
North and post-development in Latin America. Emerging from
different intellectual traditions and operating through different
epistemic and political practices, they similarly combine radical
questioning of economic expansionism with visions of alternative
worlds that prioritise ecological integrity and social justice."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 11: Food
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of food","Future research and strategy building would benefit from an
even stronger tie with the food sovereignty movement and critical
agrarian studies. In this way, the degrowth movement could consider
strategies that operate beyond the local scale, and more diverse
transformational strategies could be employed."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 11: Food
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of food","To summarise, most degrowth food initiatives can be seen as
interstitial strategies that build alternatives on the local, urban
and peri-urban level, which do not necessarily aim to scale up.
The state represents almost a void in the literature on degrowth
and food."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 11: Food
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of food","In our contribution, we show that such a reorientation needs
to be addressed on diverse levels simultaneously: on the scale of
regional and city governments, of nation-states, of supranational
organisations like the European Union (EU), or of international
trade agreements. Furthermore, degrowing food systems must tackle
issues related to production, distribution, and consumption."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 11: Food
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of food","In 2014, a plebiscite
(Volksabstimmung) was held in which the vast majority (76%) voted
for a pesticide-free region, a will that the mayor was subsequently
charged with implementing in the form of a safety distance
regulation. This would not de jure but de facto have made the use
of pesticides almost impossible."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"An alarming number of
newly built housing units are not at all constructed for addressing
the housing crises, but to serve as abstract financial products (Aigner
2020). This phenomenon is a part of the broader process of the
financialisation of housing, where housing is increasingly becoming a
speculative commodity."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"As long as housing
remains a commodity and speculative asset regardless of social justice
considerations, “greening” housing alone will not lead to housing
and climate justice. In order to overcome the eco-social paradox, the
degrowth movement must study and draw its conclusions from the
history of housing struggles, socialist housing developments, rent
strikes, class struggle and intersectionality."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"It encompassed a set of tenant rights and a high level of rent
control, such as setting caps on rent at quite a low level, security
of the duration of rent and the possibility to hand over the flat
within a family. These policies were complemented by a housing
requisition law (the Wohnungsanforderungsgesetz), which allowed
the municipality to claim and take over unused private housing for
those in need. As a result of both, private investors did not see a
profit in housing real estate and lost interest in speculative housing
construction. Consequently, land prices fell. Rather than creating
incentives for the private market, as would usually be done today,
the social democratic administration of Red Viena bought land and
constructed communal housing themselves – not privileging capital’s
needs, but rather workers’ needs for housing."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"Vienna received tax sovereignty by becoming an independent

state in 1922, which helped in the financing of Red Vienna’s large-
scale housing programme."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"Also, municipalities could communicate the
injustice of the gap between low property taxes and high-income tax.26
This can be revealing, as it highlights an injustice that needs to be
made more controversial, as speculation using housing is taxed much
less than work, e.g., care work that is most relevant to society."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"Generally, if new zoning for housing (or rather for “social housing”

as it should be) is still to be pursued, it should at least be limited-
time zoning and municipalities should be given the right as a priority

buyer."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"The main objective of degrowth and social justice strategies should
be to rather abandon new construction, and instead redistribute
and refurbish existing structures and possibly densify built urban
areas. Density is a planning goal, which would support and impact
ecological mobility strategies and resourceful use of infrastructure."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"Studies showed how
households living in homes that are rated as inefficient may use
much less energy than predicted (e.g., Sunikka-Blank et al. 2016)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 12: Urban housing,"Hence, a degrowth
perspective on housing should connect projects, long-term visions
and small steps through a comprehensive framework of radical
democracy and housing beyond capitalism."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"The rejection of gigantic technical infrastructures such as airports
or pipelines and the use of bicycles as a symbol for a more human
way of life are widespread in the degrowth movement. Yet beyond
calls to limit the spread of technical devices (Latouche 2010), the
dominant technological imaginary is left mostly untouched and very
few manage to envision the kind of technology a world after growth
would need or discuss how our current relationship with technology
could be transformed."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Therefore, a transformation strategy for technology must explain
both how to reshape it and how to change its role within society."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"There are essentially two orientations: working
with existing technology and controlling or repurposing it to
progress towards a degrowth society, or struggling against the very
imaginary underpinning the development of industrial technology."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Technology thus plays a central
role in the conflict between those seeking to downscale industrial
production and those advocating the expansion of productive forces
beyond capitalism (Bastani 2019)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"On a
strategic level, it seems difficult to make a new imaginary appealing
if it is widely deemed too technophobic,"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Digital technology is the
foremost strategic field of our times, because it is at the heart of the
green growth narrative, promising the dawn of a dematerialised and
cognitive capitalism (McAfee 2019). It has been mobilised to support
the ideological function of technological discourse, reframing
industrial economic policies as paths towards sustainability, using for
example the vocabulary of smart cities (European Commission 2020).
Questioning the transformative potential of digital technology
should thus be a priority for the degrowth movement."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"This efficiency-oriented strategy is in practice hegemonic when it
comes to sustainable technology. Interestingly, it is at the heart of
the green growth narrative but also seems to appeal to those who see
degrowth as a welcome attempt to decrease the ecological footprint
of capitalism."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Could the transformation of
technology just hinge on economic democracy? This is argued by
left-wing accelerationists (Srnicek and Williams 2015). Their idea
of repurposing technology to serve the common good rather than
profit interests leads to a very ambitious symbiotic strategy aimed
primarily at social justice and economic democracy. Beyond full
automation to reduce working hours and a universal basic income, a
characteristic demand would be for workers to take control of giant
digital corporations currently organising the logistics of capital and
of platforms running global communications. Such a strategy has
an immense potential to become hegemonic if it can be harnessed
by a political party drawing power from the ever-growing class of
precarious workers (Standing 2011)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"The
question of whether digital technology could be the cornerstone of a
new socialism (Morozov 2019) beyond growth leads to a productive
controversy, and yet it is clear that accelerating towards degrowth
would require rethinking our relationship with technical artefacts."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Green New Deals and accelerationism
– suggest transformations on the basis of existing technologies and therefore do not address the dimensions of self-determination and
interdependency."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"What is lost when a given technology is destroyed or
rejected? How far should technological development be reverted?
Although turning back the clock to before the industrial revolution
would indeed be a safe path to avoid a climate catastrophe, the social
and human price might be too high, and even the most controversial
technological developments seem difficult to revert."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Luddite strategies offer a
narrative that can be useful for some extractivist struggles and
post-development approaches in the Global South and helps with
escaping historical determinism"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"The relative freedom of research at institutions where early software
was collaboratively developed, the introduction of personal
computers and above all the internet gave rise to a particularly active
community in which software was built for users, by users (Himanen
2001) – a group restricted at first to computer scientists, then wealthy
enthusiasts and, by the end of the century, the global middle classes.
The Free Software movement and its best-known achievement, the
GNU/Linux operating system, takes a political stance on digital

technology and directly addresses issues of social justice and self-
determination (Stallman 2002)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"The
low-tech approach (De Decker 2019) delivers a strong critique
of the high-tech imaginary and the problems it induces when
applied indiscriminately to any situation, but also a positive vision
of ingenious applications of simple but adequate technology to
very concrete problems. With a pragmatic attitude, the low-tech
movement offers a thorough reflection on the myths of growth and
progress and their consequences for the human and natural world."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Low-Tech Magazine (Low-Tech Magazine n.d.) is a website

presenting research into the problems and limitations of the high-
tech paradigm and promoting low-tech solutions, often drawing

on pre-industrial technological knowledge."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"Only when
one notices that there cannot be a high-tech solution to all problems
– if any – can the low-tech idea gain traction. This strategy is thus
highly context-sensitive: it has more potential in regions with
unstable energy grids or undeveloped communication infrastructures
and offers a response to the degrading conditions induced by
environmental crises."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"platforms such as Decidim, could support this transformation
by combining transparency and democratic control with efficient
coordination of production and consumption – advantageously
replacing the invisible hand of the market"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",Chapter 13: Digital technologies,"The most pressing problem to address in the field of technology
is the high-tech imaginary and its elitist, centralised conception of
knowledge, preventing the democratic process of establishing new
techno-political institutions. This is why symbiotic and interstitial
strategies must be combined to create space for alternative views of
technology."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","A low-carbon
economy must be, therefore, a socially just and low-energy use
economy."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Furthermore, under capitalism, the way energy is produced,
transformed, distributed, and eventually consumed, prioritises logics
of power and profit maximisation over the satisfaction of human
needs and well-being."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Scientific evidence suggests that, to avoid exceeding a 2oC global
warming, more than a third of oil reserves and 50% of gas reserves
need to remain in the ground"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Resistance movements threaten to disrupt the circuits of energy
capital – understood as energy-related infrastructure and financial
assets – while raising the question of who produces energy and for
what purposes."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","The Environmental Justice Atlas project, launched in
2015, currently documents over 2046 cases of resistance around
the globe over energy-related projects. It is widely recognised that
these actions and movements influence the politics and practices of
resource use towards less destructive social and ecological outcomes"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","The organisation of workshops and discussion groups, civil
disobedience, direct confrontational tactics such as mass arrests,
marches, lockdowns and blockades are part of the extensive
repertoire of strategies. However, there is an uneven distribution
of the consequences of activism. Whereas in some parts of the
world, activists may mainly deal with mass arrests, in other
areas, defenders face physical violence or even murder."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","This last strategy adds an important element to resistance strategies
that signals a shift from “not in my backyard” to “not on my planet”
(Vedder 2019) or NOPE (Not On Planet Earth)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Legal strategies are double-edged means to stop or slow down the
construction of energy projects. Investor-State Dispute Settlement
mechanisms protect energy capital when energy infrastructure
projects are blocked or interrupted and tend to compensate –
frequently with public money – the financial investors for their
“lost” potential returns."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","There is, however, an important potential drawback of the
divestment movement (as briefly explained in Chapter 18). The
strategy could backfire if small companies or state-owned companies,
which are subject to less public scrutiny, buy these assets and start
maximising the returns exploiting the reserves."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","all strategies described above depend
on transnational networks of alliances to avoid cost-shifting and
spatial fixes driven by Northern elites (and increasingly Southern
elites too) as a response to disruptions of energy capital. One case in
point is the Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty, a global initiative
that aims at (1) Preventing the global proliferation of coal, oil and
gas by ending all new exploration and production; (2) Regulating the
phasing-out and dismantling of fossil fuel production infrastructure
while defending the rights of Indigenous peoples and impacted
communities; and (3) Fast-tracking collective action for developing
low-carbon pathways that are fair for workers, communities and
countries."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Therefore, tackling the issue of ownership and control is key to
any degrowth strategy aiming at decreasing energy and material
throughput."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Collective
ownership is not a panacea. It could be the case that a collectively
owned enterprise is organised around growth. However, collective
ownership is likely to be the precondition for gaining political
agency and collectively deciding upon goals that would not just limit
energy use, but would also include social measures of redistribution,

reciprocity, equity and justice, opening up possibilities for social-
ecological transformations"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Public participation in policy development is essential to put
an end to the social exclusion of marginalised groups in the
development of energy systems"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","Degrowth strategies

need to be complemented with demand-side strategies aimed at
drastically reducing energy use and consumption to stay within
planetary boundaries"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","start a vegan diet or lower household
electricity use as well as mobility choices, i.e., more cycling and
less car use, are seen as potential “low-hanging fruits” that could be
applied without significant trade-offs. Dubois et al. (2019) found
that these voluntary decisions could lead to significant results
by potentially reducing up to 50% of lifestyle-related emissions."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.",,"I propose how these contradictions can be
strategically minimised by: (1) building politically effective coalitions
between broad-based movements that reflect ideological diversity;
(2) recognising that the main driver for political mobilisation could
be issues of sovereignty, justice or self-determination rather than
climate concerns (see case example below); (3) promoting bottom-up
decentralisation, connected through transnational webs of actions;
and (4) following a dual cultural strategy where individual actions
are both important and embedded in complex culturally – and
materially – based practices."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 14: Energy
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of energy","A shift in the use of energy
production and consumption means a shift in the balance of power
of who gets to organise society, what values they espouse, and
what social outcomes they want to fulfil. Any strategy aimed at
transforming energy systems needs to be located in the here and now
while occupying all possible political spaces."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","Today, nearly
a quarter of global CO2

emissions originates from the transportation
sector (Solaymani 2019)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","Current transportation systems need to be radically
transformed, prioritising social justice and ecological soundness,
and thus decoupled from various forms of exploitation."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","European Union, 72% of CO2

emissions in transportation are
linked to road transport, of which passenger vehicles are responsible
for 61% (EP 2019). The situation is similar in the USA (USA. EPA
2021). The material throughput of vehicles is large and growing,
with the rising popularity of larger sport-utility vehicles (SUVs)
(Cozzi and Petropoulos 2021). Individual ownership exacerbates
the material demands of the industry – making the “green growth”
vision of a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) only a piecemeal solution."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","Furthermore, the widespread use of cars is highly dangerous to
humans and wildlife: 3,700 people die in traffic accidents every day
(WHO 2020). Air pollution has been on the rise and the negative
implications of this are becoming clearer, with particulate pollution
linked to 18% of deaths globally in 2018 (Vohra et al. 2021)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","intervention, is instead required across the transport sector.
André Gorz noted that the key to dealing with the contemporary
problems of transportation is to consider it alongside other pressing
issues. He argues “never (to) make transportation an issue by itself.
Always connect it to the problem of the city, of the social division of
labour, and to the way this compartmentalises the many dimensions
of life” (Gorz 1980, 77)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","The bare minimum of vehicles necessary
could be electric, but the transition in propulsion systems has to
be paired with the reduction of vehicle ownership and a shift to
alternative modes of travel (Henderson 2020).36"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","Car-free zones are essential in limiting

pollution and allowing dwellers to reverse current car-centred
infrastructure’s colonisation of urban space. Restrictions should not
be tied solely to emissions standards or vehicle-based charges, since
this tends to privilege the wealthy."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","Taming transportation has to be paired with its dismantling, that
is to say, establishing alternative modes of organising the sector.
Overall, kilometres travelled by people and freight need to be
reduced."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","Public ownership is

essential more broadly for the erosion of the current transportation
system, as it allows the public to exert greater pressure on the
incumbent system and shape it according to social needs, rather than
to profit."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 15: Mobility and transport
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of transportation","Chenoweth and Stephan (2011) argue that peaceful
resistance works, given the low barriers to entry and the rising
engagement from all across the social spectrum, but movements
are effective when they have leverage – that is, when they can
disrupt and compromise the system in place."
"Berglund, Eeva. (2022). Barca, Stefania 2020. Forces of Reproduction Notes for a Counter-Hegemonic Anthropocene. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 75 p. ISBN: 9781108813952 (paperback). ISBN: 9781108880428 (E-book). Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. 46. 90-92. 10.30676/jfas.v46i2.113483. ",,"Narratives do not kill by themselves, of course. But they might hide the killings and the killed from view, and convince us that they are not part of the story of modernity; that this story is benign and a great achievement of human- ity, were it not for the limits that nature puts on human wealth and accomplish- ment. "
"Berglund, Eeva. (2022). Barca, Stefania 2020. Forces of Reproduction Notes for a Counter-Hegemonic Anthropocene. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 75 p. ISBN: 9781108813952 (paperback). ISBN: 9781108880428 (E-book). Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. 46. 90-92. 10.30676/jfas.v46i2.113483. ",,"I argue that the Anthropocene is nothing other than a master’s house: one that imprisons both human and non-human nature in order to make them work for capital. 

he ecofemin- ist programme is a highly ‘integrative’ one, in the sense that it brings together cultural, socialist, Black and anti-colonial feminisms in challenging the struc- ture of interrelated dualisms that correspond to several forms of repression, alienation and domination. 

The Anthropocene ideal wants us to believe that the master itself holds the capacity to address the ecological crisis. It claims that non-human nature – or a particular version of it represented by geology and climate – is now exercising historical agency by opposing its force to that of the master; and that the master will either respond to that force by changing its relationship with its environment or perish. That ideal is flawed – we should not put our hopes in it. For decades, the master has known that it is in serious danger, but it has not been capable of any effective response. It is simply proceeding along the only path it knows, defending itself with increasing ferocity against those who resist it. Our only hopes are with the resistance. 

Capitalist political economy defines reproductive work as non-labour, that is, a valueless activity, although socially necessary to sustain the master; the commons is defined as waste – forms of not-yet-realized value, to be appropriated and improved upon by the master. 

Capitalism thus diminishes or annihilates the life-enhancing potenti- alities of the forces of reproduction, turning them into instruments for accumu- lation. This process depletes both the worker and the environment, by extracting from them more work and energy than necessary and leaving them exhausted. 

The story is depicted as starting in one particular place and moment – England 250 years ago – that is, coinciding with the spatio-temporality of what economic historians have termed the industrial revolution. For a certain time, the narrative goes, this was a success story of brilliant inventions sustained by fossil fuels, a success that spread from Europe to the rest of the world via global transportation networks that connected people from one side of the world to the other. Medical discoveries and chemical fertilizers accompanied this global success story, allowing for a sevenfold population increase in just one century. This tale of fossil-fuelled progress is shown to have witnessed a ‘great acceleration’ in the 1950s, when abrupt change came about: globalization, marketing, tourism and huge investments led to enormous economic growth, and massive urbanization turned cities into even more powerful creative engines. That point in human history is said to have improved beyond measure the lives of billions in terms of health, wealth, longevity and security: never have so many had so much, the narrating voice proclaims. 

by representing earth-system changes as the unintended consequence of Western civilization, in accordance with the master’s narrative of modern economic growth, it maintains the validity of that story as one of progress which, as it happens, proceeds by trial and error, learns from its own mistakes and develops the tools by which those mistakes can be overturned. In short, the forces of production (science and industrial technology) are maintained as the only possible tool for understanding the errors and for repairing them. The system itself is not under question; its gender, class, spatial and racial inequalities are either invisible or irrelevant: no paradigm shift is necessary. 

Migration scholars, for their part, have looked at mass migrations and their immense human suffering as intimately related to the environmental changes of the industrial era (Armiero and Tucker, 2017). 

It is true, the story goes, that one billion suffer malnutrition, but the remaining six billion have never been more wealthy and healthy. The enormous income inequalities between rich and poor all around the world, which have been directly correlated to trade agreements and neoliberal austerity policies, and their continuous, scandalous rise over the course of the last three decades (Piketty, 2014) remain completely invisible. 

The truly unprecedented growth in the world population in the twentieth century is implicitly attributed to capital- ism’s ability to sustain more people – completely bypassing the role of capital- ist/patriarchal control over women’s bodies as reproducers of cheap labour (Federici, 2004). Medical discoveries, and the average increase in the health and longevity of the world’s population, are assumed to be a direct result of industrialization; no mention is made of the fundamental role of democratic and socialist forces in contrasting the degradation of life and labour under various industrial hazard regimes (Sellers and Melling, 2012). Similarly, agrochemicals are represented as the other key driver in population growth, obscuring the fact that half the world’s population is still fed by family farming, fishing and gathering, largely via women’s unwaged work7. 

Historical convergence prompts the idea that the two systems’ similitudes are more important than their differences, and that they form a unique historical bloc of industrial modernity with different grades of State regulation: as neither pure capitalism nor pure socialism have ever existed, the two systems should be seen as different, but also evolving, ways of organizing social metabolism (Martínez-Alier, 2002) around the com- mon paradigm of modern economic growth. 

Undoing the Anthropocene master’s narrative requires a critical analysis of its four levels of denial and backgrounding: 
1. colonialrelations:theonlycivilizationthatmattersisWestern; 

2. genderrelations:theonlyhistoricalagencyisthatofthe‘forcesofproduc- 
tion’ (science, technology and industry); 

3. classrelations:socialinequalitiesandexploitationdonotmatter; 

4. speciesrelations:thenon-humanlivingworlddoesnotmatter. 

State sState socialism as experienced in the Soviet bloc and China, or some of its post-colonial versions in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia, have retained various historical combinations of coloniality/racism, heteropatriarchy/sexism and/or human supremacy/species- ism. 
ocialism as experienced in the Soviet bloc and China, or some of its post-colonial versions in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia, have retained various historical combinations of coloniality/racism, heteropatriarchy/sexism and/or human supremacy/species- ism. 

"
"Berglund, Eeva. (2022). Barca, Stefania 2020. Forces of Reproduction Notes for a Counter-Hegemonic Anthropocene. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 75 p. ISBN: 9781108813952 (paperback). ISBN: 9781108880428 (E-book). Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. 46. 90-92. 10.30676/jfas.v46i2.113483. ",,"In the final, devouring phase of master rationality, the Other disappears altogether from discourse and representation, insofar as the master ‘seeks to create a slave- world, a “terra-formed” landscape which offers no resistance, which does not answer back because it no longer has a voice and language of its own’ 

Coloniality
racism was foundational to capitalist/Industrial modernity: this pro- cess, in fact, was premised upon characterizing indigenous peoples and their relational ontologies as uncivilized and inferior, akin to wild animals, in order to categorize the land that they inhabited as abandoned or empty, awaiting domes- tication and value extraction. 
In the indigenous narrative, ecological crisis has been caused by a history of legal/political/cultural subordination to the interests of industrial corporations, a history in which ‘the “common good” has been redefined as “maximum corporate production and profit”. ... Corporations have been granted the power of “eminent domain” and the right to inflict private injury and personal damage when pursuing “progressive improvements” 
In fact, accounting for the unequal geo- graphical distribution of ecological responsibilities and ecocide is only one way of conceptualizing ecological debt. Another way is to account for what capital- ist/industrial modernity and all who live in it owe to Black and Indigenous people for the work and the knowledge they have devoted to keep the world alive – for their forces of reproduction. 
Gender
This lack of recognition of the economic value of women’s work underlay two interrelated problems of capit- alist/industrial modernity: women’s subordination to men, and the subordin- ation of reproduction (or life making) to production (or industrial growth). The proper political response could not be to push women into the labour market – a push that capitalism itself was interested in, due to the wage differential with men. ‘Women refuse the myth of liberation through work’, Dalla Costa and James claimed (quoted in James, 2012: 59). Instead, the key demand of the WfH campaign was that reproductive work should be compensated – rather than appropriated for free – so that women could put limits and boundaries on it, while at the same time obtaining the financial power that would allow them to both refuse waged work and be independent from male control. 
In fact, she wrote, the sexual division of labour was built upon neither biological nor purely economic determinants, but on the male monopoly of (armed) violence, which ‘constitutes the political power necessary for the establishment of lasting rela- tions of exploitation between men and women, as well as between different classes and peoples’ (Mies, 1986: 4). 
‘science and technology became the main “productive forces” through which men could “emancipate” themselves from nature, as well as from women’ 
Undoing the Anthropocene thus becomes a necessary step within a project of naturcultural liberation: that of renegotiating the Anthropos beyond male/female, nature/culture and pro- ductive/reproductive dualisms, enabling us to reject the master’s model of modernity as the only possibility for a future human coexistence on planet Earth. 
On the contrary, taking class into account begins with the recognition that the factory system that lay at the core of ‘fossil capitalism’ (Malm, 2016) would not have been possible without a combined process of world-scale proletarianization of the workforce, that is, its forced separation from the means of production via what I have called the ‘enclosure and improvement project’ (Barca, 2010), or capital’s war against the commons. 
In short: from a historical-materialist perspective, the working class, or proletariat, and metabolic rift originate from a unique, global process of violent separation of people from their means of subsistence, which also disrupts the biosphere. The ecological crisis is thus a direct consequence of class making. 
Turning commoners into proletarians, however, does not automatically imply that they all become waged workers. On the contrary, capitalist societies function by maintaining part of them as an unpaid labour class that provides for the reproduction of waged workers and of the system as a whole – what feminist political economy calls social reproduction 
Working-class poetry gives voice to a kind of ecological consciousness that is profoundly different from much of the middle-class or mainstream environmentalist discourse. First, there is a clear awareness that there is no going back to an enchanted world, that life will have to be reconstructed through struggle, a struggle in which workers need to take part. Second, saving the environment has everything to do with saving working- class lives themselves. Third, there is no salvaging the world within the current system. For people and the environment to be safe, the masters of industry will have to let go of their grip over the lifeworld, and leave. 
This is not a pristine wilderness to preserve, but a naturcultural terrain where the metabolic rift of the Anthropocene is contested and opposed by Indigenous and peasant populations that configure as forces of reproduction. Humans defend the castanhal because this is the nature they have materially appropriated through long-standing metabolic interactions, making it fit for their subsistence. 
The aim is that of abolishing heteropatriarchy, thus liberating people from gender roles – particularly, those of man the money-maker-who-destroys-nature After decades of neoliberal cuts to welfare and health care provision worldwide, women, refugees, disabled people and other vulnerable groups are facing an unprecedented increase in the burden of care; women and transgender people are also facing death and increasing threats that come not from the virus itself but from domestic violence, homelessness or discrimination in access to care. Precarious workers, peasants and poor people have undergone the loss of their livelihoods, and the spectre of hunger is looming over the world. The Indigenous and extractivist populations of Amazonia are facing genocide 

