Degrowth A Vocabulary for a New Era

About this book

We live in an era of stagnation, rapid impoverishment, rising inequalities, and socio-ecological disasters. In the dominant discourse, these are effects of economic crisis, lack of growth or underdevelopment. Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era argues growth is the cause of these problems and that it has become uneconomic, ecologically unsustainable and intrinsically unjust. When the language in use is inadequate to articulate what begs to be articulated, then it is time for a new vocabulary.

A movement of activists and intellectuals, first starting in France and then spreading to the rest of the word has called for the decolonization of public debate from the idiom of economism and the abolishment of economic growth as a social objective. "Degrowth" ("Decroissance") has come to signify for them the desired direction of societies that will use less natural resources and will organize to live radically differently. "Simplicity", "conviviality", "autonomy", "care", "the commons" and "depense", the social and ritual destruction of accumulated surplus, are some of the words that express what a degrowth society might look like.

Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era is the first English language book to comprehensively cover the burgeoning literature on degrowth. It presents and explains the different lines of thought, imaginaries, and proposed courses of action that together complete the degrowth puzzle. Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era brings together the top scholars writing in the field with young researchers who cultivate the research frontier and activists who practice degrowth on the ground.

Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era will be an indispensable source of information and inspiration for all those who not only believe that another world is possible, but work and struggle to construct it right now. Join our book community at www.degrowthvocabulary.net for more material and conversations.

Contents

Preface Giacomo D'Alisa, Federico Demaria, Giorgios Kallis
Foreword Francois Schneider and Fabrice Flipo
Introduction: Degrowth Giorgios Kallis, Federico Demaria, Giacomo D'Alisa P

Part 1: Lines of thought 1.Anti-utilitarianism: Onofrio Romano
2. Bio-economics: Mauro Bonaiuti
3. Development, Critiques of: Arturo Escobar
4. Environmental Justice: Isabelle Anguelovski
5. Environmentalism, Currents of: Joan Martinez-Alier
6. Metabolism, Societal: Alevgul Sorman
7. Political ecology: Susan Paulson
8. Steady-state economics: Joshua Farley

Part 2: The core
9. Autonomy: Marco Deriu
10. Capitalism: Diego Andreucci and Terrence McDonough
11. Care: Marco Deriu, Giacomo D’Alisa and Federico Demaria
12. Commodification Erik Gomez
13. Commodity frontiers: Marta Conde and Mariana Walter
14. Commons: Silke Helfrich and David Bollier
15. Conviviality: Marco Deriu
16. Dematerialization: Sylvia Lorek
17. Dépense: Onofrio Romano
18. Depoliticization ("the Political"): Erik Swyngedouw
19. Disaster Pedagogy: Serge Latouche
20. Entropy: Sergio Ulgiati
21. Emergy: Sergio Ulgiati
22. GDP: Daniel O'Neil
23. Growth: Peter Victor
24. Happiness: Filka Sekulova
25. Imaginary, Decolonization of: Serge Latouche
26. Jevons' paradox: Blake Alcott
27. Neo-Malthusians: Joan Martinez-Alier
28. Peak oil: Christian Kerschner
29. Simplicity: Samuel Alexander
30. Social limits of growth: Giorgos Kallis

Part 3: The Action
31. Back-to-the-landers: Rita Calvario and Iago Otero
32. Basic and maximum income: Samuel Alexander
33. Community currencies: Kristoffer Dittmer
34. Cooperatives: Nadia Johanisova, Ruben Suriñach Padilla and Philippa Parry
35. Debt audit: Sergi Cutillas, David Llistar and Gemma Tarafa
36. Digital commons: Mayo Fuster Morell
37. Disobedience: Xavier Renou
38. Eco-communities: Claudio Cattaneo
39. Indignados (Occupy): Viviana Asara and Barbara Muraca
40. Job Guarantee: Brandon Unti
41. Money, Public: Mary Mellor
42. New Economy: Tim Jackson
43. Nowtopians: Chris Carlsson
44. Post-normal science: Giacomo D’Alisa and Giorgios Kallis
45. Unions: Denis Bayon
46. Urban Gardening: Isabelle Anguelovski
47. Work-sharing: Juliet Schor

Part 4: Alliances
48. Buen Vivir: Eduardo Gudynas
49. Economy of permanence: Chiara Corazza and Victus Solomon
50. Feminist economics: Antonella Picchio
51. Ubuntu: Mogobe B. Ramose

Epilogue: From austerity to dépense: Giacomo D'Alisa, Giorgios Kallis and Federico Demaria

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Biography

Giacomo D'Alisa is Research Fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. Federico Demaria is a PhD candidate at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. Giorgios Kallis is Research Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.