Resetting the clock to rethink life

De-growth can help people engage life journeys with patience and compassion, rather than investing in material acquisitions to escape the daily quota of pain, sadness and frustration.

Epidemics have happened in the past but the speed and scope of the present contagion has left the world reeling under its brutal impact. The interconnectivity of accelerated global economies with encroached habitats, exhaustive agriculture and commoditized wildlife has helped the virus to move without any inhibition to expose the weak fundamentals of the existing economic systems. The billion dollar question that begs serious attention is whether the existing systems would be capable of scaling back production at levels and in ways that do not cause further loss of livelihood and life? And, will the growth of society slowed down by an unprecedented disaster emerge more resilient later, with the goal of mitigating the economic and ecological crises which has led it to the present situation?

Pursuit of growth cannot address the growth pangs, much like addressing a problem by applying the solution that caused the problem leads nowhere. The core problem with the capitalist model of growth is that it leads to mounting debt, increasing inequality, rising unemployment, and shrinking finances, and sacrifices made in its pursuit lead to externalizing costs that are forced on both poor people and mute nature. What it does though is to keep billions under the illusion that trickle-down effect will get them leftovers of accumulated wealth year-on-year, but the broad architecture of the economic construct remains exclusionist at the core.

Confronting the idiom of economism head-on may seem preposterous, but slowing down under the current pandemic with ideas on frugality having caught on seems an apt time to press home the case for degrowth. After defining the term in their first book, Degrowth - A Vocabulary for A New Era, the authors take the idea forward in their second outing half a decade later by suggesting a way of living with less, however, with the aim of living differently by promoting well being, equity and sustainability. Degrowth, according to the quartet, should help people engage life journeys with patience, compassion and care for self and others, rather than investing time and resources for material acquisitions to escape the daily quota of pain, sadness and frustration. After all, how long should the cycle of sufferings remain self-perpetuating? 

While the political system is obsessed with a growth-driven model based on private property, paid labor, and a consumptive market, The Case for Degrowth provides numerous cross-country examples of eco-communes, transition towns, and co-living communities that need support, strengthening, and scaling up. Spread over five sections, with an add-on section elucidating the frequently asked questions, this pithy book offers well-argued critique of the growth systems while presenting policy packages for promoting degrowth that will help people produce only as much, consume less, share more, enjoy time, and live with dignity and joy. There are clear directions being proposed in the book to make degrowth a reality, however, it by no means should be read as a euphemism for ‘green deal’ as it is a low resource use transformative process that ensures universal basic services for all, with an assured universal basic income. 

Offering deep analysis, the book argues for a transformative politics that is not back-to-the-roots journey but one that provides multiple options and strategies about recreating frameworks for engaging communities in playing an active role in designing their own life support systems. Ever since it was launched at a global conference in Paris in 2008, degrowth has caught on as an idea for researchers and movements to pursue as an alternative to growth-obsessed politics. With GDP driven global economy taking a serious beating during the pandemic, the book could not have come at a more appropriate time. 

The Case for Degrowth is a bold new statement on re-ordering values and resources to support the development of diverse life-making processes operating in different logics under differing conditions. The writers are convinced that by adopting diversity of approaches can resilience be achieved in the face of the existential crises. Written with empathy and concern, the book is an open invitation to its readers to play a proactive role in pushing the idea at levels that can generate political support for a non-GDP growth. 

The paradigm shift in proposed policies and actions in the book take into account historical, cultural and social contexts which may have its share of pitfalls, but the pandemic has indeed shown that modest living, enjoyed in solidarity, amidst shared living is indeed a possibility.

The Case for Degrowth
by Giorgos Kallis, Susan Paulson, Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaria 
Polity, Cambridge (UK)
Extent: 151, Price: US$12.95.

First published in The Hindu, issue dated Nov 22, 2020.

Will everyone get a Ferrari some day?

Even if everyone were to get a Ferrari, it will only be the Fiat of its generation

With Covid-19 having slowed down everything, and with frugality in thoughts and actions set in, the idea of 'de-growth' may seem a possibility provided the newfound approach and attitude towards life and life processes persist both at the individual as well as at a societal level. But isn't resisting growth a risk to economic and social collapse? To pursue it relentlessly may be risky one might wonder – endangering the ecosystems on which economy depends. Despite the classical idea of development been declared dead several times in the past, it continues to persist because ‘Ferrari for all’ is the elusive dream everybody has been made to strive for. Will the world be able to produce enough Ferrari for all, and for all those who are yet to be born? The truth is that not in a foreseeable future?  

Even if everyone were to get a Ferrari, it will only be the Fiat of its generation, and may do little good to the society at large. It will only make people yearn for something different and more, without any let down in the unending materialistic desires. The reach of markets into aspects of life traditionally governed by non-market values and norms will only rob us from finding the meaning of life individually. Isn’t unending desires the reason for growing anxiety? 

Its essence may have existed across traditional cultures through the ages, de-growth has been rechristened by a group of academicians at the Autonomous University of Barcelona to pull the society out from its current abyss. Since it was launched at a global conference in Paris in 2008, de-growth has spread across countries engaging researchers and movements to deliberate and elaborate the idea from diverse perspectives. Confronting the idiom of economism head on, de-growth advocates shrinking of production and consumption with an aim to achieve social justice and ecological continuity.   

Spread over four sections, the book is a compilation of easy-to-read essays which argue that the ‘shift’ is indeed possible. It in no way advocates back-to-the-roots journey but suggests learning from indigenous cultures and techniques for paving an autonomous, close-to-nature, and ecological way of life. The challenge is to give expression to indigenous knowledge and traditions that have been oppressed, minimized or subordinated over centuries. However, de-growth can only gain ground provided political strategies support the idea of non-GDP growth.  

Taking cue from the Sarkozy Commission (Beyond GDP) many developed countries are toying with the newer ways to measure progress, and incorporation of the concept of Buen Vivir (living well) in the new Constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia only indicates that the idea of ‘de-growth’ in its diverse manifestations is catching on. Offering deep analysis, the book argues for a transformative politics that should support such initiatives aimed at decolonizing the imaginary of growth. De-growth challenges techniques rather than just calling for their control, providing alternative ways of thinking about environment and development. 

For new ideas on de-growth like frugality, sobriety, de-materialization and digital commons to sink in, the editors have assembled keywords and concepts to construct a language that can take the discourse on de-growth forward. The book is not prescriptive but suggestive in nature, inviting readers to make their own voyage and reach their own sense of what de-growth means to them. It is a must read for all those who firmly believe that modern economy has reached its dead-end. 

Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era
by Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaria & Giorgos Kallis (Eds)
Routledge, London & New York
Extent: 220, Price: $40