Historical materialism – the theory of class struggle as the fundamental driver of change – would be expanded beyond the exclusive realm of a conflict between capitalists and wage-earners who resist exploitation and the depletion of bodies, to include all those subjects of earthcare that resist value extraction and the degradation of earth-systems. Such a renewed vision of historical materialism would allow thinking in terms of alliances between industrial and meta-industrial workers based on a common material interest in keeping the world alive by transforming the relations of re/production. Such alliances must involve those sciences and technologies which are appropriate to, or already mobilized in, counter-master projects of earthcare. In other words, undoing the Anthropocene and building new ecological relations requires a radical politicization of science and technology, that is, their mobilization as counter-master tools. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"Contemporary societies face several deep and intertwined crises. The level of
economic inequality has reached staggering heights. While a small elite has
accumulated wealth on an unprecedented scale, many people lack the means
to satisfy even their basic human needs. Economic and financial downturns
only further these inequalities and divides. At the same time, democratic
institutions are increasingly being undermined. Social scientists now con-
template how democracy will end (Runciman 2018), they speak of the rise
of authoritarian forms of neoliberalism (Bruff 2014; Wigger 2019), and sug-
gest that even in countries where democracy used to be strongly established,
we find ourselves on the path towards post- democracy (Crouch 2016)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"An outcome of these crises is that the
preconditions for human beings and other species to thrive – and indeed
live – are rapidly being undermined."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"Capitalism is a system of human
organisation which orientates all human activities and pursuits towards val-
orisation of capital (Gorz 2012). The engine of capitalism is the process of
capital accumulation, that is, the microeconomic activity of reinvestment
of past profits motivated by the desire to make more profits. This process
translates into economic growth, upon which capitalism is structurally reli-
ant for its functioning. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"Yet, while awareness of the looming ecological collapse has increased in
recent times, the pro- growth discourse remains hegemonic. According to
the currently prevailing perception, the only viable way forward is to pur-
sue so- called green growth, that is, continued economic growth combined
with protection of ‘environmental services’."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"showing how there’s nothing natural or inevitable
about current socio- economic arrangements, developing visions of different
socio- economic orders and theorising how they may materialise."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"Degrowth entails societies in which
much is different – including, for example, work, production, consumption,
housing, prevailing values, gender roles, the distribution of resources and
decision- making processes"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"It develops a theory
of deep transformations for degrowth via a combination of insights from
political economy, feminism, human geography, anarchism and sociol-
ogy, among other perspectives, and grounds this emerging theory in the ontology of critical realist philosophy. From a critical realist perspective,
the purpose of theory is to bring to the surface constellations of mechanisms
which cause, or have a potential to cause, specific outcomes and phenom-
ena. An interdisciplinary and holistic theorisation is required due to the
enormous diversity and complexity that characterises modern societies and
that would therefore also characterise degrowth transformations."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"From the outset, then, degrowth
formed part of a critique, an opposition, a discourse of deviation from the
pursuit of economic growth and hence from the destruction of life on earth.
It opposed capitalism with its growth imperative, its ever- increasing pro-
duction and consumption, its overuse of material and energy resources, its
exploitation of human and non- human life and beings, its commercialisa-
tion of almost everything. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"The implication for a
theoretically informed analysis of degrowth transformations is that it needs
to start out from currently existing structures. Not only do these structures
condition agency, future degrowth societies would also evolve from them."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"The planes are interconnected and
include (a) material transactions with nature, (b) social interactions between
people/ inter- subjectivities, (c) social structure and (d) the inner being of indi-
viduals. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Introduction,"The purpose of this book is to propose a scientifically and philosophically
informed, holistic account of degrowth- inspired change: a theory of deep
transformations. By introducing the reader to the four planes of social being,
we hope to encourage the academic community, policymakers, activists and
practitioners to become attentive to the depths and connectedness of social
reality both within itself and with nature, and when facing complexity to
go beyond labelling something as ‘complex’, attempting instead to disen-
tangle and theoretically structure complexity."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"Drawing inspiration
mainly from contemporary political economy scholarship, we distil various
prerequisites for transformative change, including a deep crisis, the articula-
tion of a political project, the mobilisation of a comprehensive coalition of
social forces and the building of consent."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"Yet as productivity
increased with the innovation of ever more advanced technologies, it became
possible for small classes of individuals to escape ordinary, physically hard
labour and perform other societal functions. From this point onwards, hier-
archical, class- based societies emerged and developed. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"Considering the nature of the capital accumulation process and the actual
history of the capitalist economic system, there is little to suggest that a
smaller and overall non- growing economy is potentially compatible with
capitalism as a few scholars have suggested (e.g., Lawn 2011; for a critique
of the suggestion, see, e.g., Spash 2020)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"Though, potentially, work can
be a source of fulfilment, personal growth and learning, a space where one’s
creativity can be exercised, the bulk of work under capitalism does not leave
those who carry it out richer as human beings. The notion of alienation is
therefore as relevant to the type of industrial work that was performed in
the ‘dark satanic mills’ of the Industrial Revolution in Marx’s lifetime, as
it is to much work in contemporary capitalism. Cases in point include the
work performed by today’s global working class, most of which is located in
developing and rising economies, and the widespread and growing existence
in developed countries of ‘bullshit jobs’ (Graeber 2018)"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"The economic rationalisation of work sweeps away ‘the ancient idea
of freedom and existential autonomy’ and ‘produces individuals who, being
alienated in their work, will, necessarily, be alienated in their consumption
as well and, eventually, in their needs’ (Gorz 1989: 22)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"Seen from this perspective, human beings are not egoistic, greedy and
competitive because their human nature dictates them to have such character
traits; rather, the extent to which they are egoistic, greedy and competitive is
a result of their character being moulded by the specific societal context in
which they are situated. Instead of claiming that human beings are driven by
egoism and the desire to maximise material gains, Marx claims that the way
human beings produce in a specific spatio- temporal context has a decisive
impact on his/ her thinking and desires (Fromm 1961: 12)"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"In his analysis, the dominant culture in capitalism leads people to
treat nature and fellow human beings in instrumental ways, doing violence
to them. This violence is seen ‘in the functionality both of our everyday
tools and of the objects and spaces we have designed to support and con-
tain our bodies: chairs, tables, furniture, streets, means of transport, urban
landscapes, industrial architecture, noises, lights, materials and so on’
(1989: 86). Again, it is important to recognise that there is a scale of vio-
lence. While some transactions with nature, such as fracking and large- scale
conventional agriculture, are extremely violent, other transactions, such as
small- scale organic agriculture, are hardly violent at all."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"The logic of capital accumulation pushes companies to not only produce
an ever- expanding range of commodities but also to invent ever- new wants
that can be satisfied by means of these commodities. Historically, this pro-
cess has resulted in (over)production divorced from basic or universal needs
as defined by scholars such as Max- Neef or Doyal and Gough. And in paral-
lel, it has resulted in the consumption of ever more nature."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 1,"As an economic system, capitalism ‘cannot
help but privatise, commodify, monetise and commercialise all those aspects
of nature that it possibly can. Only in this way can it increasingly absorb
nature into itself to become a form of capital … This metabolic relation nec-
essarily expands and deepens in response to capital’s exponential growth’
(Harvey 2014: 262). Because it unfolds under the condition of competition
which forces individual companies to speed up the overall turnover process
as much as possible, the use and commercialisation of nature is continu-
ously intensified and expanded, subsuming new geographical areas."
,Chapter 1,"Capitalism shapes humans’ transactions with nature by exploiting, com-
modifying and transforming it into human artefacts at an ever- increasing rate. It alienates people from one another on the plane of social interactions."
,Chapter 2,"Due to its contradictory nature,
capitalism depends on the existence of societal institutions beyond the mar-
ket to temporarily stabilise it (Jessop 2002: 19)"
,Chapter 2,"Neoliberal capitalism involves a finance- dominated accumu-
lation regime, and a key feature of its mode of regulation is financial deregu-
lation (Skyrman 2022; see also Koch 2012: 87). Entailing deregulation of
domestic financial systems combined with the liberalisation of international
capital flows, financial deregulation fundamentally changed the financial
landscape and enhanced the power of the financial sector (Stockhammer
2011: 239). "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"Neoliberal capitalism involves a finance- dominated accumu-
lation regime, and a key feature of its mode of regulation is financial deregu-
lation (Skyrman 2022; see also Koch 2012: 87). Entailing deregulation of
domestic financial systems combined with the liberalisation of international
capital flows, financial deregulation fundamentally changed the financial
landscape and enhanced the power of the financial sector (Stockhammer
2011: 239). "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"This development was to no small extent
due to the emergence in the international system of loose networks made up
of trans- and supranational organisations such as the OECD, IMF, WTO,
World Bank and EU, together with national states. These networks, which
can also be thought of as transnational state apparatuses (Robinson 2004),
serve to organise the conditions of transnational accumulation. In this trans-
national architecture, states compete with one another to attract mobile
capital."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"Indeed, the origins and development of the global
climate crisis relate directly to ‘the upswing and generalisation of the Fordist
production and consumption norm in the Western world and of the simulta-
neous establishment of an international division of labour in industrialised
and extraction societies’ (Koch 2012: 83; see also Lessenich 2019). For this
and other reasons (Laruffa 2022: 124), Fordism and the Keynesian welfare
state should not be glamorised."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"Jackson and Victor
(2011) speak of a productivity trap, which involves companies, in order to
increase profits and market shares, seeking to grow labour productivity. As
a result, fewer employees are needed to produce the same quantity of goods
and services, meaning that unemployment increases in the absence of eco-
nomic growth. For those affected, unemployment entails a loss of meaning,
identity, social status and the ability to consume. The trap, then, contributes
to creating widespread support for economic growth."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"The
liberation from work involves a reduction in work time and the simultane-
ous creation of time and spaces beyond work- life for regenerative activi-
ties, community building and activism. The introduction of a universal basic
income is a policy that could contribute towards this end. The liberation of
work involves changing the predominant nature of work, for instance in
terms of how it is controlled, organised and distributed. This could entail
that work is increasingly controlled by those carrying it out, that work is
organised more democratically and less hierarchically, and that both stimu-
lating work and less pleasant but necessary work is distributed more equally
(see also Chertkovskaya and Paulsson 2021)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"Under degrowth, the bulk of employment would have to be shifted from
jobs that are environmentally harmful to jobs that entail gentler relations to
nature. An aspect of such gentleness relates to the types of outputs resulting
from work. Desirable outputs are goods and services that directly benefit
nature (for example, composting food waste) or constitute ecologically gen-
eralisable need satisfiers (for example, organic horticulture providing people
with food). Conversely, undesirable outputs are ones entailing unnecessary
violence done to nature. Cases in point are work outputs designed to sat-
isfy luxury wants for, say, holidays in distant locations, SUVs and villas
(Bohnenberger 2022)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"In degrowth social formations, the point would
be to channel money to where ecological and social returns are high, that
is, where it is needed, irrespective of the potential return. For instance, this
may include financing small- scale businesses which do not plan to grow and
pursue sufficiency in the size or scale of the business."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"Another aspect could be to
provide financing without interest repayment. Such financing would reduce
pressures on businesses – including pressures to grow because of borrowing
necessitating repayment with interest. In contemporary capitalism, innova-
tive businesses experimenting with local materials and new business models
particularly struggle to obtain funding as they are often perceived as risky."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"Hornborg envisions a reform of the currency sys-
tem which leads to the introduction of a digital, special- purpose currency
that exists next to general- purpose money. This complementary currency,
which is to be introduced in each country and be distributed to all its citizens
as a basic income, can be used only for local use. That is, the currency can
only be used for purchasing goods and services produced within a certain
geographical radius of the location of the purchase. Key purposes of such
a currency are to limit the damage done by transnational financial specula-
tion and reduce long- distance transportation of goods and the associated
harm done to nature, while increasing local cooperation and integration
(Hornborg 2019: 233– 242)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"For one thing, the orientation of the ‘degrowth state’
would be profoundly different from that of the neoliberal capitalist state. In
degrowth social formations, state interventions at all scales (local, national,
transnational) would promote gentle social relations to nature and human
needs satisfaction for all. This would be reflected in how tax revenues are
used, namely on sustainable welfare (see Chapter 5), universal basic income
and universal basic services rather than on, say, the military complex and
subsidies for dirty industries. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"As noted above, many such busi-
nesses and initiatives currently have few possibilities for gaining funding
and encounter regulatory obstacles. As such, they would benefit from state
involvement in the form of policies that in various ways support small- scale,
local production, not- for- profit organisations and other alternative forms."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"In terms of steering, the literature generally envisions degrowth transi-
tions and societies to be profoundly democratic (Schmelzer et al. 2022). For
instance, this may, in addition to representative democracy, involve more
direct participatory decision- making, allowing citizens to be involved in tak-
ing decisions affecting their lives. This is relevant, for instance, in relation
to green finance where, as we touched upon above, the state could play a
key role. Its activities in this area could be guided or supported by vari-
ous democratic forums."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"That is, it makes more
sense to coordinate international degrowth on the state level than the micro
or grassroots level of individuals, businesses and movements. States can
direct transformations in the international spaces and organisations they
form part of (the EU, the OECD, the United Nations etc.)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"The principles of production and business for a
degrowth society have been known at least since the 1970s. Localisation,
increased self- sufficiency, smallness and production to satisfy genuine human
needs are some of those principles. However, more recently attempts have
been made to more holistically outline what a business should look like in a
degrowth society. While we discuss this in more detail in Chapter 6, here we
briefly summarise the key aspects of degrowth business. First and foremost,
business needs to be transformative of itself as well as the socio- economic
structures of production. Transformations need to unfold in the domains of
the business’s material transactions with nature, people and non- humans
and profit. In a degrowth society, production would be localised and place-
sensitive, and, above all, humane."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"how institu-
tional forms differed in Fordist versus neoliberal capitalism.5 For example,
Keynesian welfare states took a variety of forms, with the social democratic
Scandinavian countries having welfare arrangements exhibiting a higher
degree of decommodification than the conservative regime in Germany or
the liberal one in the US (Esping- Andersen 1990). Fordism itself also varied
among the advanced capitalist countries. For example, whereas Germany
extensively introduced Fordist production techniques, in Denmark it was
mainly the demand side of the Fordist growth model, that is, mass consump-
tion of standardised goods, that manifested itself. In all its forms, however,
Fordism relied on overexploitation of natural resources, not least in devel-
oping countries, where Fordism did not materialise. In a similar vein, a vari-
ety of competition states can be identified (Genschel and Seelkopf 2015)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 2,"That is, just as all capitalist societies
took shape on the basis of what came before them, whether that was specific
manifestations of feudalism or communism, so degrowth transformations,
if they were in fact initiated on a wide scale, would to no small extent be
shaped by the diverse structures, including institutional forms, of contem-
porary capitalism. Certainly, ‘institutions can vary in their degree of path
dependency, such that we can envisage institutions in the Anthropocene
that are able to adapt to a rapidly changing (and potentially catastrophic)
social- ecological context’ (Dryzek 2016: 942). Still, path dependencies and
ideational legacies would mean that instead of simply disappearing, exist-
ing forms would be recalibrated via a combination of existing practices and
principles with new ones originating in various strands of thinking, includ-
ing contemporary degrowth thinking."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"capitalism is a crisis- prone economic
system. This insight has roots in the works of Marx, the scholar to discover
that capitalism is replete with contradictions causing harm to people, other
species and the planet (Collier 2004). Institutional forms can temporarily
provide a fix to many of these contradictions, but eventually all modes of
regulation break down because they can no longer sustain capital accumu-
lation. Structural crises are crises necessitating the appearance of a new
accumulation regime and mode of regulation to allow for continued capital
accumulation (Boyer and Saillard 2002). Upsetting existing arrangements
and throwing ‘social and class forces into states of flux and reorganization
that involve struggles over hegemony’ (Robinson 2014: 217), such crises
constitute moments when deep change can happen."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Hayek and Milton Friedman played an important role
in questioning existing institutional arrangements such as the Keynesian
welfare state and in devising the emerging neoliberal project (Peck 2010).
Characterised by ‘a mix of liberal pro- market and supply- side discourses
(laissez- faire, privatization, liberalization, deregulation, competitiveness)
and of monetarist orthodoxy (price stability, balanced budgets, austerity)’
(van Apeldoorn and Overbeek 2012: 5), the neoliberal project provided a
clear alternative to the Fordist type of capitalism and came to be widely
perceived as providing convincing solutions to its crisis."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"organised
labour (van Apeldoorn and Overbeek 2012: 5). The latter was, however,
in a much weaker position than had been the case under Fordist capital-
ism, due, for instance, to overseas competition, declining union member-
ship, weaker links to social- democratic parties and changes in the nature of
work. From the late 1970s onwards, the balance of class power gradually
shifted (Baccaro and Howell 2017: 176– 177)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"When considering these prerequisites, it
is important to be mindful that degrowth on a societal scale would involve
systemic transformations, that is, transformations that are far more compre-
hensive and profound than those seen in the context of shifts from one type
of capitalism to another (Buch- Hansen and Carstensen 2021)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Yet if degrowth entails systemic change, then a
prerequisite for it to materialise may be a systemic crisis. A systemic crisis
is one that can only be resolved if the economic system itself is changed.
As such, it ‘involves the replacement of a system by an entirely new system
or leads to an outright collapse’ (Robinson 2014: 129). Such a crisis may
also be thought of in terms of a ‘crisis in the dominant mode of produc-
tion’, implying that ‘no new accumulation regime can emerge, even taking
into account the ability of institutional forms to adapt’ (Boyer and Saillard
2002: 43– 44)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"In Streeck’s analysis, capitalism is
in its final crisis, partly because it is collapsing from its own contradictions,
partly because it has defeated its traditionally most powerful opponents.
That is, whereas in the past capitalism’s enemies (say, the labour movement)
often forced it to assume a new form, thereby rescuing it from itself, today
its enemies are too weak to push through such changes (2016: 13)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Yet unfortunately capitalism will,
in all likelihood, not end until long after it has made the earth uninhabit-
able for most human and non- human beings. As Malm (2018: 194) puts
it, ‘there is little evidence that profitability is under any atmospheric sword
of Damocles, but plenty of proof that people with no advanced means of
production occupy such a position’."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Still, most advocates of degrowth seem to take the position that dem-
ocratically adopted top- down policies are an important precondition for
degrowth transformations to materialise."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"In the present context it suffices to note that if we understand
a political project to denote a general vision of a different society that points
beyond the major crises of our time, a vision that is accompanied by discus-
sion of policies and initiatives that can materialise it, then degrowth does
qualify as a political project"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Liegey and Nelson observe that ‘being a degrowth activist sets one
apart from traditional class identities as the movement fights for a class-
free world’ (2020: 128). Currently, the main proponents of degrowth
are grassroots, small fractions of left- wing parties and labour unions, as
well as academics and other citizens who are concerned about the loom-
ing eco- social collapse."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Leading political parties, labour unions, business associations and interna-
tional organisations have yet to embrace degrowth – indeed, they typically
strongly support economic growth, perceiving no desirable alternative to
it. That none of the powerful actors in advanced capitalist societies finds it
appealing has been identified as ‘the weakest spot in the degrowth project’
(Barca et al. 2019: 6). The resources of the degrowth movement are modest,
certainly compared to the resources commanded by those who were success-
ful in promoting projects that became hegemonic in the past."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"In Barca’s analysis, attracting support from ‘ecologically minded’ mem-
bers of the global middle classes who are willing to consume and work less
does not suffice if the degrowth project is to shape overall societal devel-
opments. In her words, the project will ‘remain politically weak unless
it manages to enter into dialogue with a broadly defined global working
class – including both wage labor and the myriad forms of work that sup-
port it – and its organizations’ (2019: 214)"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"For degrowth trans-
formations to be initiated, a massive civil society mobilisation, combined
with a surge in degrowth- compatible business would be required"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"But it is not just that many people are unaware of the
idea of degrowth, it is also that it is doubtful that they, if they were to hear
about it, would consider it a good idea to move beyond capitalism to a
system with reduced and different production and consumption. One rea-
son why degrowth may not be intuitively appealing to many people in the
advanced capitalist countries and beyond is that it is incompatible with the
Western norm of consumption (Brand and Wissen 2013; Koch 2012) and
more generally the Western view of nature.2 If degrowth were to material-
ise, most citizens in the rich countries would have to adapt to a materially
lower standard of living. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Consent would require individuals to feel that
degrowth is a sensible development and welcome degrowth practices in their
everyday life and in society at large. For this to happen, self- transformation
at the level of individuals is required. Such self- transformation could, for
instance, involve taking steps from the ‘mode of having’ to the ‘mode of
being’ (Fromm 2013). As noted in Chapter 1, the mode of having entails
an outlook revolving around possessions, accumulation and status. By
contrast, the mode of being revolves around focusing on who we are as
humans and our capacities for learning, loving, caring, altruism, solidarity,
forgiveness, presence, joyfulness and so on."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"Harvey notes that the task of stopping capital accumulation and dispos-
sessing the capitalist class requires a strong social movement with a strong
political vision of an alternative around which a collective political subjec-
tivity can revolve (Harvey 2014)"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 3,"While the current crises facing advanced capitalist democracies
can be seen to have paved the way for progressive social forces, they have
also facilitated the rise of right- wing populism and authoritarianism"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 4,"Civil society is where ideas challenging the growth paradigm could come
to prevail and where a shift away from the current consumer culture could
happen. Civil society is a space in which more citizens could come to experi-
ment with alternative, sustainable forms of living. Civil society is the site
of degrowth activism, the site in which the degrowth movement can form
alliances with other movements (Burkhart et al. 2020). And civil society
is the realm in which broad consent to, and a demand for, profound eco-
social transformations could arise, prompting policymakers to adopt more
ambitious policies."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 5,"Civil society can also be defined positively by what it encompasses: a
plenitude of relationships and commitments between humans and various
social structures and entities (civil society organisations) outside the state
and business. This implies that civil society refers to many very diverse
formal and informal ‘social forms’, such as community organisations, net-
works, trade unions, voluntary associations, non- government organisations
and academia. Often, then, civil society is ‘understood to refer to the realm
of autonomous group action distinct from both corporate power and the
state’ (Cox 1999: 19)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 5,"Despite its relative separation from the state, civil
society is political. That is, with their activities, civil society organisations,
as well as individuals within civil society, support and manifest particular
worldviews, ideologies, affiliations and visions of the future. Different social
forms in civil society are forces aiming for different kinds and degrees of
transformation. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 5,"For example, trade unions for the most part operate within
a pro- capitalist, pro- growth horizon and do not seek deep societal trans-
formations. At the other end of the spectrum, the degrowth movement is
an example of a force in civil society which repoliticises topics such as the
primacy of economic growth while aiming for a post- capitalist social order."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 5,"Suggesting organising as the solution and organisation as the mode
of participation in degrowth transformations may be alienating, and this
is something degrowth cannot afford, considering the limited support the
movement currently enjoys"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 5,"However, NGOs may also
be – and in many cases are – hierarchical and narrowly focused on a particu-
lar interest rather than on the deep transformations needed in every domain
of societal being. Indeed, today many, if not most, NGOs are embedded in
capitalist structures and do not stand in opposition to the growth impera-
tive. In a degrowth society, many of the functions currently performed by
NGOs, such as raising awareness and bringing to the surface inequalities
and instances of social and ecological degradation, would become societal
functions."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 5,"unions, they are for the most part married to the idea that
a green form of capitalism is possible and desirable. Their proposals of a
Green New Deal are underpinned by the notion that it is possible to drasti-
cally reduce CO2 emissions while the economy grows, increasing the num-
ber of green jobs. Barca (2019: 212), however, also points to various cases
exemplifying that ‘there exist, at this historical conjuncture, concrete pos-
sibilities for articulating degrowth and labor politics in new ways, via grass-
roots mobilizations in community unionism and social movement unionism,
pushing labor organizations toward a radical critique of the growth par-
adigm’. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 5,"humans need to transform their relationship with the environment,
within society and with themselves."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"First, businesses
currently exist in large numbers. Thus, a strategy of some kind is necessary
for them to participate in a broader societal transformation – in coopera-
tion with social forms in civil society (Chapter 4) and the state (Chapter 5).
To exclude the domain of business, a large part of the modern economy,
from a theory of degrowth transformations seems unwise. Moreover, while
some businesses are not compatible with degrowth, businesses operating
in destructive sectors being cases in point, there are also forms of business
which can be compatible with and part of a degrowth economy"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Ironically, claiming that
a business is necessarily a profit- maximising entity is relying on the same
logic as neoclassical economics, the school of thought from which degrowth
tries to deviate and whose premises it counters."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"it is to be expected that trade would
remain part of degrowth society, even if such a society were in later stages to
move towards consumers becoming producers, greater self- sufficiency, low
technology, and even barter "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"More human needs should be satisfied
locally and in a place- sensitive manner, where the meaning of ‘location’ can
be fluid rather than precisely defined (for example, as a town) depending on
a product or service. More alternative forms of business and organisations
would participate in trade (Nesterova and Robra 2022). Moreover, fewer
activities would in general be carried out by ‘doing business’."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"With degrowth advocating reduced matter and energy through-
put, qualitative change, localisation, production for needs and redistribution
of power, it is safe to assume that transnational corporations will not form
part of degrowth societies. The reason for this is that such corporations
are characterised by, for instance, obscure ownership patterns, enormous
power, including the power to shape and direct consumption, and highly
unequal remuneration of workers. The most suitable scales of business for
degrowth are the micro and small scales. Some argue, however, that large-
scale production and service provision such as steelworks and railways
would continue to exist in a degrowth society (Trainer 2012). This is indeed
likely, unless a degrowth society is understood to be a highly localised, low-
technology society"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Smallness of business also
does not guarantee better practices. A small business can focus on niche
products which are unaffordable for the general public, or common prod-
ucts which are likewise unaffordable precisely due to the small and local
nature of a business. For instance, Russell (1994) mentions innumerable
unnecessary small shops in London that operated for the leisure of the idle
rich. While Russell’s example goes back over 80 years, his critique remains
as relevant today. Businesses in a degrowth economy should focus on the
satisfaction of genuine human needs and do so in a manner which allows
more people to consume the product. In other words, it is important to
contemplate each business individually rather than rely on broad statements
such as ‘small is beautiful’ (Schumacher 1993). It may or may not be – or it
may be for some but not for others."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Apart from cooperatives, (eco- ) social enterprises have been proposed
as a form of business for a degrowth society (Johanisova and Franková
2017). Such businesses, as the name suggests, prioritise ecological and
social outcomes over profits. In doing so, they reinvest profits into eco-
logical and social commitments and projects. The distinction between such
forms and a ‘normal’ business is not always clear. While it may be assumed
that a ‘normal’ business prioritises profits and ignores ecological and social
embeddedness, it is not necessarily so in reality. Especially in the case of
small companies, what practices and principles are prioritised depends on
the owner- managers as well as the employees of the business (Nesterova
2021a). Some business owners operate their business less with a view to
pursue profit and more for cultural reasons, as a family tradition and/ or as
a commitment to a certain location. In other words, a business can behave
akin to an (eco- ) social enterprise without necessarily being one or identify-
ing itself as such."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Starting with material transactions with nature, an overall goal of
a degrowth economy is the reduction in humanity’s matter and energy
throughput. This does not necessarily easily translate to the level of busi-
ness. Still, businesses can contribute to this pursuit by centring their pro-
duction around the principle of sufficiency, that is, produce what is needed
and not more. A firm may also be able to decrease the wastes that go into
the environment. This can be achieved, for instance, by revising the process
of production and by working with other businesses that can make use of
the wastes created by a firm."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Material transactions with nature : Sufficiency in energy and material use
Waste and pollution minimisation
Efficiency in the use of materials/ energy,
circularity
Renewable resource/ energy use
Durable and repairable products
Localisation of production"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Social interactions between people Non- hierarchy
Democratic decision- making
Wellbeing
Work as a process of learning and growth
Knowledge sharing
Collaboration
Social structure Appropriate technology
Decreased productivity
Reduction in working hours
Embeddedness within society
Production for needs satisfaction
Plurality of business forms
Working with likeminded businesses,
activists and consumers
Transparent and fair ownership patterns
Inner being Moral growth
Non- anthropocentrism
Long- term view
Fellow- feeling towards humans and
non- humans"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Non- hierarchical organisa-
tion can enable democratic decision- making where everyone can participate
in the process of business transformation. Interactions between business-
people should be aimed at wellbeing, learning and fulfilment in the process
of production rather than competition. Replacing competition with coop-
eration and collaboration could likewise facilitate knowledge sharing and
mentoring of fellow workers. Improved social interactions between business
and the surrounding community can materialise if a business considers not
only the location where it is, but also the place."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"A Universal Basic Income (UBI) can facilitate the creation of small businesses engaged in artisanal and craft production. It provides people with some ""breathing space"" to break away from their current, often meaningless, employment (Graeber 2018) and pursue something that offers them a sense of meaning and fulfillment, such as turning a hobby into a small business. In the current capitalist system, the costs—both in terms of identity and income—of quitting a job to establish a degrowth-inspired business are quite high, and the risks are equally significant. However, a basic income, combined with the provision of universal basic services, can help mitigate some of these risks."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"Addressing interest repayment can be a way of facilitating businesses that
are more degrowth compatible. Policies in the current system likewise target
technological innovation and digitalisation. Some argue that in a degrowth
society the focus would be on appropriate and even simplified technology
rather than high technology (Heikkurinen 2018; Heikkurinen and Ruuska
2021; Nesterova 2021b). Further to this, policies can provide support for
businesses which make use of lower technology."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"It is important to remember that businesses are communities of humans.
While the degrowth discourse revises every premise of mainstream eco-
nomics and assumes that ‘economic man’ is a false and misleading model
of a human being (see Chapter 4), it at the same time assumes that those
involved in business, especially owner- managers, are ‘economic men’
working intentionally towards the reproduction of capitalist structures.
Empirical work reveals that this is not the case, even if it may be the case in
some businesses (e.g., Nesterova 2021a). Individuals are different and they
employ a great diversity of practices in their businesses. Like other humans,
owner- managers and employees are in their own ways trying to navigate the
capitalist landscape and have varying views in terms of personal practice,
politics, and how they relate with others, nature and non- humans. In their
capacity as consumers, hardly any degrowth scholars are able to practise
degrowth fully and live according to the principles we advocate (see also
Ehrnström- Fuentes and Biese 2022). It is likewise unfair to expect that busi-
nesses can be fully degrowth compatible in the capitalist system."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"The
relationship between humanity’s reduction in matter and energy throughput
and the so- called microeconomic level is, however, much less straightfor-
ward. Moving towards an economic system that functions within planetary
boundaries does not mean that no businesses can grow or indeed that con-
sumption cannot increase in some cases. In other words, a degrowth busi-
ness is not necessarily a business which does not grow"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 6,"It is more fruitful to pay attention to the quality,
nature and journey of a business as a community of individuals who are try-
ing to navigate the capitalist landscape, hopefully towards a better world.
Moreover, mathematising the issue and prescribing, for instance, how many
items a business can produce or how many employees it can have, requires
bureaucratic oversight and top- down control. The questions then arise of
who would be overseeing and enforcing such rules or guidelines, how much
power they would have and whether a market would be created for trading
various permits for quantities. A change in values and culture, whereby indi-
viduals internalise non- capitalist pursuits, appears to be a more sustainable
option in relation to a long- term change."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"They include limiting
living space per person, limiting the number of flights per person per year,
introducing a cap on incomes from work and wealth (‘maximum income’),
a tax on wealth and meat consumption, and working time reduction. Five
further items operationalise critical minimum levels or sufficiency ‘floors’ of
needs satisfaction. These include an unconditional basic income (UBI) and
the introduction or expansion of universal basic services (UBS) in the areas
of water, public transport, electricity and internet provision."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"Over 70% are against limitations of living space
and almost 60% are against limiting the number of flights a citizen can take
during a year. Over half of the sample is against a tax on meat and a cap on
incomes.5 The somewhat less radical alternative of a wealth tax is, however,
quite popular at 42.5%, and about the same percentage against. This policy
was previously in place and is apparently still part of the Swedish collective
memory. The most popular of the policy items regulating maximum levels
of needs satisfaction is the reduction of working time."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"The selected policy items regulating critical minimum levels of needs sat-
isfaction via the provision of universal basic services at low fees are very
popular. About 50% are in favour of basic provision of water, 48% of elec-
tricity, 45% of internet and 54% of local public transportation. By contrast,
the introduction of a universal basic income is by far the least popular policy
suggestion, with over 70% against it"
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"The first habitus type, passive anti- ecological conservativism, is prevalent
in about 10% of the sample, especially in the lower regions of social space
and among older and retired persons. Among the employed respondents in
this group, jobs with either a technical or an interpersonal work logic are
frequent. Incomes are the lowest of all respondents, and education levels are
lower than average. While men and women are about equally represented,
religiosity is above average. Passive anti- ecological conservativism features
anti- welfare attitudes and a more general ‘neoliberal carelessness’ (Fritz et al.
2021), which is reflected on all planes of social being, albeit in somewhat
unique ways: in relation to transactions with nature, the view predominates
that environmental protection should not be prioritised over economic
growth.  The ‘passive’ element – meaning a low involvement and interest in public
affairs and civil society – is expressed by a low incidence of memberships in
organisations and a reluctance to become active in improving welfare and
the climate. For instance, three- quarters of this cluster ate meat and would
not stop eating meat or flying, and would not join a demonstration."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"Self- centred privatism is prevalent in about 8% of
the sample, particularly among those with lower educational degrees and
slightly below- average incomes. It is predominated by older persons, men,
and skilled and unskilled workers. This group distinguishes itself by the
highest scores for ‘self- enhancement’ (the opposite to ‘self- transcendence’).
That is, respondents are concerned with their personal and private mat-
ters and do not demonstrate much interest in broader political or societal
issues, let alone transactions with nature, future generations or other human
beings and species. Though this habitus type features a clear political ten-
dency toward the right, with a preference for the Sweden Democrats, the
Social Democrats are nevertheless also mentioned more often than average
as preferred party. "
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"Environmental centralism is prevalent in a relatively large cluster (21%
of the sample) and widespread among persons of average age, born in
Sweden. It enjoys the uppermost socio- economic status due to typical work
positions in the higher service class. Awareness of climate change is greater
than average, indicating an acknowledgement that nature is a necessary
precondition for any kind of social life. State action in this policy area is
appreciated. Yet this is combined with laissez- faire views in relation to ine-
quality and social structures more generally, whereby public welfare poli-
cies, particularly directed at economic inequality such as income tax and
maximum and basic incomes, are rejected. There is also a liberal trait domi-
nating perceptions of social interaction with others, expressed in moderate
approval rates of an inclusive multiculturalism. In correspondence with the
predominating upper locations in social space, people with this habitus feel
immune when it comes to environmental risks and display low care for oth-
ers. Yet in contrast to a plain market liberalism, environmental centralism
is characterised by the highest trust for established institutions such as the
government, political parties and trade unions."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"The relatively large habitus group (16%) of eco- modernist conservativ-
ism assembles people of average education, income and socio- economic sta-
tus. It consists of slightly older than average people, usually born in Sweden
and living in rural areas. Sixty per cent are women. Employment in the
lower service class is widespread, with over 40% having jobs with an inter-
personal work logic. This corresponds to relatively high ‘self- transcendence’
scores: people in this group care for nature (also indicated by an advanced
climate- change awareness and a rejection of fossil energy solutions), as well
as other human beings and species. Yet, in relation to social structure, this is
paired with a rather strong liberal market orientation and distrust in insti-
tutions, particularly the state. Inequality is, in other words, mostly seen as
just and following from natural and meritocratic differences. Politically,
this group is located on the right, with voting preferences for the Christian
Democrats, Moderates and Sweden Democrats. The support for climate
policies is average when it comes to personal contributions like increased
taxes, but rather high concerning renewable energy and green electric-
ity – measures that do not financially hurt directly and are compatible with
‘ecological modernisation’ and ‘green growth’, that is, market- driven ideas."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"About 19% of the sample feature the habitus of active sustainable wel-
fare, in particular highly educated young people in urban areas, with an
over- representation of women (57%) and non- religious persons (42%).
With incomes somewhat below average and employment most often in inter-
personal work contexts, and disposing of a maximum of cultural capital but
merely average amounts of economic capital, this is the social group that is
most receptive to degrowth transformations. It features high scores on ‘self-
transcendence’, that is, environmental values indicating non- instrumental
views on transactions with nature, and an advanced feeling of care respon-
sibilities, be it towards other human beings or other species. The high regard
of others and equality is also reflected in the imaginary of the social struc-
ture: the group displays the strongest support of egalitarian values and for
welfare via state redistributive policies. As a corollary, the individual self is
here typically perceived as embedded in the social and environmental con-
text. Not surprisingly, this group tends to take political positions at the
opposite pole from ‘fossil liberalism’ and ‘passive anti- ecological conserva-
tivism’, with clear preferences for the Greens and the Left Party. It features
not only the strongest support for all kinds of climate and welfare policies
but also the most frequent actual activities (from stopping flying and eating
meat, demonstrating and social media posts, to lobbying politicians)."
"Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max & Nesterova, Iana. (2024). Deep transformations - A theory of degrowth. 10.7765/9781526173287. ",Chapter 7 sweden case study,"it requires transformations so comprehensive that no single
actor, no single type of process, and no single type of mechanism will suf-
fice to bring it about. In a nutshell, then, the perspective suggests that for
degrowth transformations to occur, actions in the sites of civil society, busi-
ness and the state are necessary – and they are necessary also on all scales,
including the local, the national and the transnational."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Foreword,"On the other, we (yet
again) hear the drone of right-wing populists who translate the
wholly legitimate insecurity that many people feel into fables
of culturally monochromatic, insular communities, channeling
their frustration against those who look, love, or live differently."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Foreword,"Degrowth is therefore
much more of a platform, something like an archipelago"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"“militant optimism.” Distinct from mere naïve optimism, which is blind to power and awaits with hope some
kind of automatic transformation, militant optimism identifies
hidden possibilities and acts like a kind of amplifier,"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"Concrete utopias also have a
prefigurative and performative power: they open up space for
imagining alternatives and in doing so they act against the
effectiveness of TINA-narratives (TINA: there is no alternative)."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"As
argued by world system theorist Immanuel Wallerstein, not only
are the world’s economic and political elites divided between
globalists and authoritarians, there is also a split within the left,
between the progressive productivists who —in the tradition of
the socialist and social democratic labor movement— focus on
growth, productivity gains and redistribution and tend to prefer
vertical forms of organization, and those movements that, closer
to the tradition of anarchism, rely on self-organization from the
bottom up and fundamentally question economic growth.2"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"eco-modernist position cannot provide an answer to the
most important challenge of the twenty-first century, i.e. how
can we live well without externalizing the costs of our way of
living onto others, the planet and future generations? Adequate
answers to these questions, they claim, can only be found if early
industrialized countries find ways to transcend the expansionary
modernity. Rather than relying on techno-fixes, the expansion
of the productive forces and economic growth, we need to find
pathways towards post-growth societies.5"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"Because it is impossible to completely decouple environmental
consumption and economic growth, degrowth seeks an end to
the global growth paradigm and a reduction in the biophysical
size of the economy. In addition, based on a critical analysis of
the challenges of ecological global justice, the material dimension
of growth economies and the “imperial mode of living” in the
capitalist centers, degrowth states that a good life for all is not
possible if the rich countries do not drastically reduce their
material throughput.8

