Degrowth and its proposal
The degrowth or post-growth movement is a collection of activists and researchers who advocate for a society that prioritizes social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits. They demand a fundamental change in the way we live, consume and produce. They call for a radical cultural transformation. Juan got in contact with the ideas and values of the movement during his Masters in International Studies of Peace, Conflict and Development at the Valencian University Jaume I. Inspired by their vision for the future, Juan decided to start a blog and write about degrowth himself. In his article he explains what degrowth means and what kind of world this group of activists and researchers is aiming at.
Scan from Fast Pefrekt – Die Kunst, hemmungslos zu scheitern. Wie aus Fehlern Ideen entstehen., (Almost Pefrect – The art of failing without restraint. How ideas emerge from mistakes) Erik Kessels, 2016
One of the most confusing elements regarding the promulgation of degrowth is its supposed comparison with other existing theories, such as Marxism. It should be noted that degrowth does not seek to equate itself with other theories, given that its primary objective is to challenge capitalism and industrial civilisation through the search for a new order that is characterised as degrowth-oriented, self-managed, anti-patriarchal and internationalist. In other words, the degrowth perspective seeks to focus on elements that are as disparate as they are complex. Its claims are based on what Taibo, a Madrid-based economist and promoter of degrowth, defines as a “myriad of precise terrains such as health and education, the rural world and trade unionism, cities and migrations”. It aims at a change in people's daily lives that is associated with an environmentally friendly way of life and with a perspective that seeks to resolve what the ideals of economic growth have abandoned.
maldevelopment Maldevelopment, or "maldesarrollo", is a concept by the spanish author José María Tortosa. He describes it as the product of the functioning of the contemporary world system, which is based on efficiency, cost reduction and profit maximisation, characteristic of capitalist logics. He sees it as a global phenomenon produced by the internationalised elite who have constituted a world according to their interests.
Degrowth strives to undermine the dominant discourse, which is based on the "slave lifestyle obsessed with capital generation", through the practical incorporation of what we often carry in our conscience. Incorporating emotional elements that are associated with our daily lives is undoubtedly one of the most attractive elements of the idea of degrowth. Degrowth claims that economic growth has not been as good and as healthy as President Truman presented it in his inaugural speech more than sixty years ago. Certainly degrowth as a current of change introduces a crucial critique of the maldevelopmentalist model that I have not referred to: environmental aggressions.
In his book El decrecimiento explicado con sencillez [Degrowth explained in simple terms] Carlos Taibo highlights some general questions about economic growth:
Economic growth does not generate social cohesion. Taibo highlights the example of China, a country that has grown spectacularly in recent decades, but still has developed more acute social tensions, as well as greater inequality.
Economic growth has not been accompanied by increased job creation in developed capitalist economies. Taibo stresses that measures have been implemented that favour temporary and precarious contracts, in order to increase employment levels. A simple image that seeks to associate more growth with employment.
Economic growth has translated into irreversible environmental damage in many cases, mainly due to the standard of living in the countries of the North.
The continuous depletion of natural resources has been another of the disastrous consequences of economic growth, putting at risk the existence of these resources for future generations.
Growth in the countries of the North has been strongly dependent on the plundering of natural and material resources from the countries of the South.
Finally, we have accustomed ourselves to a kind of slavish way of life in our daily lives. We tend to think that the harder we work, the more money we have and, above all, the more material goods we manage to consume, the happier we will be.
Taibo points out that our way of life as a slave which the maldevelopment model impregnates us with, has been established due to three major processes which again Serge Latouche, French economist and main promoter of degrowth, analyses like this: First of all there is advertising, which encourages individuals to buy objects that we sometimes do not need. Secondly there is credit, which makes it easier to get money to buy things that in real terms we do not need. And finally there is expiration, which is associated with the use or durability of the objects acquired. After a certain period of time they cease to function, forcing us to buy them again. Latouche's pillars may have discrepant elements, especially in times of crisis, for example. Certainly credit makes it easier for us to acquire money but the economic problems or economic crisis of recent years has made access to credit more difficult, and has awakened as Taibo mentions: “an uncontrolled expansion of many of the short circuits in capitalist market economies”. Latouche's last pillar, which can also be referred to as planned obsolescence, refers to the problems resulting from overproduction. These setbacks, accompanied by the short lifespan of purchased goods, force people to continuously buy new goods that have a negative impact on the environment. The continuous renewal of goods, with the accompanying waste of raw materials and energy, generates a continuous creation of toxic waste which then is often transferred to impoverished countries. Latouche's pillars are consequently associated with the maldevelopmentalist model, which degrowth considers to have permeated our daily lives, and which one of the essential factors to help the current economic model to prevail: consumption.
