Degrowth: From Theory to Practise

The collection of articles reviewed in this editorial presents an eclectic sample of the best contributions from the Second international conference on degrowth, exemplifying recent debates in the field and touching on different aspects of the multi-dimensional transition at stake. Moving beyond theory and the construction of the degrowth proposal, the articles in this special issue look at particular applications, new methodologies and fresh policy options. For example, social enterprises are evaluated as primer candidates for a sustainable degrowth economy in the North. Lessons are also drawn from very different parts of the world, such as Cuba’s experience with an oil and commodity shock, to which it adapted through the introduction of ecological labour-intensive agriculture in urban regions.

This Special Issue approaches from a degrowth perspective important sectoral issues in agriculture, resource consumption and water. The unsustainable fuel-dependence of the Spanish agrarian sector, where the energy input for the production process is six times higher than the energy contained in finished food products, is analysed in the context of the industrialization of food production. Rather than efficiency, sufficiency (in consumption) is proposed as an organising societal principle and a call is made for stronger NGO action and coalition-building in the direction of absolute (rather than relative) consumption reduction. The obstacles to sufficiency policies are illustrated with a case-study on water in the city of Barcelona, where a growth discourse is still dominant and a source of a technological and institutional deadlock against softer, decentralized and more participatory forms of water management.

Finally, many of the contributions in this issue focus on work. The policy option of a Job Guarantee scheme is examined as a tool to decouple jobs from economic growth and fiscal policy by bringing them to the realm of political rights. This is complemented by a discussion of the social benefits of an “amateur economy” through work-sharing and a socially beneficial reduction in labour productivity. Original data from Barcelona analysed for this Special Issue shows that household activities, an essential component of a more amateur economy, have a much lower intensity of energy use than the paid-sector delivery of equivalent services, especially government and privatized caring services. Interesting research questions are identified concerning work under a degrowth trajectory, not least whether reducing paid work will be possible in an energy-scarce future. Put together, the diverse contributions of this issue show that there is a vibrant and fertile degrowth research agenda with a range of open questions to which the community of this journal has much to offer.

Introduction

Degrowth can generally be defined as a collective and deliberative process aimed at the equitable downscaling of the overall capacity to produce and consume and of the role of markets and commercial exchanges as a central organising principle of human lives (Schneider et al., 2010).

Following the JCP special issue published after the First international conference on degrowth in 2010, which was the first refereed scientific volume on degrowth to be published in English, the term has been emerging in many more scientific publications and political debates (see for example Special Issues (SI) on degrowth in the journals Futures 2012, Capitalism Nature Socialism 2012, Ecological Economics 2012 and in Environmental Values due in 2013). The consolidation of degrowth as an intellectual current in the literature (Bonaiuti, 2005; Taibo, 2009) has also emerged from social debates, like the one on environmental justice (Martinez-Alier, 2011). Over the last four years the discussion has matured and better definitions of degrowth are being sought (e.g. Demaria et al., forthcoming; Kallis, 2011). The term is now even entering the Chinese context (Xue et al., 2012).

The current SI, based on selected readings presented at the Second International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity exemplifies recent debates in the field while picking up the discussion from where the first SI in JCLP left it. Moving beyond general theory on the construction the degrowth proposal, this SI looks at particular methodological applications and policy options.

Despite the increasing attention for degrowth in the literature some important misconceptions about its nature and content remain. Traces of these can be found in some of the contributions to this special issue. The first one concerns the understanding of degrowth in squarely economic terms, or as aiming at a reduction of GDP (e.g. Van den Bergh, 2011). Degrowth, however, is a multidimensional concept. The ideas intertwined in its proposal have diverse roots, including anti-utilitarianism and anthropology (Flipo, 2007). In the anti-utilitarian tradition, degrowth is a critique to the central role of economic (monetary, or market-based) transactions in human relations and society (Bayon et al., 2010). The term therefore implies a broader process of changes in the political-economic organization, including the societal context (Kallis, 2011). Reduction of GDP is neither relevant, nor a measure of degrowth, for the latter can hardly be captured by a single indicator. If a GDP decline occurs in a degrowth context, it should rather be a consequence of particular societal choices, rather than a goal in itself (Schneider et al., 2010).

Another reoccurring debate concerns the relevance of degrowth in the context of a widespread fiscal austerity and unemployment especially notable in Southern Europe. While some critics would argue that some form of degrowth is taking place at the moment, the present economic shrinking is a result of an intrinsic failure of the expansionary policies fostering economic growth. In economics recession is understood as a particular short-lived phase in the process of economic growth, and a necessary stage for eliminating inefficient and non-profitable activities in order to spur further growth (Bayon et al., 2010). Sustainable degrowth can be thought as a way to avoid or leave, recessions through rethinking needs and shifting objectives away from the regime of accumulation (and exchanges) in monetary terms.

From a degrowth perspective crises can be understood as mismatches between the desire to buy, produce, build, employ and borrow and the limits to perform all these activities (Schneider, 2010). These limits can be expressed in terms of natural resources, but also in the availability of time, money, or infrastructure. One common way to leave an economic crisis is by triggering growth, often by means of removing the factors which pose limits to production and consumption. Following Keynes, crises can be postponed by having the right fiscal interventions that favour production, fostering consumption growth and restoring purchasing confidence (for a part of the population). Considering the constantly rising and upward-adaptable material aspirations (Matthey, 2010) and the ecological and biophysical limits of the planet, additional growth, however, would deepen, prolong and accelerate future crises. Assuming that we have reached the limits to growth (not only in physical terms) and noting the lack of any signs of decoupling in history and present day (Polimeni et al., 2009), the only path to avoiding future crises, while living in “prosperity” (Jackson, 2009) is through sustainable degrowth. The possible crisis on the way down can be solved by avoiding the mismatch between desires and tighter limits (in terms of resource exploitation, for example).

Reoccurring themes throughout this SI are the respective roles of technological advancement, efficiency and voluntary reduction of consumption to solving ecological and social conflicts while remaining within the biophysical constraints. While efficiency and voluntary frugality are inseparable features and futures of degrowth action and politics, these might be counter-productive if not accompanied by adjustment in the form of setting binding macro level constraints (Alcott, 2010; Daly, 1996). Setting these, however, requires a collective, or deliberative process.

One of the results of the scientific deliberations in the 2nd International conference on Degrowth in Barcelona is the notion that in highly complex societies, lasting ecological sustainability and social equity requires a combination of actions and dimensions.¹ This SI collects an eclectic sample of some of the best contributions from the conference touching different aspects of the multi-dimensional transition at stake, especially in the field of restructuring economic production and work in the context of declining energy and energetic sources.