Preamble: --Of the 3 intros to degrowth I’ve read, I would rank as follows: i) Hickel’s Less is More: How A toolbox to build Degrowth as common sense…
Preamble: --Of the 3 intros to degrowth I’ve read, I would rank as follows: i) Hickel’s Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World: foundational. ii) This book: useful survey on "why?", but missing "how?". iii) Saito’s Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto: niche insights, also missing "how?". Since Saito uses the label “degrowth communism”, my review of Saito’s book discusses how labels can be such distractions. I’m fine with “post growth” if “degrowth” sounds negative. Let’s move on.
The Good: --This book’s key feature is to synthesize the diverse influences of “degrowth” to raise awareness of an alternative common sense (already existing in diverse movements) to challenge the growth paradigm (which on the surface seems insurmountable). --Using Wallerstein’s framing, we can see how far the growth paradigm stretches: a) Pro-Capitalist (“Spirit of Davos”, home of the World Economic Forum): --Liberal growth: including those trying to address climate change, like Bill Gates (How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need) --Reactionary growth: for “reactionary” in general, see The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump b) Anti-Capitalist/Socialist (“Spirit of Porto Alegre”, home of the World Social Forum): --Left growth (productivism) --Left degrowth: there are opposing ideologies that may also critique growth (i.e. conservative/green fascism/anti-modernism/liberal environmentalism), but the book distinguishes “degrowth” for its (Leftist) socioecological justice principles.
--Here is the toolbox assembled:
1) Ecological: --Referring to Ecological/Biophysical Economics, the focus here is society’s material/energy throughput (vs. sources) and waste (vs. sinks). --This tradition has a strong critique of mainstream (“Neoclassical”) Economics, which conceptualizes “the economy” as a circulation of inputs (labour/capital/money/goods), where growth stems from knowledge/technology/capital. Crucially, Neoclassical Economics assumes circular reproduction of its inputs while dismissing the environment (raw materials/energy/land) and reproductive labour (mostly unwaged). See Keen’s The New Economics: A Manifesto --The critique uses systems science (Thinking in Systems: A Primer) to consider the flows (energy/materials extracted, used and wasted; also monetary flows) and stocks (sources and sinks; also biomass/infrastructure/artifacts), revealing society’s expanding social metabolism of material/energy, including the “Great Acceleration” since WWII: -Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System -Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction --The material analysis is clear: growth is now unsustainable (overshooting our planetary boundaries); degrowth is inevitable, so we must choose “degrowth by design” to avoid “degrowth by disaster”. Further analysis reveal “green growth” resulting in energy addition rather than energy transition (to sustainability), where empirical material flow analysis reveals the hope of “decoupling” economic growth from material/energy use as insufficient (relative efficiency gains are swamped by absolute increases), etc.
2) Socioeconomic/Anti-Capitalist: --I combined “socioeconomic” with “anti-capitalist” as I don’t see a proper distinction made in the book. --Referring to Wallerstein’s conception of the “modern world system” (capitalism), the roots are traced to the 16th century European arms race (“war capitalism”), leading to colonial enterprises which developed into joint-stock companies (The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power). For a debate (I prefer a synthesis) on this with orthodox Marxism, see Wallerstein’s World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. --Capitalism’s endless accumulation transformed social metabolism from circular to linear. Given capitalist profit-seeking’s constant and systemic disruptions, capitalism requires growth to attempt “dynamic stabilization”, to buy off/compromise with enough of the population to preserve social consent (ex. post-WWII’s welfare state/mass consumerism, reliant on fossil fuel growth). --There is so much to synthesize regarding economic growth as a mismeasure of social needs: i) Over-values: “exchange-value”/instantaneous market exchange; pathologies of consumerism where advertising is meant to manufacture dissatisfaction and dependency for growing purchases rather than long-term fulfilment (Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage); positional consumption to “keep up”… …Intensified division-of-labour (turning humans into cogs, smashing autonomy and creativity…“you don’t hate Mondays, you hate capitalism”; alienation; over-work), etc. The wealthy rely on passive income (Owning the Future: Power and Property in an Age of Crisis), while the rest are over-exploited (The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions) and/or over-alienated (Bullshit Jobs: A Theory). ii) Under-values: “use-value”/long-term socioecological needs, well-being/Quality of Life, non-monetary relationships (esp. social reproduction/ecology), leisure time (required to build long-term socioecological relationships), equality/accessibility (vs. market’s one-dollar-one-vote), participatory democracy, etc. -Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
3) Cultural: --The book traces the rise of capitalist liberalism: i) Ideologically separating “the economy” as a separate sphere with its own laws ii) Post-WWII’s “Modernization” theory of economic development, to counter Soviet socialism and Third World decolonization (The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World). --This overlaps with worker alienation, consumerism, etc.
4) Feminist: --Referring to Eco-feminism and Feminist Economics, the focus here is on capitalism’s devaluation of reproductive labour, with the alternative of a care economy.
5) Anti-industrialist: --As noted earlier, the book does contrast degrowth vs. “anti-modernism”, describing the latter as vulgar anti-technology/anti-civilization. --Thus, degrowth’s anti-industrialist critique centers around capitalism’s undemocratic technologies disciplining workers into cogs; the alternative is participatory democracy. The machine-breaking Luddites were actually protesting for workers autonomy rather than completely rejecting technology/civilization.
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