Political leaders in our countries have often encouraged us to consume in order to promote economic growth. This exhortation has been expressed by all traditional extremes of political ideology, from both the right and the left, as Tortosa makes clear when he recalls the words of former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who at a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) rally ended his speech by encouraging listeners to consume.
Paul Lafargue, author of the essay El derecho a la pereza [The right to be lazy], highlights the imperative of Zapatero's "A consumir": „Work, always work in order to create yo ur well-being. Work, proletarians, to increase social fortune and your individual misery. Work, work so that, by making yourselves poorer, you will have more reasons to work and be miserable.“
consumerism Consumerism is a cultural attitude towards life which promotes increasing consumption of goods and services. Considering life from this point of view includes seeing endless consumption as a desirable goal, as it can serve pursuit of identity, social distinction and even people’s wellbeing and happiness. In social science the term consumerism is usually used with critical intent.
Degrowth exposes the fact that capitalist production has turned workers into mere consumers, forgetting the satisfaction of basic needs and generating artificial needs that keep mass production afloat. However, the market is characterised by goods that need to be constantly renewed. Given this, the lack of satisfaction that this produces, generates the constant craving for renewal of what we often do not need. Permanent consumption associated with trends, a great ally of consumerism, even further promotes the production of what we do not really need. Capitalist logic responds to the possibilities of profit and consequently is induced by opportunities that generate an increase in capital. Degrowth, on the other hand, criticises the mass production of unneeded goods that have a profoundly destroying impact on the environment. Degrowth invites us to reflect on the true definition of the term consumption, knowing how to distinguish this term from consumerism, which must be rejected. Degrowth is introducing an austere change in our way of life that consequently will reveal our true needs. Work, for its part, has been alienated from us by capitalist logic. Degrowth wants us to reflect on the meaning of work, which is always defined by economic interests and thus subjugated to the supposed progress it generates. Taibo points out that both liberal economists and Karl Marx saw labour as the main source of enrichment:
"For Marx, alienation is born of dispossession and the commodification of the product generated".
For degrowth, labour has become a fundamental tool to satisfy the consumption needs that the current economic model has imbued us with. These created needs have alienated us from such fundamental elements for the wellbeing of individuals as free time. If we were to abandon the logic of productivity and competitiveness, decreasing in that sense, we would have more time to dedicate to the core of what we’re working for: the family.
The abandonment of this paradigm seeks, generally speaking, to reduce the working day due to two key elements: first, to have free time to use for leisure activities that satisfy our lives and enrich our quality of life. The primacy of social life is a fundamental aspect of degrowth, which seeks in this respect to abandon the ideals of production, consumption and competitiveness. Secondly, the distribution of work. By reducing the working day we would have more job opportunities for individuals who have been excluded by capitalist logic, and who are currently unemployed.