The essence of degrowth is therefore the
“depriviligization” of those who currently live at the expenses of
others and externalize these costs in space and time."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"Overlaps
Some of the shared aspects are especially clear. They are
manifested mainly in certain fundamental world-views and
values, and do not necessarily represent the specific ideas of all
those involved.
ï Orientation towards needs: The main commonality of all
movements lies in their focus on concrete needs and a
good life for all, replacing economic concepts, abstract
production figures or the rules of market exchange.
ï Humans as complex, relational beings: Many share a holistic
image of human beings, which they express either
explicitly or implicitly. People are not seen as rational
utility maximizers à la homo oeconomicus, but rather as
social and emotional beings living in relationships with
and depending on each other.
ï A comprehensive analysis: Most movements acknowledge

Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives

19

a comprehensive understanding of society, power and
politics, taking into account the many different facets of
existing inequalities and crises and not reducing their
focus to individual aspects.
ï Global justice: Instead of only discussing political questions
in a national context, most groups derive their social and
ecological demands for justice from a global perspective.
ï Rejection of the green economy: Hardly any movement
believes that the multiple crises of the world can be solved
through a “greening” of growth and capitalism, and many
criticize the (side) effects of large-scale technological
solutions.
ï Democratization: Instead of delegating the power to shape
society to a selected few, most movements strive for
an all-encompassing democratization that ensures the
participation of all people. This includes the expansion of

democratic decision-making processes into currently non-
democratic areas such as the economy. In addition, this

principle is reflected in the way the different networks
and organizations work.
ï Social-ecological transformation: Instead of playing off social
and ecological problems against each other, all movements
recognize —to varying degrees— that the two aspects are
intertwined; even if one of them may be more important
for a particular movement.
ï Systemic change and paradigm shift: Instead of hoping that
small changes or political reforms will solve society’s
problems, many movements seek to bring about
comprehensive, fundamental, and systemic changes.
ï Working in the here and now: Instead of simply making
demands, most movements try to start effecting change
in the here and now, either in small alternative projects in
which utopias are tested out, or in social struggles with
concrete goals."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"Differences: Moral frame, relation with capitalism, transformation strategies, criticism of power, capacity to form alliances, organizational structure"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"Many authors are highly critical of the relationship between
the Global South and the Global North and demand that all

groups and actors address this subject. Without strong South-
North cooperation, we risk re-enacting climate colonialism and

environmental racism."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives,"stress the fact that alternatives are
always rooted in their context and cannot be applied in the same
way everywhere."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",The Growth Imperative of Capitalist Society,"If a capitalist economy can be defined by the drive towards
accumulation, then growth is the materialization of this process
and capitalism appears as growth."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",The Growth Imperative of Capitalist Society,"Growth is also a powerful idea, a central ideology of
capitalist society. More precisely, growth is also a system of
meaning through which capitalist society understands its
historical trajectory, makes sense of its past, understands its
present and imagines its future."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",The Growth Imperative of Capitalist Society,"Growth can mitigate
some of capitalism’s core class contradictions, more particularly
the conflict between capital, labor and the state concerning the
partition of the economic surplus."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",The Growth Imperative of Capitalist Society,"The
capitalist economy does not grow in a vacuum, its growth is
confronted with a “full world” which can be both a source of
resistance or of opportunity for capital."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",The Growth Imperative of Capitalist Society,"More
provocatively, degrowth argues that growth is the materiality of
capitalism."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","To sum up, we can say that the central idea is that society and the
people must be placed on top, and that political and economic
institutions must be subordinate to them."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","In this context, we find the ideas
and practices of Democratic Confederalism2 interesting, ideas
which are currently applied by a majority of the population in
Kurdistan."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","Firstly, those who decided to participate in state institutions.
Most of them think that the problem has to do with bad rulers
(such as the political party Podemos), and some of them think
that the problem is the system itself, but it is important to be in
state institutions in order to slow the system dynamics (such as
the political party Candidatura de Unidad (CUP) or some parts of
Barcelona en Comú). It comprises a few thousand activists who
are active on these platforms and the millions of people who
vote for them in elections."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","The most distinct influence of the degrowth movement
consisted in bringing in the awareness of peak oil and
environmental problems. However, this turned into something
like an ecological label, rather than being established as a
movement within 15-M."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","We want to highlight the Cooperativa Integral Catalan (Catalan
Integral Cooperative) which started and is still supporting a lot
of self-managed projects – it was created by degrowth activists
– and the Democràcia Inclusiva (Inclusive Democracy Action
Group), an action group for inclusive democracy, which was
also initiated by degrowth activists. From my point of view, in
Barcelona, the academic section grew stronger than the activist
section of the degrowth movement over the last years."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces"," We don’t want an ecological movement with
a holistic perspective, but a holistic movement with a strong
ecological view. In order to achieve this, we think that it is also
important that the degrowth movement doesn’t turn into a
mainly academic movement."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","The most important ones I can identify are the following:
• To understand and accept the planet’s physical limits,
and the relationship between economy, ecology, energy,
resources, etc.
• To understand the consequences of economic growth.
• Voluntary simplicity and changing our own lives.
• To offer people who are concerned about the specific
environmental or economic crisis a certain anti-systemic
perspective, a broader view and analysis, including
different struggles or problems within a common analysis,
identifying a common root"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","We have to change
our lifestyle, but if we want to achieve a societal change, we have
to make this change of lifestyle part of a political strategy. We
need a broader social change strategy capable of connecting all
actions we develop for establishing new social institutions and
replacing the existing one"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","Instead of artists flocking to apply their creativity to the
movement, they continue to work in the advertising industries
and other machines that reproduce capitalism’s desire traps.
Without their creativity degrowth will remain a beautiful set of
ideas rather than a new culture. The questions we must ask are:
How do we learn to educate each other to desire differently?
How can degrowth become as sexy as capitalism? And how can
small really become beautiful?"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","One of the most urgent tasks is to build a culture of resistance.
I don’t believe that we will be able to put in place solutions to
the ongoing social and ecological catastrophe without acts of
resistance. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","15M: Strategies, Critique and Autonomous

Spaces","A culture of resistance is when in winter 2015 in France
citizens opened up their homes and farms to the 200 people
in the tractor and bike convoy that rolled up from the zad
occupation (an autonomous resistance zone against a planned
airport in western France) to the COP21 in Paris, despite the
state of emergency and bans on their movements"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Basic Income: Unconditional Social Security
for All","The basic income is a way of unconditionally
securing every person’s existence and allowing each
person to participate in society"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Basic Income: Unconditional Social Security
for All","In Germany, the largest network is the Netzwerk
Grundeinkommen (Basic Income Network, founded in 2004),
which currently unites 131 larger member organizations and
smaller regional initiatives as well as over 5,000 individual
members. It is also the largest national basic income network
in the world. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Basic Income: Unconditional Social Security
for All","Social security and redistribution: The basic income
movement believes that a basic income is part of a concept of
reliable, preventative and, most importantly, human rights-
based social security for all. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Buen Vivir: A Perspective for Rethinking
the World","Minka (minga): A mutual aid institution in the community
setting. It guarantees labor that serves the common
good and meets the collective needs and interests of the
community, for example, in the execution of projects, such
as the construction and maintenance of an irrigation canal
or road. It is thus a form of collective work."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Buen Vivir: A Perspective for Rethinking
the World","he Ecuadorian constitution contains several fundamental
ideas that emerged simultaneously and in a unique way in this
small country: for example, the recognition of the rights of nature
and of the fundamental right to water, which bans any form of
privatization of this essential resource, and the idea of leaving
crude oil in the Amazon below ground. The constitution’s
preamble sets out the aim of building a “new form of public
coexistence, in diversity and in harmony with nature, to achieve
the good way of living, the sumak kawsay.”"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Buen Vivir: A Perspective for Rethinking
the World","Overcoming this creed of
economic growth, particularly in the Global North, must be
accompanied by abandoning extractivism in the Global South.
This means that we must develop and pursue post-extractivist
strategies.
The relation between these two processes of degrowth and
post-extractivism in the global context is obvious: If economies
in the North are no longer to grow, demand must fall. In this case,
it would no longer make sense for countries in the South to base
their economies on exporting raw materials to the North. For
this reason, and many others, it is important for poor countries
to also take on degrowth in a responsible manner."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Buen Vivir: A Perspective for Rethinking
the World","Degrowth in Movement(s)
98
New ethics are needed to organize life in self-managed
community spaces without power relationships. The emerging
society should be horizontal, open and non-sectarian. An
economy based on these ethics will promote the reproduction
of life and not capital, will secure the existence of all creatures
and move beyond the current human-focused reality, in which
humans are the rulers of the universe, in all its variants"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Care Revolution: Care Work – the core of
the Economy","Sufficient income for all in order to secure a sustainable
livelihood: This primarily means a substantial minimum
wage without exceptions, an unconditional basic income
and a significant improvement in pay for work in care
careers."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Care Revolution: Care Work – the core of
the Economy","Sufficient time to be able to care for one’s close ones and
oneself alongside paid employment, and maintain time for
leisure."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Care Revolution: Care Work – the core of
the Economy","A social infrastructure that truly supports care and self-
care: This primarily means an expanded and free education
and health system, affordable accommodation, free local
public transport and support for self-help networks and
commons projects. This can be realized by redistributing
societal wealth"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Care Revolution: Care Work – the core of
the Economy","Real involvement in societal decision-making: This means
comprehensive self-governance, starting in the care sector."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Care Revolution: Care Work – the core of
the Economy","This means that there is no
exclusion, no discrimination and no privileges owing to
one’s ethnic origin, nationality, gender, sexual orientation,
physical ability or occupational skills."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Care Revolution: Care Work – the core of
the Economy","Activists’ lack of flexibility due to care responsibilities,
precarious living conditions, and lack of time and money
further impede joint action. Additionally, there is still a lack of
experience of joint action actually resulting in more success. All
of this is currently preventing Care Revolution from gaining
more of a public presence."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Care Revolution: Care Work – the core of
the Economy","needs-
oriented movement based on solidarity with different reference
points: the right of the person requiring care to be well cared
for, the right of the relatives to not be solely responsible for care,
the rights of the migrant carers to good working conditions and
good pay, the rights of the migrants’ children or relatives and the
people in their home countries who care for them. It is necessary
to account for all these justified demands, which affect the care
system here, as well as the unfair distribution of work globally."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Climate Justice: Global Resistance to Fossil-
Fueled Capitalism","We are not all in the same boat: The climate crisis as a
crisis of justice"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Climate Justice: Global Resistance to Fossil-
Fueled Capitalism","On average, those who have contributed least to
climate change suffer the most, while those who have contributed
most suffer the least. The latter usually have sufficient resources
to protect themselves from the effects of climate change. They
have accumulated these resources, this wealth, precisely
through those activities that have driven climate change"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Climate Justice: Global Resistance to Fossil-
Fueled Capitalism","Climate Justice Now!
network in 2007. The press release announcing the formation of
this new actor articulated a number of claims which still apply to
the climate justice movement today. Later translated into a sort
of founding manifesto, the press release demanded:
 that fossil fuels be left in the ground, and replaced
with investment in suitable, safe, clean and democratic
renewable energies;
 the drastic reduction of wasteful overconsumption,
especially in the Global North, but also in terms of
southern elites;
 a massive transfer of funds from North to South, under
democratic control, based on the repayment of climate
debt (. . .);
 resource conservation based on human rights and enforced
under indigenous land rights, with control of energy,
forests, land and water driven by these communities;
 sustainable, small-scale farming and food sovereignty.
"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Climate Justice: Global Resistance to Fossil-
Fueled Capitalism","Our survival may also depend on them, as learning from them could mean learning real
sustainability. This is why so-called “frontline communities” or
“affected communities” (often indigenous communities) are the
main supporters of the resistance, the famous “revolutionary
subject” of the climate justice movement."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Climate Justice: Global Resistance to Fossil-
Fueled Capitalism","the climate justice movement can provide the
degrowth movement with something that the latter occasionally
lacks: a common, antagonistically structured field of practice."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Climate Justice: Global Resistance to Fossil-
Fueled Capitalism","More important, however, is the fact
that this time we did not remain in the coal mine; instead we
reacted to the tactical and political retreat of our opposition from
the pit (Vattenfall and the Brandenburg Ministry of Interior) by
playing off our political and moral strength and setting up the
blockade on the tracks. “On the tracks” here refers to the railway
tracks in the Lusatia region that supply the coal-fired Schwarze
Pumpe (Black Pump) power station with lignite from three
opencast mines. This rail blockade was of prime importance
because we in the Global North do more damage to the planet
through expanding our industrial and service sectors than
through primary resource extraction (such as lignite mining):
this primarily refers to power plants, factories and server farms,
not to gold mines and coal mine"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Climate Justice: Global Resistance to Fossil-
Fueled Capitalism","Let us plan strategically, let us act wisely, and not
merely expressively, because we are few, with scarce resources,
and we have an enormous task ahead of us (the abolition of
capitalism, saving the climate etc. . . .). Consequently: strategy,
strategy, strategy. Without strategy, it’s all bullshit."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Commons: Self-organized provisioning as
social movements","Commons are products and resources that are created, cared for
and used in a self-organized manner – this is what we call self-
organized provisioning. T"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Commons: Self-organized provisioning as
social movements","self-governing institutions.” Those
include, for example, that communities decide on their own about
the rules they want to follow, that these rules are congruent with
local social and environmental conditions and that the conflicts
that may arise are resolved within the community itself"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Commons: Self-organized provisioning as
social movements","nstead of wage labor and trading goods, where
only those can take part that have money, commoning relies on
voluntary contributions"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Commons: Self-organized provisioning as
social movements","Habermann names four core principles which we want to
mention here: contribution instead of exchange; actual use
(possession) instead of property;8 share all that you can; and
use all that you need.9 So commoning is about sharing and
voluntary contributions, as we have already described"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Commons: Self-organized provisioning as
social movements","The description and analysis of local
and practical knowledge is strong and deeply founded with
commoners."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Commons: Self-organized provisioning as
social movements","Locating commons
beyond markets and states infers that commons activists want
to break with the principles of the market economy as well as
the nation state."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Degrowth: Overcoming Growth,
Competition and Profit","Many contributions criticize that degrowth focuses too much on
individual consumption, sufficiency and voluntary simplicity,
that it individualizes societal problems and does not sufficiently
take structural power relations into account. This reductionist
and individualist (mis)understanding of degrowth might
result from the dominance of sufficiency-oriented currents in
the German-speaking post-growth discourse, which focus on
consumptive restraint and individual sacrifice. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.","Degrowth: Overcoming Growth,
Competition and Profit","Still others think that degrowth should be
more specific regarding its theoretical implications and its theory
of change."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"The key idea of demonetization is to free ourselves from monetary relations: the market, buying and selling, have to be considerably reduced, and eventually abolished, to create a better society. This is only possible through conscious and participatory forms of co-operation."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"If we look beyond money, there is in fact a range of approaches to choose from for sharing resources, planning work, distributing products, and making decisions. Visions of a moneyless economy are diverse, and include concepts such as the commons, peer production, worker self-management, stigmergy (a type of “emergent self- organization”)1 and voluntary co-operation, as well as gift economies and the solidarity economy."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"Hunger, lack of shelter, social exclusion, psychological frustration and other human suffering are compatible with monetized production. In many cases, the material and technological resources required to prevent such suffering are available – as with hunger and preventable diseases – but the market is unable to deploy those resources because the people who would benefit do not have enough money."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"It makes no difference whether this capital is obtained on credit, with or without interest, whether it is managed by the state, by private firms or by co-operatives, or whether money is denominated in a local currency or a national or international one. Social needs would still be ignored, competition would still lead to overproduction and crisis, and degrowth would lead to a financial loss, which would threaten the whole process of production. Only a demonetized society is capable of degrowth."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"anarcho-communists — basing their theory on the works of Peter Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta and Mikhail Bakunin — advocate replacing money with an agro-industrial federation, based on voluntary co-operation between producers to meet social needs."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"Regardless of the details, a demonetized economy is based on production for use rather than production for profit. This means that ecological factors can be taken into consideration when making production decisions"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"practiced free kitchens and medical care based on donations and voluntary labor. In the course of labor struggles in Italy in the 1970s, appropriation of goods and basic services such as shelter and electricity dispensed with the principle of exchange."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"The critique of interest, which was first and most prominently formulated by Pierre Joseph Proudhon and Silvio Gesell, locates the basic problem of the monetized economy not in money, exchange and value as such, but rather in interest charged on private loans or on the public creation of money. In this perspective, the problem is not competition as such, but crises caused by the inability to repay interest, thus resembling liberal and neoliberal approaches to economy and society. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Demonetize: The Problem is Money,"While some degrowth supporters controversially identify interest charged on loans as the basic problem and advocate its abolition, demonetization advocates argue that this does not go far enough and would not ensure a degrowth economy."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Ecovillages: Living Degrowth as a Community,"many ecovillages can be seen as potential models for a “good life” after growth, thereby representing interesting practical training fields for degrowth. It is no coincidence that the guidelines for many ecovillages are very similar to the vision for a future degrowth society."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Ecovillages: Living Degrowth as a Community,"a solution that can best be developed in small, manageable contexts, where people can have a direct influence on social and ecological issues. In such a context it is possible to experience self-efficacy and to put holistic approaches into practice."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Ecovillages: Living Degrowth as a Community,"The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) defines ecovillages as “intentional or traditional communities, which are consciously designed through locally-owned participatory processes to regenerate social and natural environments and to increase quality of life."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Ecovillages: Living Degrowth as a Community,"One key characteristic of the ecovillage movement is that it developed as a positive alternative vision rather than a form of opposition to existing structures. This sometimes leads to criticism that the movement is too apolitical, and that its members are simply seeking to escape to a countryside idyll. The key question here (and the subject of intense debate) is whether life in an ecovillage – and thereby the practical implementation of alternatives – can be considered a political statement in itself. Those that say “yes” argue that ecovillagers withdraw from capitalist structures and help others to develop and set up concrete alternatives to capitalism. This creates an interesting parallel to the existing discourse about care work, which, if interpreted in the appropriate feminist context, can have far- reaching political implications. Accordingly, the overarching context of degrowth could be used as a framework in which the concept of living in ecovillages can be seen as highly political."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Ecovillages: Living Degrowth as a Community,"A large part of the movement’s explicitly political work is therefore delegated to the GEN network. True, the ecovillage movement has not developed an overall political, social or economic concept as an alternative to capitalism —but a world inspired by ecovillages would certainly consist of diverse and manifold social networks of support, solidarity and gift economy which would make it much easier to live sustainably and act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Food Sovereignty: Fighting for Good Food for All,"Food sovereignty: The right of all people to democratically decide how food is produced, distributed and consumed"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Food Sovereignty: Fighting for Good Food for All,"in light of the globalization of agricultural markets and the increasing political power of institutions such as the WTO in the agriculture sector, it was necessary to form a globally active alliance of farmers. By founding La Via Campesina they sought to oppose through a strong transnational movement the neoliberal tendencies that were restricting the lives and survival chances of millions of small farmers and worsening the situation of hungry people all over the globe."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Food Sovereignty: Fighting for Good Food for All,Food sovereignty addresses the power structures in which our food system is embedded; it addresses the conditions of food production and distribution; it asks about the consequences of our production methods for future generations; and it places the people who produce and consume food products at center stage.
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Food Sovereignty: Fighting for Good Food for All,"The right to democratically choose and monitor agricultural, food, fishing, social, trade or energy policies is a necessary first step in order to enforce other rights such as the right to food, education and access to resources."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Food Sovereignty: Fighting for Good Food for All,"Current capitalist dynamics seek to turn increasing areas of society into marketable commodities. In addition to labor, which became a commodity at the beginning of capitalism, and certain aspects of processed nature (such as food products), other aspects of nature (such as greenhouse gases) and of society (especially care work) are increasingly being turned into commodities."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Food Sovereignty: Fighting for Good Food for All,Positioning ourselves clearly against these processes and seeking to achieve the organization of such areas as commons is an important step for a joint path of degrowth and food sovereignty.
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Food Sovereignty: Fighting for Good Food for All,"According to the agro-industry, the whole of agricultural production must and will grow and become more efficient thanks to the structural change in the agricultural industry, supposedly in order to “feed the world’s hungry.” However, the AASTD2 Report has clearly shown that in terms of surface area and units of energy invested, smaller, agro-ecological farming systems are much more efficient than industrial-economic agriculture based on monocultures and factory farming. In addition, small farms are more capable of adapting to the needs of people and thus ensuring a sufficient
food supply for all."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"Free, not just for free: running, checking, changing and redistributing software"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"The key idea behind the free software movement is to give the ability to the users of software – which is present in basically any electronic device we use today – to have the freedom to run, study and change the software, and to redistribute it in any way."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"The Linux kernel is an amazingly successful example of a convergence of global efforts: the 10,239 lines of code of the Linux Kernel, originally released by the Finnish student Linus Torvalds in 1991, has expanded to over 18 million lines of source code protected as a commons by the GPL. Its success has been immense: most of the internet as it is today, as well as a huge number of consumer devices - from smartphones running with Android to TomTom-GPS in cars - are built on top of the Linux Kernel. Because of the GPL constraints, any piece of software built with or from it must also"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"make its source code available. As a consequence, all activity around GPL source code, be it non-profit or for profit, brings a contribution back to the global commons of source code and algorithms."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"In other words, if you don’t develop your own technology, you will need to adapt to the language and patterns of the technology someone else developed - maybe in contradiction to your cultural values."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"The Ecobytes association has been collaborating with international networks on degrowth and community-supported agriculture, combining community building and agile management practices, both online and with events such as mapping jams or hackathons"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"Collective ownership of technical infrastructures and data, interoperability, linked open data (LOD), and the semantic web with its vocabularies and ontologies are some words that are expected to appear more and more in the discourses engaged in building up postgrowth futures."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Free-Software: Re-decentralizing the Internet and Developing Commons,"Making research projects to accumulate even more knowledge on how things work or should work is really not the interesting thing to do today. We rather need more convivial research in the field, capable of bringing scientists - also non-technical ones - to the collaborative development of platforms, ontologies and vocabularies for data openness and interoperability."
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,- Fossil fuel lobbies ensure we remain dependent on fossil fuels
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,"- Fossil fuels was never selected on pure efficiency criteria, because they enhance power and profits for a few elites"
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,- There is no clear differences in the amount of oil pipelines and new oil and gas projects between democrats and republicants
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,- Many democrat legislations were suspended either by the senate or the Supreme Court
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,"- The costs of abolishing fossil fuels are more clear than not doing it, and this is bad for communication and risk management"
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,"- Stopping pipelines or reducing supply do reduce overall use of fossil fuels, as well disvestment efforts are and can be more effective driving a reduction in fossil fuels availability"
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,"- Large insurance concentration is large, and them not insuring those investments can create a big leap too"
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,"- The rainforest alliance network, together with other groups stopped >60 % of coal plants in us and >70% globally"
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,- Projects were stopped as a mix of bad economics and wide opposition
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,- The rethorical patterns of slaveholders and the fossil fuel industry are similar. Like the enslavers who argue that their cotton helped “the poor to obtain cheap and becoming clothing” fossil fuel elites tout the benefits of their products for consumers and workers.
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,- Big oil warns of mass unemployment and consumer suffering if politicians do anything to promote decarbonisation
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,- The fear of inflation is used to push back any support for a transition from governments and the main public
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,"- When slavery was abolished, it was a very profitable enterprise, it even reach peak prices making the resistance from slave owners even more fierce, it is indispensable to understand that without the great resistance of abolition groups this biz would have certainly last longer"
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of slavery in the US,"- It is important to know that despite the lobbying of fossil capital, it represents a much smaller part of the economy as the slave cotton did back in the days"
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of apartheid,"The movement to end the apartheid in the us also leverages a minority with little support, specially from white people, in actions that imply civil disobedience and boycott, the boycott on small biz that are complicit with the apartheid regime create a lot of instability as the expectation of consistent loss of sales, even of moderate numbers, create a lot of tension, despite white suppremacists attempts to counteract boycott with their own."
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of apartheid,"The anti apartheid movement focused on levers of power and a few economic elites to apply pressure on the political system, with very little focus on institutional politics. Also very localised victories led the moment to grow and propagate.This puts pressure on elites to make reforms to avoid escalation."
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of apartheid,"Boycotts were applied in a consistent and well studied manner and not spontaneously, by creating permanent working groups they achieve sustained impact on this companies."
"Young, Kevin A. Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won. Chicago: PM Press / Spectre, 2024.",learning from the abolition of apartheid,"The overall climate of racial tension was essential to push for the end of the apartheid, it is important that the discomfort rises to a constant level and a sense of uneasy that force structural change."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Open Workshops: Collectively Creating and Using Infrastructure,the ideal workshop project brings together the productive capabilities of a factory with the educational offer of a university and the comfort and social integration of a café or community center.
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Open Workshops: Collectively Creating and Using Infrastructure,"common use of the material and immaterial means of production, and possibly even the democratization of production in the sense of self-empowerment."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Open Workshops: Collectively Creating and Using Infrastructure,"The open- source paradigm (hardware, design) seeks to put an end to these black boxes and closed loops, and create openness. Now, it is possible to find freely available blueprints, designs and self- sufficiency concepts for all important areas of life, such as food, water treatment, energy, housing and mobility. High and low tech approaches thus come together time and time again in the search for developing “appropriate technologies."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Open Workshops: Collectively Creating and Using Infrastructure,"instead of arguing about ethical questions or defending our personal truths— simply do something together and solve a (small) concrete problem through our own work. To put it broadly: therapy instead of diagnosis, concrete instead of abstract, doing instead of (only) talking."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Peoples Global Action: (Truly) Global Grassroots Resistance,"Before long their spokesperson, Subcomandante Marcos, proclaimed that it was not about seizing power, but about recreating the world. In their autonomous zones, the Zapatistas began the process of building freedom, democracy and justice. In fact, it was actually the women of the EZLN who had begun this process during an internal rebellion a year earlier. And this is no trivial matter: the Zapatistas support the abolition of all relationships of dominance."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Peoples Global Action: (Truly) Global Grassroots Resistance,"Many individual activists (from the north) were also suffering burnout as a result of their intense commitment, or were no longer able to devote themselves so intensively to PGA; many movements (from the south) had their hands full with their own local struggles. Simply put, PGA’s decentralized structure hampered its continuity."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Peoples Global Action: (Truly) Global Grassroots Resistance,"“If you have only come to help me, then you can go back home. But if you consider my struggle as part of your struggle for survival, then maybe we can work together.”"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Peoples Global Action: (Truly) Global Grassroots Resistance,"Thus, what we need is global networking. Selectively inviting specific intellectuals to events or to write articles is not enough. It’s about being in exchange with the “subalterns,” the most marginalized groups, without reproducing hegemonies within these interactions. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Peoples Global Action: (Truly) Global Grassroots Resistance,"Perhaps, through the struggles in the Global South, the
degrowth movement may begin to understand that post- growth does not have to be accompanied by sacrifice. When the Indian Adivasi fight for their right to live in the jungle instead of becoming IT experts – as per the explicit wishes of one government official – this takes ideas about what constitutes wealth and what constitutes sacrifice, and turns them upside down. And as far as political mobilization goes, there is another important lesson to be learned: it’s not about money. For those who believe that the early stages of any movement necessarily involves a request for finance, this can be a crucial insight."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Peoples Global Action: (Truly) Global Grassroots Resistance,"A degrowth or post-development or buen- vivir or whatever-you-wanna-call-it movement, and an alter-globalization or climate or whatever-you-wanna-call-it movement unite in the spirit of Peoples Global Action to create a new movement of movements which places both resistance and the reorganization of day-to-day life at its heart."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Post-Extractivism: Against the Exploitation of Natural Resources,The aim is rather to expose and reject the way in which this hegemonic appropriation for the global capitalist market destroys nature and society.
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Post-Extractivism: Against the Exploitation of Natural Resources,"main struggles in Latin America right now are over land and territories, accompanied by struggles for greater autonomy and self-determination, and against social exclusion, ecological destruction and the commodification of human beings and nature. The main demands are for moratoriums on large-scale projects and the direct involvement of those affected in the said projects."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Post-Extractivism: Against the Exploitation of Natural Resources,"This would reduce economic dependency on foreign countries and allow these states greater freedom in the search for alternative economic policies. The second phase would be the transition to an economic model in which the exploitation of natural resources is reduced to a minimum. This would be accompanied by a recognition of a plural economy, with agrarian reforms, adapted technologies, a restructuring of the existing system of taxes and subsidies, a fundamental restructuring of the generally authoritarian systems and concepts of education, a deeper level of cooperation between Latin American countries and, especially in Andean countries, the development of plurinational states."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Post-Extractivism: Against the Exploitation of Natural Resources,A discussion on the rights of nature can and should have greater prominence in the context of degrowth.
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections from the South on Degrowth,"But is degrowth, or the reduction of material and energy uses for human use, a valid and viable strategy for the Global South, i.e. countries and populations (including some in industrialized countries) that have not reached an excessive or even acceptable level of prosperity? Perhaps not. What is needed is for these regions and peoples to find their own home-grown visions and pathways of change."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections from the South on Degrowth,Global Tapestry of Alternatives
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections from the South on Degrowth,Ecoswaraj as a response to the social and ecological bankruptcy of the currently dominant development and governance system
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections from the South on Degrowth,"The term swaraj can be loosely translated as “self-rule” — though it is much more than just a governance concept— and refers to a combination of individual and collective autonomy, mutual responsibility, rights, and responsibilities. Although older than him, the concept was popularized by Gandhi as part of India’s freedom struggle against British colonial power, and is referred to in his seminal book Hind Swaraj as a civilizational ethos comprising the elements mentioned above. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections from the South on Degrowth,"reviving organic farming using their own seeds, achieving full food sovereignty, collectivizing resources and labor, securing basic rights, forming cooperatives or companies to negotiate better returns, forming community-run media (films, radio), and throwing off the traditional social stigmas associated with them."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections from the South on Degrowth,"Radical ecological democracy principles
1. **Ecological Sustainability and Wisdom**: Emphasizes conserving nature (ecosystems, species, functions, cycles) and its resilience. Advocates for environmental ethics, ensuring human activities remain within planetary limits.

