Degrowth: A 21st Century Revolution

A guest blog by Ci Davis

Degrowth is a word that attracts strong opinions.  The opportunity to talk to Jason Hickel, bestselling author of Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, provides a chance to challenge some of the misrepresentations and misconceptions

Jason is a world-renowned political economist, and ICREA Professor ICTA-UAB, and he will be travelling by train from Barcelona to Sheffield, to present a headline event, at the Festival of Debate, with Global Justice Sheffield.  This is my interview with him.

What is degrowth?

Degrowth is a planned reduction in specific damaging and unnecessary sectors.  The goal is to reduce excess resource and energy use and enable faster decarbonisation.  This is clear when it comes to climate change, if rich countries are to decarbonize fast enough, they need to reduce total energy use.  That is a fact.  Some of this can be achieved through efficiency improvement, but we know that is not enough on its own. We need to actively reduce damaging and unnecessary forms of production, like SUVs, private jets, mansions, cruise ships, fast fashion, industrial-beef, weapons etc.

How is this different from recession?

A recession is a crisis where production declines in a totally unplanned way.  It may negatively affect important sectors, and it may leave people out of work.  It’s a disaster.  This is crucial.  Degrowth does not call for all production to be reduced.  On the contrary, the idea is to reduce unnecessary production, while focusing our economies instead on what is most important for well-being and environment.

Yet politicians are focused on economic growth to provide for people’s needs.  Why do you think that is?

The dominant assumption is that all growth is good.  But this is false. Growth is simply a measure of total production.  Accordingly, 1 million pounds worth of BAE Weapons is valued exactly the same as 1 million pounds of healthcare or affordable housing.  Obviously, when it comes to human well-being, some forms of production are more important than others!  So, we should focus on those.

People tend to assume that growth means more money.  But it doesn’t, it means more things.  If you pursue growth in BAE Weapons, your society becomes richer in… BAE Weapons!  This does not benefit anyone except the elite. If you want to provide obviously good things, like renewable energy affordable housing, and healthcare, then you have to produce those things directly!  It makes no sense to say we need to produce more BAE Weapons in order to produce more renewable energy – that is a lie.

Degrowth is not well understood and is sometimes feared.  How can we reassure people?

Degrowth must be understood as part of a democratic socialist transformation directed at improving the conditions of workers, who generate the nation’s wealth.  We should have a say over what we produce and who benefits!  We should have the power to direct production toward solving our social and ecological crises. 

Right now, we are denied this opportunity.  Production is controlled by the elite who produce only what is profitable to them.  Therefore, we get perverse production: massive overproduction of things like SUVs and mansions, and chronic underproduction of things like renewable energy and affordable housing.  We need to reclaim democratic control over production in order to deal with this problem. 

Crucially, degrowth comes packaged with a public job guarantee and with guaranteed living wages.  This prevents any involuntary unemployment and enables people to train and participate in the most important collective projects of our time, like building public transport, installing renewable energy, and improving public services. 

Do you think that such transformations are possible?

The work I do with my fellow researchers shows that, under conditions of economic democracy, it is possible for us to achieve dramatic improvements in human well-being while also achieving our ecological goals.  Researchers show that we can improve human well-being with a lot less resource and energy use, which provides real hope and shows what we are capable of doing.

Global Justice Sheffield are hosting the event.  How are issues in the global south relevant to people in Sheffield?

The key thing here, is to understand that growth and capital accumulation in the global North depends on massive net-appropriation of resources, and labour, from the South. Northern elites get the benefits, while the social and ecological costs are experienced in the South.  This drains Southern countries of resources and labour that could be used for development.  It is wildly unjust and must be abolished. At the same time, Southern governments need to be able to reclaim control over their productive capacities, which requires a struggle for national liberation.   Degrowth policies can therefore be understood as part of a broader anti-colonial transformation. 

Lots to embrace?

So much!  Democracy at work.  Living wages.  Economic security.  Meaningful, socially important work.  More free time.  And ecological stability!  It means taking our future back from the ruling classes that are currently driving us into the abyss in order to pump up their profits.  What’s not to love?

A degrowth revolution is a vision for a democratic, sustainable and just future, with strategies to get us there.  To learn more, come and listen to Jason in-person.

Tickets Degrowth – A 21^st Century Revolution  at  https://festivalofdebate.com