The case for degrowth
Giorgos Kallis, Susan Paulson, Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaría, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2020
Covid-19 has lain bare the fragility of existing economic systems. Any decline in market activity threatens systemic collapse. But it doesn’t have to be this way. To be more resilient to future crises –pandemic, climatic, financial, or political – we need to build systems capable of scaling back production in ways that do not cause loss of livelihood or life. We need to make the case for degrowth. Degrowth is not simply a contraction of the economy, it is living meaningfully, enjoying simple pleasures, working less, and sharing and relating more with others and working less, in more equal societies. Its goal is to purposefully slow things down in order to minimize harm to humans and earth systems. The world will change after the virus, and there will be struggles over which paths to take. But the time is ripe for us to refocus on what really matters: not GDP, but the health and wellbeing of our people and our planet. In a word, degrowth.