degrowth

American Marxism
by Mark R. Levin
Published 12 Jul 2021

The best way to explain this is to expose what certain of its leading advocates have to say. In their essay, “What Is Degrowth—From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement,” leading degrowthers Federico Demaria, Francois Schneider, Filka Sekulova, and Joan Martin-Alier write that “[d]egrowth was launched in the beginning of the 21st century as a project of voluntary societal shrinking of production and consumption aimed at social and ecological sustainability. It quickly became a slogan against economic growth and developed into a social movement…. Unlike sustainable development, which is a concept based on false consensus, degrowth does not aspire to be adopted as a common goal by the United Nations, the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] or the European Commission.

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Unlike sustainable development, which is a concept based on false consensus, degrowth does not aspire to be adopted as a common goal by the United Nations, the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] or the European Commission. The idea of ‘socially sustainable degrowth,’ or simply degrowth, was born as a proposal for radical change. The contemporary context of neo-liberal capitalism appears as a post-political condition, meaning a political formation that forecloses the political and prevents the politicization of particular demands. Within this context, degrowth is an attempt to re-politicize the debate on much needed socio-ecological transformation, affirming dissidence with the current world representations and search for alternative ones…. Degrowth… challenges the ideas of ‘green growth’ or ‘green economy’ and the associated belief in economic growth as a desirable path in political agendas….

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Degrowth… challenges the ideas of ‘green growth’ or ‘green economy’ and the associated belief in economic growth as a desirable path in political agendas…. Degrowth is not just an economic concept. [I]t is a frame constituted by a large array of concerns, goals, strategies and actions. As a result, degrowth has now become a confluence point where streams of critical ideas and political action converge.”8 Hence, the goal is to reverse the massive economic progress resulting from, among other things, the Industrial Revolution, which created a huge, vibrant middle class and infinite technological, scientific, and medical advancements that have overwhelmingly improved the human condition. The quartet continues: “Degrowth has evolved into an interpretative frame for a social movement, understood as the mechanism through which actors engage in a collective action.

Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
by Jason Hickel
Published 12 Aug 2020

For my take on this scenario, see Hickel and Kallis, ‘Is green growth possible?’ 47 See: Serge Latouche, Farewell to Growth (Polity, 2009); Giorgos Kallis, Christian Kerschner and Joan Martinez-Alier, ‘The economics of degrowth,’ Ecological Economics 84, 2012, pp. 172–180; Giacomo D’Alisa et al., eds., Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era (Routledge, 2014); Giorgos Kallis, Degrowth (Agenda Publishing, 2018). 48 For a history and overview of degrowth, see Kallis, Degrowth; for global South perspectives see Arturo Escobar, ‘Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation,’ Sustainability Science, 2015. 49 For this framing I am indebted to Timothy Morton, Ecology Without Nature (Harvard University Press, 2007).

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How can we possibly bring all of these together? When I set out to write this book, I worried about using degrowth as a central frame. It is only a first step, after all. But as I think about the journey we’ve been on, I wonder if it is also more than that. Degrowth stands for de-colonisation, of both lands and peoples and even our minds. It stands for the de-enclosure of commons, the de-commodification of public goods, and the de-intensification of work and life. It stands for the de-thingification of humans and nature, and the de-escalation of ecological crisis. Degrowth begins as a process of taking less. But in the end it opens up whole vistas of possibility.

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It takes energy to package those products and send them around the world on trucks and trains and aeroplanes, to build warehouses for storage and retail outlets for sales, and to process all the waste when they’re binned. Capitalism is a giant energy-sucking machine.1 In order to reduce energy use, we need to slow it all down. Slow down the mad pace of extraction, production and waste, and slow down the mad pace of our lives. This is what we mean by ‘degrowth’. Again, degrowth is not about reducing GDP. It is about reducing the material and energy throughput of the economy to bring it back into balance with the living world, while distributing income and resources more fairly, liberating people from needless work, and investing in the public goods that people need to thrive.

Prosperity Without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow
by Tim Jackson
Published 8 Dec 2016

Where do the foundations laid down in the previous chapter leave us in relation to the two horns of that dilemma? ‘Our degrowth is not their recession’ The dilemma of growth has us caught between the desire to maintain economic stability and the need to remain within ecological limits. On the one hand, endless growth looks environmentally unsustainable; on the other hand, degrowth appears to be socially and economically unstable. Logically speaking, there are two distinct escape routes from this dilemma. One is to make growth more sustainable; the other is to make degrowth more stable. There’s a particularly striking (and sometimes acrimonious) division between those who choose differently between these two options.

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Once consumption begins to falter the economy starts running into trouble. Investment falls, jobs are lost, businesses go bust, government deficits rise and the economy risks falling into a deflationary spiral. The degrowth response to this challenge is an interesting but not entirely satisfactory one. One of the catchphrases of the movement insists that ‘our degrowth is not their recession’. Degrowth is not the opposite of growth or even the absence of growth. Rather it is, in the words of its proponents, a ‘missile concept’ designed to ‘open up a debate silenced by the “sustainable development” consensus’.

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Is production expanding or is it contracting? Is demand rising or is it falling? The word ‘degrowth’ suggests that one or other of these things is falling. In which case, the challenge is to show how the consequences associated with the second horn of the dilemma are to be avoided. How are jobs protected? How are debts managed? How is stability ensured? Oddly, the questions themselves have not always met with approval from the degrowth movement, many of whom call for an ‘exit from the economy’ and regard degrowth as ‘an invitation to abandon economistic thinking’.8 From a philosophical point of view, it’s easy to have some sympathy with this position.

Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
by Charles Eisenstein
Published 11 Jul 2011

The Riksbank, Buiter, Mankiw, and other mainstream advocates of negative interest rates see them as a temporary measure to force the banks to restart lending and make cheap credit available until the economy starts growing again, at which point, presumably, interest rates would rise back into positive territory. If, however, we are entering a permanent zero-growth or degrowth economy, negative interest rates could become permanent too. The proper rate of interest, positive or negative, depends on whether the economy is to grow or shrink. In the old thinking, monetary policy was intended to spur economic growth or to restrain it to a sustainable level. In the new thinking, monetary policy strives to match the base interest rate to the economic growth (or degrowth) rate. Keynes estimated that it should be “roughly equal to the excess of the money-rate of interest over the marginal efficiency of capital corresponding to a rate of new investment compatible with full employment.”

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Compared to the complex, high-tech processes that go into pharmaceutical medicine, herbal medicine is cheap to produce. Many of the best medicinal plants are near-ubiquitous weeds. A shift toward herbal medicine, homeopathic medicine, and the myriad mind-body modalities blossoming today promises economic degrowth, yet it entails no reduction in our quality of life.4 Another area for economic degrowth is architecture and urban design. In addition to disconnecting us from community, nature, and place, the expansive, alienating suburbs of the last two generations demand enormous consumption of resources. Now, though, planners and builders are rediscovering the virtues of high-density urban design, smaller dwellings, mass-transit-friendly layouts, and multiuse developments that don’t require so much driving.

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Yet the implied promise, that soon we would all have to work only one-thousandth as hard, shows no signs of manifesting. And here I am promising it again. Will this vision likewise prove to be a mirage? No. The key difference is that we won’t rely on technological improvements in efficiency alone to enable greater leisure. The key is degrowth, not efficiency. It seems very counterintuitive: that degrowth—economic recession—will be what ushers in true affluence for the many. In a growth economy, the labor that could be freed up through technological progress is devoted instead to producing more and more stuff. If in 1870 it took ten labor-hours to produce the necessities of life for a household, and today it takes one labor-hour to produce the same quantity of things, then our system conspires to make us consume as much as ten households did in 1870.

The Fair Trade Scandal: Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich
by Ndongo Sylla
Published 21 Jan 2014

What we need therefore is an ‘alternative to development’, such as ‘friendly degrowth’ and ‘localism’. By entering into the paradigm of sustainable development, Fair Trade still did not escape the wrath of degrowth partisans. Although they espouse many alterglobalist arguments, such as the opportunistic takeover of Fair Trade by the ‘Big Capital’, they go further yet (see Pedregal, 2006 for a presentation of these arguments). First, they challenge its ‘consumerist’ model. According to the degrowth movement, Fair Trade promotes more consumption to solve human problems. However, degrowth is not only inevitable, but also, in terms of a societal choice, the only means of maximising the life expectancy of humanity and of future generations.

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It would seem that only 13 per cent of the French people know the difference between the many labels that claim to practise Fair Trade.14 The Point of View of Degrowth Among alterglobalist critics, a form of critique with environmentalist undertones deserves particular attention due to the originality of its assumption: the degrowth movement. This perspective is notable in France. Its partisans are self-proclaimed ‘growth objectors’ who radically challenge the contemporary productivist model and its corollary, the relentless quest for economic growth. 81 Sylla T02779 01 text 81 28/11/2013 13:04 the fair trade scandal Décroissance, Entropie-Écologie-Économie [Degrowth: Entropy–Ecology– Economy] (1995 [1979]), by the eminent Romanian economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, is the theoretical basis of the degrowth movement.

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Sylla T02779 00 pre 5 28/11/2013 13:04 Sylla T02779 00 pre 6 28/11/2013 13:04 Contents List of illustrationsix Acknowledgementsxi List of acronyms and abbreviationsxii Introduction 1 1 On the Inequalities of the International Trade System8 International trade: a lever for a minority, a handicap for the  majority 11 The problem with primary specialisation: a look back on   unequal exchange 16 Biased practices… 25 … facilitated by asymmetric game rules 31 Conclusion 33 2 The Fair Trade Universe A brief history of the movement Introduction to the Fair Trade system: The role of FLO The marketing success of FT: some figures The war of labels Conclusion 34 35 45 51 53 56 3 Controversies Around Fair Trade58 The origins of a debate: the abolitionist movement 60 The origins of a debate: the tradition of free trade 63 Free trade vs Fair Trade: the neoliberal critique 68 The alterglobalist critique: the flaws of the promotion of   social justice via the free market 74 The point of view of degrowth 81 Conclusion 83 4 Redeeming the Free Market as a Solution to Poverty: The Limitations of the FT Economic Model85 Limitations of accounting for the ‘sustainable’ 86 Uncertainties and asymmetries of the FT economic model 99 The local impact of Fair Trade 109 Conclusion 119 Sylla T02779 00 pre 7 28/11/2013 13:04 the fair trade scandal 5 Looking for the Global Impact of Fair Trade120 A non-existent global economic impact 121 Fair Trade does not benefit the poorest 129 Fair Trade: an alternative to neoliberalism?

More From Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources – and What Happens Next
by Andrew McAfee
Published 30 Sep 2019

Holdren, “Impact of Population Growth,” Science 171 (1971): 1212–17, https://www.agro.uba.ar/users/fernande/EhrlichHoldren1971impactPopulation.pdf. “mathematical propaganda”: N. Koblitz, “Mathematics as Propaganda,” in Mathematics Tomorrow, ed. Lynn Steen (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1981), 111–20. “Is the earth’s balance… compatible with the survival of the capitalist system?”: “A History of Degrowth,” Degrowth, accessed March 25, 2019, https://www.degrowth.info/en/a-history-of-degrowth/. “there is no other way of conserving the available reserves for future generations”: André Gorz, Ecology as Politics, trans. Patsy Vigderman and Jonathan Cloud (Boston: South End Press, 1980), 13. “The present system of production is self-destructive [and]… suicidal”: Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle (New York: Bantam Books, 1974), 294–95.

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To do this, though, we’d probably have to walk away from many of the basic assumptions and practices of the Industrial Era and discard the market-based economic thinking that Marshall helped define. The Austrian-French philosopher André Gorz is credited with introducing the term degrowth in 1972, asking, “Is the earth’s balance, for which no-growth—or even degrowth—of material production is a necessary condition, compatible with the survival of the capitalist system?” As you can probably guess, Gorz’s answer was no. In his 1975 book, Ecology as Politics, Gorz made clear his belief that slowing down growth in consumption wasn’t enough—we had to actively reduce it: “Even at zero growth, the continued consumption of scarce resources will inevitably result in exhausting them completely.

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In his 1975 book, Ecology as Politics, Gorz made clear his belief that slowing down growth in consumption wasn’t enough—we had to actively reduce it: “Even at zero growth, the continued consumption of scarce resources will inevitably result in exhausting them completely. The point is not to refrain from consuming more and more, but to consume less and less—there is no other way of conserving the available reserves for future generations.” The “degrowth” movement that Gorz helped launch faced no shortage of obstacles in achieving its goals, but it had on its side a simple, pure, and obvious logic. If we all consumed less, we would in fact consume fewer resources. And maybe we only needed to consume less of some things. In his 1971 bestseller, The Closing Circle, biologist Barry Commoner agreed, “The present system of production is self-destructive [and] the present course of human civilization is suicidal.”

A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity and a Shared Earth
by Chris Smaje
Published 14 Aug 2020

This is the lodestar of an emerging movement in economics working under the banner of ‘degrowth’ that aims to rethink the whole basis of economic action.49 It speaks to the mature human energetic ecosystem, in which energetic throughput is reduced relative to the fossil-fuelled bonanza of the 20th-century economy, while human well-being is retained or enhanced. My position in this book is in keeping with the degrowth project, but I argue for a strong focus on agriculture as the key point of energetic transformation. I also have some sympathy for mainstream economists who struggle to differentiate the unfamiliar new world of degrowth economics from the familiar scourge of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth, or recession.

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Predicting a ‘climacteric’ before 2040, when a confluence of crises of the kind examined in Part I will force systemic change, David Fleming wrote: ‘The task … is not about wrestling with the controls of economics to force it in the direction of degrowth, but about getting ready for the moment when the coming climacteric does the heavy work of degrowth for us.’28 I’m more sympathetic to Fleming’s argument than I once was. After all, if even so expert a helmsman as the ‘Iron Chancellor’ Otto von Bismarck thought that humans could only float with the current of events, then I’m happy not to try wrestling overly with economic controls. Instead, like Fleming, I think it makes sense to prepare for a time when the current of events delivers degrowth by default. The sobering thing is that there are so many ways in which the heavy work of degrowth could be destructive of human well-being, and only a few in which it’s otherwise.

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Further, as this capital is put to work in ever more complex and interrelated ways, the amount of energy used to produce the final outputs increases (there’s greater investment in the final and intermediate energy economy), even if the intensity of energy use to produce a given level of output diminishes. This has two further sobering – though perhaps in some sense liberating – implications. First, it seems impossible to ‘degrow’ the global economy in its present form energetically without fundamentally changing it. Otherwise, degrowth would equate simply with recession, joblessness and economic stagnation. Second, even if energy use could be made carbon neutral and effectively limitless, it’s likely that the compounding material trace of capital growth would then butt up against some other physical limit – soils, water, phosphates, pollution abatement and so on.48 But these sobering implications are potentially liberating because they suggest the present structuring of the global economy can’t continue, freeing us to work towards other kinds of economy.

The Capitalist Manifesto
by Johan Norberg
Published 14 Jun 2023

But even a climate activist like Greta Thunberg complains that world leaders only talk about money and ‘some technical solutions’.2 This alludes to the widespread perception that we cannot rely on the growth and technology that have created the problems to solve them. Many greens want ‘degrowth’ and say we should consume less, travel less and settle for less to give the planet a chance. It is my sincere conviction that this would be the worst thing we could do for the world – and for the climate. My exhibit A is the fact that we just tested this approach. The 2020 pandemic was an unforeseen and undesirable experiment in degrowth. Almost overnight, the machines stopped and the borders were blocked. The planes stayed on the ground, cargo ships anchored outside the ports and half the world’s population was barred from leaving their homes.

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A report from Bangladesh documents that infant mortality is more than a third higher in villages without electricity. These numbers would be much worse if the energy-poor could not use technology and goods produced in places with electricity but, in a world of energy starvation, the entire world’s production, trade and transport systems would collapse.4 And that’s not all. Paradoxically, degrowth would also make global warming even more dangerous for humans, as we need prosperity and technology to adapt to it. Rich countries have no fewer natural disasters than poor ones, but they are much better at minimizing their damage to life and health. According to the International Disaster Database, the global risk of dying in a climate-related disaster – such as droughts, floods, storms, forest fires and extreme heat – has decreased by more than 90 per cent since the 1950s.5 That’s not because the number of natural disasters has decreased, but because prosperity, technology, construction and healthcare have improved.

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An in-depth study of the Netherlands shows that biodiversity declined rapidly until 1970, but since then it has increased rapidly, ‘a pattern that is broadly consistent with the notion of an inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve’.28 The challenges facing the world are great and how much damage we will do before it gets better is still an open question. What we have learned, though, is that degrowth is not the solution to environmental problems. The question is not how we can keep the Chinese and Indians in poverty, but how we can get them over to the right side of the Kuznets curve. One way is to keep the global economy open. Long-distance trade is often blamed for creating more emissions and we are encouraged to buy local products.

Not the End of the World
by Hannah Ritchie
Published 9 Jan 2024

In a world where our per capita impacts are zero (or, maybe even negative, meaning we restore historical environmental damage) then it doesn’t matter whether we live in a world with 1, 7 or 10 billion people. Our total impact will still be zero. One half of our sustainability equation would be complete. (2) Degrowth What about ‘degrowth’ – shrinking the economy – instead? This argument hinges on the fact that, historically, economic growth has been linked with more resource-intensive lifestyles. As we got richer, we used more energy from fossil fuels, had a higher carbon footprint, used more land and ate more meat. And it’s true that in a world without technological change, we’ll be stuck with fossil fuel power, petrol cars and inefficient homes.

