Degrowth

Description

Degrowth is a rejection of the illusion of growth and a call to repoliticize the public debate colonized by the idiom of economism. It is a project advocating the democratically-led shrinking of production and consumption with the aim of achieving social justice and ecological sustainability. This overview of degrowth offers a comprehensive coverage of the main topics and major challenges of degrowth in a succinct, simple and accessible manner. In addition, it offers a set of keywords useful forintervening in current political debates and for bringing about concrete degrowth-inspired proposals at different levels - local, national and global. The result is the most comprehensive coverage of the topic of degrowth in English and serves as the definitive international reference. Notes on contributors......Page 16 Preface......Page 26 Foreword......Page 30 Introduction: degrowth......Page 36 Lines of thought......Page 60 1 Anti-utilitarianism......Page 61 2Bioeconomics......Page 67 3Development, critiques of......Page 72 4Environmental justice......Page 77 5Environmentalism, currents of......Page 83 6Metabolism, societal......Page 89 7Political ecology......Page 94 8Steady state economics......Page 100 The core......Page 105 9Autonomy......Page 106 10Capitalism......Page 112 11Care......Page 118 12Commodification......Page 123 13Commodity frontiers......Page 128 14Commons......Page 133 15Conviviality......Page 138 16Dematerialization......Page 144 17Dépense......Page 149 18Depoliticization (‘the political’)......Page 155 19Disaster, pedagogy of......Page 161 20Entropy......Page 165 21Emergy......Page 169 22Gross domestic product......Page 174 23Growth......Page 180 24Happiness......Page 185 25Imaginary, decolonization of......Page 191 26Jevons’ paradox......Page 196 27Neo-Malthusians......Page 201 28Peak-oil......Page 207 29Simplicity......Page 212 30Social limits of growth......Page 217 The action......Page 222 31Back-to-the-landers......Page 223 32Basic and maximum income......Page 227 33Community currencies......Page 231 34Co-operatives......Page 235 35Debt audit......Page 240 36Digital commons......Page 244 37Disobedience......Page 248 38Eco-communities......Page 253 39Indignados (Occupy)......Page 258 40Job guarantee......Page 263 41Money, public......Page 268 42New economy......Page 272 43Nowtopians......Page 277 44Post-normal science......Page 281 45Unions......Page 286 46Urban gardening......Page 291 47Work sharing......Page 295 Alliances......Page 299 48Buen Vivir......Page 300 49Economy of permanence......Page 306 50Feminist economics......Page 311 51Ubuntu......Page 316 Epilogue: from austerity to dépense......Page 320