What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification

ABSTRACT

Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being. Over the past few years, the idea has attracted significant attention among academics and social movements, but for people new to the idea it raises a number of questions. Here I set out to clarify three specific issues: (1) I specify what degrowth means, and argue that the framing of degrowth is an asset, not a liability; (2) I explain how degrowth differs fundamentally from a recession; and (3) I affirm that degrowth is primarily focused on high-income nations, and explore the implications of degrowth for the global South.

KEYWORDS:

• Degrowth
• COVID-19
• recession
• global South

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jason Hickel

Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist whose research focuses on global inequality, political economy, and ecological economics. He is the author of a number of books, most recently Less is more: How degrowth will save the world (Penguin Random House, 2020) and The divide: A brief guide to global inequality and its solutions (Penguin Random House, 2018). In addition to his academic work, he writes for The Guardian, Foreign Policy and Al Jazeera, serves as an advisor for the Green New Deal for Europe, and sits on the Harvard-Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.