Bread and Circuses on Nostr: PART 1 — Excerpts from an article titled “A (Friendly) Critique of the Degrowth ...
PART 1 —
Excerpts from an article titled “A (Friendly) Critique of the Degrowth Movement.” See the Introduction here -- https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/112410879381028836
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First, the issue of definition: what is degrowth about, and what *should* it be about?
The term is not a good descriptor for the movement that has emerged. The movement is asserting a wild variety of criticisms of and alternatives to the present globalized, industrialized, urbanized, financialized, neoliberal, sexist, grotesquely unequal, extractivist, imperialist, etc. world order. The expressed goals include all manner of social criticisms, ideals, and policies, ranging from mildly reformist to ultra radical.
Many of these — such as monetary reform, making trade more equitable, housing justice, curbing advertising, fairer taxes, reducing debt, indigenous rights, decolonization — actually have nothing to do with the reduction of economic growth, or could easily be implemented within an economy that continues to be about growth.
Thus the term ‘Degrowth’ has become a rag-bag of utopian dreams. A more accurate title might be the ‘Finally Fed Up With Capitalism’ movement. All manner of ideals, dreams, and alternate policies in a wide variety of fields have been put forward as degrowth proposals. This is highly desirable because it shows that discontent with consumer-capitalist society is finally boiling over.
These many and varied discontents can be welcomed as undermining the complacency that characterized previous decades. But the scene is quite confused and chaotic, especially with respect to causes and solutions, and this is reflected within the degrowth movement. Even among degrowth advocates, there is little realization that the multi-factored global predicament cannot be resolved unless there is an extremely big and difficult revolution whereby most of the elements within our present economic, political, and cultural systems are scrapped and replaced by radically different systems.
Degrowth should, instead, be seen in terms of reducing resource consumption and environmental impact, which means it is essentially about one thing: reducing GDP.
The crucial point here is that the new lifestyles and systems must be materially very simple. Little of the degrowth literature recognizes this, let alone focuses on it. Most of it proceeds as if we can all go on living more or less as we do now, with more or less the same kinds of institutions we have now, via reformed institutions and better policies.
The degrowth movement does not recognize that the magnitude of the overshoot — the degree of unsustainability of present society — totally prohibits that. To recognize this would decisively focus thinking about goals and strategies, and rule out many currently popular options.
_________________________
Part 2 will follow soon.
Full article is here -- https://medium.com/postgrowth/a-friendly-critique-of-the-degrowth-movement-f0bd2297072d
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth
Excerpts from an article titled “A (Friendly) Critique of the Degrowth Movement.” See the Introduction here -- https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/112410879381028836
_________________________
First, the issue of definition: what is degrowth about, and what *should* it be about?
The term is not a good descriptor for the movement that has emerged. The movement is asserting a wild variety of criticisms of and alternatives to the present globalized, industrialized, urbanized, financialized, neoliberal, sexist, grotesquely unequal, extractivist, imperialist, etc. world order. The expressed goals include all manner of social criticisms, ideals, and policies, ranging from mildly reformist to ultra radical.
Many of these — such as monetary reform, making trade more equitable, housing justice, curbing advertising, fairer taxes, reducing debt, indigenous rights, decolonization — actually have nothing to do with the reduction of economic growth, or could easily be implemented within an economy that continues to be about growth.
Thus the term ‘Degrowth’ has become a rag-bag of utopian dreams. A more accurate title might be the ‘Finally Fed Up With Capitalism’ movement. All manner of ideals, dreams, and alternate policies in a wide variety of fields have been put forward as degrowth proposals. This is highly desirable because it shows that discontent with consumer-capitalist society is finally boiling over.
These many and varied discontents can be welcomed as undermining the complacency that characterized previous decades. But the scene is quite confused and chaotic, especially with respect to causes and solutions, and this is reflected within the degrowth movement. Even among degrowth advocates, there is little realization that the multi-factored global predicament cannot be resolved unless there is an extremely big and difficult revolution whereby most of the elements within our present economic, political, and cultural systems are scrapped and replaced by radically different systems.
Degrowth should, instead, be seen in terms of reducing resource consumption and environmental impact, which means it is essentially about one thing: reducing GDP.
The crucial point here is that the new lifestyles and systems must be materially very simple. Little of the degrowth literature recognizes this, let alone focuses on it. Most of it proceeds as if we can all go on living more or less as we do now, with more or less the same kinds of institutions we have now, via reformed institutions and better policies.
The degrowth movement does not recognize that the magnitude of the overshoot — the degree of unsustainability of present society — totally prohibits that. To recognize this would decisively focus thinking about goals and strategies, and rule out many currently popular options.
_________________________
Part 2 will follow soon.
Full article is here -- https://medium.com/postgrowth/a-friendly-critique-of-the-degrowth-movement-f0bd2297072d
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth