The Case for Degrowth

Reviews / Votes

"COVID-19 is the symptom; the profit-driven destruction of natural and social habitants is the disease. There's only one cure consistent with global social justice. Read this eloquent and urgent book and find out what it is."
Mike Davis, University of California and author of Ecology of Fear and Planet of Slums

"This is a major contribution to the current debate on growth and degrowth. The authors lay bare the innards of each and show us the importance of degrowth. Wellbeing, equity, and sustainability are key vectors organizing this text. These should be understood in the fullness of their capacities to move us out of our current modernity --a decaying order that is today still dominant. But history has shown us across the centuries that no system of power can last for ever, and nor will our current system. Indeed, it is busy destroying itself."
Saskia Sassen, Columbia University and author of Expulsions

"Degrowth is one of the most important ideas of the 21st century. Here it is in compact form. Clear, timely, urgent. Don't miss this book."
Jason Hickel, London School of Economics and author of The Divide and Less is More

"The COVID pandemic is laying bare dysfunctions of the growth model and the urgency of a pathway to sanity, climate protection, and security for all. This wonderful and accessible introduction by leading degrowth scholars is a vital resource for anyone interested in viable alternatives, rooted in cooperative economic relations and respect for planetary limits."
Juliet Schor, author of After the Gig: how the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back

"A superb account of why capitalist economies fail life on Earth, even as peoples initiatives in community sharing already revive joy and hope for our futures. This small book teaches economics like no other. It will reply to your doubts about change. It should be on every public library shelf and every syllabus; give copies to your friends."
Ariel Salleh, activist and editor of Eco-Sufficiency and Global Justice: Women write Political Ecology

"The degrowth movement now has its Manifesto. A rigorous, practical analysis that will guide grassroots and institutional politics so they can realize a transformation akin to degrowth and turn the current global crisis into a new opportunity and pathway towards more sustainable and carrying societies."
Isabelle Anguelovski, Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ) and author of Neighborhood as Refuge

"By this book, degrowth finally becomes adult. No longer a simple game of hide-and-seek with the growth regime. No longer a vague illusion postponed until the advent of a catastrophe that never comes. No longer a generous experimentation among circles of virtuosos nor an extreme form of resilience by the excluded from the banquet of the consumer society, but a mature and innovative political project, facing the hegemony challenge in the open field of the social arena. The authors are the best fruits of the degrowth movement: activists at the forefront and at the same time leading scholars."
Onofrio Romano, University of Bari and author of Towards a society of degrowth

"Decrecer es la consigna. Mas y mas crecimiento economico en un mundo finito es una locura. Mas todavia si este ahonda las diferencias sociales, las frustraciones y la infelicidad. No podemos mantener ese ritmo despiadado de acumulacion del que afloran multiples pandemias, como la del coronavirus. No hay duda, requerimos una desaceleracion programada de la actividad economica para reencontrarnos armonicamente con los ritmos de la Madre Tierra, asi como para construir otras sociedades basadas en la diversidad, la sostenibilidad, la pluralidad y la reciprocidad; bases fundamentales del Pluriverso: un mundo donde quepan todos los mundos posibles que aseguren una vida digna a humanos y no humanos."
Alberto Acosta, former president of the Constituent Assembly of Ecuador and author of Buen Vivir



"Degrowth is one of the most exciting approaches to emerge from the belly of the industrialised and colonising world, fundamentally challenging its unsustainable and inequitable path of 'development'. But approaches and concepts also need praxis, else they remain in rarified ivory towers. Perhaps for the first time, here, degrowth proponents transform visions and recommendations into a coherent set of actions, from our individual choices to macro-economics and politics. Essential reading for anyone interested in transforming society to be crisis-resilient and crisis-avoiding!"
Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh/Global Tapestry of Alternatives and co-editor of Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary