Research On Degrowth

TLDR

Degrowth is increasingly invoked as a radical political and economic reorganization aimed at reducing resource and energy use, and scholars argue it is necessary, desirable, and possible, prompting renewed critical examination of the forces that have made growth a dominant objective. The authors review studies of economic stability without growth and societies that have managed well without growth. They reflect on technology and democracy forms compatible with degrowth and discuss plausible openings for a degrowth transition.

Abstract

Scholars and activists mobilize increasingly the term degrowth when producing knowledge critical of the ideology and costs of growth-based development. Degrowth signals a radical political and economic reorganization leading to reduced resource and energy use. The degrowth hypothesis posits that such a trajectory of social transformation is necessary, desirable, and possible; the conditions of its realization require additional study. Research on degrowth has reinvigorated the limits to growth debate with critical examination of the historical, cultural, social, and political forces that have made economic growth a dominant objective. Here we review studies of economic stability in the absence of growth and of societies that have managed well without growth. We reflect on forms of technology and democracy com-patible with degrowth and discuss plausible openings for a degrowth transition. This dynamic and productive research agenda asks inconvenient questions that sustainability sciences can no longer afford to ignore.