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In rich countries carbon emissions, energy use, deforestation, fertiliser use, overfishing, plastic pollution, air pollution and water pollution are all falling, while these countries continue to get richer.vii The idea that these countries were more sustainable when they were poorer is simply not true. There is another important reason why degrowth will not build a sustainable future. Degrowth argues that we can redistribute the world’s wealth from the rich to the poor, giving everyone a good and high standard of living with the resources already at our disposal. But the maths doesn’t check out.20 The world is far too poor to give everyone a high standard of living today through redistribution alone.

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Our collective environmental impact is quite simple when we break it down: it’s the number of people multiplied by everyone’s individual impact. When we put it that way, two grand solutions emerge: reduce the number of people on the planet or cut our individual impacts by intentionally shrinking the economy. These arguments – referred to as depopulation and degrowth – are represented by very loud advocates in environmental debates. But neither of these options is viable. We will not achieve sustainability by shrinking the population or the economy. In the following chapters I’ll walk us through why in much more detail. But first, here’s what you need to know before we start

Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 7 Sep 2022

The only real answer, the really simple one that neither philanthrocapitalists nor green technologists want to hear, is that we have to reduce our energy consumption altogether. Degrowth is the only surefire way to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint. It would also give us time to transition to less energy-intensive technologies. Instead of debating whether to buy electric, gas or hybrid, just keep the car you have. Better yet, start carpooling, walking to work, working from home, or working less. Like Jimmy Carter tried to tell us during his much-ridiculed fireside chats, turn down the thermostat and wear a sweater. It’s better for your sinuses, and better for everyone. Degrowth can live alongside growth-based capitalism, but it can’t support it.

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Energy and Our Future, “Earth and Humanity: Myth and Reality,” YouTube video, May 16, 2021, 2:52:14, https:// www .youtube .com /watch ?v =qYeZwUVx5MY. 139   Transitioning slowly : Richard Heinberg, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival (Gabriola, BC, Canada: New Society, 2021). 139   Degrowth is the only surefire way : For more on degrowth, see the books and resources listed on the Post Carbon Institute website, https:// www .postcarbon .org /. 140   the worst accusations about these people : For more, see Whitney Webb, One Nation Under Blackmail (Chicago: Trine Day, 2022); Whitney Webb, “The Cover-Up Continues: The Truth About Bill Gates, Microsoft, and Jeffrey Epstein,” Unlimited Hangout , July 24, 2021, https:// unlimitedhangout .com /2021 /05 /investigative -reports /the -cover -up -continues -the -truth -about -bill -gates -microsoft -and -jeffrey -epstein /. 140   “at the forefront” : Steven Levy, “Bill Gates and President Bill Clinton on the NSA, Safe Sex, and American Exceptionalism,” Wired , November 12, 2013. 141   Funders, scientists, and royals : Whitney Webb, “Isabel Maxwell: Israel’s ‘Back Door’ into Silicon Valley,” Unlimited Hangout, July 24, 2021, https:// unlimitedhangout .com /2020 /07 /investigative -reports /isabel -maxwell -israels -back -door -into -silicon -valley /; Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism , (Toronto: Alfred A.

Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth
by Juliet B. Schor
Published 12 May 2010

Indeed, if we define aggregate growth in ecological, rather than dollar, terms, the link between expansion and living standards is even more tenuous, and may be negative. But can we slow down painlessly, without disruption to employment and incomes? That’s a question environmentalists and even some economists are beginning to pay attention to. In 2008, the first International DeGrowth Conference was held in Paris under the auspices of the European Society for Ecological Economics. Modeling exercises on this question remain scarce, but the ecological economist Peter Victor used a conventional model of the Canadian economy to figure out whether a planned reduction in growth would be feasible.

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A recent study finds that investments in alternative energy produce 3.2 times the employment per dollar spent than in the capital-intensive fossil fuel sector. The logic is similar for small-scale and organic agriculture and local businesses, which are more labor-intensive. While this has been an important conversation, the rhetoric of degrowth or the steady-state economy obscures a key point about the road to sustainability. The nub of the problem is the transition from a dirty to a clean sector. How that plays out on average will change depending on where we are in the journey. At the moment, BAU is so large that aggregate growth is on balance destructive.

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When growth has other negative consequences, direct attention to distribution is a more efficient way to address the problem. 173 Getting bigger doesn’t necessarily yield wealth; improving productivity does: Taking productivity growth in the form of leisure is a strategy that will reach its limits (when hours fall so far that additional leisure time is not useful). However, by the time we get to that point, production may be sufficiently “clean” that growth is not environmentally degrading. 174 the first International Degrowth Conference: Other groups addressing this question include the New Economics Foundation, Redefining Progress, the Schumacher Society, the Association for the Steady-State Economy, Shrinking Economies in the Developed World, and the International Forum on Globalization, as well as individuals within the International Society for Ecological Economics. 174 ecological economist Peter Victor: Victor (2008), chapter 10.

The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions
by Greta Thunberg
Published 14 Feb 2023

In fact, we know that it is possible to meet human needs at a high standard with much less energy and resources than rich countries presently use. The key is to scale down less necessary forms of production and organize the economy around human well-being rather than capital accumulation. This is known as degrowth. Degrowth calls for a planned reduction of excess resource and energy use in high-income nations to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a just and equitable way. What does this look like in practice? Instead of assuming that every sector of the economy must grow, all the time, regardless of whether or not we actually need it, we should decide which sectors of the economy we actually need to improve (for example renewable energy, public transportation and health-care), and which are clearly destructive and should be scaled down (SUVs, air travel, fast fashion, industrial beef, advertising, finance, the practice of planned obsolescence, the military industrial complex, and so on).

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Author of Personal Travel and Climate Change. 4.18 ‘They keep saying one thing while doing another’ / Greta Thunberg 4.19 The Cost of Consumerism Annie Lowrey / Staff writer at the Atlantic, covering economic policy, and author of Give People Money. 4.20 How (Not) to Buy Mike Berners-Lee / Professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre, Director of Small World Consulting Ltd and author of There Is No Planet B. 4.21 Waste around the World Silpa Kaza / Senior urban development specialist in the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice. 4.22 The Myth of Recycling Nina Schrank / Senior campaigner for the Plastics Team at Greenpeace UK. 4.23 ‘This is where we draw the line’ / Greta Thunberg 4.24 Emissions and Growth Nicholas Stern / Professor of Economics and Government; Chair of the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. 4.25 Equity Sunita Narain / Director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment, a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi. 4.26 Degrowth Jason Hickel / Economic anthropologist, author and Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. 4.27 The Perception Gap Amitav Ghosh / Author of sixteen works of fiction and non-fiction; the first English-language writer to receive India’s highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award.

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The fact is that we have lost precious time in finding ‘smart’ ways to do as little as possible to reduce greenhouse emissions, and it is time to take decisive and bold steps. We need to build policies knowing that we live in an interdependent world where cooperation that is driven by fairness and justice is critical. / 4.26 Degrowth Jason Hickel People tend to talk about the ecological crisis in terms of ‘the Anthropocene’, referring to the way that, for the first time in geological history, human activity is dramatically reshaping our planet and our climate. This terminology is useful in certain respects, but it is also incorrect.

Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities
by Vaclav Smil
Published 23 Sep 2019

This has eventually led to advocacy of not just economies without any growth but ones deliberately trying to reduce overall economic output, a shift awkwardly labeled as de-growth. Book titles convey these sentiments: Living within Limits (Hardin 1992); Beyond Growth (Daly 1996); Prosperity without Growth (Jackson 2009); From Bioeconomics to Degrowth (Georgescu-Roegen and Bonaiuti 2011); The Economics of Enough (Coyle 2011); Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era (D’Alisa et al. 2014). In reality, there are no economies embarking on such paths. As already noted, since the 1990s there have been also many studies of the limits to the growing extraction of mineral resources in general and to an imminent arrival of peak global oil production in particular (Deffeyes 2003)—and, given oil’s importance in the global economy, of inevitable and permanent economic downturn.

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At the same time, there is no doubt that since 1973 (when the unprecedented period of rapid post-WWII growth ended) the world economy has become impressively more energy efficient and relatively less material-intensive—while continuing population growth, further increases of consumption in affluent countries, and fast economic advances in Asia in general, and in China in particular, have translated into relatively strong absolute global growth in both energy and material requirements. In relative terms (per unit of economic product) the global economy has shifted in the direction of greater sustainability but in absolute terms it has shown no tendency toward deliberately slower growth, and degrowth remains a cherished topic for ecological economists, not a guiding principle for any companies or governments. As a result, we can only speculate when and how we might be able to put an end to material growth and forge a new society that would survive without worshipping the impossible god of continuously increasing consumption: no country has committed to following such a path.

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The answers would then range from more growth during periods of years to decades for most of the world’s economies to a nonnegligible probability of some kind of involuntary global retreat—that is substantial prolonged worldwide retrenchment, followed, at best, by greatly diminished rates during a halting recovery, at worst by further gradual decline, that is degrowth not by choice but as a reaction to cumulative (economic, extraction, consumption, environmental) excesses. Modern Civilization After millennia of slow and unsteady progress, the two centuries of unprecedented growth—of populations, food production, infrastructures, and of extractive, manufacturing, transportation, and communication techniques—have brought changes that were truly unimaginable at the outset of this transformational process.

The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality
by Richard Heinberg
Published 1 Jun 2011

Georgescu-Roegen’s thinking had in turn been influenced by that of chemist-turned-economist Frederick Soddy (1877–1956), author of Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt (1926), which sought to bring economics into line with the laws of thermodynamics and which critiqued fractional-reserve banking.35 The French translation of Georgescu-Roegen’s book in 1979 under the title Demain la décroissance (“Tomorrow, Degrowth”) spurred décroissance thinking and organizing that eventuated in the first International Degrowth Conference in Paris in 2008 and the founding of a French-language newspaper, La Décroissance: Le journal de la joie de vivre, published in Lyons. In the United States, the term “degrowth” is seldom mentioned; however, over the past twenty years a similar trend in thinking has spurred the “voluntary simplicity” movement, which questions the environmental, psychological, and social costs of ever-growing consumption.

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Its conclusion: “Economic growth in the OECD cannot be reconciled with a 2, 3, or even 4°C characterization of dangerous climate change.”31 Herman Daly, one of the pioneers of ecological economics (he published Toward a Steady State Economy in 1973 and Beyond Growth in 1996, and co-authored a textbook titled Ecological Economics in 2004), differentiates between economic growth and uneconomic growth.32 For Daly, uneconomic growth consists of GDP gains that are accompanied by static or declining social benefits, as for example when a certain amount of short-term growth is achieved by undermining ecosystems whose services have a greater long-term value.33 In Europe, a “degrowth” movement has taken root, founded on the ideas of Mohandas Gandhi, Leopold Kohr, Jean Baudrillard, André Gorz, Edward Goldsmith, Ivan Illich, and Serge Latouche.34 The work of Romanian economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906–1994) was especially pivotal in setting the movement on its path: his 1971 book titled The Entropy Law and the Economic Process pointed out that neoclassical economics fails to acknowledge the second law of thermodynamics by not accounting for the degradation of energy and matter.

The Smartphone Society
by Nicole Aschoff

In conjunction with action from the Sunrise Movement, US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and US senator Ed Markey introduced a version of the Green New Deal in Congress in February 2019. Their resolution calls for the United States to take a “leading role in reducing emissions through economic transformations” because it has “historically been responsible for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions.” Instead of promoting a “degrowth” philosophy—reducing fossil fuel use by reducing consumption and production—proponents of the Green New Deal advocate a “just transition” toward a green energy ecosystem in which people and communities, particularly those whose livelihoods depend on the fossil fuel industry, are given the support they need during the transition process in the form of job transfers, pensions, and retraining.23 Taking Stock These initiatives, ranging from labor organizing to watchdogs to green policy, are by no means an exhaustive accounting of the current pushback against the ills of our smartphone society.

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The term “Green New Deal” has been around for more than a decade, but its recent usage refers to a pair of resolutions submitted to Congress by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey and to the broader social movement supporting the ideas articulated in the proposals. The Sunrise Movement, a major supporter, has information on its website, https://www.sunrisemovement.org/gnd. 23. Pollin, “De-Growth vs. A Green New Deal.” 24. For a discussion, see Silver, Forces of Labor. 25. Moody, On New Terrain. 26. Silver, “Workers of the World.” 27. See, for example, Scholz, “Platform Cooperativism vs. the Sharing Economy.” 28. Akuno and Nangwaya, Jackson Rising. 29. Stallman, “A Radical Proposal to Keep Your Personal Data Safe.” 30.

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Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, December 2016. Pine, Joseph B., and James H. Gilmore. “Welcome to the Experience Economy.” Harvard Business Review, July–August 1998. Polletta, Francesca. It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pollin, Robert. “De-Growth vs. A Green New Deal.” New Left Review 112 (July–August 2018). Popper, Nathaniel. “A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada.” New York Times, November 1, 2018. Posner, Eric A., and E. Glen Weyl. “Want Our Personal Data? Pay for It.” Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2018. Postman, Neil.

The Dark Net
by Jamie Bartlett
Published 20 Aug 2014

p.85 ‘It is currently run and managed . . .’ http://cooperativa.cat/en/whats-cic/background/; https://www.diagonalperiodico.net/blogs/diagonal-english/from-critique-to-construction-the-integrated-cooperative-in-catalonia.html. p.85 ‘CIC’s vision is to find new ways . . .’ D’Alisa, G., Demaria, F. and Cattaneo, C., ‘Civil and Uncivil Actors for a Degrowth Society’, Journal of Civil Society: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17448689.2013.788935. p.87 ‘Throw in the communal cooking . . .’ ‘Degrowth in Action’, from Opposition to Alternatives Building: How the Cooperative Integral Catalana enacts a Degrowth Vision. It is the 2012 Master’s thesis of Sheryle Carlson, of the Human Ecology Divison of Lund University. p.88 ‘In 2009, Duran began promoting . . .’ http://enricduran.cat/en/i-have-robbed-492000-euros-whom-most-rob-us-order-denounce-them-and-build-some-alternatives-society-0/.

The New Class Conflict
by Joel Kotkin
Published 31 Aug 2014

Georgia McCafferty, “World’s Happiest Nations Are . . . ” CNN, September 9, 2013, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/09/business/earth-institute-world-happiness-rankings; Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, p. 88; John Muscat, “The Illusions of Charles Montgomery’s Happy City,” New Geography, January 25, 2014, http://www.newgeography.com/content/004149-the-illusions-charles-montgomerys-happy-city. 60. George Monbiot, “This Is Bigger than Climate Change. It Is a Battle to Redefine Humanity,” Guardian, December 14, 2009; Dan Bednarz, “Power, Identity and Social Change as We Enter Degrowth,” Health After Oil (blog), August 12, 2013, http://healthafteroil.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/power-identity-and-social-change-as-we-enter-degrowth. 61. “Renewable Energy Subsidies 6.4 Times Greater than Fossil Fuel Subsidies,” Institute for Energy Research, May 31, 2012, http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/12704. 62. Kenneth P. Green, “Five-Time Father Ted Turner Calls for One-Child Policy,” AEIdeas, December 7, 2010, http://www.aei-ideas.org/2010/12/five-time-father-ted-turner-calls-for-one-child-policy. 63.

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This has engendered an understandable search for an alternative method to measure societal well-being. Climate change campaigners, such as the Guardian’s George Monbiot, propose “a battle to redefine humanity,” essentially replacing the era of “expanders” with one of “restrainers.” Some economists, particularly in Europe, have embraced the notion of what they call “de-growth,” that is, a planned ratcheting down of mass material prosperity.60 Winners and Losers in the “Happiness” Game In any conflict over the preferred shape of society, there are usually winners and losers. The shift from a focus on growth to one on what is fashioned as sustainability has proven a boon both for the public sector, particularly those working in regulatory agencies and politicians who now have new ways to elicit contributions, and for those parts of the private sector that work most closely with government.

Green Economics: An Introduction to Theory, Policy and Practice
by Molly Scott Cato
Published 16 Dec 2008

In an earlier book called Market, Schmarket I cast a sceptical eye over the claims of the neoclassical economists that the market is the most efficient way to organize our economic lives, not to mention other areas of our life such as care and even relationships and voting.10 Other theorists of the green economy are keen to draw a distinction between ‘capitalism’ and the ‘market’: economics relates to the organization of relationships between the state, the market and community, whereas the green worldview sees the state and the market as mechanisms to achieve what people want, rather than people being subject to market dictates. The French proponents of decroissance or ‘degrowth’, for example, talk about ‘putting the economy back in its place’.11 Green economists differ in their view of how much of our economic life would be mediated by the market, although for most entrepreneurialism will still play a role. Although most green economists would see the sustainable economy as involving considerably less trade and the revival of local economies, green economics is not about cutting ourselves off from each other, either within nation states or globally.

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Olsen (2002) The Politics of Money: Towards Sustainability and Economic Democracy, London: Pluto, p. 160. 9 J. Robertson (1985) Future Work: Jobs, Self-Employment and Leisure after the Industrial Age, London: Gower. 10 M. S. Cato (2006) Market, Schmarket: Building the Post-Capitalist Economy, Gretton: New Clarion Press. 11 V. Fournier (2007) ‘Escaping from the economy: The politics of degrowth’, paper presented to the research seminar of Cardiff School of Management, February. 12 P. Aries (2005) Décroissance ou Barbarie?, Lyon: Golias. ECONOMICS AND IDENTITY 51 13 S. Latouche (2003) ‘Le Marché, l’agora et l’acropole: Se rapproprier le marché’, Refractions, 9: 17–26. 14 Fournier, ‘Escaping’, p. 13. 15 R.

