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151 | decrecer
,
Keywords Dialogue
Colonialism
Plurality
Debate
Degrowth
It is almost impossible to disagree with a proposal seeking to slow things down
to minimize harm to the planet. However, the question is where. The manifesto
in The Case for Degrowth acknowledges the challenge of asking distinct
populations to lower their economic growth and well-being. They suggest
alliances, echoing the commons, and highlight ancient cultural traditions that
have envisioned other worlds. In contrast, the discussion offered by Deepak
Lamba-Nieves through the case of Puerto Rico and its colonial subjugation –
shared or equivalent to many in the Global South and elsewhere – asks us to
reflect upon who is demanding or expecting us to degrowth.
| , 152
Giorgos Kallis
<georgios.kallis@uab.cat>
Bachelor in Chemistry and Master in Environmental Engineering, Imperial
College. PhD in Environmental Policy, University of the Aegean. Master in
Economics, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. He is an ecological
economist and political ecologist working on environmental justice and limits to
growth. He is an professor since .
Susan Paulson
<spaulson@latam.ufl.edu>
and PhD in Anthropology, University of Chicago. Paulson’s scholarship
explores theoretical frontiers in political ecology and degrowth, and
approaches gender and environment with attention to masculinities and
intersectionality. She is a professor at the Center for Latin American Studies,
University of Florida.
153 | decrecer
Federico Demaria
<federico.demaria(a)ub.edu>
in Political Economy, MSc in Environmental Studies (Ecological Economics),
and PhD in Ecological Economics and Political Ecology. He is an assistant
professor at the University of Barcelona, and an associate researcher at the
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology , Autonomous
University of Barcelona.
Giacomo D’Alisa
<giacomodalisa@ces.uc.pt>
PhD in Economics and Technology for Sustainable Development, . He
currently is a political ecologist at the Centre for Social Studies at the University
of Coimbra, Portugal, and researches a new understanding of the commons
and alternative commons-based resource management suitable for low-
carbon societies that prosper without growing.
¹
Alliance-Building
In this daunting political environment,
alliances are fundamental. Millions of
potential allies can be found among
nature-lovers, care-providers, families with
children, biking fanatics, vegans, overworked
professionals, hippies, unemployed people,
indebted families, climate refugees, back-to-
the-landers, senior citizens, people engaged
in anti-colonial and anti-capitalist movements,
and more. Here we look at a few among many
vital allies: workers, feminists, anti-racists, and
members of low-income communities.
[...] Why would billions of people living
in low-income communities and countries
support a movement that seems to hinder
hopes of enjoying some of the promised
benefits of economic grow th? First, we must
recognize the extremely different conditions
and positions among these populations. To
many living on frontiers of global expansion,
the contraction of European or North American
economies can bring relief. Indigenous
communities we have worked with in Brazil,
Bolivia, Mexico, and Ecuador risk their lives
fighting against incursions of mining, logging,
drilling, roads, and agribusiness, in defense of
long-evolving solidarity and kin economies.
Degrowth may seem less appealing to
urban middle classes and political leaders in
Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere, who are
trying to improve standards of living and pay
off debts with the pittances they obtain from
extractivist concessions, taxes on multinational
corporations, and similar. Not to mention
China, where generations who had suffered
deprivation are now caught up in economic
and material growth at scales unprecedented in
human history.
Our case illuminates ways in which the
drive for growth has shaped colonialism,
sexism, racism, and other inequities; but we
do not argue that our proposals for degrowth
are relevant for all actors positioned in the
resulting uneven terrains. Operating from
positions in wealthy northern societies, we
seek to learn with and from others. Drawing
on feminist and decolonial approaches to
support mobilization less influenced by
historical hierarchies, Dengler and Seebacher
(:) argue that
[...] degrowth is not to be misunder stood as
proposal from the Global North imposed
on the Global South, but rather a Norther n
supplement to Southern concepts,
movements and lines of t hought. It is therefore
imperative for degrow th to seek alliances with
these Southern ‘fellow travelers’.
Arturo Escobar (:) identifies points of
convergence among moves toward degrowth
in the north and toward post-development
in Latin America: originating from different
intellectual traditions and operating through
different epistemic and political practices,
they combine radical questioning of core
assumptions of growth and economism
with visions of alternative worlds based on
ecological integrity and social justice.
Those in other parts of the world who are
fighting on their own terms for meaningful,
equitable, and ecologically sustainable worlds
should know that we are engaged in a parallel
fight, in the belly of the beast. Even sincere
commitments to dialogue and alliance across
these differences meet obstacles (Beling, et
al., ). In interviews with environmental
justice activists, Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos (et
al., :) and colleagues found that “In
parts of Africa, Latin America and many other
regions of the Global South, including poor
and marginalised communities in Northern
countries, the term degrowth is not appealing,
and does not match people’s demands.”
Susan Paulson () has identified rewards,
as well as challenges, of dialogue across
difference during a multi-year collaboration
among researchers from varied cultural,
linguistic, and national backgrounds learning
from communities around the world who
prioritize wellbeing and solidarity, rather than
increased production and consumption. In
our experience, common senses of degrowth,
rather than the word itself, do resonate with
people living in diverse low-income contexts.
In sum, degrowth visions and proposals
draw from and take root among ideas and
practices of people in many positions, including
long-established religious or spiritual beliefs
and everyday life in low-income communities.
Rather than replace traditions of worker’s
struggles or modern development with a new
universalizing path, we learn from allies like
the Global Tapestry of Alternatives to support
conditions in which a plurality of pathways can
thrive in mutual respect, reflecting the Zapatista
dream of “a world where many worlds fit.”²
1. Excerpt originally published in Giorgos Kallis, Susan Paulson, Giacomo
D’Alisa Federico Demaria, The Case for Degrowth (Cambridge, UK: Polity
Press, 2020): 97-104.
2. See the Global Tapestry of Alternatives (GTA): <https://globaltapestry-
ofalternatives.org>.
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