I often complain about texts critical of degrowth being short. And they mostly are. The average degrowth detractor only affords a few paragraphs, often copiously sprinkled with conceptual slur. Collapse-porn addicts, Malthusian maniacs, prophets of climate despair, civilisation-haters, dirty hippies; closer to a rap battle than to an academic dialogue. Imagine my joy when I […]
Category: English
I must confess: I spend way too much time reading criticisms of degrowth. While there is plenty to go around (here is a list for fellow aficionados of conceptual brawl), it is – unfortunately – rare to stumble upon a constructive critique. But every now and then, something shiny ends up in my sieve, like the […]
As a social scientist working on degrowth, I got a sudden surge of excitement upon hearing that Marxist geographer Matt Huber recorded a podcast titled Destroying degrowth with facts and logic. But the surge was short-lived. The episode is not really worth listening to, with very little of it actually about degrowth. But this was a […]
It takes time to build a card castle but less to destroy it. While the first part is quite dull, the razing is always a thrill. This is perhaps why people enjoyed Bryan Walsh’s 3-pager How stalling growth hurts the planet. The text is tiny but ambitious since it claims to debunk the degrowth argument. Having […]
Last week, I was only an economist. But now, I am also a magician. On February 20th, Branko Milanović published a post on his personal blog accusing degrowth of “magical thinking.” As a specialist of the topic, I have no choice but to come clean about my supernatural abilities. This is not the first time. Milanović already […]
On November 26th, Yanis Varoufakis appeared on The Jolly Swagman Podcast. For all of us economics nerds, this is the best Christmas present one could ask for. What threw me off my chair was Varoufakis’ opinion on “degrowth.” As a long-time enthusiast of his work, and considering him a pinnacle of erudition and wit, I was surprised to see him […]
Discussions around “degrowth” are blooming everywhere and that’s great news. What is not great is the shamefully low level of academic rigour of many texts that criticise the concept. Never longer than a few paragraphs, often without any numbers or references, these texts are hardly a critique in any meaningful understanding of the term. Enrique […]
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Fear and Loathing in “Degrowth”
Degrowth is a word that upsets. In certain settings, a mere evocation of the D-word is enough to transform a constructive discussion into a strife; in others, the term becomes a smoke bomb causing widespread confusion. On these grounds, several commentators have argued that “degrowth” must change its name. I hear their arguments and yet I […]