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A similar argument is made today against the holding of land for speculative reasons, including by supermarkets with their so-called ‘land banks’.15 A land tax would require the tax to be paid on the land whether it was put to productive use or not, thus increasing the pressure for using land for economic activity. This might run counter to green thinking about limits to growth and the need for ‘de-growth’ or a reduction in levels of economic activity as measured by GDP (for more see Chapter 7). BOX 12.2 LAND TAX IN AUSTRALIA Henry George made a lecture tour of Australia in 1890 and his ideas found fertile ground. His first speech, in Sydney in May and shortly after his arrival, was called ‘The Land for the People’.

A Pelican Introduction: Basic Income
by Guy Standing
Published 3 May 2017

Shorter working hours in jobs are correlated with smaller ecological footprints.33 And basic income would allow people to reject or spend less time on what David Graeber calls ‘bullshit’ jobs that they find hateful or meaningless.34 As mentioned in Chapter 2, basic income would also make it easier for governments to impose carbon taxes and other environmental measures designed to curb pollution and mitigate climate change, by compensating people for the extra costs of the goods and services affected or for livelihoods lost or disrupted. Some supporters of the ‘degrowth’ movement see basic income as an integral part of an economic reordering alongside other policies to promote ‘prosperity without growth’, at least in the way it is conventionally measured.35 By making income less dependent on employment, basic income would encourage people to question the drive for jobs at any cost and encourage a rethink on the relationship between jobs, production and consumption.

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Mankiw (2016), ‘A quick note on a universal basic income’, Greg Mankiw’s Blog, 12 July. http://gregmankiw.blogspot.ch/2016/07/a-quick-note-on-universal-basic-income.html 26. A. Manning (2015), ‘Top rate of income tax’, Centre for Economic Performance Paper EA029. London: London School of Economics. http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/EA029.pdf. 27. See, for example, J. Burke Murphy (2016), ‘Basic income, sustainable consumption and the “degrowth” movement’, Basic Income News, 13 August. 28. K. Ummel (2016), ‘Impact of CCL’s proposed carbon fee and dividend policy: A high-resolution analysis of the financial effect on U.S. households’, Working Paper v1. 4. Coronado, CA: Citizens’ Climate Lobby, April. https://citizensclimatelobby.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ummel-Impact-of-CCL-CFD-Policy-v1_4.pdf. 29.

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Schor (2013), ‘Could working less reduce pressures on the environment? A cross-national panel analysis of OECD countries, 1970–2007’, Global Environmental Change, 23(4), pp. 691–700. 34. D. Graeber (2016), ‘Why capitalism creates pointless jobs’, Evonomics, 27 September. 35. J. Burke Murphy (2016), ‘Basic income, sustainable consumption and the “DeGrowth” movement’, Basic Income News, 13 August. 36. G. Standing (2014), A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens. London: Bloomsbury, Article 19. 37. Ibid, Article 1. CHAPTER 9: THE ALTERNATIVES 1. G. Standing (2016), The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay.

Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy
by Nathan Schneider
Published 10 Sep 2018

As he acquired more cash, he funded groups around him that he knew and trusted. He backed the Degrowth March, a mass bicycle ride around Catalonia organized in opposition to the logic of economic growth, and equipped Infospai with a TV studio. The beginning of the end came in the summer of 2007. Duran says he noticed signs of the mortgage crisis forming in the United States and decided that it was time to prepare for going public. For the next year, he assembled a collective to produce a newspaper detailing the evils of banks and what he had done to trick them. The people who helped organize the Degrowth March provided a ready-made distribution network throughout Catalonia.

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See decentralized autonomous organizations data, 143–144, 153 data justice, 76 Davies, Bembo, 28, 30–31 Davis, Joseph, 44 Debian software, 139 debt, 101–102 alternative finance and, 103–104 money as, 104–105 strike, 119 student, 103 decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), 111–112 “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” (Barlow), 217 Decretum (Gratian), 23 Degrowth March, 118–119 Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA), 172–174, 172 (photo), 220 democracy, 17, 65, 98–99, 103, 138–139, 148, 161, 206, 219 in Bitcoin, 106, 108–109 co-ops as, 9, 14, 41–42, 58–60, 233 diversified, 225 in electricity co-ops, 170, 175 entrepreneurs practicing, 155–156 United States, decline of, 10, 216 dental chairs, 63 (photo) department stores, 57–58 Derrida, Jacques, 17 design principles, 20–21 Desjardins, Alphonse, 59 Detroit, MI, 72–73, 74 (fig.)

Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism
by John Elkington
Published 6 Apr 2020

See also: https://glasaaward.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/EPL080212final.pdf. 25.https://www.clubofrome.org/report/the-limits-to-growth/ 26.https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/planetary-boundaries/about-the-research/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html 27.https://timjackson.org.uk/ecological-economics/pwg/ 28.https://www.degrowth.info/en/what-is-degrowth/ 29.Better Business, Better World, Business and Sustainable Development Commission, 2017. See also: http://report.businesscommission.org. 30.John Elkington, “Saving the Planet from Ecological Disaster Is a $12 Trillion Opportunity,” Harvard Business Review. See also: https://hbr.org/2017/05/saving-the-planet-from-ecological-disaster-is-a-12-trillion-opportunity. 31.Michael Liebreich, “The Secret of Eternal Growth,” Initiative for Free Trade, October 29, 2018.

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By extension, the economic growth rate is “the annual rate of growth of the economy, normally measured by the change in gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP).” For several decades, the focus of activists was on potential limits to endless, exponential growth. Some experts—including Tim Jackson, with his book Prosperity without Growth27—have even argued for a “degrowth” strategy.28 If the global population were declining—and business people were not needed on the journey—the idea might have attracted more attention than it has. But it isn’t (yet) and they are, more than ever. NEW STORIES In recent years, as the global population has continued to explode, there has been a jump in interest in potential growth markets linked to various change agendas.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein
Published 15 Sep 2014

Only in the immediate aftermath of the great market crash of 1929 did the United States see emissions drop for several consecutive years by more than 10 percent annually, but that was the worst economic crisis of modern times.50 If we are to avoid that kind of carnage while meeting our science-based emissions targets, carbon reduction must be managed carefully through what Anderson and Bows-Larkin describe as “radical and immediate de-growth strategies in the US, EU and other wealthy nations.”II51 Now, I realize that this can all sound apocalyptic—as if reducing emissions requires economic crises that result in mass suffering. But that seems so only because we have an economic system that fetishizes GDP growth above all else, regardless of the human or ecological consequences, while failing to place value on those things that most of us cherish above all—a decent standard of living, a measure of future security, and our relationships with one another.

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Most of them were quietly measuring ice cores, running global climate models, and studying ocean acidification, only to discover, as Australian climate expert and author Clive Hamilton puts it, that in breaking the news of the depth of our collective climate failure, they “were unwittingly destabilizing the political and social order.”55 Nonetheless, that order has now been destabilized, which means that the rest of us are going to have to quickly figure out how to turn “managed degrowth” into something that looks a lot less like the Great Depression and a lot more like what some innovative economic thinkers have taken to calling “The Great Transition.”56 * * * Over the past decade, many boosters of green capitalism have tried to gloss over the clashes between market logic and ecological limits by touting the wonders of green tech, or the “decoupling” of environmental impacts from economic activity.

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It’s also because they are paying attention. Growing the Caring Economy, Shrinking the Careless One A great deal of thought in recent years has gone into how reducing our use of material resources could be managed in ways that actually improve quality of life overall—what the French call “selective degrowth.”IV Policies like luxury taxes could be put in place to discourage wasteful consumption.62 The money raised could be used to support those parts of our economies that are already low-carbon and therefore do not need to contract. Obviously a huge number of jobs would be created in the sectors that are part of the green transition—in mass transit, renewable energy, weatherization, and ecosystem restoration.

Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization
by Vaclav Smil
Published 16 Dec 2013

Fleming, P.A. and Loveridge, J.P. (2003) Miombo woodland termite mounds: resource islands for small vertebrates? Journal of Zoology, London, 259: 161–168. Flipo, F. and Schneider, F. (eds) (2008) Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Economic De-Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, http://events.it-sudparis.eu/degrowthconference/appel/Degrowth%20Conference%20-%20Proceedings.pdf (accessed 23 May 2013). FLSmidth (2011) Rotary Kilns for Cement Plants, http://www.flsmidth.com/∼/media/Brochures/Brochures%20for%20kilns%20and%20firing/RotaryKilnsforcementplants.ashx (accessed 23 May 2013).

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His objective is “wealth without resource consumption” – a goal that, as he admits, is of little interest to the prevailing “river” economy, and, as I would argue, of no real interest to all but a tiny fraction of citizens in any country, affluent or impoverished. Others make proposals for “economic de-growth” (Flipo and Schneider, 2008), for managing prosperous economies without growth (Victor, 2008; Jackson, 2009). And yet others argue that the time to begin these great transformations is now because the “denouement of exponentials,” the end of exponential expansion of material use and of accelerating expansion of debt, is fast approaching (Morgan, 2010).

The Rare Metals War
by Guillaume Pitron
Published 15 Feb 2020

The awareness is there, and every one of us already recognise the need to limit our consumption of electronic goods built for obsolescence, to ‘eco-design’ goods for easy recycling and less waste, to opt for short supply loops, and to focus on saving resources.4 While moderate consumption does not necessarily lead to ‘degrowth’, the best energy is that which we use wisely.5 I end on this note with French engineer Christian Thomas, who leaves us with a comment of optimism and common sense: ‘We don’t have a rare material problem; we have a grey matter problem.’6 Will we know how to put our grey matter towards finding the antidote to rare metals?

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See Pierre-Noël Giraud and Timothée Ollivier, Économie des matières premières [The Economics of Raw Materials], op. cit. See Philippe Bihouix, L’Âge des low technology: vers une civilisation techniquement soutenable [The Age of Low Technology: towards a sustainable technical civilisation], Seuil, 2014. Translator’s note: Originally a French term (décroissance), ‘degrowth’, refers to the downscaling of production and consumption (energy and resources), and to decoupling growth from improvement. Interview with Christian Thomas, 2017.

What's Wrong With Economics: A Primer for the Perplexed
by Robert Skidelsky
Published 3 Mar 2020

It roots the feeling of dissatisfaction not in individual psychology (e.g. envy) but in the social demand for fairness. A third, more recent, argument emphasising the long-term costs to the planet, and therefore to future generations, of our relentless pursuit of ‘more and more’, has led to demands for ‘de-growth’. However, these are differences within the circle of material adequacy; they do not discuss what the requisites are for. Thus we justify money spent on education and health as means to well-being, rather than treating them as part of well-being, and so intrinsically valuable. Since everyone has their own idea of well-being, economics must confine itself solely to means, and assume that people are efficient at converting physical resources into well-being.

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The important thing is for people to understand how they fit into the global ecosystem, how economic activities are damaging this ecosystem, and how they might need to change to preserve it, a question first posed by the Club of Rome’s classic The Limits to Growth.28 Georgescu-Roegen went so far as to argue that the only way of preventing the entropy of the planet was through policies of ‘de-growth’. An important development of this line of argument is Kate Raworth’s (b.1970) ‘doughnut economics’, which challenges economics to find a balance between the ‘social foundation’ and ‘ecological ceiling’.29 Economic activity must be set within the bounds of ecological possibility. The diagram shows that ecological economics has the same imprecision in its core idea that we encountered in the economics of ‘well-being’.

The Corona Crash: How the Pandemic Will Change Capitalism
by Grace Blakeley
Published 14 Oct 2020

There is now evidence that the big polluters have known about the impact of burning fossil fuels since at least the 1970s, and yet they have earned billions of dollars’ worth of profits since then – some of these even used to sponsor climate denialism.16 Instead of imposing carbon taxes, or encouraging small behavioural changes, working people must use their influence over state institutions to enforce constraints on polluting activities and promote investment to absorb job losses in carbon-intensive sectors. Focusing on recycling, energy-efficient light bulbs and plastic straws militates against the emergence of such a movement by encouraging people to think of climate breakdown in individualised terms. Equally, buzzwords like ‘degrowth’ conjure up images of scarcity and poverty that deter people from climate activism. Tackling climate breakdown requires a mass movement that can fight back against a capitalist system that exploits human beings as much as it does the natural environment. The Green New Deal must be global – it must result from cooperation between working people, outside of existing international institutions.

Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community
by Karen T. Litfin
Published 16 Dec 2013

There’s only one catch: infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible – a fact that ecovillages have internalized. No wonder, then, that venturing out into “the real world” felt so jarring – the two cultures are living at cross-purposes! Ultimately, sustainability is not optional; it is the sine qua non for earthly habitation. “Degrowth,” as ecological economists call it, is inevitable, which means that we can look to ecovillagers as our forerunners. And, I might add, those of us in affluent societies can also learn from those who are living closer to the earth. Heretical though it might sound, a new breed of economists is thinking about how societies can flourish while downsizing.