2. **Social Well-being and Justice**: Focuses on fulfilling lives—physically, socially, culturally, and spiritually—while promoting equity in socio-economic and political rights, including gender equity. Encourages cultural diversity and revives ancient Indian principles of “enoughness” and voluntary simplicity, avoiding bigoted interpretations.

3. **Direct Democracy**: Advocates decision-making at the grassroots level, ensuring every person’s right to participate. Larger governance structures should be accountable to local communities and aligned with ecological and cultural regions.

4. **Economic Democracy**: Prioritizes local community control over production, distribution, and markets, with a focus on localization. Supports producer cooperatives, local trade, and non-monetized exchanges like barter, ensuring equity in these systems.

5. **Knowledge Commons and Cultural Diversity**: Promotes collective generation, conservation, and sharing of knowledge, embracing both traditional and modern forms. Stresses the importance of cultural diversity and community-driven knowledge processes, beyond state and corporate control.


This reformatted version highlights the core elements of each point in a concise manner. Let me know if you need further adjustments!"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Refugee Movement: Struggling with Migration and Escape,“We’re here because you are destroying our countries” 
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Refugee Movement: Struggling with Migration and Escape," Finally, 2012 must be highlighted since this year saw the beginning of a cycle of political protests by refugees that continued until 2014, and which found support among the German public like never before —with the consequence that refugee solidarity “has not only become a dominating social movement and a booming industry, but also a pop-cultural hype,” as Christian Jakob writes in his aforementioned book."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Refugee Movement: Struggling with Migration and Escape,"Every person has the right to decide for themselves where and how they want to live. The regulation of migration and the systematic denial of rights conflicts with the demand for equality in all social and political respects, based on the notion of respecting every person’s human rights, regardless of their origin and papers."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Refugee Movement: Struggling with Migration and Escape,"Due to time constraints, many groups only focus on the local situation but do not (or no longer) question the necessity to also systematically consider the causes of escape and migration in principle."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Refugee Movement: Struggling with Migration and Escape,"However, I cannot stop myself from shouting the local degrowth movement down – with respect – from their discourse-overgrown observation tower and debate podium. The balance of social power only changes in practical conflicts, such as those that should have been made clear by the
depiction of escape and migrant battles."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Solidarity Economy: Paths to Transformation,The core idea of solidarity economy is: cooperation instead of competition and meaning for people instead of profit.
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Solidarity Economy: Paths to Transformation,"Self-Government: Emphasizes democratic decision-making within the community, with common property and ownership.
Cooperation: Encourages both internal collaboration among members and external partnerships.
Focus on Common Welfare: Prioritizes the well-being of the entire community.
Inclusion: Actively includes minorities, disadvantaged individuals, the unemployed, refugees, and migrants.
Non-Discrimination: Ensures no discrimination based on sex, disability, religion, appearance, etc.
Transparency and Education: Values open communication, education, and a process-oriented approach.
Ecological Protection: Protects ecosystems and biodiversity, recognizing them as essential for human existence.
Economy as a Subsystem of Ecology: Views the economy as fitting within natural cycles and boundaries, emphasizing that economic activities must respect ecological limits."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Solidarity Economy: Paths to Transformation,"According to recent findings in neurobiology and many years of research in psychology and pedagogy, people are better suited to cooperation than to competition. Meta-studies show that cooperation is more efficient (and therefore more economic) than competition and “going at it alone.”"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Solidarity Economy: Paths to Transformation,"Strategically, it is important to increase visibility for communities and economic enterprises based on solidarity, precisely because they are not in the mass media spotlight."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Solidarity Economy: Paths to Transformation,"There are also now many Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (GAS), solidarity purchasing groups, which enter into cooperative and purchase agreements with local organic farmers. Many organic farmers can survive solely due to their GAS customers. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Solidarity Economy: Paths to Transformation,"As degrowth is criticizing the whole system, it should provide an alternative design for society, especially alternative economic structures – or people won’t listen or even become scared. Critique of the status quo and the development of alternatives belong together: a successful anti-nuclear or anti-coal movement cannot exist without a renewable energy’s movement, strategies for converting destructive production in meaningful production, and the inclusion of the unemployed. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Transition Initiatives: How Communities start their own Transformation,"Now, there are several thousand transition initiatives in 50 countries, partially organized in 18 Hub Groups, mainly in Europe, South- and North America and Australia. The Brazilian Hub names seven, in Germany there are about 80, and in the US around 300 groups are active. They emerge in places where people dream of a positive future, where they have the courage to experiment and make mistakes. Research shows that transition initiatives thrive better in small cities than in larger ones. They grow well in a favorable context and in cooperation with other actors. As argued in one of the first international surveys : “Among the characteristics of successful TIs [Transition Initiatives] are: a large number of founders, a good representation of diversity in the broader community, the presence and size of a steering group, the organization in thematic subgroups, the official TN [Transition Network] recognition, the acquisition of a legal statutory form, specific training in transition and permaculture practice, resources (time and external funds).”1"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Transition Initiatives: How Communities start their own Transformation,"“If we wait for the governments, it’ll be too little, too late; if we act as individuals, it’ll be too little, but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.”"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Transition Initiatives: How Communities start their own Transformation,"""In transition initiatives, time is often a limiting factor since most participants are volunteers. Many activists aspire to reduce their dependence on money in the future; however, building the necessary infrastructure solely through volunteer work is nearly impossible. Some groups have managed to provide permanent jobs, but this approach can sometimes lead to the establishment of unwanted hierarchies or diminish people’s motivation to participate voluntarily."""
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Transition Initiatives: How Communities start their own Transformation,"We need growth in courage, confidence and organizational capability, in participation, empathy, solidarity and sense of community. We need more and better self-organization and decision-making skills. It is all about adding more meaning and more sustainability to life and work. And not least: The climate justice and post-growth movements need more people, time and resources to prove successful in the long run. This is another issue that needs to be debated in society. How and when do we gain skills and resources for a large-scale societal transformation?"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Trade Unions: Who can afford to degrow?,"By international comparison, German trade unions are very strongly institutionalized and have exceptionally high membership levels. With 2.3 million and 2.0 million members respectively, the Industrial Union of Metalworkers (IG Metall) and the United Services Union (ver.di) have some of the largest memberships among independent trade unions globally."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Trade Unions: Who can afford to degrow?,"According to Dörre, such trade union policy is primarily about the wages and jobs of (core) employees in the individual sectors. This leads to the representation of particular employee interests, which may also be in opposition to general societal interests such as ecological sustainability"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Trade Unions: Who can afford to degrow?,"Various emancipation movements of social, ethnic and sexual minorities [...] have also been reflected in discussions at trade union conferences; these issues were prioritized by the trade union press and educational initiatives"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Trade Unions: Who can afford to degrow?,"According to Dörre, a socio-ecological perspective for society as a whole would have to go beyond this and take the comprehensive transformation of production and way of life into account.9 It would also revitalize the trade union discussion on what constitutes a good life, considering socio- ecological factors"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Trade Unions: Who can afford to degrow?," In particular, economic crisis situations have repeatedly pushed the importance of maintaining jobs and income for a longer period of time to the forefront."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Trade Unions: Who can afford to degrow?,"To this end, society as a whole must take responsibility if works are closed for good environmental reasons, for example, and people become unemployed as a result."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Trade Unions: Who can afford to degrow?,"According to Urban, this primarily includes making production, consumption and distribution more environmentally friendly; secondly, it involves a new system of distribution of income, assets and social opportunities; and thirdly, it involves the democratization of business decisions and structures"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Urban Gardening: Searching New Relationships Between Nature and Culture,"The main idea or field of action of the urban gardening movement is the creation of non-commercial, green spaces for all."
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Urban Gardening: Searching New Relationships Between Nature and Culture,"Another of the movement’s remarkable features is its approach to the resources crisis, which includes using informal construction techniques and upcycling locally-sourced, second- hand objects. The solution is not to renounce, but to reinterpret and reuse, to find another context where objects can find new applications"
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Urban Gardening: Searching New Relationships Between Nature and Culture,"Today, politics are less about theories, speeches, demands and utopian statements, and more about the creation of new spaces and the transformative action that takes place in them: through gardening, cooking, food saving, repairing, rebuilding, reusing, breaking down barriers and taking action. "
"Burkhart, Christoph, Matthias Schmelzer, and Nina Treu, eds. Degrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation. Zero Books, 2020.",Urban Gardening: Searching New Relationships Between Nature and Culture,"Modern urban societies currently face the challenge of facilitating the arrival of uprooted individuals and helping them start a new life. (Intercultural) community gardens have already led to a wealth of experience and ideas in this regard, without resorting to dominant culture fantasies or folkloric simplifications."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","Although it is hard to find a general definition of care work, a
common denominator is the relationality and (inter-)dependency
inherent to care. In a narrow sense, care is often defined as caring
activity provided by a caregiver to a care receiver, involving emotions
and intimacy as well as asymmetrical power relations, limited
autonomy, and vulnerability"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","In the current economic system, unpaid care work is invisibilised
and highly gendered. Being the necessary precondition for every
production process in the monetised economy, unpaid care work
is regarded as a free subsidy, performed mostly by women in
heteronormative households, without monetary compensation and/
or social recognition"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","Wage labour is a dominant structure of capitalist growth-based
societies that forces people who depend on wages to prioritise
wage work over all other forms of work and activities"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","Hence, changing wage relations is a central precondition
of redefining, redistributing, and revaluing all kinds of socially
necessary work. In this section, we discuss the Wages for Housework
(WfH) campaign, the Care Income (CI), and a Universal Basic
Income (UBI) as means towards this end."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","the Care
Income (CI) is a symbiotic proposal aiming at compensation for
unpaid care work supported by the Global Women’s Strike (2020),
several degrowth scholars (e.g., Barca 2020), and the Green New
Deal for Europe (2019)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","By demanding
capital for socially necessary yet appropriated and invisibilised care
work, the CI aims to redistribute wealth to those caring for “people,
the urban and rural environment, and the natural world”"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","However, the CI also exhibits
affirmative elements as it aims at monetising care rather than
widening the decommodified dimensions of life. Wichterich (2015,
88) points out that conditional cash transfers always bear the risk
of “neoliberal co-optation that seeks individual and monetary
solutions to problems of social inequalities.” Moreover, the practical
necessities to prove one’s eligibility for a care income in practice
bear problematic dimensions of surveillance, humiliation, and
bureaucracy (Baker 2008). Hence, the transformative potential of a
CI largely depends on its concrete design."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","The proposal of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) avoids the pitfalls
of eligibility as it envisions a regular, fixed, age-dependent amount of
cash granted to everyone (Torry 2019). Due to the harsh economic
crisis and the massive increases in inequality in the COVID-19-
context, debates around UBI were boosted in different world regions
and gained support from international institutions"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","It allows for socially re-valuing unpaid forms of
work without monetising them and, more generally, for interstitial

strategies to thrive. However, a UBI is no automatism for a gender-
just redistribution of care work among all members of society and

