Degrowth – Page 4 of 8 – André Reichel

2015/07/162015/07/17

Austerity and Degrowth

I have to start with Greece. For many vocal advocates of a more leftwing economic policy, most notably (and notoriously) Paul Krugman), the prolonged debt crisis in the Mediterranean country has its roots in austerity politics imposed by the ‘Troika’ of the ECB, IMF, and the Eurozone Group. Without another haircut, i.e. write-off of Greek debts, and a stimulus program, Greece will not manage to recover. And recovery, of course, means GDP growth. I could argue about the deeper meaning of austerity politics in the case of Greece (or Portugal, or Spain, or Ireland for that matter) – to actually build a coherent fiscal framework for the Eurozone with shared understandings of political economy, something that has not been there in the first place and what is desperately needed in a common currency area.… Read more

2015/05/292015/11/07

Progressive Degrowth

Degrowth is a conservative perspective on humanity’s future and thus always runs into serious acceptance problems when dealing with progressive proposals of “limitless” developments. What is needed is a reframing of these proposals as conservative and limiting our future while degrowth is presented as a “new progressivism”.

If you are an optimist regarding your life, technological opportunities and the general scheme of things, degrowth is hardly an attractive political-economical idea – less a philosophy you’d like to call your own.… Read more

2015/02/072015/02/08

Marshall’s Cross and Degrowth Macroeconomics

When talking about degrowth –the planned transition to a contraction-based, socially just, and ecologically sustainable society– or a postgrowth economy –an economy that is in a dynamic steady state and sustainable in the long-term– issues of macroeconomic policy are becoming shaky and unclear from the classical economics perspective which is still focused on perpetual economic growth. In the wider degrowth/postgrowth movement you have to credit Tim Jackson and Peter A. Victor for probably the most insightful work until now into this subject.… Read more

2015/02/022015/02/02

Groundhog day in Greece: On the missed opportunity for setting degrowth on the political agenda

The electoral victory of SYRIZA in Greece has fueled imaginations on the European left for a departure of ‘no alternative’ austerity politics. As much as a return of more imaginative politics is desperately needed in order to revitalize European democracy and save it from too much technocratic post-politics, it is rather doubtful if there really is a true alternative from a postgrowth or degrowth perspective. When looking more closely at SYRIZA’s Thessaloniki program many elements can be found that have the name of John Maynard Keynes written all over them: cutting taxes on fuel and property, raising the tax threshold, reintroducing a 13th month pension for low income pensioners, a 3bn EUR employment program sought to create up to 300,000 new jobs, and an increase in the country’s minimum wage.… Read more

2014/12/29

Between Capitalism and Subsistence

At the Degrowth 2014 Conference in Leipzig, we were discussing the issue of postgrowth practices in production and consumption, how those are developing within business and consumer contexts and transform each other. Production and consumption appears to coevolve in front of a degrowth, postgrowth or “transitions” reference frame, with emerging concepts like the sharing of products, collaboration for producing and distributing energy and food, subsistence work and subsistence tools in Fabrication Laboratories, the rise of commons-based thinking and so forth.… Read more