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(Dr Ari) 28, 170 Arkin, Lois 30, 114–15, 143 art 8, 13, 58, 88, 119, 122, 138, 141, 183–4 Asia 12, 13, 15, 45, 71, 195 atheism 10, 150, 159, 162 atmosphere (Earth’s) 45, 113, 155, 169, 189 attunement 22, 128–9, 156 Auroville 10, 19, 27, 30–1, 38, 45–6, 63, 71, 88, 104, 114, 133, 137–40, 142, 150, 155, 177, 180–4 Auroville Village Action Group 181 Aurum earth-brick machine 46 Australia 13, 15, 26–7, 46, 53, 73, 181 Ba, Djibril (Jiby) 59, 72, 91 back-to-the-land 11, 22, 56 backyard 73, 97, 127, 189, 190, 205 backyard farm 97, 205 bacteria 29, 51, 60–1 Balde, Djibril 59 Bangladesh 107, 201 Barrel Cluster (Findhorn) 40 Bayer Corporation 199 beauty 25, 39, 47, 75, 78, 82, 89, 101, 108, 147, 163, 174–5, 205 bees 54, 74 belonging (sense of) 14, 30, 31, 136, 144, 146–8, 150, 152, 185 culture of 146–8, 152, 192 story of 185 Berlin 23, 64, 84, 86, 88, 177 Berry, Thomas 154–5 Berry, Wendell 170 Bible (New Testament) 163, 173 bicycle 1, 8, 27, 43, 63–7, 127, 192–4 Big Bang 154–5 bike trains 189 biodiversity 27, 71 see also wildlife biogeochemical cycles 201 biology 4, 25, 36, 51, 53, 57, 72, 135, 154, 159, 162, 163 birds 34, 73, 152, 155 Block, Peter 192 blocking (in consensus decision-making) 8, 41, 64–5, 117–19 Bokaer, Joan 54 Bott, Gabi 166 Brazil 13, 195 Brooks, Joss 181–3 Buddhism 28, 85, 149, 150, 151, 159, 162, 164, 165, 171, 177 building codes 40, 44, 53, 194 bus stop 24, 63, 131, 191 Business Alliance for Local Living Economies 89, 199 Caddy, Peter and Eileen 128, 156 Calera Creek Water Recycling Plant 194 California 6, 29, 43, 69, 74, 111–12, 166, 169, 194 car culture 27, 46, 62, 65–6, 145, 193 Camara, Lamin 90–1 Canada 197 capitalism 79, 88, 106, carbon dioxide 45, 71, 161 Caron, Paul 175–6 Carruba, Capra 16, 125 Catholicism 189 cell phones 70 cement 45, 116 charcoal 33, 72–3 Chennai 181–2 child-rearing practices 11, 17, 18, 24, 94, 111–12, 114, 116, 119, 133–8, 168, 191 children 8, 17, 21–2, 24, 30, 46, 66, 69, 85, 88, 94, 111, 114, 116, 119, 124–5, 127, 131–8, 140–1, 143–4, 147, 153, 163, 168, 180, 189, 193 absence of 30, 137 education of 23, 66, 88, 132, 140, 153, 163, 189 participation of in ecovillage culture 13, 134, 137, 143–5, 147 raised in ecovillages returning 116, 135–7 wellbeing of 24, 30, 46, 111–12, 116, 119, 127, 131, 147, 153 China 36, 59, 62–3, 193 choir 98, 138, 141, 145 Christian, Diana Leafe 113, 119, 206 Christianity (Christian) 149, 150, 151, 159, 162, 168, 185 circle of life 33–4, 74–7, 79, 109–11, 146, 148–9, 188, 202 circus 64, 88–9, 124 Cities for Climate Protection 194 citizenship 35, 49, 75, 92, 100, 122, 124, 136, 189, 202 City Repair 191 climate change 1, 5, 16, 34, 49, 50, 70, 75, 111, 130, 155, 161, 169, 172, 188, 190, 194, 195, 201, 204–5, 211 Club 99 (Sieben Linden) 43, 56–7, 70, 171 cogeneration 40, 49 co-housing 11, 21, 46–7, 93, 127, 207 Cold War 23, 88 collaborative consumption 34, 68–70, 92, 146 collective intelligence 175–9, 185 Colufifa 25–6, 31, 58–60, 66, 90–1, 105, 114, 120, 125, 150, 167–9, 196, 199 common house 17, 27, 43, 46, 50, 69, 70, 92–3, 97, 113, 127, 139, 143, 171 common property 69–70, 80, 92–4, 97, 191, 197, 199 Commoner, Barry 75 commons 191, 197, 199 see also common property commune 95–7, 127, 163 communication 18, 25, 78, 112, 119, 121–3, 125–8, 139, 147, 166, 174–5, 192, 201 communism 95, 106 community meals 70, 83, 162, 195 Community Sustainability Assessment 10, 132 Compassionate Listening 147, 192 complementary currency 99–103, 110 compost 5, 8–9, 32, 34, 54, 59, 128, 129, 137, 146–7, 207 composting toilet 15, 20, 41, 53, 61, 133, 147, 207 compressed-earth building 27–8, 46 conflict 11, 18, 106, 112, 114, 117–23, 137–8, 147, 150, 176, 205 conflict resolution 18, 106, 114, 137–8, 205 connection (sense of) 25, 69, 115, 123–4, 152, 155, 162–3, 166, 171 connectivity 185–6, 202–3 consensus 2, 6, 18, 20, 116–20, 125, 177, 180 consumerism 80, 97, 176 see also consumer society; overconsumption consumer society 15, 80, 92, 102 see also consumerism; overconsumption contraction and convergence 105 cooperative(s) 93, 100–2, 106, 191, 199 Copenhagen 133, 194 corporate lobbying 197–8 cottage industries 27, 87–8, 181–2 Council of Sustainable Settlements of the Americas (CASA) 200–1 courtyard 29, 46, 73, 84, 162 credito 100–3 crisis 3–4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 26, 36, 59, 108, 116, 120, 150, 153, 172, 176, 191, 203 ecological 1–5, 9, 11, 16, 150, 153, 172, 176 extinction 203 of meaning (existential) 150, 153 within ecovillages 18, 26, 108, 116–20 cult 115–16 currency (monetary) 12, 79–80, 98–103 da Silva, Arjuna 48 dairy 56, 83–4, 87 Damanhur 16, 18, 25, 30, 36–40, 42, 46, 57, 63, 87, 100–3, 115, 120, 122–5, 130, 133, 135–6, 150, 155, 157–60, 163, 171, 174, 177, 180, 183 Damanhur Crea 101 Dawson, Jonathan 11, 14, 68, 82, 124, 129, 130, 132 decision-making 17–18, 94, 116–17, 120, 135, 147, 177, 199 Dee, Bhavana 180–1 degrowth 196–7 democracy 66, 94, 106, 116, 117, 120, 177, 185, 188–9, 191, 193 Denmark 12, 22, 49, 92, 95, 97, 134, 197 dinosaurs 153, 155, 203–4 do-it-yourself politics 190 Dongtan (China) 193 downsizing 63, 105, 107, 197 drought-resistant plants 53 Duhm, Dieter 115–16 E2C2 30–5, 76, 80, 110, 151, 188, 191, 193, 195, 199, 203, 207 Earth community 76, 202 Earth System Governance 201 Earthaven 17. 20, 36, 38, 40, 43, 47–9, 53, 57–8, 77–8, 93, 100, 105, 108, 113–21, 129, 141, 150, 160, 165–6 Ecker, Achim 115 eco-home 42, 77, 108 ecological economics 196–7 ecological footprint 7, 21, 24, 26, 34–5, 43, 57, 68, 70, 73, 171, 183 ecology (defined) 34–5 eco-neighborhood 201 see also neighborhoods, sustainability practices in ecosystem 27, 34, 71, 74, 89, 109, 158. 182 ecovillage (defined) 3, 12 Ecovillage at Ithaca (EVI) 17, 21, 36, 41, 46, 50, 54, 63, 69, 83, 86, 93, 107–8, 111–14, 127, 138–9, 152, 194, 198 Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) 38, 132, 195 Ecovillage Network of the Americas 12 EcoYoff (Senegal) 179 Edinburgh 195 education 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 23, 25, 67, 78, 89, 94, 119, 131–2, 135, 179, 181–2, 198 Effective Micro-organisms 29, 60, 182 efficiency 34, 36, 39–42, 64, 66, 81, 108, 121, 147 ego-village 42, 176 electric cars 36, 81 embodied energy 36, 42 energy 3, 20, 25, 27, 30, 34, 36, 38, 39, 40–5, 47, 48–9, 50–3, 58, 62, 63, 66, 69, 70, 74–5, 78, 82–3, 86, 88, 92, 99, 101, 111, 115, 122, 127, 130, 154–5, 156, 164, 176, 182, 183, 188, 189, 190, 193, 195, 197, 202, 205 cogeneration 40, 49 descent 70, 83, 92, 130, 189–90, 195, 202 fossil fuel 34, 42, 49, 51, 58, 62–3, 74, 92, 161, 167, 171, 192, 197, 200 micro-hydro 48 natural gas 48–9, 63 nonrenewable 5, 15, 49, 83 renewable 3, 38, 40, 48, 49, 63, 78, 82, 83, 88, 135, 156, 190, 197, 205 solar 9, 15, 25, 27, 28, 36, 40–5, 48–9, 63, 81–6, 101, 108, 111, 113, 133, 147, 183, 191, 193, 198, 205 wind 27, 48–51, 63, 73, 133 wood 33–4, 40–2, 48–9, 72, 141, 161 energy return on energy investment (EROEI) 62–3 engineer 43, 69, 84, 111 enlightenment (spiritual) 164, 183 entropy 155, 159 Estonia Ecovillage Network 179 Ethiopia 60 ethnic diversity 115, 155 Europe 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 19, 26, 44, 49, 50, 55, 56, 58–60, 65–6, 105, 117, 122, 132, 163, 167–8, 178–9, 194, 197 European Union 5, 55–6, 189, 195, 198 evolution 3–4, 146, 148, 149, 152, 154–5, 157, 159–60, 162–3, 166, 175, 178, 185, 203–4 biological 3, 146, 154, 159, 161, 162, 166, 185, 203–4 cosmological 154–5, 159, 163 cultural 4, 148–9, 160, 166, 175, 188, 203–4 evolutionary intelligence 151, 154, 157, 163, 203 exponential growth 92, 102, 186 Falco (Oberto Airaudi) 25, 122, 158 Farmer, Chris 47–8, 58, 118, 141, 160 fermentation 141, 192 Field of Dreams (Findhorn) 42 Findhorn 12–13, 21–2, 30–1, 40, 42, 49, 51–2, 63, 68, 82, 89, 100, 115, 124, 128–9, 133, 138, 142, 150, 155–7, 177–8, 180, 194–5 Findhorn Consultancy Service 98 Findhorn Foundation 98 fish 58, 77–8, 90, 99,106, 188, 198 focalizer 22, 128, 156 forest (include forestry) 20, 33–4, 37, 55, 58, 71–2, 77, 90, 92, 116, 119, 125, 134, 162, 181, 183, 198 Forum (ZEGG practice) 24, 121–2, 132, 147, 192 fossil fuels 34, 42, 49, 51, 58, 62–3, 74, 92, 161, 167, 171, 192, 197, 200 freedom 6, 86, 95, 97, 121, 131, 178 friendship 6, 9, 42, 81, 108, 129, 134, 164, 185 frugality 51, 105 full-cost accounting 80–2, 189, 197–9 funeral 24, 144–5 Furuhashi, Michiyo 95, 176 Gaia 5, 31, 155–6, 163, 201 Gaia Education 10, 31, 132, 155, 190, 195, 198 Gaia Trust 12 Galle (Sri Lanka) 170–1 Gambia 35, 59, 90, 140, 167–8 Game of Life (at Damanhur) 124–5 Gandhi, Mahatma 81, 106 garbage 5, 9, 88–9, 194 Gateway Farm 57–8, 77, 108, 118, 160–1 GEN-Africa 200–1 gender relations 27, 72, 120, 126, 168 GEN-Europe/Africa 12 GEN-Oceania/Asia 12 genetically modified food 16, 25, 36, 54, 57 Germany 23–4, 33, 40, 44, 48–9, 56, 105, 115–16, 129, 143, 166, 177, 193, 197 gift economy 103–4, 147, 191–2, 199 Gilman, Robert and Diane 12 Gilmore, Jeff 69, 111–13, 138 global civilization 189, 200–2 global economy 12, 16, 34, 62, 79, 80, 82, 107, 109 Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) 10–12, 26, 38, 132–3, 179, 200–1 global governance 200–2 global inequality 35, 105, 167–9 global injustice 35, 169 globalization 12, 60, 63, 75, 107, 133, 139, 170, 186, 200–2 goat(s) 60–1, 207 God 61, 102, 136, 149–50, 164, 168–9, 173, 176, 182 Goura (Damanhurian) 57, 171 governance 18, 20, 28, 114, 116–17, 119, 120–1, 125, 134, 188, 190, 198, 200–1 government 72, 73, 83, 92, 94, 102, 106, 183, 190–1, 195–200 see also subsidies Great Depression 102 Great Reskilling 192 Great Unfoldment 152–61, 162–5, 172–4, 177, 178, 185, 186 green building 13, 36, 39–44, 45–8, 75, 175, 182 greenhouse gas emissions 45, 48, 62, 67–8, 71, 167, 169, 184, 193 see also carbon dioxide Greer, John 103 Groundswell Training Center 198 guesthouse 27, 117 guests in ecovillages 20–1, 23, 28, 40, 65, 68, 71, 87, 100, 117, 128, 132, 140, 144 see also visitors Gunambil (Sri Lanka) 106 Guneskoy Village (Turkey) 179 Halbach, Dieter 164 Hall of Metals (Damanhur) 158–60 Harris, Martha 93, 108 Hanover (Germany) 193 Hawken, Paul 200 Higa, Teruro 60 high school 8, 11, 77, 136 high-density building 46, 194 high-tech approaches in ecovillages 16, 25, 36, 40, 47, 113 Hinduism (Hindu) 149, 150, 151, 159 holistic approach 36–9, 126, 155, 166, 170 see also systemic thinking Hollywood 29, 65–7, 193 homeowners’ association 93, 191 Honduras 65 Høngsmark, Kirsten 96–7 horses 36, 56, 134, 143, 145 Hubble Telescope 188 Hübl, Thomas 177–9, 189 human excrement 8, 34, 182 human manure 33–4, 53 see also human waste; urine human subjects review 11 human waste 33–4 , 53, 182 hunger 10, 25–6, 31, 58–60, 69, 84–5, 97, 130, 141, 185, 196 hybrid cars 36 hyper-individualism 29, 185, 192, 193, 203 idealism 6, 17, 47–8, 86, 89, 99, 118, 120, 136 income (ecovillagers’) 16, 20, 22, 88, 95–6, 98, 101, 164; see also salary India 19, 27, 35–6, 57, 59, 62, 81, 140, 165, 169, 180–3 individualism 29, 46, 116, 176, 178, 185, 192, 193, 203 Indus Valley Restaurant 104 industrialized agriculture 105 infrastructure 35, 48, 51, 62, 63, 69, 86, 186, 194, 202 insulation 41–3 integrity 9, 80, 86, 149, 181, 201 intention (in ecovillages) 114–16, 123, 164, 207 see also purpose (sense of) intentional community 12, 93, 123, 164, 207 interdependence 4–5, 9, 17, 27, 28, 46, 49, 75, 79, 108, 117, 152, 184, 185–6, 199–202 ecological 4–5, 9, 36, 75, 108, 117, 184, 185–6 global (planetary) 4–5, 9, 27, 46, 75, 79, 117, 184, 185–6, 199–202 social 4–5, 9, 17, 36, 49, 117, 152, 184, 185–6 interest (monetary) 12, 17, 23, 35, 54, 76, 79, 80, 83, 100, 102–3, 112, 129 internal economy 64, 100 internalizing costs 197 see also full-cost accounting International Consortium of Local Environmental Initiatives 190 international institutions 189, 200 international law 3, 189, 194, 200 International Training Center for Local Authorities (CIFAL) 195 internet 12, 36, 64, 70, 99, 189, 191, 199, 201 interreligious sensitivity 149–50, 168 Isadon (Furuta Isami) 29, 61, 121, 172–3 Islam (Muslim) 26, 149, 150, 151, 159, 162, 168 Italy 16, 18, 25, 49, 100–2, 136, 157 Jackson, Ross 12 Japan 28–9, 60–1, 92, 94, 123, 172 jobs 79, 85–8, 96, 100, 111, 117, 166, 197 joining fee 93, 95 Judaism (Jew) 149, 159, 162 kibbutz 12, 13 Kibbutz Lotan (Israel) 179 Kidokoro, Yuki 84, 123, 143 Kitao, Koichi 60–1, 74 Kloster, Jørgen 55–6 Konohana 28–9, 60–1, 74, 92, 94–5, 121, 150, 155, 172–3, 176–7, 180 laboratory (ecovillage as) 13, 18, 27, 79, 86, 131, 149, 151, 164, 175, 180, 185–6, 205 LA County Bicycle Coalition 65 Læssø, Bø 55–6 Lagoswatte 28 laundry 46, 47, 50, 69 laws 25, 27–8, 93, 97, 106, 155, 170, 191, 197–9 learning author’s 2, 5–9, 13–16, 20, 39, 45, 67, 94. 102, 110, 141, 143, 153, 165, 168, 174–5, 179, 181, 205–7 from ecovillages 11, 14, 18–19, 60–1, 121, 131–4, 141–2, 147, 150, 187–204 in ecovillages 11, 14, 18–19, 28, 47, 51, 53, 60–1, 88, 108, 111, 113, 121, 131–4, 136–8, 147, 164, 177 legal and financial structure 92–7 lessons (from ecovillages) 9, 13, 15, 32, 69, 81, 110, 151, 187–204 libertarianism 190 Lietaer, Bernard 99–100 Lindegger, Max 26, 28, 84 linear model (economic) 33–4, 53, 75, 203 literacy 25, 106, 168, 181 Living Building Challenge 194 Living Machine 51–2, 194 living system 5, 53, 166, 173 Lizama, Jimmy 65–6, 193 localization 16, 54–5, 73–80, 84, 87–9, 97, 99, 110–11, 130, 141, 189–96, 198–9, 201–2 Los Angeles 13, 15, 29–30, 65, 67, 84, 93, 114, 150, 162, 193–4 riots in 30, 114–15 Los Angeles Eco-Village (LAEV) 29–30, 65, 67, 84, 93, 114–15, 123, 127, 137, 142, 150, 162, 193 Love, Brian 58, 77–8, 108 Lovelock, James 155 low-income housing 108 low-tech approaches in ecovillages 16, 36, 40, 47, 70 MacLean, Dorothy 156 Macy, Joanna 154, 165–6 magic 25, 124, 127, 159, 160–1, 163 malaria 25, 181 Marland, Angus 156–7 mass extinction 1, 75, 155, 172, 203 mass transit 23, 63–4, 66, 92, 127, 167, 206 Matrimandir (Auroville) 183–4 Mbackombel (Senegal) 198 meat 22, 25, 55–8, 83 medicine 59–60, 136 meditation 7, 25, 122, 128, 136, 151–2, 156–64, 165, 171, 177 Sarvodaya’s peace 151–2, 165 meetings 7, 17, 27, 46, 92, 95, 98, 105, 107, 112, 115, 117, 119, 120–1, 126, 132, 134, 138–40, 164, 172, 176–7, 179 membership process 22, 93–4, 96 microfinance 25, 59, 106–7, 168, 181, 185, 199 Middle America 21, 108, 194 Middle East 59, 197 Ministry of Ecovillages (Senegal) 198 misanthropic temptation 153 molecular biology lab 25, 36, 57 monasteries 11, 171 Monbiot, George 67–8 money 6, 8, 11, 13, 16, 49, 55, 77–80, 86–7, 98–103, 109–20, 140–1, 161, 168, 169, 180, 192, 198 see also currency (monetary); complementary currency monogamy 24, 115 Morrison, Lara 162 Mount Fuji 28, 172, 174 multinational corporation 112, 161, 200 music 8, 23, 86, 139, 142, 174–5, 185 see also song(s) Music of the Plants (Damanhur) 174–5 mysticism 115, 156, 162, 177, 183, 185 nation-state 117, 200 Nature-Spirit Community 126 Ndao, Babacar 198 neighborhood skills map 64, 70, 87, 192 neighborhoods 6, 21, 29, 32, 43, 54, 46, 50, 52, 56, 64, 67, 70, 87, 97, 108, 109, 110, 114, 138, 141, 146, 167, 171, 187, 188, 190, 191–6, 201, 205 sustainability practices in 80, 87, 97, 109–10, 114, 138, 141, 146, 188, 191–2, 205 New Age 21, 88, 162 New Rural Reconstruction Movement (China) 196 New York City 193 Nonviolent Communication (NVC) 112, 119, 123, 125, 147, 192 Nygren, Kristen 111–13, 138 Obama, Michelle, 199 oikos 74–5, 79 oneness 162, 186 organic food 2, 6, 9, 21, 29, 54–60, 73, 75, 81, 84, 87, 97, 128–9, 133, 191 overconsumption 4–5, 35, 36, 105, 107, 112, 167, 202 see also consumerism; consumer society Owen, David 193 ownership 11, 18, 64, 70, 80, 101–2, 92, 94, 97–8, 146, 199 Pacific Northwest 187 park (public) 73, 92. 97, 189 participatory development 10, 12 particle consciousness 178, 189 passive solar design 40–5, 48, 82, 108, 113 patriarchy 26, 115, 117, 120 Peace Contract with Animals (Sieben Linden) 24, 56 Peace Corps 198 peace movement 164 peak oil 5, 50, 62–3, 130 Pepe, Lucertola 174–5 permaculture 20, 26, 34, 36–9, 54, 58, 73, 75, 117, 162, 188, 195, 200, 205 personal growth 89, 113, 120, 148, 149, 175, 206 pets 73, 127 pioneer species 19 planetary citizen 189, 202 planetary interdependence 9, 27, 46, 186, 189 plants, communication with 162, 174–5 pocket neighborhood 194 policy making 189 polis 74–6, political activism 6, 11, 16, 23, 89, 133, 157, 164, 166 political science 35, 50, 85, 99, 116 politics 1–6, 35, 66, 88–9, 102–4, 113, 117, 129–30, 133, 141, 151, 157, 164–7, 189–90, 196 polyamory 23, 115 Portland (Oregon) 191, 193 postmodern 117, 125, 171 poultry 55, 58–61, 77, 84, 134, 168, 192, 207 Pour Tous Distribution Service (Auroville) 104 poverty 30–1, 43, 60, 81, 95, 151, 181 power of yes 190, 194, 199 power tools 69–70 preschool 107 private property 79–80, 92–4 product stewardship laws 197 prosperity 13, 101, 103, 105, 110 purpose (sense of) core human 188–9, 191, 196, 200, 202, 207 in ecovillages 12, 14, 18, 20, 23, 61, 78, 85, 109, 114–16, 118–19, 124, 132, 135, 138, 172, 182, 188 see also intention (in ecovillages) race 27, 168 rainwater 9, 26–9, 31, 44, 51–3, 71, 82, 113, 192, 205 real estate 54, 79, 92–4, 114 real wealth 97, 107, 109 recycling 3, 6, 188, 194 relational living 150, 165, 167, 192 religion 10, 149–50, 152, 154, 159, 162, 164, 165, 168–9, 172, 186 renters 79, 94 retirement 18, 81, 93–4, 108, 127, 207 retrofitting 41, 81, 114 right livelihood 80, 85–90, 99, 199 risk perception 82 n1 Rio+20 Earth Summit 200 Rosenberg, Marshall 123 rural ecovillages 17, 54, 71, 83, 84 Rylander, Kimchi 118–20 salary 1, 9, 11, 16, 20, 22, 72, 83–4, 88–9, 92 n6, 95–6, 98–9, 101, 105, 107–8, 113, 164, 167, 194, 198 Sarvodaya 13, 28, 31, 104, 106–7, 114, 120, 125–6, 129, 133, 149–52, 155, 165, 170, 187, 196 sauna 69, 93 science 51, 75, 135, 154–5, 162, 164–5, 185–6 Seattle 7, 30, 67, 138, 156, 191, 205–6 secularism 13, 31, 149, 150, 154, 159, 162–4, 168, 177, 185 Sekem (Egypt) 200 self-awareness 137, 170 Senadeera, Bandula 125–6 Senegal 25–6, 59, 66, 72, 167–9, 179, 198–9 Seneviratne, Mahama 151–2 sewage 27, 51, 132 sex 109, 115 Shapiro, Elan 107–8 shared-wall construction 45, 47, 69 sharing 16, 18, 22, 26, 32, 47, 54, 63–4, 69, 70, 81, 87, 92–3, 96–7, 106, 110, 114, 127, 132, 142, 146, 164–5, 172, 189, 191–4, 199, 201, 207 sheep 58, 77 Shelton, Julie 84 shramadana 104, 106, 129 Sieben Linden 24, 33–4, 36, 41, 43–4, 47, 49, 53, 56–7, 70–1, 105, 114, 127, 129, 143–6, 150, 164, 166, 171, 177–9 silence (inner) 128, 143, 157, 159, 169, 171, 178 simplicity 8, 39, 81, 171–4, 180 skills 8, 16, 32, 43, 64, 65, 78, 87, 88, 108–9, 110, 111, 114, 122, 127, 131, 134, 138, 139, 147, 189, 192, 207 SkyRoot 206–7 slavery 167, 185 Slow Cities 192 Slow Food movement 192 see also Slow Money; Slow Cities Slow Money 192 slums 115, 132, 182, 195, 196 socialism 88 sociocracy 120 soil 8, 17, 19, 24, 31, 33, 46, 53, 55, 56, 58–60, 71, 74–5, 84, 89, 103, 131, 145, 147, 156, 161, 196, 207 solar energy 9, 15, 25, 27–8, 36, 40, 48–9, 63, 81, 83, 86, 101, 108, 111, 113, 133, 147, 183, 191, 193,198, 205 solidarity 84–5, 100, 103, 109–10, 133, 169, 192, 200, 205, 207 song(s) 7, 28, 34, 73, 138, 143, 145, 147, 152, 179 see also music sorcerer’s apprentices 160–1 Spain 90, 168 spell 124, 160–1 see also magic spirituality 24, 30–1, 149, 150, 155–7, 162–5, 166, 170, 171–3, 180–5 Sri Aurobindo 180–2 Sri Lanka 13, 28, 106–7, 125–6, 142, 151, 155, 165, 170 steady-state economy 197 story of separation 4, 11, 165, 179, 195–6 straw-bale construction 18, 43–4, 47–8, 171 structural insulated panels (SIPS) 36 subsidiarity 189, 193, 198, 201 subsidies governmental 3, 15, 82–3, 197–8 within ecovillages 83, 96, 197 suburb 21, 41, 69, 97, 127, 193–4 survivalism 112 sustainable development 28, 88, 133 Sustainable Tompkins County 107 Svanholm 22–3, 31, 49, 55–6, 64, 92, 94–7, 114, 127, 134–5, 163–4 Swimme, Brian 154 symbiosis 4–5, 54, 103, 108–9, 120, 147 biological 53, 103, 148 intergenerational 108, 110 social 4, 54, 103, 108–9, 147–8 synchronic lines 158 systemic thinking 51, 188–90, 193, 208 see also holistic approach Tamerice, Macaco 100–2, 122, 158–9 Tamera 115, 122 Tamil Nadu 19, 27, 45, 88, 140, 181 tar sands 62 taxes 83, 93–6, 101, 189, 197 Technakarto (at Damanhur) 122, 125 technological solutions 36–8, 63, 133, 201–2 teenagers 15, 69, 136 Temples of Humankind 25, 157, 160, 183 Tompkins County (New York) 194 toilet 7, 15, 20, 33–4, 41, 51, 53, 61, 106, 131, 133, 147, 179, 207 toilet assumption 53 Tolle, Eckhart 157 tool library 191 tractor 125 traditional villages 10, 46, 105, 125, 196 transformation 28, 41, 70, 129–30, 145, 150, 155, 165, 168, 179, 183, 185, 192, 205 material 31, 140, 183 of consciousness 177–9, 183–5, 189, 192 personal 28, 145, 169, 173, 179, 192, 205 social 129–30, 168, 179, 185, 192 spiritual 150, 155, 183–4 Transition Town 130, 192, 195, 200–1 transparency 22, 24, 96, 164 transportation 8, 34, 39, 58, 60, 62–8, 75, 92, 189, 193, 194, 205 trees 17, 24, 27, 29, 33, 48, 58, 59, 71–3, 90, 97, 119, 140, 155 triple bottom line 199 trust 14, 17, 22, 64, 85, 96–97, 100, 102, 109, 112, 116, 119–23, 130, 146–7, 154, 164, 167, 174–5, 189, 191–2, 200–1, 207 tsunami 28, 88, 133, 170, 170 two-class society 79, 94, 108 UfaFabrik 23, 64–5, 84, 86, 88, 99, 124, 138–9, 150 unconventional hydrocarbons 62, 197 United Nations 21, 107, 132–3, 195 United States of America (US) 5, 8, 12, 15, 20–1, 29, 35, 48–50, 52, 57–8, 60, 62–3, 73, 82–3, 92–3, 105, 122, 126, 140–1, 177, 191, 197–8 universe story 154, 172 urban ecovillages 16, 23, 34, 64, 84 urban farming 54, 97, 205 urban planning 162, 189, 191 urine 53 utopia 18, 193 Van Dam, René 163 veganism 24, 56–7, 171 vehicle sharing 63–4, 92, 146 village model 78–9, 84, 117, 196 visitors (to ecovillages) 21, 23, 65, 68, 71, 87, 100, 117, 132, 140, 144 Wackernagel, Mathis 35 Walker, Liz 152–3, 194 war 5, 6, 17, 23, 80, 123, 133, 138, 151 wastewater 18, 46, 51, 52, 78, 194 see also sewage water conservation 51–3, 74 Way of Monks (Damanhur) 171, wealth 4, 8, 13, 16, 83, 97, 100, 103–4, 107–9, 112, 192, 197, 201 wellbeing 28, 36, 40, 46, 47, 78, 80, 85, 89, 105–6, 197 wells 17, 20, 51, 106, 117–18 West Africa 31, 59, 67, 167 wetland 52, 194 Whidbey Island 205–7 Wiartalla, Werner 86, 99 wildlife 26, 33–4, 38, 63, 70–4, 182, 194, 206 wind energy 27, 48–9, 51, 63, 73, 133 windows 36, 40–4, 43, 81, 127, 137, 143, 174 double-paned 36, 41, 43, 81 triple-paned 30 windows into sustainability 30, 188 Wolf, Stefan 179 women 26, 31, 39, 59, 72, 88, 90, 106, 107, 125–9, 139, 151, 158, 168, 185 empowerment of 26, 31, 88, 106 literacy 96 oppression of 151, 185 Women Empowerment through Local Livelihood (WELL) 88 World Café 192 worldview 10, 31, 149–50, 155, 159, 160, 164, 172, 178 Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) 11, 83 yurt 39, 206, 207 ZEGG 23–4, 41, 49, 63, 115–6, 121–2, 132–3, 137–8, 150, 177 Zeher, Ozzie 63, 190 ZipCar 64, 70, 199

Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
by Michael Jacobs and Mariana Mazzucato
Published 31 Jul 2016

There are currently widely divergent opinions on the likely impact of information technologies on growth and employment. While the optimists claim that these technologies, guided by the market, will eventually bring growth,1 the naysayers counter with predictions of high unemployment and low growth.2 At the same time, a significant proportion of the environmental movement has been calling for zero growth, ‘de-growth’ or similar, essentially blaming technology for climate change and other environmental and social ills.3 In this chapter, I shall argue that what all of these divergent views on technology and growth share is the absence of a proper historical understanding of innovation: of its nature, of the interactions it generates in the economy and of the regularity in the technological upheavals from which innovation has sprung since the first Industrial Revolution.

…

Over recent years, as the high volatility and uncertainty of resource prices have become the ‘new normal’, energy and materials conservation and raising the productivity of resource use have increasingly become strategic business goals.6 Yet such innovation is not taken into account in the usual analyses of growth. Instead, the environmental regulations that have prompted such innovations are often perceived as growth suppressors.7 Meanwhile, the calls for zero growth or de-growth coming from the environmental movement also stem from an incorrect assumption: that the only possible patterns of growth available are those of the resource-based forms of mass production which shaped most of the twentieth century. Both these opposing camps see a conflict between economic growth and environmental concerns.

The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and Its Solutions
by Jason Hickel
Published 3 May 2017

Exactly what we’re doing with fossil fuels: raze more forests, build more meat farms, expand industrial agriculture, produce more cement and heap up more landfills with waste from the additional stuff we would produce and consume, all of which will pump deadly amounts of greenhouse gas into the air. We will do these things because our economic system demands endless exponential growth. Switching to clean energy will do nothing to slow this down. The Degrowth Imperative If we peel back the false promises of dematerialisation and carbon capture, it becomes clear that the problem is much deeper than most are willing to admit. Our present economic model of exponential GDP growth is no longer realistic, and we have to face up to this fact. This presents us with a very difficult conundrum when it comes to development and poverty reduction.

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The Alaska model is popular and effective, and scholars have pointed out that the same approach could be applied to other natural resources, such as forests and fisheries. It could even be applied to the air, with a carbon tax whose yields would be distributed as a basic income to all. Regenerating Hope Unfortunately, it is not likely that degrowth will happen as quickly as we need it to. Social change can be slow. The idea is gradually taking hold, but it could take a generation to move our collective consciousness on this issue, and we don’t have that kind of time. That said, we might have a way out. And it has to do with soil. Soil is the second biggest reservoir of carbon on the planet, next to the oceans.

The Ministry for the Future: A Novel
by Kim Stanley Robinson
Published 5 Oct 2020

It was a kind of existential assumption, as if civilization were a kind of cancer and them all therefore committed to growth as their particular deadly form of life. But this time, growth might be reconfiguring itself as the growth of some kind of safety. Call it involution, or sophistication; improvement; degrowth; growth of some kind of goodness. A sane response to danger— now understood as a very high-return investment strategy! Who knew? Really, no one knew. The remaining big petro-states each regarded the new situation uneasily, or even in a panic. Together they sat on fossil carbon reserves that at current market prices ranged into the hundreds of trillions.

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One scary thing, there has to still be money, or at least some exchange or allocation system that people trust, which means the already-existing central banks have to be part of it, which means the current nation-state system has to be part of it. Sorry but it’s true, and maybe obvious. Even if you are a degrowth devolutionist, an anarchist or a communist or a fan of world government, we only do the global in the current world order by way of the nation-state system. Or call it by way of the family of languages, if it makes you feel better. Hundreds of different languages have to be mutually comprehensible.

…

Maybe all little towns had that kind of either-or going on, a nearly fifty-fifty split on everything; the mayor, the high school principal, the quarterback, the best gas station, best café, whatever. Always that either-or. So we would split up and go on. Become city folk. Well, it wouldn’t last forever. This was degrowth growth, as the facilitator pointed out. The facilitator was really good, I have to say. She encouraged us to tell our stories. She said in towns like ours it’s always the same. She had done this for a lot of them. It was her work. Like a hospice preacher, she said, looking troubled at that. Everybody cries.

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
by Kate Raworth
Published 22 Mar 2017

Perhaps I force them to confront it anyway as a cathartic way to revisit my own struggles with the future of economic growth. Back in 2011 I was tasked by Oxfam to write a policy paper to help the organisation decide whether, in high-income countries, it should promote the concept of ‘green growth’, or side with those advocating ‘degrowth’. I jumped at the chance because it took me back to the heart of macroeconomic thinking. But my excitement soon turned to paralysis as I dug into the debate and found that while both sides had some strong arguments, both too quickly dismissed the opposition’s case, and neither had a singularly compelling answer.