crucially depends on a cultural shift and complementary measures"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","As Dengler and Strunk (2018) argue, a
daily reduction of hours spent in wage work has more transformative
potential"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","WS requires full wage compensation for low-income earners or other
ways, by which wage work is decoupled from livelihood security"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","Instead of only reducing time spent in wage work, Frigga Haug
(2008) aspires to a radical and holistic (re-)distribution of socially
valuable work and to a transformation of the ways societies organise
themselves and interact with nature. Her “4-in-1 perspective”
envisages that everyone engages four hours each in paid work
necessary to produce means for life, care work for humans and
more-than-humans, communal and political activities, and time for
leisure and self-development"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 16: Care
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of care","In this
degrowth future, people of all genders dedicate part of their lifetime
to care work, thereby contributing to the necessary cultural change
to redefine, redistribute, and revalue care."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Work forms a central component of social organisation and
welfare in growth-dependent societies, with adverse environmental
and social outcomes. The way work is structured today and the
division of labour lie at the crossroads of environmental crises
(climate breakdown, resource exploitation, biodiversity loss, food
distribution) and social crises (gender and income inequality, labour
exploitation, mental health) while work also conversely provides
people with meaning, income and identity."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","The need to secure full-time
paid employment in line with productivity growth is one of the
central mechanisms of the growth economy in the Global North, with
disastrous environmental consequences"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","this renders exploitation in waged
labour economically and socially more desirable than unemployment
(Wright 2010, 277; 279). In the Global South, the capitalist
drive for growth and production is powering the destruction of
subsistence communities and forced proletarianisation in the name
of development. Lower-income countries are locked into a system
of exploitation to supply cheap labour, materials, energy, and land,
reinforcing inequality and the advantaged position of the Global
North"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","According
to Graeber (2018) more than half of the performed paid work in the
Global North are “bullshit jobs” – outwardly well-regarded and paid,
but often considered meaningless or not of social value, even by
those who hold those jobs themselves."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Bullshit and batshit
jobs stand in contrast to the many unpaid (or low paid) activities
that form the foundation of provisioning, but which are devalued by
society – work historically performed largely by women"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Although multiple social and environmental crises highlight
the urgent need for societies to transform work, the focus on
productivity as a goal, and the primacy of paid labour in material
provisioning, means that it is unlikely that paid work will disappear
as a form of social organisation in the near future (Barca 2019)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Changing the actual work that is done – this is the fundamental
underpinning for a transformation of work, from one activity
(environmentally destructive) to another (socially useful),
e.g., from fossil fuel production to renewable energy, from
336
plane and car to train and bus construction and maintenance,
underpinned by a guarantee of continued employment and of
any retraining required."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Changing the character of work – moving away from an ethos
of excessive measurement and continuous acceleration of
pace and expectation, and thereby eliminating bullshit/
batshit jobs, automating routine tasks where technologically
or ecologically feasible to release people for more fulfilling
work, proper and equal treatment in the workplace including
guaranteeing decent basic wages instead of performance-based
“incentivisation”"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Transitioning to a more democratic workplace – replacing
hierarchical structures with workplace democracy, using
workers’ knowledge as the basis of decision-making within
a sector, and actively promoting and progressing towards
alternative models of ownership (nationalised, local or
regional, community-based, worker-owned co-ops) and
democratic accountability."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Finally, symbiotic transformations through trade unions and
workers movements have been some of the largest and most
successful emancipatory forces in history, but which have also
regulated capitalism and helped it to evolve and survive (Wright
2010). "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Withholding
labour is the one action that brings everything to a halt. It is no
surprise that great efforts have been made in many countries to
strictly circumscribe the scope for industrial action, and to prevent
unionisation."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Short-term economic necessity (exacerbated in an era of austerity
and precarious labour markets), as well as leadership self-interest,
have all combined to propel many unions towards relatively
conservative positions, such as support for the expansion of aviation
or the UK Conservative government’s nuclear programme (GMB
2021). In this context, trade unions at best make a case for workers
getting a greater share of the fruits of their labour. At worst, they
replicate the language and priorities of employers to maintain the
status quo"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Workers and their union leaders commonly perceive a Just
Transition as a threat to livelihood that needs to be opposed, or a
threat to the commonly accepted social “good life” as a lifestyle with
high individual consumption (GMB 2020, Keil and Kreinin 2022)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","Governments cannot be relied on to enact appropriate policy
unless prompted to do so from below"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 17: Paid work
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of paid work and the case
of Just Transition in the aviation sector","the centrality of work to meeting the fundamental
needs of society means that workers’ movements, such as unions,
provide the most likely basis for successful society-wide struggle."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","herefore, strategies for achieving degrowth have
to acknowledge that money and monetary practices are, first and
foremost, a social institution to evaluate and settle debts between
parties whose value rests on trust"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","Our chapter will review strategies to democratise,
definancialise, demonetise, decommodify, defossilise, and
repurpose money with the aim of restructuring economic processes"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","Reforming banking is, critically, about strengthening monetary
democracy and empowering the local in relation to the national, and
the public in relation to the private. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider"," Indeed, “one of the most important
and oft-forgotten truths about any banking system is that it simply
cannot exist without the government” (Baradaran 2018, 11). Despite
this fact, banking regulation occurs independently of democratic
accountability and oversight. Importantly, when the banking system
falters, the public collectively bears responsibility."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","Recently there has been renewed interest
in public banking in the United States. In 2019, backed by grassroots
advocacy groups, a bill was passed in California to legalise and
support public banks (California 2019)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","As banks are
established and enacted through government regulation, they rely
on juridical and regulatory conditions. However, a broad system of
public banking has the potential to form a counter-power to global
finance and to the private accumulation of capital, and in this way
can be a part of a more radical strategy for degrowth."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","Financialisation contradicts degrowth in at least two ways.
First, the search for short-term financial returns and the primacy
of liquidity is contradictory to long-term planning, financial
stability, and the alignment of the economy with environmental
sustainability and social well-being. Shareholders’ expectations of
returns on investment are disconnected from the economic reality
(e.g., a 15% return on investment when the economy grows at less
than 2% per year). Also, the desire to retrieve liquidities in the short
run will push firms to prioritise financial profitability over long-
term investment and innovation. This can impede reorganising
production to meet social needs and the principles of sustainability.
Second, financialisation furthers the commodification of everything"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","In contrast, ethical, regional,
and public good-oriented banks could be promoted and allowed
to operate under less stringent conditions than private, for-profit
financial institutions (Benedikter 2011, Weber 2014). Systematic
assessments based on social, ecological and ethical criteria would be
mandatory for every loan granted. Analogously, financial products
of any kind would undergo a legally regulated approval procedure
according to these criteria (Epstein and Crotty 2009)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","Alternative
ownership structures, such as cooperatives and co-management
practices between shareholders and workers, should be encouraged to
reform firms’ management, increase economic democracy, and foster
long-term goals. This kind of ownership and management already
exists in many countries in cooperative firms of various sizes and
keeps them away from financial markets and purely financial logics."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","This essential difference
makes pay-as-you-go systems compatible with a degrowth economy
and capitalisation-based systems most likely incompatible."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","For degrowth to be a liveable option, it is therefore crucial to
definancialise everyday life. This will require the socialisation
of sectors fulfilling basic social needs such as health, education,
housing, food, transport, energy and insurance against life risks
such as unemployment and old age"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","socialising key sectors and fostering workers’ direct
ownership of firms and decision power in firm management would
constitute radical changes if implemented at the whole economy
scale"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","Fossil-free finance means removing companies directly or indirectly
involved in the use or extraction of fossil fuels from financial
flows."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","One key idea is to reform the eligibility rules for asset purchasing
programmes by central banks (such as quantitative easing) to exclude
fossil fuels and carbon-intensive activities. Other possibilities include
differentiating between interest rates depending on the nature of
the activity to be financed, implementing credit controls to direct
financial flows in sectors deemed sustainable, and including green-
supporting and dirty-penalising factors in risk assessment in order
to foster financing of sustainable activities. A major unresolved
challenge is to come up with a clear and operational definition of
what are “green” and “dirty” activities. Many proposals exist to
remedy the carbon impact of monetary policy (see e.g., Cahen-
Fourot 2022; Campiglio 2016; Dafermos et al. 2020), and several
central banks in the world have already implemented such measures
(Barmes and Livingstone 2021, Dikau and Volz 2019, D’Orazio and
Popoyan 2019)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","Current monetary economies are based on general-purpose money
– money that can be used for any legal purpose and that unites
all functions of money into one form of money (Saiag 2014). As a
consequence, general-purpose forms of money make all goods
and services commensurable (O’Neill 2017) and reduce political
364
control over economies."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 18: Money and finance
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of money and finance and
the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common
Good
By Ernest Aigner, Christina Buczko, Louison Cahen-Fourot and
Colleen Schneider","This could be overcome by implementing
or strengthening special-purpose moneys. These have a definitive
standard of value, and can only be used for particular goods and
services or in a particular sphere of society (Saiag 2014). Further,
they can be under community or public control (Blanc 2018) and
complement or replace general-purpose money."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","The time is ripe to advance an
anti-colonial position for the degrowth movement. Accomplishing
this task is strategic for two reasons. First, it allows us to draw
a clearer line separating degrowth from imperialist visions of
environmentalism."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","The second strategic
reason is that it lets us move forward with building solidarity and
stronger alliances with peripheral movements."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","high-income
countries consume approximately 52% more raw materials than they
produce domestically, 28% more labour47, 19% more land and 10%
more energy (Dorninger et al. 2021). All this surplus is acquired in
the global market, which means that the rest of the world needs to
work more hours and extract more resources from their territories
than their populations consume to transfer it to the richest countries,
without equivalent material compensation.48"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","Development ideology promises that, within capitalism,
all countries may eventually reach the standards of welfare"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","We know this promise is false. First, it is ecologically impossible
to universalise those standards since the material footprint required
would go way beyond planetary boundaries. This argument has been
extensively repeated by environmentalists in the Global North since
the conservative conclusions of the report on Limits to Growth in
the 1970s.49 Another reason is that the ways of living in the North
depend on ecologically unequal exchange and on the international
division of labour that deprives other peoples of self-determination
and keep them trapped in selling their labour and resources for
cheaply in the global market. So, a mode of living that requires
exploitation cannot be universalised, otherwise, there would be no
one left to be exploited."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","unmaking
ecologically unequal exchange and imperialism, the potential of degrowth relies on the strength of strategies operating under the
logic of dismantling, while relying solely on strategies that focus on
taming may contribute to greenwashing colonial relations in the
name of degrowth."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","Degrowthers might find inspiration in anti-imperialist movements
in the Global South that explicitly refuse such international division
of labour from the other end, calling for strategies that are closer to
the logic of dismantling."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","Looking at the evidence on ecologically unequal
exchange, an anti-colonial perspective could suggest that pushing
for reducing consumption and decreasing reliance on imported
labour in the Global North are requirements to enable the rest of the
world to get rid of the burden of colonial appropriation of resources
and labour."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, and Alexander Paulsson, eds. Degrowth and Strategy: How to Bring about Social-Ecological Transformation. 2020. London: Pluto Press.","Chapter 19: Trade and Decolonialisation
An overview of strategies for social-ecological
transformation in the field of trade and
decolonialisation
By Gabriel Trettel Silva","Shaping degrowth as an
anti-imperialist and anti-colonial movement depends heavily on a
commitment to dismantling ecologically unequal exchange rather
than reducing its harms."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.",Introduction,"Like capitalist realism, growth realism does not operate
by claiming that growth is the perfect system but that it is the only system
compatible with human nature and economic law."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.",Introduction,"If growth has been one of
the most depoliticised words in our vocabulary, 1 the discipline of politi-
cal economy (and economics), as taught in most university courses and
reproduced in public discourse, has greatly contributed to such danger-
ous depoliticisation and naturalisation of economic growth (Raworth
2017)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.",Introduction,"Like the diverse-economy model, degrowth brings together vari-
ous forms of economic activity that are not tied to growth, thus helping to
rethink the economy as a pluriverse —a world that is always multiple
(Escobar 2011)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.",Introduction," Thus, degrowth rejects ederstandin economics that ar
characterising the political economy of growth. As a result, the very
meaning of a good life and what it comprises is rethought in a much
wider and less materialist sense"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.",Introduction,"Giorgos Kallis (2018) acknowledges that-
when it comes to the social forces capable of pushing for the adoption of a
degrowth agenda -there is a lack of clear political strategy (see also Bar-
ca 2017)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.",Introduction,"Kallis and March (2015) see ""concrete
utopia"" as an idyllic end-state and avoidance of conflict, which is, howev-
er, necessary for transformation to come. For them, a process-based
understanding of utopia can help rethink the politics of degrowth. Draw-
ing on the work of David Harvey (2000), they prefer to talk about uto-
pianism,"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Limits of Systems
Economics, Management, and the Problematization of
Growth during the Golden Age of Capitalism
A l e x a n d e r P a u l s s o n","growth not only as an
economic and social policy but also as a nationwide culture, propelling
consumption and unequal exchange between the Global North and the
Global South. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","In effect, the discipline of 'comparative
political economy (CPE) became a discipline of 'comparative capital-
isms'.1"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","CPE scholarship has some blatant blind
spots. The biggest of these is the widespread practice of ignoring that the
societies in the rich parts of the world are grossly environmentally unsus-
tainable and that they will increasingly be so as long as they form part of
a capitalist system that needs to grow endlessly. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","strong sustainability' could take
growth's place as a key parameter of success and that alternative (sus-
tainable) ways of organising the socio-economic sphere be made key ob-
jects of study. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","Measuring progress to-
wards an SSE - for instance, using separate biophysical and social indica-
tors (O'Neill 2012)- in different countries could be an important aspect
of such research."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","Dawson (2006, 68) notes that in the advanced capitalist countries of
the North, 'the job of creating and maintaining an ecovillage has become
substantially more difficult over the last couple of decades'"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","Comparative political economists may not
feel that it is their job to question the effects of growth but that it is to
explain similarities in, differences between, and the economic conse-
quences of institutional arrangements in different countries. Unfortunate-
ly, the climate and biodiversity crises are far too important issues to
justify such an attitude."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","socialism and capitalism, then we
need to clearly identify what the two systems have in common to be
able to envision a meaningful way-out. I believe that what the two
systems have in common is, basically, alienation: i.e. the lack of control
over the labor process and product on the part of the workers. My
hypothesis, in other words, is that alienation is what leads to unsustainable
ways of producing and reallocating the surplus. (Barca 2017b)1"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Reorienting Comparative Political
Economy
From Economic Growth to Sustainable Alternatives
H u b e r t B u c h - H a n s e n","the union should firmly engage in a civilizational project
grounded more on ""extra-economic, 'qualitative' claims"" (ibid., 72) than
on wage-centered collective bargaining."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","I understand the ideology of growth in Brazil as a quasi-
theology in which faith in progress is socially construed as a sacred nar-
rative, that is, incontestable and salvationist, pledging to usher in a better
world through the promise of a ""place under construction"", and a ""na-
tion of the future"" (Zweig 1941)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","Most importantly, racism was a constitutive element in expansionist
ideology. In fact, those who possessed a nondichotomous connection to
nature, akin to the relational ontologies described above, were seen as
uncivilized and inferior, and compared to ""wild animals"". The land that
they inhabited was seen as ""abandoned"" or ""empty""."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","Consequently, domesticating and controlling the land implied white-
washing settlement. Potential white settlers were described as men, a
marker that established the relationship between patriarchy and colonial-
ism. In a popular slogan by dictator Médici, Amazonia was said to be a
""land without men for men without land"" [terra sem homens, para homens
sem terral. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez"," Extractivism was positioned as
the only possibility to grant the region water and sewage infrastructures,
education, health, and security."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","violence of the colonial expan-
sion of capital separates collective subjects from their place of existence
operating in multiple dimensions: it drains away the substance of the
past; it imposes a daily routine of suffering, the xawara described by
Yanomami; it destroys the perspective of a future; and it organizes the
world in asymmetrical relationships of power."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","In indigenous thinking, this epistemic sense of connection is also onto-
logical: to exist is to be together, and this generates the knowledge that
(re)produces existence."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","the Landless
movement or MST (Milanez and Trocate 2015). In these settlements, built
on deforested areas of ancient Brazil-nut forests, small peasant agricul-
ture produced a profound transformation in the landscape, replacing the
cattle farms with agroecology and agroforestry"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","Mendes defended the protection of the rainforest as a commons asso-
ciated with labour's autonomy: the protection of the forest was essential
to the life and reproduction of ""the forest peoples"" as well as for the
economic autonomy of seringueiros. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","rubber tappers put into practice to defend diversity in response to
the monocultural privatization of the commons and the alienation of la-
bour by regaining control of both the forest and the labour process. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Countering the Order of Progress
Colonialism, Extractivism, and Re-Existence in the
Brazilian Amazon
Felipe Milanez","Brazilian Amazon, social movements acting side by side
with indigenous, Quilombo, and other traditional communities have long
challenged the monocultural idea of progress and growth. Resisting gen-
ocide via re-existence (or the defense of alternative life-projects and terri-
torial difference), these movements oppose the civilizing project of eco-
nomic growth as implemented by both progressive and authoritarian
governments. The ideology of growth — monocultural, universal —is thus
both ontologically and materially challenged by the opposition represent-
ed by territorialized collectives in the Amazon (Amerindians, Forest Peo-
ple Alliances, agro-ecological peasant communities) not only resisting the
material plundering of resources but also reacting epistemically and on-
tologically in envisioning possibilities for re-existence."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Degrowth, Devaluation, and Uneven
Development from North to South
Patrick Bond","theory of devaluation of capital as an answer to overaccumulation.
Surplus capital and labor may be absorbed by investments in infra-
structures and the built environment but the result may be the creation
of excess productive capacity. The result is devaluation."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Degrowth, Devaluation, and Uneven
Development from North to South
Patrick Bond","The three most obvious forms of devaluation that can be char-
acterised as ""debt"" are (1) the social debt to inadequately paid workers,
(2) an embodied debt to women family caregivers, and (3) an ecological
debt drawn on nature at large. Salleh (2018) subsequently added three
others: (4) the postcolonial debt which would, if repaid to peasants and
indigenes (via decolonial movement demands), allow them to ""reclaim
livelihoods""; (5) the intergenerational debt and the other species debt (6)"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Degrowth, Devaluation, and Uneven
Development from North to South
Patrick Bond","Devaluation is a term Marxists adopted to explain the process by
which crisis breaks out, leaving various forms of overaccumulated capi-
tal-including variable capital, that is, workers-exposed to a sudden
lack of demand for their product, or for the price-valuation of assets to
collapse"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Degrowth, Devaluation, and Uneven
Development from North to South
Patrick Bond","during capitalist crisis, there exists (so far unrealised) potential for eco-
nomic-justice campaigners to understand overaccumulated capital's de-
valuation"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Degrowth, Devaluation, and Uneven
Development from North to South
Patrick Bond","Attuned to the links between the exploitation of labor and the exploita-
tion of the environment, ecosocialism stands against both reformist
""market ecology"" and ""productivist socialism""."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Degrowth, Devaluation, and Uneven
Development from North to South
Patrick Bond","The ecological struggle must aim not merely for degrowth in the ab-
stract but more concretely for deaccumulation- a transition away from
a system geared to the accumulation of capital without end. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","reducing as much as possible production
work in waged form while at the same time expanding autonomous re-
production and care work as key dimensions of a degrowth society."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","encompass three di-
mensions: labour and working-class environmentalism, an eco-socialist
Just Transition, and workers' control at the point of production. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","This vision of work as something that goes beyond wage labour and
the point of production leads us to consider the politics of social reproduc-
tion, which is central to both autonomist Marxism and degrowth. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","Overall, the point in materialist ecofeminism is not that of romanticiz-
ing subsistence and reproductive work but that of pointing to how mod-
ern economic growth has been premised upon their devaluation and an-
nihilation, which in turn have produced a global crisis of social and natu-
ral reproduction"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","political economy of de-
growth needs to include gender in a twofold sense: first, acknowledging
the sexual division of labour as a primary mechanism of socioecological
crisis; second, ""valuing"" metaindustrial work by recognizing its active
contribution in counteracting the overwhelming metabolic rift of a
growth-oriented political economy."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","A political
economy of degrowth thus needs, primarily, to expose, denaturalize, and
politicize the social organization of work as a key mechanism of capitalist
political economy"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","by demanding
that industrial hazards be reduced to a minimum acceptable standard
starting from the point of production, they rejected the monetization of
risk and thus put a limit to the commodification of labour and, indirectly,
of the environment. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","new political space for labour environmentalism, a space where workers
and community struggles can converge towards a common platform for
reframing the economy from below. We can call this space ""working-
class environmentalism."""
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","experience shows it is not enough, in fact is often counterproductive, to
protest outside a workplace without attempting a genuine dialogue with
the workers and putting forward an alternative worth fighting for"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","how wage labour could meet degrowth: connecting the crisis faced by their sector
with prospects of a broader economic and ecological crisis (as related to
the two oil shocks of that decade), the committee foresaw the need for ""a
re-examination of economic aims"" through which ""the pursuit of growth
will give way to a search for 'quality of life' for social justice and solidar-
ity."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","While the degrowth imaginary has been largely built upon a ""libera-
tion from work"" perspective, it is in the liberation of waged work from
treadmill metabolism that a political economy of degrowth still needs to
be developed. The struggle for making waged work sustainable and com-
patible with human and nonhuman reproduction, that is, the struggle
against exploitation and alienation from within the wage system, is in-
strumental to a degrowth strategy."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","""An Alternative Worth Fighting For""
Degrowth and the Liberation of Work
Stefania Barca","liberation of waged work that encompasses the three
dimensions highlighted in the second section of this chapter, that is,
working-class environmentalism, eco-socialism, and workers' control."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","the only way to curb the economic
inertia that Herman Daly calls ""growthism"" -and that generates both
increasing inequalities and ecological degradation- is to confront the in-
herent logic of general-purpose money. This means challenging money
at a more fundamental level than in terms of how it is produced, con-
trolled, and distributed."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","Rather than employ high-wage labor in
recycling, it is more rational for wealthy countries to consume increasing
amounts of fresh resources from low-wage countries."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","If
the movement advocating degrowth is to represent a step beyond the
conventional left, it will have to reconsider the implications of the money
artifact, which currently seems to constrain our options."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","democratically adopted, twentieth-century poli-
cies to enhance social justice and environmental protection have general-
ly been national projects, which are now frequently being curtailed or
undermined by globalization."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","the creation of money should be
democratically controlled through the state, rather than private banks,
and that this would make it possible not only to liberate people from the
exigencies of debt and the compulsion to achieve economic growth but
also, for instance, to provide all the inhabitants of a nation with a basic
income. By reclaiming the creation and allocation of money for the pub-
lic, she suggests, the state can provide all its citizens with economic
security and sustainable livelihoods. "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","it is not money itself that is the source of
the imbalance in our relationship to one another and nature, but rather
the way money is created and circulated in modern market economies."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","If there are no constraints on what
we can buy with our money, we shall naturally be looking for the best
deals, which usually means the lowest-paid labor and the lowest-priced
resources. The globalized capitalist market is thus an expression of the
inherent logic of general-purpose money."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","There is not much point in providing us all
with a basic income as long as it would simply keep us buying the prod-
ucts of the lowest-paid labor and the most degraded landscapes of the
planet. It would continue to promote low wages and lax environmental
legislation as comparative advantages in world trade"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","it is poten-
tially possible to democratically design a money system that recognizes
limits to commensurability"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","A system of separate currencies for basic needs versus
global markets would insulate resources pertaining to sustainability and
survival from the abstract capital flows of the world system."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The Imperative of Redesigning Money
to Achieve Degrowth
Alf Hornborg","This can be achieved if each national au-
thority issues a new complementary currency, one that can only be used
to buy transport-certified goods and services originating within a particu-
lar radius from the point of purchase, and distributes specific amounts of
it as a basic monthly income to its citizens. 10 The basic income should
thus not be paid in regular money but in a special-purpose, complemen-
tary currency that can only be used to buy locally produced goods and
services."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Problematising Self-Sufficiency
A Historical Exploration of the ""Autarky"" Concept
Santiago Gorostiza","autarky, meaning economic self-sufficiency, has been used by different political regimes, often as a strategy during periods of conflict or isolation (e.g., Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy)."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Problematising Self-Sufficiency
A Historical Exploration of the ""Autarky"" Concept
Santiago Gorostiza",extreme self-sufficiency can lead to authoritarianism or environmental degradation when pursued without regard for global cooperation or ecological limits.
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Problematising Self-Sufficiency
A Historical Exploration of the ""Autarky"" Concept
Santiago Gorostiza",self-sufficiency is not inherently sustainable or just. It depends on how resources are managed and who benefits from them. Historical autarky efforts often led to inequality and exploitation of marginalized groups.
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","Problematising Self-Sufficiency
A Historical Exploration of the ""Autarky"" Concept
Santiago Gorostiza","While degrowth advocates often call for local production and reduced dependency on global trade, the chapter warns against a simplistic embrace of autarky, advocating instead for thoughtful, cooperative, and equitable transitions that balance local autonomy with broader interdependence."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","THIRTEEN
Having, Doing, Loving, Being
Sustainable Well-Being for a Post-Growth Society
T u u l a H e l n e a n d T u u l i H i r v i l a m m i","critiques the traditional growth-oriented model of well-being, which emphasizes material wealth and consumption. The authors argue for a shift towards a concept of well-being that focuses on doing, loving, and being rather than having."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","THIRTEEN
Having, Doing, Loving, Being
Sustainable Well-Being for a Post-Growth Society
T u u l a H e l n e a n d T u u l i H i r v i l a m m i","Four Dimensions of Well-Being:

Having: Refers to material wealth and possessions, which are currently overemphasized in capitalist societies.
Doing: Involves activities that contribute to personal fulfillment, such as meaningful work and participation in society.
Loving: Highlights the importance of social relationships, community, and emotional connections for well-being.
Being: Focuses on self-realization, a sense of purpose, and the connection with nature and one’s inner self."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","THIRTEEN
Having, Doing, Loving, Being
Sustainable Well-Being for a Post-Growth Society
T u u l a H e l n e a n d T u u l i H i r v i l a m m i","degrowth offers an opportunity to pursue sustainable well-being by focusing on the latter three dimensions—doing, loving, and being—rather than endless consumption. This shift is necessary for addressing environmental and social crises."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","THIRTEEN
Having, Doing, Loving, Being
Sustainable Well-Being for a Post-Growth Society
T u u l a H e l n e a n d T u u l i H i r v i l a m m i","policies promoting reduced working hours, universal basic income, and enhanced social security could support the transition towards sustainable well-being."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","THIRTEEN
Having, Doing, Loving, Being
Sustainable Well-Being for a Post-Growth Society
T u u l a H e l n e a n d T u u l i H i r v i l a m m i","The chapter critiques consumer culture, which prioritizes ownership and material wealth at the expense of human relationships, creativity, and personal development. The authors advocate for societal changes that promote cooperation, care, and self-expression as the foundation for a fulfilling life."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","An explanation for degrowthers' in-
difference towards the state's genealogy, evolution, and functioning may
be found in the anarchist humus in which many degrowth practices
flourish"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Romano (2012)
stressed that the state is not only a terrain of struggle but is the main actor
for transforming society. He promotes a partisan state (not a neutral one),
that is, an ensemble of political authorities that actively stir the collective
political path and effectively contribute to determinations about the fea-
tures of the social life."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","the threat of despotism no longer comes from
political powers but from economic powers."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","he state as a repressive apparatus for the conservation
of economic hegemony. The second considers it as the main engine that
fosters the reproduction of the growth ideology. The third defines the
state as a fundamental productivity-focused agent. Last but not least, the
state is discussed as the most heteronomous and segregative institution."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","The
modest size should serve the state functioning as a conflict moderator
among federate communities and regions."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Gramscian theory of the
state offers a method for undoing the state and a framework for its sub-
stantiated analysis."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","The state in its modern capitalist form serves the
dominant class by performing two specific functions: (1) it assures the
reciprocal guarantee of the dominant class's property and interests; (2) it
controls and represses subaltern claims for change"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","the state is
not a rational and independent subject with an indisputable purpose;
rather, it expresses heterogeneous forms of organization that operate,
more often than not, against each other or as the result of conflicting
social relations and ideological struggles "
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Gramsci exposed his theory of the state. He
proposed the concept of the integral state (IS), that is, a unified state form
composed of both civil society and political society, the two camps being
organically interpenetrated and mutually reinforcing. In both societal
camps, different groups struggle to fulfil their divergent political visions"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","for Gramsci, coercion is exer-
cised in civil society, too, in the same way that consent is gained in the
political arena. Thus, even if the state is abolished, the abolition of domi-
nation and oppression is not guaranteed"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Domina-
tion is not the same as hegemony in the Gramscian lexicon. Domination
relates to the enforcement of coercive means over people, while hegemo-
ny implies the gaining of consent of people. The hegemony shows up in
institutions, procedures, practices, values, and beliefs, which respond ef-
fectively to commonsensical demands and claims of people."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Common sense
refers to the ""uncritical and largely unconscious way of perceiving and
understanding the world that has become 'common' in any given epoch"""
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa",Role of the State in Growth-Oriented Economies: The chapter highlights how the state is traditionally tied to promoting economic growth. D'Alisa discusses the inherent contradictions between the state's reliance on growth for legitimacy and the need for degrowth to address ecological and social crises.
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Challenges to the State’s Role in Degrowth: D'Alisa argues that the state is not naturally aligned with degrowth, as its functions often support capitalist accumulation, exploitation of natural resources, and the global push for continuous GDP expansion. The state, in its current form, acts as a stabilizer for growth, rather than as a catalyst for degrowth."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","A New Political Imagination for the State: The chapter suggests that a reimagined role of the state could support degrowth by fostering decentralized, democratic institutions and promoting policies that prioritize ecological balance, social equity, and well-being over profit maximization. It calls for new governance models that break free from the growth paradigm."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Policy Proposals: D'Alisa provides policy recommendations that could align the state’s functions with degrowth. These include reducing working hours, promoting commons-based governance, supporting community resilience, and implementing universal basic income as a way to move beyond a growth-dependent economy."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","Contradictions of the State in Capitalism: The chapter delves into the contradictions of the state’s position within capitalist economies, questioning whether the state can truly be reformed to support degrowth, or if a radical restructuring of political and economic institutions is required to make degrowth possible."
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","""The state is an entity structured around growth, often acting as a stabilizer for the capitalist system, rather than challenging the ecological and social damages it causes."""
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","""Degrowth will require a rethinking of the state’s role, not as a promoter of GDP expansion, but as a facilitator of more equitable and sustainable ways of living."""
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","""The reimagined state must embrace policies that support the commons, decentralized governance, and community resilience, prioritizing human and ecological well-being over profit."""
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","degrowthers put much embellish-
ment into the transformative potential of the bottom-up initiatives; on the
other, degrowth scholarship implicitly admits that the degrowth transi-
tion necessitates the favouring of top-down governmental actions"
"Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson, and Stefania Barca, eds. Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019.","The State of Degrowth
G i a c o m o D'Alisa","degrowthers put much embellish-
ment into the transformative potential of the bottom-up initiatives; on the
other, degrowth scholarship implicitly admits that the degrowth transi-
tion necessitates the favouring of top-down governmental actions"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.",Introduction,"Similarly, we see paranoiac subjectivities emerging around environmentalism and cli-
mate change, condensing a similar set of struggles around the power of science, gov-
ernment and capital, and a desire to maintain the relatively affluent lifestyles that

fossil fuels have enabled. The result is a populist rejection of even moderate organiza-
tional reforms like the ‘15 minute city’ as the work of a diabolical big-brother seeking

to control ‘our’ basic rights as citizens."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.",Introduction,"Transformation is, in this sense, indeed a second-
order change, a change in the frame of reference that we use to act, think and value."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.",Introduction,"We know that our current

agricultural practices are wasteful. The United Nations has estimated that 1/3 of all food

grown is wasted, accounting for 38% of total energy use in the food system and contrib-
uting significantly to climate change as well as failing the more than 700 million people

suffering from hunger in 2022 (United Nations, 2023; Dora et al., 2021)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.",Introduction,"Degrowth has been held back by its reluctance to engage in a structural
critique of capitalism, the reigning hegemonic common sense of productivism, and
the reality of economic organizations. Here they turn their attention to the need to
attend to the profit motive at the heart of capitalist organizing, and its drive toward

continual growth (cf. Marx, 1976). In contrast, they examine the potential for not-for-
profit organizations and counter-hegemonic social movements to overturn this domi-
nant paradigm and deliver a not-for profit economy."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.",Introduction,"the ‘real

