Editorial
Degrowth

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A provocative slogan

Let us immediately specify that degrowth is not a concept, and in any case, not one that is symmetrical to growth. It is a political slogan with theoretical implications. The watchword of degrowth especially has an aim to strongly signal the abandonment of the target of growth for the sake of growth, a foolish objective whose engine is precisely the unrestrained search for profit by the holders of capital, and whose consequences are disastrous for the environment. Rigorously, it would be best

History of the process

The process of the development of an autonomous and thrifty society which hides behind the slogan of degrowth was not born yesterday. “We have the conviction”, wrote the authors of the report of the Club of Rome in 1972, “that an awakening to the material limits of the world environment and the tragic consequences of an unreasoned exploitation of the earth resources is essential to the emergence of new modes of thought which will lead to a fundamental revision, both of the behaviour of men,

Analytical and political scope

The construction of a society of degrowth certainly must pass through the demystification of GDP, the fetish index of modern wellbeing, the fight against the negative externalities of growth and the implementation of virtuous circles of voluntary simplicity. It is advisable then to specify the contours of what a society of “non-growth” could be. This supposes a drastic reduction in the negative externalities of growth and rests on the organization of virtuous circles of degrowth.

Degrowth and

Conclusion

Even if, because of the diversity of sources and angles of approach, all the contributions in this collection of contributions do not come from the same degree of radicalism, the analysis of the “partisans” of degrowth or the “objectors to growth” is distinguishable from the analyses and positions of other criticisms of the contemporary globalized economy (the alter-globalization movement or the solidarity economy), which may not place the heart of the problem in neo or ultra-liberalism, or

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