“I just fell down a wonderful degrowth rabbit hole 😅”
"These pathways also contribute to a decolonization of imaginaries—by challenging commodification, consumerism, the pursuit of profit, the Western model of development…” (more embarrassment-SH)
Erin Remblance:
I just fell down a wonderful degrowth rabbit hole 😅
I was reading this amazing article, 'Resources for a better future: Degrowth' (https://lnkd.in/gkCHk3EE). It is choc full of hyperlinks that I couldn't stop clicking on because I was so intrigued. Here is a small excerpt from the article:
"These pathways also contribute to a decolonization of imaginaries—by challenging commodification, consumerism, the pursuit of profit, the Western model of development and the destructive, growth-dependent system of capitalism itself. In this way, degrowth seeks to bring about not just material and political change, but cultural change too, allowing us to understand the world, ourselves and our desires through an entirely different lens."
The article listed the following books, which I have not yet read, but I think they sound facinating:
* Serge Latouche. Farewell to Growth, where Latouche develops the notion of degrowth society.
* Chris Carlsson, Nowtopia, a great review of the idea of living our utopias now.
* Degrowth in Movement(s), A dictionary of social movements and alternatives for a future beyond economic growth, capitalism, and domination.
* Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future, showing how the notion of living simply has been around in many forms throughout history.
The article also lead me to this piece by François Schneider, titled 'Let’s Degrow Up and Grow Down!' (https://lnkd.in/gewmK_65), all of which was great, but I especially liked this bit:
"It seems that today’s growth religion is not so much about people believing in growth, it is about believing that others believe in growth. This is reflected by Antal’s proposition in his blog post that growth is already in the brains of 99% of people. In reality when we talk with people informally most are in favour of degrowth, but like Antal, they fear that others would not like it. We are in a growth religion because it enables us to avoid dealing with challenging transformations. Why is growth is often seen as positive? Because it helps us to avoid challenging ourselves. ... So the idea of growth actually avoids dealing with transformation, it avoids the painful political aim of redistribution, of deciding collectively what not to produce and consume. Certainly this cannot go on forever. Change the adjective before growth, call it exquisite, call it beautiful, it will never mean less.
And at some point some people will dare saying that the king is naked, that degrowth is needed."
#degrowth #rebiz