task for organization theory is to show how alternatives to bureaucratic centralized
capitalism work and that they can work’."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Gibson Burrell
Chapter 2
Transformation: For Whom, By Whom,
Where, Why and When?","Institutions are social structures that have attained a high degree of resilience. [They] are com-
posed of cultural-cognitive, normative, and regulative elements that, together with associated ac-
tivities and resources, provide stability and meaning to social life. Institutions are transmitted by

various types of carriers, including symbolic systems, relational systems, routines, and facts. In-
stitutions operate at different levels of jurisdiction, from the world system to localized interper-
sonal relationships. Institutions by definition connote stability but are subject to change

processes, both incremental and discontinuous."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Gibson Burrell
Chapter 2
Transformation: For Whom, By Whom,
Where, Why and When?","What, however, if we as individuals are irrelevant? We are, perhaps, as mere flot-
sam, the yellow plastic ducks of the North Pacific gyre so to speak, trapped in the

whirling tides of history. We have no role in this movement, save to mark its passage
as victims of its passage. This is a heavily structuralist argument, of course, where
transformations are seen through an Althusserian lens and the transformations of the
socio-economic order require all the cherries to be lined up in the fruit machine of
history (Jay, 1988)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Chapter 3
Post-anthropocentric Transformations
of Consumption in the Anthropocene: Beyond
the Nature-Culture Divide","We conclude that only a paradigmatic change which
simultaneously respects the human imaginary constitution while reinserting the

human activities in the global set of interrelated ecosystems and respecting the balan-
ces for a long-term viability of these systems will provide a template for a positive

and truly transformative policy."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Chapter 3
Post-anthropocentric Transformations
of Consumption in the Anthropocene: Beyond
the Nature-Culture Divide","based on the sepa-
ration of nature and culture, as the fundamental mover of transformations towards

increased sustainability."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Chapter 3
Post-anthropocentric Transformations
of Consumption in the Anthropocene: Beyond
the Nature-Culture Divide","We
are thus dependent on devouring other living beings to maintain our own life. The

post-anthropocentric perspective is exactly based on as well the recognition of this in-
terdependency of ecosystems as the respect for the life condition and the regenerativity

of the ecosystems. These interdependencies must therefore play a pivotal role in terms
of conditioning the pursuit of ‘a good life’ for humanity."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Chapter 3
Post-anthropocentric Transformations
of Consumption in the Anthropocene: Beyond
the Nature-Culture Divide","The challenge is therefore not, or not simply,

to set aside more and more space (terrestrial and maritime) for ‘pristine environ-
ments’ but to build and act in our own ‘Umwelt’ in such a way that it does not provide

irreparable damage to other species’ Umwelten and thus ultimately to our own."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Chapter 3
Post-anthropocentric Transformations
of Consumption in the Anthropocene: Beyond
the Nature-Culture Divide","We recommend interdisciplinary scholarship directed to

extracting the lessons of gift, exchange, and predatory symbiosis in the non-human

world as well as the plethora of grassroots initiatives that seek to put alternative eco-
logical and economic principles of lessons of gifting exchange, and predatory symbio-
sis into action in order to upscale and outscale a renewed ecological economy."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar, Patrizia Zanoni, Sander Kramer, Eugène Loos,
Kim Loyens and Yousra Rahmouni Elidrissi
Chapter 4
‘Organising Social Impact’ Master’s
Programme as ‘Critical Praxis’ to Transform
the University and Society","novel academic practice integrating
research, education and societal impact for social change. We demonstrate the value of
‘critical praxis’ to foster social change by unveiling, theorizing and addressing historical
and social contradictions through the structure of the programme."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar, Patrizia Zanoni, Sander Kramer, Eugène Loos,
Kim Loyens and Yousra Rahmouni Elidrissi
Chapter 4
‘Organising Social Impact’ Master’s
Programme as ‘Critical Praxis’ to Transform
the University and Society","Therefore, critical praxis not only goes beyond the notion of
a ‘detached scientist’ who primarily produces scientific knowledge and transmits it in

the classroom environment but also adopts an alternative epistemological and onto-
logical position by bringing together historically separated domains of teaching, re-
search and societal impact (Chatterton, Hodkinson and Pickerill, 2010). It also means

purposefully blurring the boundaries and bridging between the practices of educa-
tion, research and societal impact simultaneously to feed into each other and enable

cross-fertilization"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar, Patrizia Zanoni, Sander Kramer, Eugène Loos,
Kim Loyens and Yousra Rahmouni Elidrissi
Chapter 4
‘Organising Social Impact’ Master’s
Programme as ‘Critical Praxis’ to Transform
the University and Society","quo. Yet, they are instrumental in showing the value of addressing the visible

impacts of social contradictions (e.g., inequalities, discrimination, ecological collapse).
As experiments, they not only show that alternative ways of living and working are
possible but also serve an ideological function to inspire new attempts to transform
social relations. The second strategy is called ‘symbiotic change’, the purpose of which
is to extend and deepen institutional forms of social empowerment to make life better

within the existing system. The motivation here is to expand the transformative po-
tential for advancing progressive values and tackle historical and social contradic-
tions inhibiting the well-being of people."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar, Patrizia Zanoni, Sander Kramer, Eugène Loos,
Kim Loyens and Yousra Rahmouni Elidrissi
Chapter 4
‘Organising Social Impact’ Master’s
Programme as ‘Critical Praxis’ to Transform
the University and Society","first course on ‘Changing Institutions’ presents an institutional framework to under-
stand the relationship between the state, market and civic society, and institutions’

role in social change. In the second course, ‘Organising Economic Transformation’,

the economy becomes an entry point for social change and introduces alternative eco-
nomic and organizational models. The last course, ‘Mobilising for Social Impact’, uses

an intersectional framework to explore how individual subjects are mobilized within
collectives and the potential for solidarity building across differences."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","Business schools

teach about one form of organization – pro-growth market managerialism. Or, to put
it even more simply, they teach capitalism, and show how it can capture, domesticate,
and harness other forms of organizing."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","Faster and more efficient deliveries. Smarter smartphones. Facial recognition

at seamless state borders. Caring robots. And, of course, artificial intelligence that pro-
duces new gene therapies, better ways to kill people from a distance, and chapters

like this written by large language algorithms. In such a context, all this newness

merely disguises the fact that all the old interests and problems are intact, safely dis-
tracting people from growing wealth inequality, rising temperatures and massive ex-
clusions within and between nations. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","transformation it is really helpful to have some image of a desirable state of affairs,
but that image can itself become a fetish that obscures other possible states of affairs."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","The problem is not the future as such, but the specificity of individual futures. As
Geoff Mulgan has repeatedly said, they are too complete, too final, and they don’t
allow ‘us’ the space to step in and shape them (2022)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","ironically, most futures foreclose the question of organization just
as they rely it on for their force. They are asking the right question, but answering it
too quickly, too definitively."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","the most important thing that the pre-
sentation of futures should do is to present the future as organizationally open."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","It is enough to finish a paper with an in-
junction that someone should do something. Or rather, that someone else should do

something, so that the author can turn their attention to another paper."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","Even strategy, the business school dis-
cipline most invested in producing the future, usually assumes capitalism, finance,

shareholder value, the manager and the employee as the foundational conditions of
any speculation, which seems to me to mean that it is necessarily far too tramlined by
the present to be helpful for a future of bricolage and experimentation."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","My suggestion, my demand, is that we replace the business school with the school
for organizing precisely in order to teach about organization as a variable and generous
practice."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Martin Parker
Chapter 5
Futures: Necessity, Experiment
and the School for Organizing","There are certainly theoretical resour-
ces from the present that might be relevant, such as the long post-Weberian conversa-
tion about formal and informal rules, the fifty years of discussion which has followed

from Carl Boggs’ introduction of the term ‘prefiguration’ (1977), or more recently Roder-
igo Nunes distinction between vertical and horizontal organizing (2021)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ina Krause and Simon Oertel
Chapter 7
The Transformation of Work in the Digital
Age: Coworking Spaces as Community-Based
Models of Work Organization","coworking. It explores coworking spaces to be more than a spatial arrangement,
and delves into the major transformation from firm-based to project-based work, to
cooperative action and community-based management of work organizations."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ina Krause and Simon Oertel
Chapter 7
The Transformation of Work in the Digital
Age: Coworking Spaces as Community-Based
Models of Work Organization","‘Transformation’ refers to long-term incremental adaptations often in response to
profound societal shifts within existing frameworks, while ‘change’ implies a radical
reconfiguration or an innovation that take place in the short run."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Tyler Hinson
Chapter 8
Organizing Around Affect: Control
and Potentiality in Contemporary Capitalism","Here Deleuze and Guattari further define and contrast the organizational and mecha-
nistic features of micropolitical and minor positions against the macro and major.

Whereas the micropolitical is diffuse and rhizomatic, macropolitical expressions like
totalitarianism are centralized. Fascism works through mobilizing micropolitical
flows that bleed out all over the place, that occupy all the little nooks and crannies of

life outside or not immediately under the direction of a centralized state power. Fas-
cism becomes totalitarian only after fascism’s micropolitics – which have been radiat-
ing underneath or beside state power relations – become integrated into a centralized

bureaucracy, and channelled into the state form (1987, p. 236). Based upon these iden-
tifications laid out by Deleuze and Guattari, one might say that the micropolitical is a

power of diffusion, flux, and change, while the macropolitical is one of contraction,
coagulation and stability."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","degrowth movement has de-
veloped a systematic critique of why economic growth is incompatible with environ-
mental justice."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","anything less than uprooting the systemic drivers of climate and eco-
logical breakdown amounts to greenwashing."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","the means of acquiring and exercising state power runs contrary

to the ends of degrowth: self-governing societies based on decentralization, workers’
control, and mutual aid."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","degrowth movement must incorporate an anarchist critique of the
State that unites the means and ends of degrowth."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","This is why degrowth is a multi-layered concept (D’Alisa et al., 2014). For

Parrique (2019), the concept has three denotations: (1) degrowth as decline of environ-
mental pressures; (2) degrowth as emancipation from destructive ideologies; and

(3) degrowth as destinations toward sustainable societies grounded in autonomy,

sufficiency, and care."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The links between the State and capital are inseparable. So, whilst the degrowth
movement builds on critiques of capitalism (Feola, 2019), colonialism (Hickel, 2021),
markets (Exner, 2014), and money (Nelson, 2022); most of its strategies focus on fixing
statecraft (Cosme et al., 2017), markets (Hinton, 2021); money (Hornborg, 2017), and

welfare (Koch, 2022b). Such strategies suggest that States, markets, and money are nat-
ural features of societies despite human history concluding otherwise (Graeber and

Wengrow, 2021)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","Indeed, by adhering to the dominant narrative of correcting market
failures rather than dismantling systemic failures, the degrowth movement risks
being co-opted or crushed by the very things it seeks to fix: the State and capital."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The ecological critique acknowledges that economic processes are biophysical pro-
cesses because they are subject to biophysical realities. Attempts to transcend law-like

properties such as thermodynamics via technology will backfire given energy and ma-
terial constraints (Smil, 2019). This reality is evident in studies on social metabolism and

decoupling that demonstrate an absolute, global, and permanent decoupling of eco-
nomic growth from all environmental pressures that is fast enough to avoid ecological

collapse ranges is highly unlikely, if not biophysically impossible (Haberl et al., 2020;

Wiedenhofer et al., 2020). The organizational implication for degrowth involves realiz-
ing that there is no ecological space for social systems based on accumulation."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The social-economic critique questions the links between environmental impact,
well-being, and money. This attacks the heart of neoclassical economics that assumes

economic growth makes society better (Steinberger et al., 2020). Critical research high-
lights how competitive societies create psychological dynamics that guarantee overcon-
sumption (Veblen, 1899; Wilkinson and Pickett, 2019); how life satisfaction plateaus

after national incomes exceed relatively low levels (Easterlin, 2010; Jackson, 2021); and
how re-establishing the commons requires going beyond markets and money (Ostrom,

2010; Nelson, 2022). The organizational implications for degrowth involve demonstrat-
ing how less is liberating."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The capitalist critique views economic growth as the materialization of capital ac-
cumulation. Whilst often separated, combining analyses of accumulation and growth

better reflect that competitive expansion, private property, and commodification is

fundamental to the modus operandi of capitalism. In other words, capitalism is char-
acterized by a continuous accumulation process (Harvey, 2011)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","root of imperialism that uses limits, hierarchies, and scarcity to justify extraction, ac-
cumulation, and growth (Kallis, 2019). These relations coerce and commodify people

to produce things for trade instead of for subsistence (Nelson, 2022). The organiza-
tional implication for degrowth is that societies based on capital accumulation and

economic growth are incompatible with ecological sustainability and social equity
(see Chapter 11)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The feminist critique posits that capitalist economies are patriarchal because
(white) men disproportionately occupy positions of power whilst women (of colour)
do most of the reproductive work. This critique concerns the similarities between

dominating and exploiting women with that of nature and non-humans for the accu-
mulation and power of men (Mies, 1986)"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The industrialist critique posits that technology and machines have become au-
thoritarian and alienating irrespective of ownership or organization. This acknowl-
edges that technology is not neutral and calls for a cultural shift toward convivial

technologies that can be made, controlled, and maintained by the people who use them
(Illich, 1973)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The imperialist critique argues that since European colonization, concepts like the

economy, development, and growth are based on colonialism, dispossession, and ex-
tractivism. This is exemplified by studies on appropriation of materials, land, energy,

and labour from the Global South to the Global North that are fundamental to growth-
based economies (Hickel et al., 2022) and imperial modes of living (Brand and Wissen,

2021)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","However, despite being critical toward governments and

markets, the critique fails to extend to the State."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","Erik-Olin Wright (2010) who combined three political traditions (social democratic, an-
archist, revolutionary socialist) into a single strategy for transformation: symbiotic

(i.e., policy reformism), interstitial (i.e., building alternatives), and ruptural (i.e., direct

action). Whilst this framework has inspired internal debates, it largely excludes revo-
lutionary socialist and anarchist strategies."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","First, there is a lack of detailed policy
proposals. Second, some proposals are more popular than others (e.g. universal basic
income > reducing military spending). Third, most proposals overlook transitional
steps (e.g., how to go from 40 to 15-hour working weeks). Fourth, proposals originate

from within and beyond the movement (e.g., Thomas Piketty’s proposals on inequal-
ity). And finally, most policies are studied independently (e.g., basic income), in paral-
lel (e.g., basic income and wealth caps), or in competition (e.g., basic income vs. job

guarantee) without the consideration of complex interactions."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","most proposals rely on State and market mechanisms de-
spite an emphasis on grassroots social movements"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","The social theories of degrowth can be characterized into five distinct yet overlap-
ping categories: (1) reformism; (2) ecosocialism; (3) ecomarxism; (4) ecoanarchism;

and (5) ecofeminism. The identification of which is based on Coover et al.’s (1977)
seven elements of a theory of change – the nature of human beings; the nature and
sources of power; the nature of sources of truth and authority; the analysis of the
causes of social problems; the role of individuals and institutions on social change;
the vision of the way it can or should be; and the mechanisms of existing or potential

change – that may be useful to help overcome the ‘strategic indeterminance’ exhib-
ited by the degrowth movement."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","ecoanarchism that emphasizes collective liberation from

markets and the State. By arguing that the nature of human beings is socially deter-
mined and corruption is inevitable with concentrated power, grassroots social move-
ments and mass movement organizing become key mechanisms for change (Liegey and

Nelson, 2020). This approach emphasizes nonviolent direct resistance that sparks politi-
cal debate, including civil disobedience, direct action, sabotage, and blockades (Sovacool

and Dunlap, 2022)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","ecofeminists devise care-full, contextual strategies based around cul-
ture and power (Paulson, 2017) that advocate for the gradual decommodification of so-
cial provisioning systems (Dengler and Lang, 2022). It is hoped that such strategies will

mobilize forces to demand the liberation of women."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","But we must keep in

mind that from birth to death most societies nurture the belief that governments and
hierarchies are inevitable and beneficial to society."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","But we must keep in

mind that from birth to death most societies nurture the belief that governments and
hierarchies are inevitable and beneficial to society."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","Despite a systematic critique of growth, most social theories and strategies advocated

for by the degrowth movement rely heavily on State and market mechanisms."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","the goal of degrowth is self-governing socie-
ties based on decentralization, workers’ control, and mutual aid. Thus, to unite the

means and ends of degrowth we need to revisit the role of the State."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","the State is
a [complex] society for mutual insurance between the landlord, the military commander, the
judge, the priest, and later on the capitalist, in order to support each other’s authority over the
people, and for exploiting the poverty of the masses and getting rich themselves (Kropotkin, 1995)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","State to a software because it is ‘a

collection of ideas, doctrines, commands, and processes that direct the deployment of
human beings and their deployment of physical resources’. In other words, the State
is an ideological, material, and social process who (re)produces power via economic
growth and capital accumulation."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","Whilst the
former assume it is possible and desirable for the ‘right’ people to take state power, the
latter posit that concentrating power leads to co-optation and corruption (Liegey and
Nelson, 2020). The question remains: should degrowth be achieved via sympathetic

domination or collective liberation?"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","Apparently, anarchists also ‘underestimate the question of enforcement’ and

‘tend to see all repression as bad’ (D’Alisa and Kallis, 2020, p. 5). They go on to argue

that ‘[e]ven if we were to abolish political institutions, as some anarchists want, domi-
nation and oppression would still operate in civil society’ (D’Alisa and Kallis, 2020, p. 6).

Here, not only do they reduce political institutions down to government, but they imply
that humans are not capable of experimenting with social organization that goes
against extensive anthropological and archaeological evidence (Graeber and Wengrow,"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","Since the sixteenth
century States have travelled to faraway lands to secure land, labour, and resources
(Stoll, 2023). Driven by early forms of economism and cost-benefit analysis, the State

became the original capitalist that raped, pillaged, and plundered anything it consid-
ered valuable (for a history, see Rodney, 1972). Such evidence alludes to why some

consider the State and capital as inseparable because they feed each other."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","Whilst anarchists are often depicted as

reactionaries who rely on revolutionary spontaneity, anyone who reads anarchist liter-
ature would know that this is not the case (for a review, see Sovacool and Dunlap,