The distribution of labour in the degrowth proposal is fundamentally associated with the reduction of production and therefore of consumerism. Let's remember that consumerism is associated with everything that we don't really need and the created needs that have been driven by Latouche's pillars. The reduction of mass production and consumption in the degrowth logic, promotes the cancellation of entire segments of the economy that are associated with the unstoppable growth of pollution levels that affect the environment. This radical measure seeks the closure of economic activities such as the automobile industry or the military industry, which could certainly generate a considerable increase in unemployment, although degrowth responds to this through two theoretical solutions that Taibo states below:
The first will consist of favouring the development of those economic activities that are related to meeting unsatisfied social needs and respecting the natural environment: if we want to put it this way, these activities will continue to grow. The second concerns the need to share work in the segments of the conventional economy that will inevitably continue to exist. The combined effect of implementing these mechanisms will result in, in individual terms, fewer work hours, much more leisure time, reduction - where possible – of our levels of consumption, and that we do what we can to strengthen our flagging social lives. The above proposition may raise a general criticism that degrowth seeks to foster a society in which we produce nothing and live primitively. Taibo exemplifies this with two general observations summarised as follows: The first observation emphasizes that it is by no means a question, as some detractors of degrowth seem to misunderstand, of bringing production and consumption levels to zero. Degrowth proposes to rebuild acceptable levels, for us and for future generations, of ecological footprint. The second observation reminds us that the degrowth proposal is by no means all gloomy. It seeks to recover the social life that we have let go, absorbed as we are by the logic of production, consumption and competitiveness.
The degrowth proposal is not only limited to the abandonment of mass production and therefore consumption in the affluent North. It certainly sees the abandonment of capitalism and its rules as a matter of urgency, but it also seeks to introduce changes in people's social values, such as restoring local life. The reappearance of self-management is associated with the recovery of fundamental elements of rural life that we have clearly lost, such as austerity or the sense of community.
GDP The Gross Domestic Product is the total market value of all goods and services produced by a country's economy during a given timeframe. It is calculated like this: GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Net Exports. Since the end of the Second World War, the GDP is a common measure for economic success and often also equated with a country’s development in terms of quality of life.
(Degrowth proponents reject the GDP as a measure for human well-being and advocate for a more complex approach to development.)
These very human principles and values encourage degrowth to highlight the need to introduce a fundamental element that has never been considered in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) measurements: care work. Of course, the fundamental participation in this area has traditionally resided in women and their role in caring for children or the elderly. But what does care work have to do with degrowth? The clearest answer lies in the family institution, given that it is made up of what Taibo defines as "the logic of gift, gift and gratuitousness", and cites the example of when parents pay for their children's studies, which they do not do with the intention of making some kind of profit over time. A fundamental element in the degrowth proposal is that not all activities are obliged to degrow. Tortosa reminds us that there are certain sectors of the economy that are bound to grow, among them those cited by Jean Gadrey in his list of activities that are bound to grow, such as collective transport or personal care. This list highlights the importance of durable goods that can be recycled or renewed, as well as essential factors related to social relations. It should be noted that Gadrey calls for the achievement of a social proposal that invokes the search for the good life as a fundamental premise.
On the other hand, degrowth emphasises the relocation of certain economic activities with the aim of promoting the local over the global. In this respect, Latouche recalls the example of milk. In previous decades it was produced nearby and purchased in glass containers, which facilitated its reuse. I mention this example given that today we consume products that have to travel considerable distances to be purchased, such as lamb meat from New Zealand, which travels nearly 19,000 kilometres to be consumed in Europe. Relocalisation certainly seeks to incentivise the local over the global, as I have mentioned above, but Taibo reminds us that such an objective does not seek to encourage protectionism in the face of globalisation, but to ask ourselves locally and collectively, what we produce, how we produce it, and for what purpose.
References and further reading:
Official website the degrowth movement: https://www.degrowth.info/
Sobre el Mundo Mundial - Blog by José María Tortosa. Available at https://mundomundialtortosa.blogspot.com/
Taibo, C. (2014). ¿ Por qué el decrecimiento?: un ensayo sobre la antesala del colapso. Los Libros del Lince. Available at https://www.lacentral.com/book/?id=9788415070436
Taibo, C. (2011). El decrecimiento explicado con sencillez. Los Libros de la Catarata. Available at https://www.lacentral.com/book/?id=9788483195932
Latouche, S. (2014). Salir de la sociedad de consumo: voces y vías del decrecimiento. Ediciones Octaedro. Available at https://www.lacentral.com/book/?id=9788499212685
Lafargue, P. (1998). El derecho a la pereza (Vol. 116). Editorial Fundamentos. Available at: https://www.lacentral.com/book/?id=9788492724291