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Page numbers in italics denote illustrations A Aalborg, Denmark, 290 Abbott, Anthony ‘Tony’, 31 ABCD group, 148 Abramovitz, Moses, 262 absolute decoupling, 260–61 Acemoglu, Daron, 86 advertising, 58, 106–7, 112, 281 Agbodjinou, Sénamé, 231 agriculture, 5, 46, 72–3, 148, 155, 178, 181, 183 Alaska, 9 Alaska Permanent Fund, 194 Alperovitz, Gar, 177 alternative enterprise designs, 190–91 altruism, 100, 104 Amazon, 192, 196, 276 Amazon rainforest, 105–6, 253 American Economic Association, 3 American Enterprise Institute, 67 American Tobacco Corporation, 107 Andes, 54 animal spirits, 110 Anthropocene epoch, 48, 253 anthropocentrism, 115 Apertuso, 230 Apple, 85, 192 Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), 148 Arendt, Hannah, 115–16 Argentina, 55, 274 Aristotle, 32, 272 Arrow, Kenneth, 134 Articles of Association and Memoranda, 233 Arusha, Tanzania, 202 Asia Wage Floor Alliance, 177 Asian financial crisis (1997), 90 Asknature.org, 232 Athens, 57 austerity, 163 Australia, 31, 103, 177, 180, 211, 224–6, 255, 260 Austria, 263, 274 availability bias, 112 AXIOM, 230 Axtell, Robert, 150 Ayres, Robert, 263 B B Corp, 241 Babylon, 13 Baker, Josephine, 157 balancing feedback loops, 138–41, 155, 271 Ballmer, Steve, 231 Bangla Pesa, 185–6, 293 Bangladesh, 10, 226 Bank for International Settlements, 256 Bank of America, 149 Bank of England, 145, 147, 256 banking, see under finance Barnes, Peter, 201 Barroso, José Manuel, 41 Bartlett, Albert Allen ‘Al’, 247 basic income, 177, 194, 199–201 basic personal values, 107–9 Basle, Switzerland, 80 Bauwens, Michel, 197 Beckerman, Wilfred, 258 Beckham, David, 171 Beech-Nut Packing Company, 107 behavioural economics, 11, 111–14 behavioural psychology, 103, 128 Beinhocker, Eric, 158 Belgium, 236, 252 Bentham, Jeremy, 98 Benyus, Janine, 116, 218, 223–4, 227, 232, 237, 241 Berger, John, 12, 281 Berlin Wall, 141 Bermuda, 277 Bernanke, Ben, 146 Bernays, Edward, 107, 112, 281–3 Bhopal gas disaster (1984), 9 Bible, 19, 114, 151 Big Bang (1986), 87 billionaires, 171, 200, 289 biodiversity, 10, 46, 48–9, 52, 85, 115, 155, 208, 210, 242, 299 as common pool resource, 201 and land conversion, 49 and inequality, 172 and reforesting, 50 biomass, 73, 118, 210, 212, 221 biomimicry, 116, 218, 227, 229 bioplastic, 224, 293 Birmingham, West Midlands, 10 Black, Fischer, 100–101 Blair, Anthony ‘Tony’, 171 Blockchain, 187, 192 blood donation, 104, 118 Body Shop, The, 232–4 Bogotá, Colombia, 119 Bolivia, 54 Boston, Massachusetts, 3 Bowen, Alex, 261 Bowles, Sam, 104 Box, George, 22 Boyce, James, 209 Brasselberg, Jacob, 187 Brazil, 124, 226, 281, 290 bread riots, 89 Brisbane, Australia, 31 Brown, Gordon, 146 Brynjolfsson, Erik, 193, 194, 258 Buddhism, 54 buen vivir, 54 Bullitt Center, Seattle, 217 Bunge, 148 Burkina Faso, 89 Burmark, Lynell, 13 business, 36, 43, 68, 88–9 automation, 191–5, 237, 258, 278 boom and bust, 246 and circular economy, 212, 215–19, 220, 224, 227–30, 232–4, 292 and complementary currencies, 184–5, 292 and core economy, 80 and creative destruction, 142 and feedback loops, 148 and finance, 183, 184 and green growth, 261, 265, 269 and households, 63, 68 living metrics, 241 and market, 68, 88 micro-businesses, 9 and neoliberalism, 67, 87 ownership, 190–91 and political funding, 91–2, 171–2 and taxation, 23, 276–7 workers’ rights, 88, 91, 269 butterfly economy, 220–42 C C–ROADS (Climate Rapid Overview and Decision Support), 153 C40 network, 280 calculating man, 98 California, United States, 213, 224, 293 Cambodia, 254 Cameron, David, 41 Canada, 196, 255, 260, 281, 282 cancer, 124, 159, 196 Capital Institute, 236 carbon emissions, 49–50, 59, 75 and decoupling, 260, 266 and forests, 50, 52 and inequality, 58 reduction of, 184, 201, 213, 216–18, 223–7, 239–41, 260, 266 stock–flow dynamics, 152–4 taxation, 201, 213 Cargill, 148 Carney, Mark, 256 Caterpillar, 228 Catholic Church, 15, 19 Cato Institute, 67 Celts, 54 central banks, 6, 87, 145, 146, 147, 183, 184, 256 Chang, Ha-Joon, 82, 86, 90 Chaplin, Charlie, 157 Chiapas, Mexico, 121–2 Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), 100–101 Chicago School, 34, 99 Chile, 7, 42 China, 1, 7, 48, 154, 289–90 automation, 193 billionaires, 200, 289 greenhouse gas emissions, 153 inequality, 164 Lake Erhai doughnut analysis, 56 open-source design, 196 poverty reduction, 151, 198 renewable energy, 239 tiered pricing, 213 Chinese Development Bank, 239 chrematistics, 32, 273 Christianity, 15, 19, 114, 151 cigarettes, 107, 124 circular economy, 220–42, 257 Circular Flow diagram, 19–20, 28, 62–7, 64, 70, 78, 87, 91, 92, 93, 262 Citigroup, 149 Citizen Reaction Study, 102 civil rights movement, 77 Cleveland, Ohio, 190 climate change, 1, 3, 5, 29, 41, 45–53, 63, 74, 75–6, 91, 141, 144, 201 circular economy, 239, 241–2 dynamics of, 152–5 and G20, 31 and GDP growth, 255, 256, 260, 280 and heuristics, 114 and human rights, 10 and values, 126 climate positive cities, 239 closed systems, 74 coffee, 221 cognitive bias, 112–14 Colander, David, 137 Colombia, 119 common-pool resources, 82–3, 181, 201–2 commons, 69, 82–4, 287 collaborative, 78, 83, 191, 195, 196, 264, 292 cultural, 83 digital, 82, 83, 192, 197, 281 and distribution, 164, 180, 181–2, 205, 267 Embedded Economy, 71, 73, 77–8, 82–4, 85, 92 knowledge, 197, 201–2, 204, 229, 231, 292 commons and money creation, see complementary currencies natural, 82, 83, 180, 181–2, 201, 265 and regeneration, 229, 242, 267, 292 and state, 85, 93, 197, 237 and systems, 160 tragedy of, 28, 62, 69, 82, 181 triumph of, 83 and values, 106, 108 Commons Trusts, 201 complementary currencies, 158, 182–8, 236, 292 complex systems, 28, 129–62 complexity science, 136–7 Consumer Reaction Study, 102 consumerism, 58, 102, 121, 280–84 cooking, 45, 80, 186 Coote, Anna, 278 Copenhagen, Denmark, 124 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 14–15 copyright, 195, 197, 204 core economy, 79–80 Corporate To Do List, 215–19 Costa Rica, 172 Council of Economic Advisers, US, 6, 37 Cox, Jo, 117 cradle to cradle, 224 creative destruction, 142 Cree, 282 Crompton, Tom, 125–6 cross-border flows, 89–90 crowdsourcing, 204 cuckoos, 32, 35, 36, 38, 40, 54, 60, 159, 244, 256, 271 currencies, 182–8, 236, 274, 292 D da Vinci, Leonardo, 13, 94–5 Dallas, Texas, 120 Daly, Herman, 74, 143, 271 Danish Nudging Network, 124 Darwin, Charles, 14 Debreu, Gerard, 134 debt, 37, 146–7, 172–3, 182–5, 247, 255, 269 decoupling, 193, 210, 258–62, 273 defeat device software, 216 deforestation, 49–50, 74, 208, 210 degenerative linear economy, 211–19, 222–3, 237 degrowth, 244 DeMartino, George, 161 democracy, 77, 171–2, 258 demurrage, 274 Denmark, 180, 275, 290 deregulation, 82, 87, 269 derivatives, 100–101, 149 Devas, Charles Stanton, 97 Dey, Suchitra, 178 Diamond, Jared, 154 diarrhoea, 5 differential calculus, 131, 132 digital revolution, 191–2, 264 diversify–select–amplify, 158 double spiral, 54 Doughnut model, 10–11, 11, 23–5, 44, 51 and aspiration, 58–9, 280–84 big picture, 28, 42, 61–93 distribution, 29, 52, 57, 58, 76, 93, 158, 163–205 ecological ceiling, 10, 11, 44, 45, 46, 49, 51, 218, 254, 295, 298 goal, 25–8, 31–60 and governance, 57, 59 growth agnosticism, 29–30, 243–85 human nature, 28–9, 94–128 and population, 57–8 regeneration, 29, 158, 206–42 social foundation, 10, 11, 44, 45, 49, 51, 58, 77, 174, 200, 254, 295–6 systems, 28, 129–62 and technology, 57, 59 Douglas, Margaret, 78–9 Dreyfus, Louis, 148 ‘Dumb and Dumber in Macroeconomics’ (Solow), 135 Durban, South Africa, 214 E Earning by Learning, 120 Earth-system science, 44–53, 115, 216, 288, 298 Easter Island, 154 Easterlin, Richard, 265–6 eBay, 105, 192 eco-literacy, 115 ecological ceiling, 10, 11, 44, 45, 46, 49, 51, 218, 254, 295, 298 Ecological Performance Standards, 241 Econ 101 course, 8, 77 Economics (Lewis), 114 Economics (Samuelson), 19–20, 63–7, 70, 74, 78, 86, 91, 92, 93, 262 Economy for the Common Good, 241 ecosystem services, 7, 116, 269 Ecuador, 54 education, 9, 43, 45, 50–52, 85, 169–70, 176, 200, 249, 279 economic, 8, 11, 18, 22, 24, 36, 287–93 environmental, 115, 239–40 girls’, 57, 124, 178, 198 online, 83, 197, 264, 290 pricing, 118–19 efficient market hypothesis, 28, 62, 68, 87 Egypt, 48, 89 Eisenstein, Charles, 116 electricity, 9, 45, 236, 240 and Bangla Pesa, 186 cars, 231 Ethereum, 187–8 and MONIAC, 75, 262 pricing, 118, 213 see also renewable energy Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, 145 Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 220 Embedded Economy, 71–93, 263 business, 88–9 commons, 82–4 Earth, 72–6 economy, 77–8 finance, 86–8 household, 78–81 market, 81–2 power, 91–92 society, 76–7 state, 84–6 trade, 89–90 employment, 36, 37, 51, 142, 176 automation, 191–5, 237, 258, 278 labour ownership, 188–91 workers’ rights, 88, 90, 269 Empty World, 74 Engels, Friedrich, 88 environment and circular economy, 220–42, 257 conservation, 121–2 and degenerative linear economy, 211–19, 222–3 degradation, 5, 9, 10, 29, 44–53, 74, 154, 172, 196, 206–42 education on, 115, 239–40 externalities, 152 fair share, 216–17 and finance, 234–7 generosity, 218–19, 223–7 green growth, 41, 210, 243–85 nudging, 123–5 taxation and quotas, 213–14, 215 zero impact, 217–18, 238, 241 Environmental Dashboard, 240–41 environmental economics, 7, 11, 114–16 Environmental Kuznets Curve, 207–11, 241 environmental space, 54 Epstein, Joshua, 150 equilibrium theory, 134–62 Ethereum, 187–8 ethics, 160–62 Ethiopia, 9, 226, 254 Etsy, 105 Euclid, 13, 15 European Central Bank, 145, 275 European Commission, 41 European Union (EU), 92, 153, 210, 222, 255, 258 Evergreen Cooperatives, 190 Evergreen Direct Investing (EDI), 273 exogenous shocks, 141 exponential growth, 39, 246–85 externalities, 143, 152, 213 Exxon Valdez oil spill (1989), 9 F Facebook, 192 fair share, 216–17 Fama, Eugene, 68, 87 fascism, 234, 277 Federal Reserve, US, 87, 145, 146, 271, 282 feedback loops, 138–41, 143, 148, 155, 250, 271 feminist economics, 11, 78–81, 160 Ferguson, Thomas, 91–2 finance animal spirits, 110 bank runs, 139 Black–Scholes model, 100–101 boom and bust, 28–9, 110, 144–7 and Circular Flow, 63–4, 87 and complex systems, 134, 138, 139, 140, 141, 145–7 cross-border flows, 89 deregulation, 87 derivatives, 100–101, 149 and distribution, 169, 170, 173, 182–4, 198–9, 201 and efficient market hypothesis, 63, 68 and Embedded Economy, 71, 86–8 and financial-instability hypothesis, 87, 146 and GDP growth, 38 and media, 7–8 mobile banking, 199–200 and money creation, 87, 182–5 and regeneration, 227, 229, 234–7 in service to life, 159, 234–7 stakeholder finance, 190 and sustainability, 216, 235–6, 239 financial crisis (2008), 1–4, 5, 40, 63, 86, 141, 144, 278, 290 and efficient market hypothesis, 87 and equilibrium theory, 134, 145 and financial-instability hypothesis, 87 and inequality, 90, 170, 172, 175 and money creation, 182 and worker’s rights, 278 financial flows, 89 Financial Times, 183, 266, 289 financial-instability hypothesis, 87, 146 First Green Bank, 236 First World War (1914–18), 166, 170 Fisher, Irving, 183 fluid values, 102, 106–9 food, 3, 43, 45, 50, 54, 58, 59, 89, 198 food banks, 165 food price crisis (2007–8), 89, 90, 180 Ford, 277–8 foreign direct investment, 89 forest conservation, 121–2 fossil fuels, 59, 73, 75, 92, 212, 260, 263 Foundations of Economic Analysis (Samuelson), 17–18 Foxconn, 193 framing, 22–3 France, 43, 165, 196, 238, 254, 256, 281, 290 Frank, Robert, 100 free market, 33, 37, 67, 68, 70, 81–2, 86, 90 free open-source hardware (FOSH), 196–7 free open-source software (FOSS), 196 free trade, 70, 90 Freeman, Ralph, 18–19 freshwater cycle, 48–9 Freud, Sigmund, 107, 281 Friedman, Benjamin, 258 Friedman, Milton, 34, 62, 66–9, 84–5, 88, 99, 183, 232 Friends of the Earth, 54 Full World, 75 Fuller, Buckminster, 4 Fullerton, John, 234–6, 273 G G20, 31, 56, 276, 279–80 G77, 55 Gal, Orit, 141 Gandhi, Mohandas, 42, 293 Gangnam Style, 145 Gardens of Democracy, The (Liu & Hanauer), 158 gender equality, 45, 51–2, 57, 78–9, 85, 88, 118–19, 124, 171, 198 generosity, 218–19, 223–9 geometry, 13, 15 George, Henry, 149, 179 Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas, 252 geothermal energy, 221 Gerhardt, Sue, 283 Germany, 2, 41, 100, 118, 165, 189, 211, 213, 254, 256, 260, 274 Gessel, Silvio, 274 Ghent, Belgium, 236 Gift Relationship, The (Titmuss), 118–19 Gigerenzer, Gerd, 112–14 Gintis, Herb, 104 GiveDirectly, 200 Glass–Steagall Act (1933), 87 Glennon, Roger, 214 Global Alliance for Tax Justice, 277 global material footprints, 210–11 Global Village Construction Set, 196 globalisation, 89 Goerner, Sally, 175–6 Goffmann, Erving, 22 Going for Growth, 255 golden rule, 91 Goldman Sachs, 149, 170 Gómez-Baggethun, Erik, 122 Goodall, Chris, 211 Goodwin, Neva, 79 Goody, Jade, 124 Google, 192 Gore, Albert ‘Al’, 172 Gorgons, 244, 256, 257, 266 graffiti, 15, 25, 287 Great Acceleration, 46, 253–4 Great Depression (1929–39), 37, 70, 170, 173, 183, 275, 277, 278 Great Moderation, 146 Greece, Ancient, 4, 13, 32, 48, 54, 56–7, 160, 244 green growth, 41, 210, 243–85 Greenham, Tony, 185 greenhouse gas emissions, 31, 46, 50, 75–6, 141, 152–4 and decoupling, 260, 266 and Environmental Kuznets Curve, 208, 210 and forests, 50, 52 and G20, 31 and inequality, 58 reduction of, 184, 201–2, 213, 216–18, 223–7, 239–41, 256, 259–60, 266, 298 stock–flow dynamics, 152–4 and taxation, 201, 213 Greenland, 141, 154 Greenpeace, 9 Greenspan, Alan, 87 Greenwich, London, 290 Grenoble, France, 281 Griffiths, Brian, 170 gross domestic product (GDP), 25, 31–2, 35–43, 57, 60, 84, 164 as cuckoo, 32, 35, 36, 38, 40, 54, 60, 159, 244, 256, 271 and Environmental Kuznets Curve, 207–11 and exponential growth, 39, 53, 246–85 and growth agnosticism, 29–30, 240, 243–85 and inequality, 173 and Kuznets Curve, 167, 173, 188–9 gross national product (GNP), 36–40 Gross World Product, 248 Grossman, Gene, 207–8, 210 ‘grow now, clean up later’, 207 Guatemala, 196 H Haifa, Israel, 120 Haldane, Andrew, 146 Han Dynasty, 154 Hanauer, Nick, 158 Hansen, Pelle, 124 Happy Planet Index, 280 Hardin, Garrett, 69, 83, 181 Harvard University, 2, 271, 290 von Hayek, Friedrich, 7–8, 62, 66, 67, 143, 156, 158 healthcare, 43, 50, 57, 85, 123, 125, 170, 176, 200, 269, 279 Heilbroner, Robert, 53 Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland, 180 Hepburn, Cameron, 261 Herbert Simon, 111 heuristics, 113–14, 118, 123 high-income countries growth, 30, 244–5, 254–72, 282 inequality, 165, 168, 169, 171 labour, 177, 188–9, 278 overseas development assistance (ODA), 198–9 resource intensive lifestyles, 46, 210–11 trade, 90 Hippocrates, 160 History of Economic Analysis (Schumpeter), 21 HIV/AIDS, 123 Holocene epoch, 46–8, 75, 115, 253 Homo economicus, 94–103, 109, 127–8 Homo sapiens, 38, 104, 130 Hong Kong, 180 household, 78 housing, 45, 59, 176, 182–3, 269 Howe, Geoffrey, 67 Hudson, Michael, 183 Human Development Index, 9, 279 human nature, 28 human rights, 10, 25, 45, 49, 50, 95, 214, 233 humanistic economics, 42 hydropower, 118, 260, 263 I Illinois, United States, 179–80 Imago Mundi, 13 immigration, 82, 199, 236, 266 In Defense of Economic Growth (Beckerman), 258 Inclusive Wealth Index, 280 income, 51, 79–80, 82, 88, 176–8, 188–91, 194, 199–201 India, 2, 9, 10, 42, 124, 164, 178, 196, 206–7, 242, 290 Indonesia, 90, 105–6, 164, 168, 200 Indus Valley civilisation, 48 inequality, 1, 5, 25, 41, 63, 81, 88, 91, 148–52, 209 and consumerism, 111 and democracy, 171 and digital revolution, 191–5 and distribution, 163–205 and environmental degradation, 172 and GDP growth, 173 and greenhouse gas emissions, 58 and intellectual property, 195–8 and Kuznets Curve, 29, 166–70, 173–4 and labour ownership, 188–91 and land ownership, 178–82 and money creation, 182–8 and social welfare, 171 Success to the Successful, 148, 149, 151, 166 inflation, 36, 248, 256, 275 insect pollination services, 7 Institute of Economic Affairs, 67 institutional economics, 11 intellectual property rights, 195–8, 204 interest, 36, 177, 182, 184, 275–6 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 25 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 170, 172, 173, 183, 255, 258, 271 