2022). Furthermore, it is anarchists like Pëtr Kropotkin who wrote extensively about
how social movements should act to bring about fundamental change, including how
revolutions arise, what form a revolution must take to succeed, and how anarchists should act to achieve their goals (Baker, 2023b)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","achieving the long-lasting and deep change
that the degrowth movement aspires toward involves strategic thinking and organization.
Arguably, movements like degrowth should place as much importance on bringing about
a revolutionary period as they should about (re)producing the widespread adoption of
anarchist communist values where everyone gives according to their abilities, and each
receives according to their needs."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Nick Fitzpatrick
Chapter 10
Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth
Transformation","degrowth movement has the qualities
to become a revolutionary process that builds mass movements with the oppressed to
demand ‘anarchist communist degrowth’ based on decentralization, workers’ control,
and mutual aid. In short, degrowth will be free, classless, and diverse – or not at all."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ben Robra and Jennifer B. Hinton
Chapter 11
Economic Organizations
and the Transformation Towards Degrowth","Despite the fact that economic organiza-
tions arguably play a central role in any economy as for example provisioners of
goods and services, much degrowth literature ignores them altogether. The focus in-
stead tends to be on taxation, working time reductions, and universal basic income."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ben Robra and Jennifer B. Hinton
Chapter 11
Economic Organizations
and the Transformation Towards Degrowth","Gener-
ally, this shortcoming ignores the wide diversity of economic organizations that exist
in society (Hinton, 2021). For instance, a multinational oil company owned by a family
can be just as destructive as a shareholder corporation."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ben Robra and Jennifer B. Hinton
Chapter 11
Economic Organizations
and the Transformation Towards Degrowth","Just as the macro-focused degrowth literature ignores economic organi-
zations as a micro-economic phenomenon, the smaller body of literature on degrowth
organizations tends to stay focused on the internal workings of individual organizations.
Both of these perspectives neglect the central role that economic organizations play in
maintaining or dismantling the capitalist hegemony. "
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ben Robra and Jennifer B. Hinton
Chapter 11
Economic Organizations
and the Transformation Towards Degrowth","Under the capitalist mode of production, the primary
purpose of economic activity is to valorize and accumulate capital in the hands of the
owners of the means of production through producing for financial value (Marx,
1969). This insatiability explains capitalism’s need for constant economic growth to be
able to continue capital valorization and accumulation (Saito, 2017)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ben Robra and Jennifer B. Hinton
Chapter 11
Economic Organizations
and the Transformation Towards Degrowth","non-accumulation and not-for-profit.
We see these principles as being necessary, but not sufficient for degrowth organiza-
tions to be counter-hegemonic. The other principles mentioned above, such as demo-
cratic and inclusive governance, are also necessary."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ben Robra and Jennifer B. Hinton
Chapter 11
Economic Organizations
and the Transformation Towards Degrowth","This part is crucial as an organization might not eco-
nomically grow, however, if it is accumulating capital it is contributing to the growth
imperative in the wider economic system. Accumulated capital is reinvested to accu-
mulate further, which can also take place outside of the organization’s activity itself."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Ben Robra and Jennifer B. Hinton
Chapter 11
Economic Organizations
and the Transformation Towards Degrowth","They can also generate a
financial surplus (also commonly referred to as profit). The key difference from a for-
profit organization is that all of the surplus must be either reinvested back into the
organization or used for the organization’s social benefit purpose and cannot be dis-
tributed to private owners or investors. A key strength of this principle is that it is
legally-binding and thus very resistant to co-optation"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Simone Schiller-Merkens and Philipp Degens
Chapter 12
Organizing for Social Transformation from
Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic
Action"," prefigurative politics and organizing.
Wright (2010, p. 321) refers to this type of social transformation as interstitial,
whereby‘relatively small transformations cumulatively generate a qualitative shift in
the dynamics and logics of a social system’ (see also Holloway, 2010). The broader social
transformation is imagined to evolve incrementally through the multiplication of pre-
figurative organizing at ever more sites."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Simone Schiller-Merkens and Philipp Degens
Chapter 12
Organizing for Social Transformation from
Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic
Action","Organization
scholarship has noted the emergence of authority, domination, informal leadership,
and power structures in prefigurative movements and organizations despite their
ideals of creating free, autonomous, horizontal, and inclusive spaces (e.g., Laamanen
et al., 2019; Reedy et al., 2016; Reinecke, 2018; Simsa and Totter, 2017).
Whereas there is already some research on prefigurative organ"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Simone Schiller-Merkens and Philipp Degens
Chapter 12
Organizing for Social Transformation from
Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic
Action","Civil society is commonly understood as a distinctive social sphere, a sector or realm
beyond the state, market, and private sphere. This idea conceives of a public sphere
in which the common good is negotiated in a deliberative, democratic, and consensus-
oriented manner. "
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Simone Schiller-Merkens and Philipp Degens
Chapter 12
Organizing for Social Transformation from
Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic
Action","One highlights this idea of
the public sphere; the second imagines civil society as‘ associational life’, seeing the
very public sphere of civil society as consisting mainly of associations, societies, and
other gatherings of citizens based on voluntary cooperation. The third strand high-
lights a normative dimension and points out that norms such as civility, tolerance,
non-violence, trust, cooperation, freedom, and democracy are inherent in the concept."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Simone Schiller-Merkens and Philipp Degens
Chapter 12
Organizing for Social Transformation from
Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic
Action","Civil society comple-
ments the state as it organizes pressure from below to express political demands."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Simone Schiller-Merkens and Philipp Degens
Chapter 12
Organizing for Social Transformation from
Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic
Action","the
most effective forms of organization are based on partly autonomous and contextually
rooted local units linked by connective structures, and coordinated by formal organiza-
tions’ (Tarrow, 1998, p. 124). Organizing is important because it fosters coalition-building
and cross-fertilization between various prefigurative organizations and communities
and allows for sustained collective action across space and time (Tarrow, 2010)."
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Chapter 13 of the Handbook of Transformation, titled From Stakeholders to Communities of Care,","Care as a Central Organizational Principle: The chapter emphasizes care as not merely a private or ethical concern but as an integral, collective, and political organizational principle. It critiques the conventional stakeholder model, which often involves conflicting interests, and proposes the concept of ""careholders,"" reshaping relationships within and around organizations. ""We illustrate how the overcoming of a traditional stakeholders’ approach passes through the emerging of an alternative diagram of power""​(2024 Weik et al - Handb…)"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Chapter 13 of the Handbook of Transformation, titled From Stakeholders to Communities of Care,","Communities of Care: A central theme is the re-politicization of care within organizations, suggesting that care and caring should be seen as a structural element that transforms practices and relations. ""Developing a health community is not an external intervention on a target group but an ongoing process requiring the active participation of all users as equals""​"
"Weik, Elke, Chris Land, and Ronald Hartz, eds. The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.","Peter Bloom
Chapter 14
The Possibilities of Radical Democratic
Management","Traditional management practices frequently concentrate
power, maximize efficiency over human development, and exclude marginalized voi-
ces. However, approaches like cooperativism, sociocracy, agonistic pluralism and dis-
sensual dissent contain emancipatory potential for transformation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"roduction is controlled overwhelmingly by capital: large corporations, major
financial firms and the 1% who own the lion’s share of investable assets. Capital
wields the power to mobilise our collective labour and our planet’s resources for
whatever it wants, determining what we produce, under what conditions and how
the surplus we generate shall be used and distributed."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"the primary purpose of production is not to meet
specific human needs or to achieve social progress, much less to achieve any concrete
ecological goals. Rather, the overriding objective is to maximise and accumulate profit."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"It should therefore come as no surprise that despite extremely high levels of ag-
gregate production– and levels of energy and material use that dramatically exceed
sustainable boundaries– deprivation remains widespread within the capitalist world-
economy. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"Capitalism produces too much, yes, but also not enough of the right stuff.
Access to essential goods and services is limited by commodification. And because
capital seeks to cheapen labour at every opportunity, particularly in the periphery,
the consumption of the working classes is constrained"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"o secure the social foundation, first we must expand and decommodify universal
public services (Hickel, 2023). By this I mean healthcare and education, yes, but also
housing, public transit, energy, water, internet, childcare, recreation facilities, and nu-
tritious food for all."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"ambitious public works programmes, to build renew-
able energy capacity, insulate homes, produce and install efficient appliances, restore
ecosystems and innovate socially necessary and ecologically efficient technologies."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"public job guarantee, empowering people to participate
in these vital collective projects, doing meaningful, socially necessary work with work-
place democracy and living wages. The job guarantee must be financed by the currency
issuer but should be democratically governed at the appropriate level of locality"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"As we secure and improve the socially and ecologically necessary sectors, we also
need to scale down socially less-necessary forms of production. Fossil fuels are obvious
here: we need binding targets to wind this industry down, in a fair and just way.1 But–
as degrowth scholarship points out– we also need to reduce aggregate production in
other destructive industries (automobiles, airlines, mansions, industrial meat, fast fash-
ion, advertising, weapons, and so on), while banning planned obsolescence and extend-
ing product lifespans. This process should be democratically determined, but also
grounded in the material reality of ecology and the imperatives of decolonial justice."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"The bourgeois green parties are particularly egregious, with their dangerous
inattention to the question of working-class livelihoods, social policy and imperialist
dynamics. To overcome these limitations, it is urgently important for environmental-
ists to build alliances with the unions, the labour movements and other working-
class political formations that have much more political leverage, including the
power of the strike."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"How did we ever
let the political horizons of the labour movement shrink down to industry-specific
battles over wages and conditions, while leaving the general structure of the capitalist
economy intact? We must revive our original ambitions and unite across sectors– as
well as with the unemployed– to secure the social foundation for all and achieve eco-
nomic democracy."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Foreword,"Finally, progressive movements in the core must unite with, support and defend
radical and anti-colonial social movements in the Global South"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Kai Heron and Lauren Eastwood
Introduction– Degrowth: Swimming Against
the Ideological Tide","Oxfam’s 2023 report
Survival of the Richest found that the world’s richest one percent own almost half the
world’s wealth, while the poorest half of the world’s population own just 0.75%."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Kai Heron and Lauren Eastwood
Introduction– Degrowth: Swimming Against
the Ideological Tide","Radicals who refuse to examine the question of equality without growth merely demonstrate
that“socialism”, for them, is nothing but the continuation of capitalism by other means– an ex-
tension of middle class values, lifestyles, and social patterns . . . Today a lack of realism no longer
consists in advocating greater wellbeing through degrowth and the subversion of the prevailing
way of life. Lack of realism consists in imagining that economic growth can still bring about in-
creased human welfare, and indeed that it is still physically possible. (Gorz, 1980, p. 13)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Without growth there is nothing,"The growth paradigm has played a key role in transforming the social discourse
on how to distribute wealth: from a zero-sum game in which a fixed amount is distrib-
uted (so what some win, others loose), to a seemingly positive-sum game in which ev-
eryone benefits from the growing economic product and therefore has a common
interest in economic growth. Growth promised to turn difficult political conflicts over
distribution into technical, non-political management questions of how to collectively
increase GDP, an ideology that only partially reflected reality within the capitalist
core during the‘golden age,’ and much less so from a global socio-metabolic perspec-
tive (Pineault, 2021)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Without growth there is nothing,"In the West, growth
made it possible to redirect the demands of the workers’ movement towards more
participation and equality. In the East, it justified the lack of democracy and the fail-
ure of revolutionary ambitions. In the‘developing countries’ – a category itself devel-
oped through the logic of the growth paradigm– it served in combination with the
idea of‘development’ as justification for the smashing of subsistence and traditional
economies and the implementation of large-scale technical infrastructures after the
formal end of colonialism, and further as a way to justify structural adjustment and
the stripping of public goods (Kallis, 2018; Schmelzer, 2015a, 2016b). "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Without growth there is nothing,"‘Growth is a substitute for equality of income. As long as there is growth there
is hope, and that makes large income differentials tolerable’ (Wallich, 1972, p. 62)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Without growth there is nothing,"as developed
by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (2011), growth appears as an unquestionable,
positive value at the centre of a network of ideas and everyday common sense which
justifies, and silently coerces people into, contemporary relations of power and hier-
archy, including social relations of production such as wage work."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Without growth there is nothing,"While the bottom 50 percent hardly benefitted at all
from all the wealth growth between 1995 and 2021, the richest one percent of the global
population captured 38 percent of it"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.",Without growth there is nothing,"growth can be understood as the materialisation of this dynamic of
accumulation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","2 Degrowth: Monetary and Nonmonetary
Economies","Similarly, monetary
minimum income schemes based on a set amount of money per capita, or household,
inevitably fail to account for people’s and household’s diverse socio-material needs
and Earth’s ecological needs. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","2 Degrowth: Monetary and Nonmonetary
Economies","But
even so-called not-for-profit worker cooperatives produce for trade and aim to make
a profit, although that profit is generally dispersed in ways beneficial to the coopera-
tive, the workers and even the wider community. At the same time, cooperatives are
notoriously limited regarding their governance. It is rare to find a cooperative under
direct governance of the wider community and, even then, if it operates within mar-
kets for sourcing inputs or delivering outputs, then flows connecting producers and
consumers outside the governance circle determine many decisions."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","2 Degrowth: Monetary and Nonmonetary
Economies","Other degrowth activists and reformists seek out and experiment with monetary
and financial reforms, such as community-based currencies and community banks,
imagining that they will suffice for a degrowth future or at least are necessary as a
transitionary measure. There are several arguments against these kinds of proposals
made, for instance, by Hornborg (2019) and Mellor (2017). The primary function of
money is as a unit of account, whereby the average of a range of transactions results
in a series of market prices for goods and services. Such prices are determined by
anthropocentric calculations, pressures and assumptions more or less independent of
communal and ecological concerns. Transactions and production for such trade are
not determined by basic needs of all or by the ecological sustainability of Earth."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","2 Degrowth: Monetary and Nonmonetary
Economies","Subsequently, alternative currencies and community banks seem likely to re-
sult in marginally more benign and beneficial outcomes but do little in terms of
transforming socio-economic and political relations towards a model of effective and
efficient satisfaction of the basic needs of people and Earth (Nelson, 2022a)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","To that end, Gorz has several political
demands. First, a guaranteed and sufficient income, universal and unconditional.3
Second, a reduction in working hours– substantial, staged and without loss of in-
come– towards a different rhythm of work over the life course, with intermittent and
desynchronised working periods, as existed before‘unemployment’ was invented"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","urther, Gorz suggests the equitable redistribution of
the remaining‘socially necessary’ work, including unpaid household tasks and all so-
cially produced wealth (1999, p. 72; 1989, p. 201). Finally, his demands include the de-
centring of work and encouraging of new socialities and types of cooperation, social
cohesion and bonds that are not structured around the wage relation, fostering a
‘multi-active’ life and new forms of autonomous production freed‘from the con-
straints of the labour market’ (1999, p. 83)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","post-professional
ethos’ and of‘modern subsistence’ understood as a way of life‘in which people have
succeeded in reducing their market dependence, and have done so by protecting– by
political means– a social infrastructure in which techniques and tools are used pri-
marily to generate use-values that are unmeasured and unmeasurable by professional
need-makers’ (1978, p. 94)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","Hence, he concludes that we should aim at‘restoring the value of decent
work to its rightful place at the heart of society’ (Jackson, 2012). Likewise, Mair et al.
(2020) state that work is‘key to human wellbeing’ (p. 5). Accordingly, their‘vision of a
post-growth utopia is one with more work, not less,’ believing‘that a world with more
but better work can not only be utopian in the best sense of the word but can provide
a platform from which to agitate for a post-growth society’ (p. 6)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","A political economy of degrowth thus needs, primarily, to expose,
denaturalise, and politicise the social organisation of work as a key mechanism of
capitalist political economy’ "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","For example, work-time reduction (WTR) and other policies are regularly put
forward as a means to prevent unemployment or increase employment levels in the
absence of growth. Yet, the social function or desirability of (un)employment, nor any
other of these specifically modern institutions are seldom if ever questioned (e.g., Al-
exander, 2012; in particular in macroeconomic modelling: Kallis et al., 2018). The mod-
ern organisational form of work as commodified employment in labour markets
based on the wage relation as an integral element of the modern growth economy is
thus tacitly taken for granted."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","This‘glorification of work as a prototypically human endeavour,
as the key both to social belonging and individual achievement, constitutes the funda-
mental ideological foundation of contemporary capitalism’"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","A core question then is how to‘transform from a society centred around salaried
work in jobs that people find objectionable, to a freer, more democratic society where
people can direct their efforts to meaningful and emancipatory activities’ (p. 44). As
one alternative, an‘Unconditional Autonomy Allowance’ is proposed‘to put an end to
compulsory work and allow for choice of human activity’ (p. 161)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","self-organised, small-scale, squat economies as prac-
tical degrowth experiences where the purpose of economic activity is achieving joie
de vivre."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Maja Hoffmann, Maro Pantazidou and Tone Smith
3 Critiques of Work: The Radical Roots
of Degrowth","for many in society work is simply a job, often coerced,
precarious or dull (Graeber, 2018; Frayne, 2015; Paulsen, 2014)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","4 Cultural Political Economy
and Degrowth Politics","Modernity is a social
form which creates spectacular violence, bureaucratic domination and constant dis-
ruption. But it is also one which creates enormous promise and emancipation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","4 Cultural Political Economy
and Degrowth Politics","how such radical disruptive
transformations can be pursued in this radically democratic manner is far from obvious."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","4 Cultural Political Economy
and Degrowth Politics","developing powerful imaginaries that work from widespread cultural am-
bivalence about (i.e., not simple hostility to) modern life and articulate those with spe-
cific innovations that feed peoples’ dissatisfaction and desires for something different,
that then become realised through novel forms of social practice and relation, but at
the same time involves a set of material interventions that generate concrete benefits
to specific groups"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Milena Büchs, Max Koch and Jayeon Lee
5 Sustainable Welfare: Decoupling Welfare
from Growth and Prioritising Needs
Satisfaction for All","sustain-
able welfare, referring to welfare systems that prioritise the satisfaction of human
needs within planetary boundaries"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Milena Büchs, Max Koch and Jayeon Lee
5 Sustainable Welfare: Decoupling Welfare
from Growth and Prioritising Needs
Satisfaction for All","mutual dependency between welfare systems and economic growth
can be decreased by addressing the work and welfare nexus, shifting funding sources
for welfare systems, strengthening preventive functions of welfare and redefining the
chief goal of welfare systems as sustainable needs satisfaction for all."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Milena Büchs, Max Koch and Jayeon Lee
5 Sustainable Welfare: Decoupling Welfare
from Growth and Prioritising Needs
Satisfaction for All","Without decoupling welfare from growth, economic
growth is deemed necessary to finance the increasing welfare demand while the
working-age population decreases."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Milena Büchs, Max Koch and Jayeon Lee
5 Sustainable Welfare: Decoupling Welfare
from Growth and Prioritising Needs
Satisfaction for All","welfare systems support a decrease of material and energy throughput
to the economy, as well as achieving a fairer distribution of resources and needs satis-
faction for everyone."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Milena Büchs, Max Koch and Jayeon Lee
5 Sustainable Welfare: Decoupling Welfare
from Growth and Prioritising Needs
Satisfaction for All","In this chapter we argue that multi-level governance
approaches will most likely be required in degrowth economies and sustainable wel-
fare systems. Multi-level governance systems distribute and coordinate decision-
making across different levels and/or to non-governmental actors, depending on
where each decision-making role is best placed"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","Further, a group with few organisational capacities is unlikely to act stra-
tegically. Therefore, degrowth must become better organised both internally and in
its relationship with allied movements in order to be able to carry out strategic ac-
tions. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","These pro-
posals include among other things working time reduction, universal basic services and
maximum and minimum incomes (Fitzpatrick et al., 2022). These proposals are some-
times referred to as‘non-reformist reforms’ – reforms that alleviate suffering in the
here and now while also opening the door for deeper system change. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","Oppositional activism was to contribute to transfor-
mation by slowing down further destruction and creating room for alternative organi-
sations to blossom (Demaria et al., 2013)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","strategies as thought constructs that detail how an actor intends to bring about sys-
temic change towards a desired end state"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","When applied in practice, a strategy serves
as a flexible mental map that links an analysis of the status quo and the position of the
strategising actor within it to a vision of a desirable end. It thereby details different
ways of achieving (intermediate) goals on the journey towards that envisioned future
as well as certain means (i.e., concrete actions) to potentially be employed along these
ways. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","Means, in turn, are concrete ac-
tions that actors may undertake when pursuing a strategy (Schulken et al., 2022)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth"," Like Wright,
Chertkovskaya argues that to achieve social-ecological transformation, a skillful combi-
nation and coordination between these three modes of transformation is needed.
Rather than debating which mode of transformation is right, our discussions should
focus on which, or which combination, has the most potential in each context."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","degrowth must make clear how its ideas
are in the interest of the (global) working class"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","must investigate where in the current production and dis-
tribution systems people can mobilise to put pressure on capital and the state to ei-
ther fight for a better class compromis"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","where there is space to circumvent the current system and build
alternative production structures in parallel to it"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","many degrowth researchers are mindful that potential allied move-
ments may not be primarily motivated by ecological concerns or by the desire to fight
for their common material interest with other working-class people."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","Rather, alternative ideas and values developed during participation in pre-
figurative practices facilitate mobilising for non-reformist reforms (implemented
through symbiotic strategies) and prepare popular support for ruptural strategies
(D’Alisa & Kallis, 2020). Both strategies then make a further spread of interstitial strat-
egies possible. In this sense, interstitial strategies are not just about structural, but
also about cultural change that makes possible further structural change."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","the radicalisation of demands
made by a larger mass of people only ever becomes possible during the struggle itself
when people become aware of the power that they can wield through collective ac-
tion. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","mobilisation around a shared grievance often
comes first and strategic considerations arise within and are constrained by that
context."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","First, the degrowth movement’s internal structure is currently characterised by a
loose organisational structure. This risks obscuring informal hierarchies (Asara, 2020)
and inhibits intentional decision-making. A more transparent division of labour could
make visible hierarchies and deciding if/when to mandate them (Rilovic et al., 2022)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nathan Barlow, Merle Schulken and Christina Plank
6 How and Who? The Debate About
a Strategy for Degrowth","Thus, we argue that degrowth activists and scholars should be intentional, critical
and reflective when thinking about the many ways that strategy can influence de-
growth thinking and acting. This implies the following three points: first, taking a posi-
tion on strategies for degrowth that departs from strategic indeterminism is necessary
to overcome a blind faith in a myriad of strategies magically fitting together. Second,
providing more space and resources to the organisational side of degrowth would cre-
ate a space where strategies can be debated, articulated, decided upon, implemented
and coordinated. Third, incorporating considerations of how to achieve degrowth en-
riches not only the scientific debate but also uplifts degrowth as a discipline interested
in changing the world, not merely describing and analysing it."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","degrowth policy
proposals remain scattered throughout the literature, making it difficult for people to
pinpoint what changes are advocated, why they are deemed necessary and how they
could unfold."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","1) reducing the environmental impact of human activities; (2) redistributing income
and wealth within and between countries; and (3) promoting the transition from a
materialistic to a convivial, participatory society."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","declining caps on resource use, emissions and pollution
must be complemented by reforms like extraction and carbon taxes that assist in scal-
ing back material and energy use. Moratoria on resource extraction and mega infra-
structure projects like energy plants, dams, incinerators, roads, highways, airports
and high-speed trains are also needed to avoid locking in high-carbon futures"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","declining caps on resource use, emissions and pollution
must be complemented by reforms like extraction and carbon taxes that assist in scal-
ing back material and energy use. Moratoria on resource extraction and mega infra-
structure projects like energy plants, dams, incinerators, roads, highways, airports
and high-speed trains are also needed to avoid locking in high-carbon futures"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","Furthermore, the caps involved in this shift
must be designed in light of historical responsibility (Hickel et al., 2022) and abolish
trillions in fossil fuel subsidies within a couple of years (Parry et al., 2021). Both
moves that could help prevent governments from granting permission to corporations
to extract fossil fuels altogether."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","Addressing ecologi-
cal overshoot, of which we have been in for over 50 years, requires phasing-out exist-
ing fossil fuels and their associated infrastructure like high-carbon transport (Mattioli
et al., 2020) and industrial agriculture (Shiva, 2001)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","The first goal for degrowth is economic democracy. Economic democracy is a sys-
tem whereby democracy is extended by the shared ownership and decision-making
over the power and resources in communities."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","The second financial goal for degrowth focuses on the proliferation of ethical and
non-accumulating forms of finance (Parrique, 2019, pp. 631–665). Through activities
such as the creation of local and regional currencies to provide monetary plurality,
time-based systems of labour to diversify away from wage labour and the promotion
and proliferation of reciprocity networks and trading systems for the majority as op-
posed to the self-interested profit-making of a few, local communities can start to (re)
build ecological sustainable and socially equitable futures."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","A task that, if successfully
implemented by the majority, would see the current banking and financial system re-
placed with self-managed credit unions, cooperative banks, public debt-free money,
divestment of destructive industries and corresponding ethical investments that serve
the planet and people."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","local democratic ownership of essential infrastructure
like banking, energy, education, healthcare, local government, telecommunications,
transport, waste and water. Such a shift guarantees people’s access to critical services,
especially when combined with universal basic services, protecting them from market
speculation whilst simultaneously reducing material and energy use."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","Globally, the global footprint of militaries accounts for between 1–5% of
greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, national militaries are often the largest insti-
tutional emitter in their respective countries yet are not mandated to or rarely release
their full emissions. Recent calculations highlight that the United States military is the
largest institutional emitter on the planet, bigger than 140 countries (Belcher et al.,
2019). The implications of such findings necessitate that degrowth must be more vocal
in its opposition to any and all military or police spending, especially if spending or
military alliances are seeking to be expanded. This extends to denouncing all forms of
warfare and not simply those that are close to home because it is convenient. One
such plan for how it could be reduced involves halving military spending over the
next decade and immediately redirecting this money to meet ecological needs (Lin
and Burton, 2020). Much like fossil fuels, the only way to green the military is for it to
be phased-out."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","the degrowth agenda focuses on practicing two
strategies: technological sovereignty and convivial tools."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","Technological sovereignty refers to the ability to develop and control technologi-
cal capabilities that respect social and ecological limits. Actions embodying this goal
include banning potentially dangerous geoengineering practices and biogenetics,
holding citizen audits to decide whether or not to introduce each new technology, re-
structuring social media from private to a common or public good, repurposing mili-
tary facilities to produce sustainable and socially useful products and dismantling
patent monopolies"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","Tools are intrinsic to our social relationships. For this reason, they should encour-
age participation, trust and solidarity as opposed to power hoarding, distrust and divi-
sion. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","This comes as air traffic is the most unequal mode of trans-
port. Today, only 1% of the world’s population causes 50% of commercial aviation emis-
sions, whilst more than 80% of the world’s population has never set foot in an
aeroplane (Boeing, 2017; Gössling and Humpe, 2020). If aviation were a country, it
would be the sixth largest emitter, between Japan and Germany. This is without even
considering that tourism infrastructure extends far beyond travel. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Nick Fitzpatrick
7 Translating Degrowth: From Policy
Proposals to Praxis","leaving the Energy Charter Treaty. The last of which is used by
fossil fuel companies to sue governments over the loss of future profits, a concept
known as Investor State-Dispute Settlements (ISDS). In short, allowing large private
companies to sue elected governments if they attempt to address climate breakdown."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","By prioritising access over pri-
vate ownership, tool libraries point at ways to live in abundance without the need to
own everything. Tool libraries represent a form of commoning, commons understood
not as the resource pool (the tools in this case) but as the networks of human relation-
ships whose agreed rules enable the common use of resources."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","While the revenue acquired enables BTL to provide a
service to the community, this remains very limited and BTL’s operations are possible
only because BTL’s team is entirely composed of volunteers. Weekly, the number of
volunteers range approximately from five to 15. More than a hundred people have
volunteered for this initiative since 2017. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","Nevertheless, in the long run, the goal of BTL remains to create paid positions to sup-
port its ongoing operations. Employment should be meaningful for the individual and
the collective."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","While a manage-
ment committee is elected for legal purposes, practically, at the BTL responsibility
and trust are nourished through the exploration of horizontal forms of decision-
making (loosely termed‘anarchist’ (Reedy, 2014)). This requires the active creation of
non-hierarchical relations in which all volunteers are empowered. At BTL horizontal-
ism is enacted with annual general assemblies, monthly volunteers’ forums, weekly
in-person and online discussions, decision-making by consensus and the management
is ramified in groups (‘bubbles’) that have their own internal processes, decisional
power and leaders, which report the decisions of the‘bubble’ members."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","which makes it hard for a library of things, or any other not-for-profit
organisation, to find a free or affordable rental space to operate from"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","BTL is capable of offering the
services to the community because it entered a partnership with the State Library of
Queensland (SLQ), which provides a rent-free space"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","Generally, policies and urban design plans should seri-
ously pursue the creation and protection of more rent-free community hubs where
people can explore and experience social relations and organisations that are not can-
alised into the growth-driven consumerist society."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Sabrina Chakori and Shane Hopkinson
8 Living in Abundance: Tool Libraries
for Convivial Degrowth","Climate change increases the risk of more frequent extreme climate and
weather events (e.g., floods) (Seneviratne et al., 2012). This flood event severely im-
pacted the building and BTL’s inventory (as shown in Figures 8.6a and b), forcing the
closure of the organisation for several months."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Artemis Theodorou
9 Materialising Degrowth Agrifood
Architecture with Earth","The mining of
limestone and production of clinker for the fabrication of cement, which is the binder
component of concrete, has been responsible for at least seven percent of global CO2"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Artemis Theodorou
9 Materialising Degrowth Agrifood
Architecture with Earth","No wonder
concrete accounts for the most of human-made mass on the planet and the second-
most used substance after water (Jappe, 2020). It is, as referred to by The Guardian,
‘the most destructive material on earth’(Watts, 2019)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Artemis Theodorou
9 Materialising Degrowth Agrifood
Architecture with Earth","Earth– otherwise referred to as‘mud,’ ‘loam’ and colloquially as‘dirt,’ despite being
anything but dirty– is a building material almost no one in the West (architects and
engineers included) ever hears of today. It is the material the dwellings of about a
fifth of the world’s population– eight to 10 percent in the Global North and 20–25% in
the Global South (Marsh, Kulshreshtha, 2021)– are currently made of, which makes
its present obscurity particularly baffling. It is one of the oldest building materials
and has dominated a significant part of the built environment on a global scale since
the neolithic era."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Artemis Theodorou
9 Materialising Degrowth Agrifood
Architecture with Earth","Nonetheless, in capitalism, earth does indeed exhibit impor-
tant challenges. The most evident one lies in the fact that earth does not fit in modern
building logic. In being infinitely diverse (due to its heterogeneous composition) its ma-
terial properties vary enormously. This means that in a culture of absolute standardisa-
tion, in which materials are ultra-processed and patented and their properties are
textbook certified, building professionals get discombobulated at the sight of anything
nontypical. A blessing and a curse, this doesn’t facilitate earth’s commodification, but
also doesn’t allow for its legitimation. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","As the World
Green Building Council estimates,‘buildings are currently responsible for 39% of
global energy-related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions, from energy
needed to heat, cool and power them, and the remaining 11% from materials and con-
struction’ (World Green Building Council, 2019)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","In Britain, buildings are the second largest emissions source behind the transport
sector (Committee on Climate Change, 2022, p. 156), though this ignores both Britain’s
exporting of emissions and the role of its services sector in facilitating global emis-
sions. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","For
some, this might mean a focus on the technicalities of constructing housing with
lower resource throughput. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","Responding to housing movements which limit themselves to opposing landlord-
ism or for the right to housing by asserting the continued necessity of ending sur-
plus value extraction from wage labour for capital accumulation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","Seeing housing and the built environment as a site of social reproduction, and
consequently building a view of the working class not limited to the workplace
alone."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","‘my experience
leaves me in no doubt that we could very easily adopt housing designs that are very
resource cheap, sustainable and beautiful’ (Trainer, 2018, p. 123)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","Outside of the construction of‘now-
topias’ and the prefigurative politics of occupations and squats, there is a need for a
focus on organising and politicising existing working-class people around their hous-
ing and the ideas of degrowth. However, whilst recognising that collective organising
of existing working-class communities facing housing difficulty is crucial, this is only
as part of a wider struggle to build an organised force of workers who can take politi-
cal power. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Harry Holmes
10 They Want Us to Live in Caves: Degrowth