Internet, 83–4, 89, 105, 192, 202, 264 Ireland, 277 Iroquois Onondaga Nation, 116 Israel, 100, 103, 120 Italy, 165, 196, 254 J Jackson, Tim, 58 Jakubowski, Marcin, 196 Jalisco, Mexico, 217 Japan, 168, 180, 211, 222, 254, 256, 263, 275 Jevons, William Stanley, 16, 97–8, 131, 132, 137, 142 John Lewis Partnership, 190 Johnson, Lyndon Baines, 37 Johnson, Mark, 38 Johnson, Todd, 191 JPMorgan Chase, 149, 234 K Kahneman, Daniel, 111 Kamkwamba, William, 202, 204 Kasser, Tim, 125–6 Keen, Steve, 146, 147 Kelly, Marjorie, 190–91, 233 Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, 37, 250 Kennedy, Paul, 279 Kenya, 118, 123, 180, 185–6, 199–200, 226, 292 Keynes, John Maynard, 7–8, 22, 66, 69, 134, 184, 251, 277–8, 284, 288 Kick It Over movement, 3, 289 Kingston, London, 290 Knight, Frank, 66, 99 knowledge commons, 202–4, 229, 292 Kokstad, South Africa, 56 Kondratieff waves, 246 Korzybski, Alfred, 22 Krueger, Alan, 207–8, 210 Kuhn, Thomas, 22 Kumhof, Michael, 172 Kuwait, 255 Kuznets, Simon, 29, 36, 39–40, 166–70, 173, 174, 175, 204, 207 KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, 56 L labour ownership, 188–91 Lake Erhai, Yunnan, 56 Lakoff, George, 23, 38, 276 Lamelara, Indonesia, 105–6 land conversion, 49, 52, 299 land ownership, 178–82 land-value tax, 73, 149, 180 Landesa, 178 Landlord’s Game, The, 149 law of demand, 16 laws of motion, 13, 16–17, 34, 129, 131 Lehman Brothers, 141 Leopold, Aldo, 115 Lesotho, 118, 199 leverage points, 159 Lewis, Fay, 178 Lewis, Justin, 102 Lewis, William Arthur, 114, 167 Lietaer, Bernard, 175, 236 Limits to Growth, 40, 154, 258 Linux, 231 Liu, Eric, 158 living metrics, 240–42 living purpose, 233–4 Lomé, Togo, 231 London School of Economics (LSE), 2, 34, 65, 290 London Underground, 12 loss aversion, 112 low-income countries, 90, 164–5, 168, 173, 180, 199, 201, 209, 226, 254, 259 Lucas, Robert, 171 Lula da Silva, Luiz Inácio, 124 Luxembourg, 277 Lyle, John Tillman, 214 Lyons, Oren, 116 M M–PESA, 199–200 MacDonald, Tim, 273 Machiguenga, 105–6 MacKenzie, Donald, 101 macroeconomics, 36, 62–6, 76, 80, 134–5, 145, 147, 150, 244, 280 Magie, Elizabeth, 149, 153 Malala effect, 124 malaria, 5 Malawi, 118, 202, 204 Malaysia, 168 Mali, Taylor, 243 Malthus, Thomas, 252 Mamsera Rural Cooperative, 190 Manhattan, New York, 9, 41 Mani, Muthukumara, 206 Manitoba, 282 Mankiw, Gregory, 2, 34 Mannheim, Karl, 22 Maoris, 54 market, 81–2 and business, 88 circular flow, 64 and commons, 83, 93, 181, 200–201 efficiency of, 28, 62, 68, 87, 148, 181 and equilibrium theory, 131–5, 137, 143–7, 155, 156 free market, 33, 37, 67–70, 90, 208 and households, 63, 69, 78, 79 and maxi-max rule, 161 and pricing, 117–23, 131, 160 and rational economic man, 96, 100–101, 103, 104 and reciprocity, 105, 106 reflexivity of, 144–7 and society, 69–70 and state, 84–6, 200, 281 Marshall, Alfred, 17, 98, 133, 165, 253, 282 Marx, Karl, 88, 142, 165, 272 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 17–20, 152–5 massive open online courses (MOOCs), 290 Matthew Effect, 151 Max-Neef, Manfred, 42 maxi-max rule, 161 maximum wage, 177 Maya civilisation, 48, 154 Mazzucato, Mariana, 85, 195, 238 McAfee, Andrew, 194, 258 McDonough, William, 217 Meadows, Donella, 40, 141, 159, 271, 292 Medusa, 244, 257, 266 Merkel, Angela, 41 Messerli, Elspeth, 187 Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff & Johnson), 38 Mexico, 121–2, 217 Michaels, Flora S., 6 micro-businesses, 9, 173, 178 microeconomics, 132–4 microgrids, 187–8 Micronesia, 153 Microsoft, 231 middle class, 6, 46, 58 middle-income countries, 90, 164, 168, 173, 180, 226, 254 migration, 82, 89–90, 166, 195, 199, 236, 266, 286 Milanovic, Branko, 171 Mill, John Stuart, 33–4, 73, 97, 250, 251, 283, 284, 288 Millo, Yuval, 101 minimum wage, 82, 88, 176 Minsky, Hyman, 87, 146 Mises, Ludwig von, 66 mission zero, 217 mobile banking, 199–200 mobile phones, 222 Model T revolution, 277–8 Moldova, 199 Mombasa, Kenya, 185–6 Mona Lisa (da Vinci), 94 money creation, 87, 164, 177, 182–8, 205 MONIAC (Monetary National Income Analogue Computer), 64–5, 75, 142, 262 Monoculture (Michaels), 6 Monopoly, 149 Mont Pelerin Society, 67, 93 Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, The (Friedman), 258 moral vacancy, 41 Morgan, Mary, 99 Morogoro, Tanzania, 121 Moyo, Dambisa, 258 Muirhead, Sam, 230, 231 MultiCapital Scorecard, 241 Murphy, David, 264 Murphy, Richard, 185 musical tastes, 110 Myriad Genetics, 196 N national basic income, 177 Native Americans, 115, 116, 282 natural capital, 7, 116, 269 Natural Economic Order, The (Gessel), 274 Nedbank, 216 negative externalities, 213 negative interest rates, 275–6 neoclassical economics, 134, 135 neoliberalism, 7, 62–3, 67–70, 81, 83, 84, 88, 93, 143, 170, 176 Nepal, 181, 199 Nestlé, 217 Netherlands, 211, 235, 224, 226, 238, 277 networks, 110–11, 117, 118, 123, 124–6, 174–6 neuroscience, 12–13 New Deal, 37 New Economics Foundation, 278, 283 New Year’s Day, 124 New York, United States, 9, 41, 55 Newlight Technologies, 224, 226, 293 Newton, Isaac, 13, 15–17, 32–3, 95, 97, 129, 131, 135–7, 142, 145, 162 Nicaragua, 196 Nigeria, 164 nitrogen, 49, 52, 212–13, 216, 218, 221, 226, 298 ‘no pain, no gain’, 163, 167, 173, 204, 209 Nobel Prize, 6–7, 43, 83, 101, 167 Norway, 281 nudging, 112, 113, 114, 123–6 O Obama, Barack, 41, 92 Oberlin, Ohio, 239, 240–41 Occupy movement, 40, 91 ocean acidification, 45, 46, 52, 155, 242, 298 Ohio, United States, 190, 239 Okun, Arthur, 37 onwards and upwards, 53 Open Building Institute, 196 Open Source Circular Economy (OSCE), 229–32 open systems, 74 open-source design, 158, 196–8, 265 open-source licensing, 204 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 38, 210, 255–6, 258 Origin of Species, The (Darwin), 14 Ormerod, Paul, 110, 111 Orr, David, 239 Ostrom, Elinor, 83, 84, 158, 160, 181–2 Ostry, Jonathan, 173 OSVehicle, 231 overseas development assistance (ODA), 198–200 ownership of wealth, 177–82 Oxfam, 9, 44 Oxford University, 1, 36 ozone layer, 9, 50, 115 P Pachamama, 54, 55 Pakistan, 124 Pareto, Vilfredo, 165–6, 175 Paris, France, 290 Park 20|20, Netherlands, 224, 226 Parker Brothers, 149 Patagonia, 56 patents, 195–6, 197, 204 patient capital, 235 Paypal, 192 Pearce, Joshua, 197, 203–4 peer-to-peer networks, 187, 192, 198, 203, 292 People’s QE, 184–5 Perseus, 244 Persia, 13 Peru, 2, 105–6 Phillips, Adam, 283 Phillips, William ‘Bill’, 64–6, 75, 142, 262 phosphorus, 49, 52, 212–13, 218, 298 Physiocrats, 73 Pickett, Kate, 171 pictures, 12–25 Piketty, Thomas, 169 Playfair, William, 16 Poincaré, Henri, 109, 127–8 Polanyi, Karl, 82, 272 political economy, 33–4, 42 political funding, 91–2, 171–2 political voice, 43, 45, 51–2, 77, 117 pollution, 29, 45, 52, 85, 143, 155, 206–17, 226, 238, 242, 254, 298 population, 5, 46, 57, 155, 199, 250, 252, 254 Portugal, 211 post-growth society, 250 poverty, 5, 9, 37, 41, 50, 88, 118, 148, 151 emotional, 283 and inequality, 164–5, 168–9, 178 and overseas development assistance (ODA), 198–200 and taxation, 277 power, 91–92 pre-analytic vision, 21–2 prescription medicines, 123 price-takers, 132 prices, 81, 118–23, 131, 160 Principles of Economics (Mankiw), 34 Principles of Economics (Marshall), 17, 98 Principles of Political Economy (Mill), 288 ProComposto, 226 Propaganda (Bernays), 107 public relations, 107, 281 public spending v. investment, 276 public–private patents, 195 Putnam, Robert, 76–7 Q quantitative easing (QE), 184–5 Quebec, 281 Quesnay, François, 16, 73 R Rabot, Ghent, 236 Rancière, Romain, 172 rating and review systems, 105 rational economic man, 94–103, 109, 111, 112, 126, 282 Reagan, Ronald, 67 reciprocity, 103–6, 117, 118, 123 reflexivity of markets, 144 reinforcing feedback loops, 138–41, 148, 250, 271 relative decoupling, 259 renewable energy biomass energy, 118, 221 and circular economy, 221, 224, 226, 235, 238–9, 274 and commons, 83, 85, 185, 187–8, 192, 203, 264 geothermal energy, 221 and green growth, 257, 260, 263, 264, 267 hydropower, 118, 260, 263 pricing, 118 solar energy, see solar energy wave energy, 221 wind energy, 75, 118, 196, 202–3, 221, 233, 239, 260, 263 rentier sector, 180, 183, 184 reregulation, 82, 87, 269 resource flows, 175 resource-intensive lifestyles, 46 Rethinking Economics, 289 Reynebeau, Guy, 237 Ricardo, David, 67, 68, 73, 89, 250 Richardson, Katherine, 53 Rifkin, Jeremy, 83, 264–5 Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, The (Kennedy), 279 risk, 112, 113–14 Robbins, Lionel, 34 Robinson, James, 86 Robinson, Joan, 142 robots, 191–5, 237, 258, 278 Rockefeller Foundation, 135 Rockford, Illinois, 179–80 Rockström, Johan, 48, 55 Roddick, Anita, 232–4 Rogoff, Kenneth, 271, 280 Roman Catholic Church, 15, 19 Rombo, Tanzania, 190 Rome, Ancient, 13, 48, 154 Romney, Mitt, 92 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 37 rooted membership, 190 Rostow, Walt, 248–50, 254, 257, 267–70, 284 Ruddick, Will, 185 rule of thumb, 113–14 Ruskin, John, 42, 223 Russia, 200 rust belt, 90, 239 S S curve, 251–6 Sainsbury’s, 56 Samuelson, Paul, 17–21, 24–5, 38, 62–7, 70, 74, 84, 91, 92, 93, 262, 290–91 Sandel, Michael, 41, 120–21 Sanergy, 226 sanitation, 5, 51, 59 Santa Fe, California, 213 Santinagar, West Bengal, 178 São Paolo, Brazil, 281 Sarkozy, Nicolas, 43 Saumweder, Philipp, 226 Scharmer, Otto, 115 Scholes, Myron, 100–101 Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich, 42, 142 Schumpeter, Joseph, 21 Schwartz, Shalom, 107–9 Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 163, 167, 204 ‘Science and Complexity’ (Weaver), 136 Scotland, 57 Seaman, David, 187 Seattle, Washington, 217 second machine age, 258 Second World War (1939–45), 18, 37, 70, 170 secular stagnation, 256 self-interest, 28, 68, 96–7, 99–100, 102–3 Selfish Society, The (Gerhardt), 283 Sen, Amartya, 43 Shakespeare, William, 61–3, 67, 93 shale gas, 264, 269 Shang Dynasty, 48 shareholders, 82, 88, 189, 191, 227, 234, 273, 292 sharing economy, 264 Sheraton Hotel, Boston, 3 Siegen, Germany, 290 Silicon Valley, 231 Simon, Julian, 70 Sinclair, Upton, 255 Sismondi, Jean, 42 slavery, 33, 77, 161 Slovenia, 177 Small Is Beautiful (Schumacher), 42 smart phones, 85 Smith, Adam, 33, 57, 67, 68, 73, 78–9, 81, 96–7, 103–4, 128, 133, 160, 181, 250 social capital, 76–7, 122, 125, 172 social contract, 120, 125 social foundation, 10, 11, 44, 45, 49, 51, 58, 77, 174, 200, 254, 295–6 social media, 83, 281 Social Progress Index, 280 social pyramid, 166 society, 76–7 solar energy, 59, 75, 111, 118, 187–8, 190 circular economy, 221, 222, 223, 224, 226–7, 239 commons, 203 zero-energy buildings, 217 zero-marginal-cost revolution, 84 Solow, Robert, 135, 150, 262–3 Soros, George, 144 South Africa, 56, 177, 214, 216 South Korea, 90, 168 South Sea Bubble (1720), 145 Soviet Union (1922–91), 37, 67, 161, 279 Spain, 211, 238, 256 Spirit Level, The (Wilkinson & Pickett), 171 Sraffa, Piero, 148 St Gallen, Switzerland, 186 Stages of Economic Growth, The (Rostow), 248–50, 254 stakeholder finance, 190 Standish, Russell, 147 state, 28, 33, 69–70, 78, 82, 160, 176, 180, 182–4, 188 and commons, 85, 93, 197, 237 and market, 84–6, 200, 281 partner state, 197, 237–9 and robots, 195 stationary state, 250 Steffen, Will, 46, 48 Sterman, John, 66, 143, 152–4 Steuart, James, 33 Stiglitz, Joseph, 43, 111, 196 stocks and flows, 138–41, 143, 144, 152 sub-prime mortgages, 141 Success to the Successful, 148, 149, 151, 166 Sugarscape, 150–51 Summers, Larry, 256 Sumner, Andy, 165 Sundrop Farms, 224–6 Sunstein, Cass, 112 supply and demand, 28, 132–6, 143, 253 supply chains, 10 Sweden, 6, 255, 275, 281 swishing, 264 Switzerland, 42, 66, 80, 131, 186–7, 275 T Tableau économique (Quesnay), 16 tabula rasa, 20, 25, 63, 291 takarangi, 54 Tanzania, 121, 190, 202 tar sands, 264, 269 taxation, 78, 111, 165, 170, 176, 177, 237–8, 276–9 annual wealth tax, 200 environment, 213–14, 215 global carbon tax, 201 global financial transactions tax, 201, 235 land-value tax, 73, 149, 180 non-renewable resources, 193, 237–8, 278–9 People’s QE, 185 tax relief v. tax justice, 23, 276–7 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), 202, 258 Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 61, 63, 93 Texas, United States, 120 Thailand, 90, 200 Thaler, Richard, 112 Thatcher, Margaret, 67, 69, 76 Theory of Moral Sentiments (Smith), 96 Thompson, Edward Palmer, 180 3D printing, 83–4, 192, 198, 231, 264 thriving-in-balance, 54–7, 62 tiered pricing, 213–14 Tigray, Ethiopia, 226 time banking, 186 Titmuss, Richard, 118–19 Toffler, Alvin, 12, 80 Togo, 231, 292 Torekes, 236–7 Torras, Mariano, 209 Torvalds, Linus, 231 trade, 62, 68–9, 70, 89–90 trade unions, 82, 176, 189 trademarks, 195, 204 Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), 92 transport, 59 trickle-down economics, 111, 170 Triodos, 235 Turkey, 200 Tversky, Amos, 111 Twain, Mark, 178–9 U Uganda, 118, 125 Ulanowicz, Robert, 175 Ultimatum Game, 105, 117 unemployment, 36, 37, 276, 277–9 United Kingdom Big Bang (1986), 87 blood donation, 118 carbon dioxide emissions, 260 free trade, 90 global material footprints, 211 money creation, 182 MONIAC (Monetary National Income Analogue Computer), 64–5, 75, 142, 262 New Economics Foundation, 278, 283 poverty, 165, 166 prescription medicines, 123 wages, 188 United Nations, 55, 198, 204, 255, 258, 279 G77 bloc, 55 Human Development Index, 9, 279 Sustainable Development Goals, 24, 45 United States American Economic Association meeting (2015), 3 blood donation, 118 carbon dioxide emissions, 260 Congress, 36 Council of Economic Advisers, 6, 37 Earning by Learning, 120 Econ 101 course, 8, 77 Exxon Valdez oil spill (1989), 9 Federal Reserve, 87, 145, 146, 271, 282 free trade, 90 Glass–Steagall Act (1933), 87 greenhouse gas emissions, 153 global material footprint, 211 gross national product (GNP), 36–40 inequality, 170, 171 land-value tax, 73, 149, 180 political funding, 91–2, 171 poverty, 165, 166 productivity and employment, 193 rust belt, 90, 239 Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), 92 wages, 188 universal basic income, 200 University of Berkeley, 116 University of Denver, 160 urbanisation, 58–9 utility, 35, 98, 133 V values, 6, 23, 34, 35, 42, 117, 118, 121, 123–6 altruism, 100, 104 anthropocentric, 115 extrinsic, 115 fluid, 28, 102, 106–9 and networks, 110–11, 117, 118, 123, 124–6 and nudging, 112, 113, 114, 123–6 and pricing, 81, 120–23 Veblen, Thorstein, 82, 109, 111, 142 Venice, 195 verbal framing, 23 Verhulst, Pierre, 252 Victor, Peter, 270 Viner, Jacob, 34 virtuous cycles, 138, 148 visual framing, 23 Vitruvian Man, 13–14 Volkswagen, 215–16 W Wacharia, John, 186 Wall Street, 149, 234, 273 Wallich, Henry, 282 Walras, Léon, 131, 132, 133–4, 137 Ward, Barbara, 53 Warr, Benjamin, 263 water, 5, 9, 45, 46, 51, 54, 59, 79, 213–14 wave energy, 221 Ways of Seeing (Berger), 12, 281 Wealth of Nations, The (Smith), 74, 78, 96, 104 wealth ownership, 177–82 Weaver, Warren, 135–6 weightless economy, 261–2 WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic), 103–5, 110, 112, 115, 117, 282 West Bengal, India, 124, 178 West, Darrell, 171–2 wetlands, 7 whale hunting, 106 Wiedmann, Tommy, 210 Wikipedia, 82, 223 Wilkinson, Richard, 171 win–win trade, 62, 68, 89 wind energy, 75, 118, 196, 202–3, 221, 233, 239, 260, 263 Wizard of Oz, The, 241 Woelab, 231, 293 Wolf, Martin, 183, 266 women’s rights, 33, 57, 107, 160, 201 and core economy, 69, 79–81 education, 57, 124, 178, 198 and land ownership, 178 see also gender equality workers’ rights, 88, 91, 269 World 3 model, 154–5 World Bank, 6, 41, 119, 164, 168, 171, 206, 255, 258 World No Tobacco Day, 124 World Trade Organization, 6, 89 worldview, 22, 54, 115 X xenophobia, 266, 277, 286 Xenophon, 4, 32, 56–7, 160 Y Yandle, Bruce, 208 Yang, Yuan, 1–3, 289–90 yin yang, 54 Yousafzai, Malala, 124 YouTube, 192 Yunnan, China, 56 Z Zambia, 10 Zanzibar, 9 Zara, 276 Zeitvorsoge, 186–7 zero environmental impact, 217–18, 238, 241 zero-hour contracts, 88 zero-humans-required production, 192 zero-interest loans, 183 zero-marginal-cost revolution, 84, 191, 264 zero-waste manufacturing, 227 Zinn, Howard, 77 PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Illustrations are reproduced by kind permission of: archive.org

Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now
by Guy Standing
Published 19 Mar 2020

And since a disproportionate share of economic growth is now going to a minority at the top of the income spectrum, a higher rate of GDP growth is needed to reduce poverty. But more growth means more resource depletion, more greenhouse gas emissions and more pollution of all kinds. Greens advocate ‘degrowth’. There is considerable merit in that position, but it would be a hard sell politically, since it would risk misinterpretation as telling voters they should expect a decline in living standards. A better approach would be to recalibrate what is meant by growth, giving value to environmental indicators and forms of work that are not counted in GDP, perhaps using a ‘genuine progress indicator’, as some have proposed.78 One other change is vital.

Automation and the Future of Work
by Aaron Benanav
Published 3 Nov 2020

See League of Nations, Economic Stability in the Post-War World: The Conditions of Prosperity after the Transition from War to Peace, 1945, pp. 228–9. 17 See Robert Pollin, Greening the Global Economy, MIT Press, 2015; Ann Pettifor, The Case for a Green New Deal, Verso, 2019; and Kate Aronoff et. al., A Planet to Win: The Case for the Green New Deal, Verso, 2019. For critiques see Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright, Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future, Verso, 2018, pp. 99–128; Troy Vetesse, “To Freeze the Thames,” New Left Review, no. 111, S2, May–June 2018; Jason Hickel, “Degrowth: A Theory of Radical Abundance,” Real World Economics Review, no. 87, 2019, pp. 54–68; and Nicholas Beuret, “A Green New Deal between Whom and for What?,” Viewpoint, October 24, 2019. 18 See Nixon Apple, “The Rise and Fall of Full Employment Capitalism,” Studies in Political Economy, vol. 4, no. 1, 1980. 19 For the classic account, see Michal Kalecki, “Political Aspects of Full Employment,” Political Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 4, 1943.

Why We Can't Afford the Rich
by Andrew Sayer
Published 6 Nov 2014

We are in deep trouble, not just because of the economic crisis, but because it’s overshadowed by a bigger and more threatening crisis – climate change. The solution to the economic crisis is widely thought to be growth. But that will only accelerate global warming. The rich countries need to switch to steady-state or ‘degrowth’ economies to save the planet, but capitalism needs growth to survive; it’s in its DNA. Soviet state socialism proved no better environmentally. We need a different model. If that seems a gloomy conclusion, there is a very important and positive counter message: that beyond a certain level, attained already by most people in rich countries, well-being is not improved much by further increases in wealth, and well-being tends to be higher in more equal countries.

…

‘Geoengineering’ projects, such as cloud seeding or putting giant reflectors in space or fertilising the oceans to absorb more CO2 are hugely risky, and only encourage governments to stall on CO2 reduction. So is there another way out of the double crisis? Reduced consumption: sufficiency? For the rich countries at least, not growth but zero growth or even ‘de-growth’ are likely to be the only feasible ways of cutting greenhouse gases fast enough to stop runaway global warming, and that of course would mean more modest consumption, including reduced mobility, particularly for the rich and well-off. We certainly can’t afford the rich, for environmental as well as economic and social justice reasons.

Undoing Border Imperialism
by Harsha Walia
Published 12 Nov 2013

Tara Williamson, “Idle No More Provides Us with Opportunity to Examine Nationhood,” Divided No More, January 15, 2013, http://dividednomore.ca/2013/01/15/idlenomore-provides-us-with-opportunity-to-examine-nationhood/ (accessed March 1, 2013). 6. Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, trans. Constance Farrington (New York: Grove Press, 1965), 44. 7. Valérie Fournier, “Escaping from the Economy: The Politics of Degrowth,” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 28, 11–12 (March 2008): 530. 8. Ibid. 9. Leanne Simpson, “Attawapiskat, Revisited,” Briarpatch, May 1, 2012, http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/attawapiskat-revisited (accessed September 12, 2012). 10. Nora Butler Burke, “Building a ‘Canadian’ Decolonization Movement: Fighting the Occupation at ‘Home,’” Colours of Resistance, August 2004, http://www.coloursofresistance.org/360/building-a-canadian-decolonization-movement-fighting-the-occupation-at-home/ (accessed September 12, 2012). 11.

The Wisdom of Frugality: Why Less Is More - More or Less
by Emrys Westacott
Published 14 Apr 2016

.: HCL, 2002); Ed Romney, Living Well on Practically Nothing (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2001). 2. Representative websites devoted to frugality or simple living include the following: Simple Living Network, The Simple Dollar, Value of Simple, The Minimalistas, Center for a New American Dream, Slow Movement, Degrowth, The Dollar Stretcher, Happy Simple Living, and Choosing Voluntary Simplicity. 3. William B. Irvine, A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS SIMPLICITY? 1. Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, in Autobiography and Other Writings, ed.

Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation
by Paris Marx
Published 4 Jul 2022

As environmental activist George Monbiot has explained, “The expansion of public wealth creates more space for everyone; the expansion of private wealth reduces it, eventually damaging most people’s quality of life.”21 The communities of the future must expand public parks and pools; build wonderful libraries that lend out books along with many other necessities; and take a whole range of basic services out of the market to provision them for public good in an effort to reverse the trend toward private luxuries. Degrowth campaigner Aaron Vansintjan called this a campaign for “public abundance,” and it is a vision which we should strive to achieve.22 Remaking society in this way also provides the opportunity to rethink how services are delivered to best meet the needs of the public instead of letting large companies exploit them for profit.

Uncomfortably Off: Why the Top 10% of Earners Should Care About Inequality
by Marcos González Hernando and Gerry Mitchell
Published 23 May 2023

LabourList. https://labourlist.org/2022/09/ faced-with-liz-truss-the-left-can-have-confidence-it-will-winthe-battle-of-ideas Hastings, A., Bailey, N., Bramley, G., Gannon, M. and Watkins, D. (2015) The cost of the cuts: The impact on local government and poorer communities. London: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Hecht, K. (2017) A relational analysis of top incomes and wealth: Economic evaluation, relative (dis)advantage and the service to capital. LSE International Inequalities Institute Working Paper, 11. Hickel, J. (2020) Less is more: How degrowth will save the world. London: Penguin. 215 Uncomfortably Off Higgins, S., Lustig, N. and Vigorito, A. (2018) The rich underreport their income: Assessing biases in inequality estimates and correction methods using linked survey and tax data. CEQ Working Paper Series n.70. http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/ceq/ ceq70.pdf Hills, J. (2014) Good times, bad times: The welfare myth of them and us.

Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World
by Gaia Vince
Published 22 Aug 2022

There is no justification for billionaires in societies where many struggle to feed themselves – this pathological accumulation of wealth could be far better used by society with no harm to lifestyle. We are still a long way from achieving economic growth without environmental destruction, but there are ways of getting there. Although some environmentalists argue we should be aiming for degrowth, I remain unconvinced that living standards could be maintained under such circumstances, and can’t imagine democratic societies choosing a decline in living standards. CIRCULATING RESOURCES The advantage of having a global population concentrated in megacity safe havens is the opportunity for efficiencies.

How to Spend a Trillion Dollars
by Rowan Hooper
Published 15 Jan 2020

Reuters. https://in.reuters.com/article/us-eu-summit-climate-change/eu-makes-worlds-biggest-green-recovery-pledge-but-will-it-hit-the-mark-idINKCN24N231 3 UN News (2019) ‘General Assembly approves $3 billion UN budget for 2020’. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/12/1054431#:~:-text=The%20UN%20General%20Assembly%20on,to%20cover%20the%20year%202020%20 4 From Jason Hickel (2020), Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. London: William Heinemann. 5 Stefan Bringezu (2015) ‘Possible target corridor for sustainable use of global material resources’. Resources 4(1), 25–54. 6 Arundhati Roy (2020) ‘The pandemic is a portal’. Financial Times, 3 April. www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920cant20 Praise for Rowan Hooper’s Superhuman ‘Rowan Hooper’s study is astonishing and inspiring.

The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans
by Mark Lynas
Published 3 Oct 2011

Third, to the biggest and most central concern of all: economic growth. Throughout this book I have referred approvingly to growth, technology, and innovation as ways to solve pressing environmental challenges. But won’t growth go on to cause even more problems than it solves? And is ever-increasing consumption even possible on a physically limited planet? De-growth, on the other hand, can be environmentally beneficial: Industrialized countries saw declines in carbon emissions following the economic recession that began in 2008. These are strong arguments, and need to be looked at carefully. But I believe my pro-growth perspective holds up to the challenge, for several equally strong reasons.

Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
by Bill McKibben
Published 15 Apr 2019

Rory Smith, “IQ Scores Are Falling and Have Been for Decades, New Study Finds,” CNN.com, June 14, 2018. 11. Adrien Marck et al., “Are We Reaching the Limits of Homo sapiens?” Frontiers in Physiology, frontiersin.org, October 24, 2017. 12. Steven Pinker, “The Moral Imperative for Bioethics,” Boston Globe, July 31, 2015. 13. Derrick O’Keefe, “Décroissance in America: Say Degrowth!” Reporterre, May 8, 2010. 14. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, chapter 9. “On the Profits of Stock,” available online econolib.org/library/smith/smwn.htm 15. John Stuart Mill, “Of the Stationary State of Wealth and Population,” quoted at bartleby.com. 16. The Arts Council of Great Britain, “First Annual Report 1945–6” (London: Baynard Press, 1946), p. i.

The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism
by Ruth Kinna
Published 31 Jul 2019

After being expelled from France he moved to London where he became a leading figure in émigré anarchist circles and a friend of Malatesta, Rocker and Nettlau. He is buried in the Brockley and Ladywell cemeteries in South London.13 HANS WIDMER AKA P.M. (b. 1947) Widmer is a Zurich-based anarchist, retired teacher and philologist and advocate of degrowth and urban redesign. A member of the Midnight Notes collective he describes himself as an anti-68er and is best known as the author of bolo’bolo (1983). Widmer has published over fifteen books, including Die Andere Stadt/The Other City in 2017.14 GEORGE WOODCOCK (1912–1995) A writer, poet, anarchist and historian of anarchism, Woodcock wrote or edited an estimated 150 books, including the highly influential Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962) and The Anarchist Reader (1977).

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
by Steven Pinker
Published 13 Feb 2018

The root cause is the Enlightenment commitment to reason, science, and progress: “Scientific and technological progress cannot be equated with the progress of humanity and history,” wrote Francis. “The way to a better future lies elsewhere,” namely in an appreciation of “the mysterious network of relations between things” and (of course) “the treasure of Christian spiritual experience.” Unless we repent our sins by degrowth, deindustrialization, and a rejection of the false gods of science, technology, and progress, humanity will face a ghastly reckoning in an environmental Judgment Day. As with many apocalyptic movements, greenism is laced with misanthropy, including an indifference to starvation, an indulgence in ghoulish fantasies of a depopulated planet, and Nazi-like comparisons of human beings to vermin, pathogens, and cancer.

…

The declines don’t just reflect an offshoring of heavy industry to the developing world, because the bulk of energy use and emissions comes from transportation, heating, and electricity generation, which cannot be outsourced. Rather, they mainly reflect gains in efficiency and emission control. These diverging curves refute both the orthodox Green claim that only degrowth can curb pollution and the orthodox right-wing claim that environmental protection must sabotage economic growth and people’s standard of living. Figure 10-3: Pollution, energy, and growth, US, 1970–2015 Sources: US Environmental Protection Agency 2016, based on the following sources.

Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
by Vaclav Smil
Published 2 Mar 2021

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cummins, N. 2012. Marital fertility and wealth during the fertility transition: Rural France; 1750–1850. The Economic History Review https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2012.00666.x D’Alisa, G. et al., eds. 2014. Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era. London: Routledge. Daly, H.E., ed. 1971. Toward a Stationary-State Economy. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. Daly, H. 1980. Economics, Ecology, Ethics: Essays Toward a Steady-State Economy. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. Daly, H. 1996. Beyond Growth. Boston: Beacon Press.

The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet
by Brett Christophers
Published 12 Mar 2024

Indeed, of the fourteen different areas of human activity identified by the IPCC as being primarily responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, only one – land use change and forestry – saw greater absolute growth in such emissions between 2010 and 2019 than the power (electricity and heat) subsector.12 Hence it is impossible to disagree with the IPCC’s own blunt conclusion, spelled out especially starkly in its 2022 report on climate change mitigation.13 If we hope for the planet to remain habitable, the IPCC has concluded, then the dramatic reduction of emissions from electricity generation is a sine qua non. Needless to say, there are only two ways in which this could be achieved. One is to massively reduce global electricity consumption, which, short of a contraction forced by more or less apocalyptic global developments, simply is not going to happen, for all degrowthers’ imploring. The other, of course, is to replace existing fossil-fuel-based means of electricity production with generation technologies that emit few or no greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, in the same report, the IPCC made a further, particularly noteworthy, observation in the form of a striking juxtaposition of status quo and radical-mitigation global climate scenarios.

Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
by Alan Weisman
Published 23 Sep 2013

MarketWatch, June 28, 2011. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/population-bomb-9-billion-march-to-wwiii-2011-06-28. _______.“Why Big-Money Men Ignore World’s Biggest Problem.” MarketWatch, October 11, 2011. Filipo, Fabrice, and Francois Schneider, eds. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Economic De-growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, Paris, April 18–19, 2008. Freeland, Chrystia. “Demographics Putting a Squeeze on the Debt Dilemma.” Reuters, August 1, 2011. Ghimire, Bhumika. “Germany: Population Decline and the Economy.” Suite101.com, February 22, 2011. http://suite101.com/article.

Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy
by Philippe van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght
Published 20 Mar 2017

Wall Street Journal, June 3. http://Â�w ww╉.Â�wsj╉.Â�com ╉/Â�a rticles╉/Â�a╉-Â�g uaranteed╉-Â�income╉-Â�for╉-Â�every╉-Â�american╉-Â�1 464969586. Musgrave, Richard A. 1974. “Maximin, Uncertainty, and the Leisure Trade-Â�Off.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 88(4): 625–632. Mylondo, Baptiste. 2010. Un revenu pour tous! Précis d’utopie réaliste. Paris: Utopia. —Â�—Â�—. 2012. “Can a Basic Income Lead to Economic Degrowth?” Paper presented at the 14th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), Munich, September 14–16. Myrdal, Alva. 1945. “In Cash or In Kind.” In Alva Myrdal, Nation and Â�Family: The Swedish Experiment in DemoÂ�cratic Â�Family and Population Policy, 133–153. London: Kegan Paul. National Welfare Rights OrganÂ�ization. 1969/2003.

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Published 18 Oct 2021

That is what made Marshall Sahlins’s 1968 essay ‘The Original Affluent Society’ such an epochal event, and is why we must now consider both some of its implications and its limitations. Probably the most influential anthropological essay ever written, it turned that old Victorian wisdom – still prevalent in the 1960s – on its head, creating instant discussion and debate, inspiring everyone from socialists to hippies. Whole schools of thought (Primitivism, Degrowth) would likely have never come about without it. But Sahlins was also writing at a time when archaeologists still knew relatively little about pre-agricultural peoples, at least compared to what we know now. It might be best, then, first to take a look at his argument before turning to the evidence we have today and seeing how the piece measures up against it.