and the Housing Question","An earlier movement in Newham’s housing history to discuss is the People’s Plan for
the Royal Docks. This plan, built through a contradictory process of community engagement, with
tension between the state role of the GLC and the different community interests (Brow-
nill, 1988), nevertheless should be inspirational to housing and degrowth activists today.
Firstly, and most obviously, it provides an example of how to organise democratic alter-
native planning in the face of polluting mega-construction projects like airports which
are going to worsen peoples’ housing conditions and lead to ecological breakdown. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Karl Krähmer and Anton Brokow-Loga
11 The Case for Solidary Degrowth Spaces.
Five Propositions on the Challenging
Project of Spatialising Degrowth","Degrowth transformation can only occur in a
multi- and trans-scalar perspective and with a relational understanding of space. In
making the case for‘solidary degrowth spaces,’ spatial relations must be reshaped
from exploitative to solidary (1), the global social metabolism reduced in sheer
quantity (2) and places transformed by the principles of sufficiency, sharing and
reuse (3). Ultimately, a strategic pluralism (4) is paramount to a new cultural hege-
mony to be spread through trans-local ties and alliances (5)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Karl Krähmer and Anton Brokow-Loga
11 The Case for Solidary Degrowth Spaces.
Five Propositions on the Challenging
Project of Spatialising Degrowth","all for‘unbundling’ (‘Entflechtung’) hints at a
spatial realisation of an extensive reduction of relations in quantitative terms. How-
ever, this is not to be confused with an attempt (doomed to failure) to roll back global-
isation as such. Pre-globalised times should not be glorified, which is why we reject
the term‘re-localisation.’"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Karl Krähmer and Anton Brokow-Loga
11 The Case for Solidary Degrowth Spaces.
Five Propositions on the Challenging
Project of Spatialising Degrowth","open localism’ (Nel-
son & Schneider, 2018) one step further: it is not only conceived as open in respect to
its relations with the outside but is also open in relation to the forms it may assume.
This conceptualisation does not require an illusionary naturalisation of borders, as
utopian localist projects need. The fundamental prescription is to not rely, through
the way we inhabit the world for our social metabolism, on exploitative relations
with other places– a prescription which includes both a qualitative component on
the way these relations function (see proposition one) and a quantitative component
in recognising that beyond certain dimensions, such flows and relations become in-
trinsically harmful and unsustainable."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Karl Krähmer and Anton Brokow-Loga
11 The Case for Solidary Degrowth Spaces.
Five Propositions on the Challenging
Project of Spatialising Degrowth","Degrowth should open up the debate for a closer look at transfor-
mation processes and leverage points at the scale of the local state, beyond a fixation
on nation states."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","land and housing costs, which are
significant barriers hindering true political and economic agency and any grassroots
driven degrowth transition."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","‘what the literature seems to be lack-
ing, is an inventory of interests opposed to a post-growth transition.’"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","the struggle for access to land and housing almost always locks such actors
into lifelong market participation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","Those in the degrowth
movement who have been fortunate enough to afford land and housing may be able
to grow their own organic food, put solar panels on their roof, bike to work and re-
duce working hours in the formal economy– and these practices may indeed provide
some important prefigurative degrowth examples of localised economy, downshifted
consumption and post-carbon energy practices. However, we will argue that they pro-
vide a fundamentally problematic example of a degrowth pathway. Many of those
practices presuppose access to land, with the implication that‘downshifters’ are often
in a minority of privileged market actors– spending decades‘buying in’ to the market
economy in order to downshift lifestyles and‘opt out.’"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","We will propose a strategy we call‘Neighbourhoods that Work,’
which essentially involves providing people already economically and socially mar-
ginalised by capitalism, with (1) access to suburban public land and housing; and (2) a
‘participation income’ (i.e., a modest‘living wage’ instead of unemployment benefits)
for helping build new, relocalised, ecologically viable and socially just communities
and economies."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","It
was of course this European notion of private property and market modes of partici-
pation that were spread through the world by colonisation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","system–
commons have been successfully managed over countless millennia by widespread
communities with complex and varied systems of boundaries, rules, social norms and
sanctions against free riders (Ostrom, 1990; Basurto & Ostrom, 2009; Bollier, 2014)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","mandating broader access to land may become a necessary political expedient
if economies enter prolonged crisis or deterioration and engender increasing unem-
ployment and social tension (Alexander & Baumann, 2020a)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","With the right support, it can commence immediately– given that
the policy settings are already in place to allow some unemployed public residents to
self-select into voluntary local development programmes. Such an opportunity, with
the right structures (including an appropriate self-management process) could show
that access to land plus local self-help skills and a participation income could help
build new forms of genuinely sustainable development beyond the market."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","While this strategy will necessarily begin with the unemployed in public housing,
it could be expanded to include others alienated from the market: the ever-growing
victims of the automation of jobs, the globalisation of labour– such as manufactured
goods being increasingly produced in developing nations15 (Borland, 2016)– or the de-
cline in polluting industries such as fossil fuels (Trainer, 2012, 2016). "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","it is estimated that governments could
transition organically, local participation on public land (NTW) being a far more eco-
nomically and socially viable option than passive welfare (including a UBI16) "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","In light of the broad consensus that degrowth transition is most likely to occur from
the grassroots up (see D’Alisa et al., 2015), it is apparent that certain politico-economic
barriers, faced by this potential groundswell, have not been well addressed (Strunz &
Schindler, 2018; de Jesus and Mendonça, 2018). To respond to this gap in degrowth
transition scholarship, this chapter has sought to demonstrate the way in which costs
associated with land and housing function as a powerful economic determinant, lock-
ing people into sustained, but not sustainable, market participation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander and Peter Burdon
13 Land Commodification: A Structural
Barrier to Degrowth Transition","public housing would be coupled with a‘participation
income’ to create a new pathway to help balance the social and ecological downside
of our current growth reliant form of economic citizenship. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Chloe Broadfield
14 Agroecology as Degrowth in Practice:
Resistance Rooted in Human-Nature
Relationality","Agroecology is a method of farming that optimises interactions between plants, animals,
humans and the environment and defies the economic rationality driving industrial agri-
culture to prioritise social reproduction and ecological health"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Bjørn Inge Melås
15 Organising Nature Through Urban
Gardening","Capitalism is not just an economic system, it is a way of organising nature
(Moore, 2015). It depends on an external, cheap nature to grow and a constant search for
new spaces to exhaust and dispose of its debris. Nature must work harder and this can
be achieved through homogenisation– by transforming rainforests into plantations, but
also through a similar flattening of our inner landscapes."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Bjørn Inge Melås
15 Organising Nature Through Urban
Gardening","One of the ways capitalism organises nature is by reducing diversity, the making of
monocultures. Space after space the world is monocultured. Capitalism sacrifices diver-
sity, variation and flexibility for scale, simplification, concentration and standardisa-
tion. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Bjørn Inge Melås
15 Organising Nature Through Urban
Gardening","urban gardening is done primarily for other reasons– to create communities, other
types of spaces, to learn about the ecologies that need to function to keep us alive, for
fun or for the joy of eating delicious food that we are able to produce locally."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","i) the need
to reorient the economy in the service of well-being; ii) the strategic necessity to avoid
‘housewifising’ social reproduction; iii) the importance of centring a holistic under-
standing of work and iv) the need for a global intersectional perspective connected to
social movements. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","commodification of feminised work activities often does not lead to improved recognition or more equal distributions of care work among different genders, ethnicities and classes (2022, p. 5). They also reject a public (or state) provision of such work, which could be monetised without being commodified, because of
the historic patriarchal, colonial and heteronormative principles that underpin the welfare state. Instead, they suggest that the dichotomy of public/private, formal/infor-
mal and paid/unpaid needs to be overcome, for example, by communitarian organisation of a caring commons (2022, p. 15)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","proposals such as esarroll care, work-sharing, lowering production or reduction of
waged work in the monetised economy do not automatically lead to more equal divi-
sions of labour between men, women and others, even if they may be more environ-
mentally friendly (Dengler & Strunk, 2018; Dengler & Lang, 2021). To further gender
equality, they would need to take into account the unpaid reproductive labour taking
place outside formal employment, as well as the deeply segregated nature of employ-
ment in paid reproductive labour in areas such as health and social care."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","Maria Mies (1998) have long argued that capitalist patriarchy with its pursuit of
endless growth is premised less on the exploitation of the working class than it is on
the appropriation of unwaged reproductive labour in the form of housework, care and
subsistence agriculture, which form the‘foundations’ of capital accumulation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","Centring an intersectional and holistic analysis of
work that includes reproductive and productive, visible and invisible work activities is
crucial not just for envisioning fairer futures but also for reaching these futures "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","A reduction in consumption of commodified goods cannot ethically be funded
by the low-paid or unpaid labour of those who already consume less. This means the
necessary green restructuring of the formalised,‘productive’ side of the economy
should not be pursued by outsourcing part of this economy to those in care work.
"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","an ecofeminist degrowth could be,
for the global North, the path for channelling the eco-social transition along the path of
buen convivir,’ providing means of resistance to as well as transition away from the
current paradigm"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","many problematic impulses criticised by EPE
persist in degrowth scholarship, such as dichotomous thinking, depoliticised under-
standings of care and an objectifying view of nature, which abstract from relational
and creative aspects of socio-ecological reproductivity"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","not only does the pursuit of endless growth lead to unsavoury social outcomes, but that
unjust social relations are themselves the source of environmental destruction, eco-
nomic and political inequality and other consequences usually attributed to negative
externalities of capital accumulation. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Anna-Maria Köhnke, Aino Ursula Mäki and Sherilyn MacGregor
16 Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions:
Ecofeminist Political Economy
in Conversation with Degrowth","a rebalancing of the global economy with more vibrant, inclusive and circular local/national
economies; promoting decent work and responsible business conduct; advancing ecological resil-
ience; reducing resource consumption; restoring biodiversity; and moving away from extractive,
discriminatory, military, racist and androcentric economies that erode the ecological basis of our
collective well-being. (Women and Environment Development Organisation 2020, p. 9"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","n Argentina, a clear example of a dependent economy (Féliz, 2019), the relation of
dependency tends to create additional pressures. Not only must the country produce to
satisfy the material needs of core countries, but it must do so at the cost of super-
exploiting its common goods and labour, including care and reproductive labour (Féliz
& Haro, 2019; Féliz & Migliaro, 2018; Marini, 2022). "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","ince dependent economies face a loss of value and much-needed resources
through forms of unequal exchange (Féliz, 2021b), they must multiply the production of
commodities to be exported, which in turn spurs economic growth. In a nutshell, the
process of unequal exchange means that low levels of productivity (and higher unit
costs of production) within dependent economies reduce local capital’s profitability
since a sizeable fraction of the value produced is lost in competition in global markets.
To compensate for this loss, dependent economies are forced to multiply efforts to in-
crease value production and appropriation through heightened exports, especially of
primary commodities produced through extractive activities (Machado Aráoz, 2015)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","Argentina remains on the‘bad side’ of unequal exchange (while enterprises in core
countries gain from it), it persistently loses value and absorbs the environmental and
social costs of extractive activities (Svampa, 2018)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","how to cut down on unequal ex-
change that exacerbates the demands for economic growth. Since the loss of value to
the world market is a crucial issue in a dependent economy, degrowth could only be
achieved by‘delinking’ the economy from the international process of value-formation
(Amin, 1987)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","This is an expression of the renewed imperi-
alist drive of capital at core countries’, recreating the imperialist/dependency ties
with peripheral economies. As Harvey has stressed, many of these initiatives require
some form of accumulation by dispossession (Harvey, 2005) as they imply the appro-
priation of territories by displacing communities and destroying and polluting native
environments, as if they were second-grade peoples and dispensable territories (Pu-
lido & De Lara, 2018). As ever, the territories of the Global South get used as sinks for
waste and pollutants (Harcourt & Nelson, 2015, p. 75). Besides, extractivist initiatives
tend to favour white and male employment while attacking the social organisation of
care and reproduction centred around racialised women’s work (Cielo & Vega, 2015;
Féliz & Díaz Lozano, 2020)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","This means that a successful degrowth transition
hinges on acts of international solidarity. A requisite for this is that movements in the
core grasp the fact that their so-called green transitions have a huge cost for peoples
and territories in the peripheries."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","This means that in dependent econ-
omies many workers are paid under the cost of their reproduction (i.e., below mini-
mum wages) so that capitalist corporations remain competitive and don’t fail. This
creates a more unequal income distribution since workers appropriate a lower frac-
tion of income compared to core countries. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","In a way, this re-orienting of the economy could shift‘degrowth from being a nega-
tive downscaling of production and consumption . . . to being a set of ethical practices
that allow human and environmental wellbeing to flourish’ (Mehta & Harcourt, 2021,
p. 2)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Mariano Féliz
17 Dependency, Delinking and Degrowth
in a New Developmental Era: Debates
from Argentina","delinking
dependent economies is the only path to radical social change. However, delinking in-
volves not just confronting current green developmental initiatives but also requires
producing a new set of goals and policy strategies. These proposals, coherent with de-
linking and degrowth, should completely transform the way our societies are organ-
ised. These initiatives must cut the ties that plunder territories and peoples in the
peripheries, thus ending unequal exchange and super-exploitation, while at the same
time creating a new form of social reproduction where life is at the centre."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity","At the core of these disagreements are two issues which continue to unite or-
thodox and heterodox economists: the notion of economic value as an objective topic
of economic research and the trust in rising productivity as a politically neutral phe-
nomenon. Neither of these premisses is compatible with advocacy of degrowth. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity","This indeed helps to explain how an
abstract idea– value– became reified into the foundation of historical materialism."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity","Elke Pirgmaier (2021, p. 6) recently argued that, although‘the
essence of value necessarily manifests and bears a systematic relation to money,’
money cannot explain value."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity","the notion of‘use-value’ has widely been understood as referring to qualitative fea-
tures of the object itself, whereas‘exchange-value’ refers to its quantitative relation to
other commodities. On closer scrutiny, however, it is obvious that an object’s use-
value is also relational, rather than inherent in the object (McNeill 2020, p. 227). "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity"," Kallis asks Swyngedouw to explain why Marxian value theory privileges
human labour (SNLT), among all the inputs in production, as the only source of the
kind of Value (with a capital V) that can be appropriated (as surplus value) by capital-
ists. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity","It seems that the assumption shared by
both orthodox and heterodox economists is that labour and natural resources have
objectively‘correct’ monetary values that market prices fail to cover. The notion of
objective values, whether based on SNLT or the value of ecosystem services, thus im-
plicitly assumes that everything– including nature– can be evaluated in monetary
terms. 
"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity","It seems that the assumption shared by
both orthodox and heterodox economists is that labour and natural resources have
objectively‘correct’ monetary values that market prices fail to cover. The notion of
objective values, whether based on SNLT or the value of ecosystem services, thus im-
plicitly assumes that everything– including nature– can be evaluated in monetary
terms. 
"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Alf Hornborg
19 Degrowth Disagreements with Marxism:
Critical Perspectives on the Fetishisation
of Value and Productivity","Indigenous societies today almost always contrast their own
cultures to‘the white man’s “living in the way of money”’ (Graeber and Wengrow,
2021, p. 58). At times perhaps unwittingly, the celebration of Indigenous cultures is an
implicit critique of the logic of money.
"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Degrowth and global south
","Ashish Kothari follows with a contribu-
tion that argues degrowth is only relevant for industrialised countries in the core of the
capitalist world-system. For those in the periphery, more relevant worldviews and prac-
tices of well-being exist, such as the Indian notion of swaraj, the Ecuadorian and Boli-
vian concept of sumak kawsay and the Zulu and Xhola derived philosophy of ubuntu."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Degrowth and global south
","Only the Global South, they
claim, can liberate both themselves and their oppressors in the Global North by undoing
global structures of neo-colonial domination."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Degrowth and global south
","Linda Thorpe suggests that degrowth is
limited today by the fact that it remains a primarily academic concept, lacking an actual
agent of social and political change. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","According to Hickel et al. (2022), assessing
the scale of resource flows in trade and their monetary counterpart, the drain from
the South is worth over USD10 trillion per year, with, in 2015, a net appropriation of
12 billion tonnes of raw material, 822 million hectares of land and 188 million person-
years of labour."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","Meeting the targets of the EU Green Deal is projected to increase the requirement for
lithium by 35 times compared to Europe’s current use (Gregoir & Acker, 2022). It is
estimated that the demand for cobalt will grow by 500% by 2025 (Sovacool et al.,
2020). The overall demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to more than quadru-
ple by 2028 in comparison to 2018 (Consultancy.uk, 2022), while the demand for wind
turbine raw materials will increase six times in 2030 and up to 15 times in 2050 com-
pared to 2018 (Carrara et al., 2020)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","n 2019, about 53.6 million metric tonnes of e-waste was
generated, with only 17.4% being recycled and the flows of e-waste are not systemati-
cally documented (Forti et al., 2020). Most of the e-waste is accumulating in dumpsites
in Africa (Maes & Preston-Whyte, 2022). Using a network approach, Theis (2020) showed
that the few countries receiving a disproportionate amount of e-waste (such as Nigeria)
are peripheral countries which supports the ecologically unequal exchange theory."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","decarbonisation contributes to cleaner air and cleaner production in the
Global North, while much of the environmental and social harm is made invisible and
displaced, or spatially externalised, to the Global South, creating sacrifice zones
(Healy et al., 2019)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","First, a major issue of concern is the offsetting schemes do
not address the causes of deforestation (e.g., unsustainable consumption patterns, cor-
ruption etc.) (Seyller et al., 2016). Second, offsetting schemes have been criticised for dis-
respecting the rights and culture of local and Indigenous communities, not adhering to
the practice of pre-informed consent to protect their sacred sites or hampering their live-
lihoods, for example, by limiting their access to natural resources (Bayrak & Marafa,
2016). As Evo Morales (former President of Bolivia) argued:‘Nature, forests and Indige-
nous peoples are not for sale.’ "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","Degrowthers advocate for convergence, decline of throughput in the
North and increase in the South, with the aim of ecological stability and universal
human welfare (Hickel, 2021). For degrowth, as for dependence theorists, the problem
is in the structure of capitalism."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","auwens (2021) argues that a real circular economy
can only be achieved under a post-growth paradigm, such as degrowth. In combination
with a decreased consumption and a focus on well-being, a circular economy approach
could further reduce the pressure on resource extraction from the Global South as re-
sources demand in the Global North would be partly covered by reusing materials in-
stead of using raw materials."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","It would enable Global South countries to diversify their
economy instead of mainly focusing on the export of raw material and would provide
an incentive to become less dependent on imports. This might empower countries to
negotiate fairer trade agreements between the Global North and the Global South as
propagated by degrowth (Chiengkul, 2018)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","How to effectively make a shift to a new paradigm
and concrete institutional changes remains unclear but is an important perspective to
consider (Chiengkul, 2018; Cosme et al., 2017). The role of the state and its relation to
local forms of democracy and production is also unclear. The focus on localism is
combined with a need for a central state considering the importance of taxing and
redistribution."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","It is important to go then beyond the binary view of centre against peripheries,
as workers are exploited in both."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez and Maria Kaufmann
21 From Marxist Development Theories
to Their Translation in the Degrowth
Discourse: Transforming Unequal
International Structures for
Environmental Sustainability","We saw in
this chapter that degrowth addresses the drivers of unequal exchange and could lead
to a real transformation. However, some important aspects are not clear enough to
really address dependency, especially at the international level. The urgency of the
situation requires a clear programme in order to transform the unequal structures at
all levels, from the local to the international."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ashish Kothari
22 Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections
from the South on Degrowth","While degrowth, emerging from indus-
trialised societies, is particularly relevant in the context of humanity’s planetary over-
shoot and for those whose production, trade and consumption patterns are excessive,
it is not appropriate for those still deprived of basic needs and living on the margins.
For the latter, more relevant are worldviews and practices of well-being which have
ancient roots in their own cultures, and others that have emerged recently"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ashish Kothari
22 Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections
from the South on Degrowth","India currently sees itself as entering into the elite league of economic super-
powers. Along with China, it has enjoyed the world’s highest growth rates in the last
couple of decades. But this has come at a horrendous cost to the environment and to
hundreds of millions of people who are directly dependent on the environment
(Shrivastava & Kothari 2012). It has also created an increasing schism between the
rich and poor, so that one percent of the population now owns nearly 70% of the
country’s wealth, while at least two-thirds of its people remain deprived of basic
needs and employment scarcity is staring at a hundred million young people who
have recently joined the workforce."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ashish Kothari
22 Radical Ecological Democracy: Reflections
from the South on Degrowth","Each alternative worldview or framework arises within a particular sociocultural,
ecological, economic and political context and cannot be replicated or applied as it is
to another context. I do believe, however, that broad principles and values and learn-
ings about process, can be fruitfully applied."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","consider the Global South not as an undynamic and apolitical cate-
gory, but as a site of resistance and independent critical thinking against capitalist
expansion and the process of neoliberal globalisation."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","By revisiting dependency and world-systems theory, we
reprise the problematic experience of the Global South’s efforts for self-defined and
self-generated development in the past."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","there is a need to substantially engage with the colonial structures
of the global capitalist system (Tyberg, 2020) and political, economic and cultural con-
straints that it imposes on countries and nations of the Global South."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","Groups and organisations in the South have been persecuted, violated
and marginalised for centuries because of their history of resisting the expansion of the
global capitalist system and the accompanying civilisational project. This is where the
history of resistance of local groups and communities needs to be highlighted and
where true global solidarity is needed (Fernandes, 2020)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","There is a general
need for degrowth to recognise that the foundation of many of its core ideas come
from knowledge produced in the Global South (Roy, 2020) and that other types of sys-
temic alternatives like buen vivir, swaraj and ubuntu (Bittencourt, 2017; Kothari et al.,
2014; Solón, 2019) are necessary to strengthen global reach of the movement. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","The‘Global South’ then, is understood as‘the space where capitalism and its com-
plex global political network operate through the exclusion of actors’ in both the eco-
nomic and political sense (Fernández & Trevignani, 2015, p. 530). Thus, we argue that to
understand the Global South and theorise how a transition towards degrowth could be
made possible in this context, it is necessary to understand it from two important per-
spectives. First, are the material conditions of subordination, exploitation and underde-
velopment– which form what we call the structural constraints– and second, how
these processes shape and are shaped by symbolic modes of domination– which form
the sociocultural constraints."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","The‘Global South’ then, is understood as‘the space where capitalism and its com-
plex global political network operate through the exclusion of actors’ in both the eco-
nomic and political sense (Fernández & Trevignani, 2015, p. 530). Thus, we argue that to
understand the Global South and theorise how a transition towards degrowth could be
made possible in this context, it is necessary to understand it from two important per-
spectives. First, are the material conditions of subordination, exploitation and underde-
velopment– which form what we call the structural constraints– and second, how
these processes shape and are shaped by symbolic modes of domination– which form
the sociocultural constraints."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","The Global South is not
demarcated by geographical or national borders but consists of expropriated and
marginalised groups at the borders of centres of political and economic power."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","the Global North, as the main actor that benefits from the current
division of labour, wealth and socio-ecological vulnerability, is incapable of breaking
away from the colonial, capitalist and extractivist system that has secured its position
at the top of the North-South hierarchy."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","he idea of liberation comes from under-
standing that it is only possible through‘overcoming the relation of oppression, with
the end of eliminating this contradiction’ (Fernandes, 2016, p. 483)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are
fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with auton-
omy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued con-
stantly and responsibly. (Freire, 2005, p. 47)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","only the oppressed, who‘understand the terrible significance of an oppressive society’
can understand the necessity of liberation. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","In the countries of the South, most people are victims of the system, whereas in the North, the
majority are its beneficiaries. Both know it perfectly well, although often they are either resigned
to it (in the South) or welcome it (in the North). It is not by accident, then, that radical transfor-
mation of the system is not on the agenda in the North, whereas the South is still the‘zone of
storms,’ of continual revolts, some of which are potentially revolutionary. (p. 113)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","First, it needs to decentre the Global
North from this movement towards liberation and to allow for the agency of the
Global South, and second, it needs to critically and concretely work with the relation-
ship between theory and action. It is only through the critical combination between
theory and action that decolonial potential of degrowth can be solidified. We argue
that there are three critical points of reflection for the development of degrowth as
both a field of theory and political action."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","A recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD, 2021) shows that more than 100 countries depend on commodity exports.
This makes two-thirds of all underdeveloped countries of the Global South vulnerable
to economic shocks and price fluctuations, directly impacting countries’ economic de-
velopment and capacity to finance social provisions."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth"," there is a risk for Global North degrowth scholars to fall for the same mistake
of their developmentalist antagonists in the past, where they assumed the Global
North and South were in the same conditions for a comprehensive structural and so-
cial transition (Dengler & Seebacher, 2019)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","While a‘planned downscale of resource use’ in the North might make sense in the
political debate, this is impossible in countries of the South. Not only because of eco-
nomic dependency, but also because of political difficulties in breaking away from
hegemonic divisions of power and resources."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","Given
the urgency of the climate and ecological crisis, there is not enough time for a planned
and slow transition in the North. When the‘time for the South’ finally comes, it will
be too late. This is why we argue for a revolutionary plan for degrowth that centres
the agency of the Global South in the process of liberation. However, this cannot be
done by the Global South alone, it is very important to organise around alliances of
solidarity."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","Therefore, it is necessary for both the oppressed and
the oppressor to work side by side. In this context, we envision this solidarity at two
levels: first, solidarity between North and South in economic and political arenas,
and second, solidarity between academic and practical knowledge in true spirit of
praxis."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","the movement towards degrowth has to be based on a project of true soli-
darity, in which it understands its role and position and curbs any hegemonising
impulses coming from the North."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","Advances have to be made both in the
political arena and that of the everyday struggles, but also in the academic sphere
linked to education. While we have argued that the movements towards degrowth
and liberation are to come from the oppressed of the South, we, as researchers and
educators, also play an important role in the process of pedagogy for liberation"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","An education agenda based on the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by
Freire (2005) is helping in giving the tools to both the oppressed in the Global South
and also the oppressor in the Global North to critically engage and rethink their posi-
tion in the process towards degrowth and a socio-ecological transition. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Barbara Magalhães Teixeira and Başak Koşanay
23 Degrowth Beyond the Metropole: Theory
and Praxis for a Revolutionary Degrowth","is not only important to carefully work and credit the bases of
knowledge production for degrowth coming from the Global South, but also to make
sure that the knowledge that is further generated does not reproduce colonial and
hegemonic values."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","My central argument is that due to its current stage as a primarily academic
concept, offering numerous theories and ideas, degrowth is lacking the actual force of
a social movement in terms of practical implementation and activism on-site."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","Alliances between followers of degrowth and ENJs are potentially fruitful as there are
various analogies between the movements and the concept of degrowth: both oppose
the extractives industry and money-fuelled economies falling short on incorporating
environmental and social costs (Pueyo, 2014). Furthermore, both movements warn
against the increasing physical size of the economy (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., 2019)
and seek deontological as well as consequential justice (Akbulut et al., 2019). "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","Finally, the Western concept of degrowth is mainly shaped by
authors from high-income countries that never experienced real poverty or scarcity
(Weiss & Cattaneo, 2017), leading EJO-supporters from the Global South to consider de-
growth a“luxury debate” (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., 2019)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","Northern organisation Global Witness offering financial and
investigative support and the Southern movements pressuring the Nigerian govern-
ment officials‘on the ground.’ The successful alliance between the movements was
guided by degrowth principles, involving the idea of paying environmental damages
in the form of ecological debt and potentially decreasing resource extraction in the
Global South. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","Commons stands for
an informal governance system over collectively held land or resources that allows its
members shared access, sustainable extraction and management (Perkins, 2019)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","the creation of alternative infrastructure models that
shift the focus from economic profit to social and more equal‘profit’ in combination
with an own currency allows the independence of ALBA members from capitalist
markets like the US. In addition, they decrease the physical size of the economy by
limiting their monetary trade, concentrating more on sharing and supporting grass-
roots movements to gain back land and resource access under the commons. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","unequal income distribution has– in the majority of
cases– been fuelled by colonial, imperialistic and apartheid history (Chung, 2010)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","guaranteed income would give ev-
eryone the possibility to cover their expenses for basic necessities and reduce economic insecurity (Kallis, 2015b). "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","economic growth would be dampened as there
is no longer a need for a‘full employment’ economy and people can partially spend
their time on non-paid activities that have the potential to benefit the commons (Fitzpa-
trick, 1999; Mulvale, 2019)"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","Putting this degrowth idea into practice, the Basic Income Grant (BIG) Coalition
project in Otjivero-Omitara, a small village in Namibia, is an exemplary real-world
case which reported remarkable changes in poverty (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., 2019).
The village was chosen for the two-year pilot programme because it represents aver-
age Namibian villages regarding its poverty, alcoholism, crime and AIDS rates (Chung,
2010). The project was based on cooperation efforts established between the German
Namibian Evangelical Lutheran church, Namibian NGOs and labour unions, as well
as an international team of researchers and advisers (from South Africa, USA, Ger-
many, Australia). From early 2008 on, the basic monthly income was handed out to
every adult in Otjivero-Omitara, regardless of the villagers’ income or work status
(Chung, 2010"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Linda Thorpe
24 Growing Degrowth: Alliances
with Environmental Movements
in the Global South","proportionate number of children being malnourished dropped from 42 per-
cent down to ten percent (Haarmann et al., 2009). Household poverty (measured using
the food poverty line) was 76% by the end of 2007 and decreased to 37% by the end of
2008. Furthermore, it led adults to engage in income-generating activities (from 44% to
55%), enabling villagers to feed their families or even start their own small business,
thereby contributing to the creation of local markets (Haarmann et al., 2009). "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","European Green Deal, that remain growth-focused, create GSZs. The rapid expansion
of the green extractive frontier is resulting in a global struggle against GSZs."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","a degrowth and post-extractivist transition, whilst
advocating for a planned and equitable degrowth in material use, may still require a
rapid and selective growth in essential low carbon infrastructures."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","I assess the theoretical intersection of‘selective de-
growth’ and‘indispensable extraction’ in the transition towards degrowth and post-
extractivist futures"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","GSZs are sites of climate
injustice and subaltern repression in the name of climate change mitigation, justifying
‘the“sacrifice” of the affected territories and populations for the sake of salvation
from climate chaos’"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","post-extractivism fails to tackle
the‘imperial mode of living,’ (Brand et al., 2017, p. 37), as such, its intersection with de-
growth is welcome, allowing both movements to create a global resistance to green
growth, green extractivism and GSZs."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","Our analysis is complemented by semi-structured in-
terviews with activists engaged in resistance to the Jadar Lithium Mining Project. In
this section, I discuss how the Jadar subaltern resistance was not only a struggle
against the expansion of the green extractive frontier, but also against the hegemonic
discourses of green growth and sustainable development promoted by the EU and the
Serbian state. "
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","Jadar acti-
vists fight to protect their environments and livelihoods from ecological degradation
and for socio-ecological democracy against hierarchal power structures who envision
development of the Serbian state through the praxis of extraction, appropriation and
accumulation of Nature. This reflects the principles of the post-extractivism, which in-
terlinks Indigenous philosophies with radical alternative development theories and
practices beyond economic growth, with its reliance on the plunder of peripheral by
the capitalist core. Its focus is on a radical way of living, of reciprocal human and non-
human well-being"
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","And it’s so obvious, that when you say an
area of unique biodiversity needs to be a sacrifice zone, you’re looking at the money. Because we
shouldn’t be sacrificing these areas. We should be sacrificing plastic, and wealth, and you know,
let’s talk about sacrificing other things."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","Post-extractivist movements are on the frontline of the green extractive fron-
tier, engaged in struggles to defend their lands, cultures and livelihoods. Degrowth
movements operate at the sites of industrialism and consumption, seeking to radically
dematerialise the imperial mode of living (Scheidel & Scharrartzik, 2019)."
"Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, eds. De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.","Ciarán Ó Briain
25 ‘For the Greater Good’– Green Sacrifice
Zones and Subaltern Resistance: The
Politics and Potential of Degrowth
and Post-Extractivist Futures","A degrowth state can only be actualised through collective self-transformation
from below, as such, it will function through collective participation, in which all sec-
tions of society will engage in a collaborative re-articulation of a state (civil and politi-
cal arenas), its functions, structures of power, and class dynamics are shifted towards
socio-ecological emancipation (D’Alisa & Kallis, 2020 & Koch, 2020)."