From Bioeconomics to Degrowth: About Convergences and Divergences between Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and Serge Latouche

The paper aims to put into perspective Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen’s bioeconomics and Serge Latouche’s degrowth approaches. In particular, we analyse the foundations of these approaches such as they have been put forward by those two economists. If the cross-reading of their work shows both proximity and distance, bioeconomics and degrowth do not have to be confused. Facing ecological challenges, the two approaches agree on the need to invite ethics to commit to a change in society that is compatible with the limits of the biosphere. (From Bioeconomics to Degrowth: Georgescu-Roegen's 'New Economics' in Eight Essays)

The DeGrowth Alternative

Both the name and the theory of degrowth aim explicitly to repoliticize environmentalism. Sustainable development and its more recent reincarnation “green growth” depoliticize genuine political antagonisms between alternative visions for the future. They render environmental problems technical, promising win-win solutions and the impossible goal of perpetuating economic growth without harming the environment. Ecologizing society, degrowthers argue, is not about implementing an alternative, better, or greener development. It is about imagining and enacting alternative visions to modern growth-based development. This essay explores such alternatives and identifies grassroots practices and political changes for facilitating a transition to a prosperous and equitable world without growth. 

Capitalism and Degrowth: An Impossibility Theorem 
(Critical Review from a Marxian Perspective)

The notion that degrowth as a concept can be applied in essentially the same way both to the wealthy countries of the center and the poor countries of the periphery represents a category mistake resulting from the crude imposition of an abstraction (degrowth) on a context in which it is essentially meaningless, e.g., Haiti, Mali, or even, in many ways, India. The real problem in the global periphery is overcoming imperial linkages, transforming the existing mode of production, and creating sustainable-egalitarian productive possibilities. It is clear that many countries in the South with very low per capita incomes cannot afford degrowthbut could use a kind of sustainable development, directed at real needs such as access to water, food, health care, education, etc. This requires a radical shift in social structure away from the relations of production of capitalism/imperialism. It is telling that in Latouche’s widely circulated articles there is virtually no mention of those countries, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, where concrete struggles are being waged to shift social priorities from profit to social needs. Cuba, as the Living Planet Report has indicated, is the only country on Earth with high human development and a sustainable ecological footprint.

Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era

We  live in an era of stagnation, rapid impoverishment, rising inequalities and socio-ecological disasters. In the dominant discourse, these are effects of economic crisis, lack of growth or underdevelopment. This book argues that growth is the cause of these problems and that it has become uneconomic, ecologically unsustainable and intrinsically unjust. [Critical Review and Response]

Four Post-Growth Philosophies

​‘Post growth’ economics is a catch-all, a general term for whatever comes next, but there are several different ideas or streams of thought under the postgrowth umbrella. Here are four of them.

The No-Growth Society

One of the first books (edited) putting up a case for a 'no-growth society' (in the mid-70s, trying to keep clear of the quarrel between left and right orientations). 

The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality

Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits. (Book)

Prosperity Without Growth

"The mantra of economic growth is a false one. Zero growth does not imply stagnation as mainstream economists would have you believe. In fact, continuous economic growth is contradictory on a finite planet. Can we do better than a model based on greed? - How about one based on compassion and prosperity for all?" Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and author of the groundbreaking Prosperity without Growth. (An interesting website) 

Prosperity without Growth? - The Transition to a Sustainable Economy

Prosperity without Growth? analyses the complex relationships between growth, environmental crises and social recession. In the last quarter of a century, as the global economy has doubled in size, increases in consumption have caused the degradation of an estimated 60% of the world's ecosystems. The benefits of growth have been distributed unevenly, with a fifth of the world's population sharing just 2% of global income. Even in developed countries, huge gaps in wealth and well-being remain between rich and poor. Our report proposes a twelve step route to a sustainable economy, and argues for a redefinition of "prosperity" in light of our evidence on what really contributes to people’s wellbeing.  (PDF Document)

Also see here

The Ethic of Zero Growth

The Zero Growth Creed

We believe the Earth, our home, the most beautiful in all the heavens, is a finite sphere. Copious as she has been in the riches she has bestowed upon us, her beneficence is not without limit.

We believe mankind has attained the maximum utilization of Earth's treasures which he can prudently attain without harm to his well-being, both material and spiritual; indeed, without threatening the very existence of his kind and of all his life-sharing companions upon this fruitful orb. Humble as are man's works before the awesome majesty of Earth's natural forces, we have in our power the capability to destroy the fragile balance of Nature, to upset the mechanisms - so unlikely and so wondrous, so far beyond our power to comprehend - by which our earthly home has evolved and will evolve.

We believe the technological genius of man, through which he can assure himself a life of comfort, security, and enlightenment, should be dedicated to shepherding Earth's resources, not rapaciously exploiting them in a self-indulgent, prodigal gluttony, a theft from generations yet to come. True progress, which is not only possible but preferable without growth, lies not in gaining more, but more from less.

We believe all mankind shares a common destiny. The peoples of the Earth, having multiplied through her bounty to a plenitude beyond which she should not be asked to nurture, must unite to protect our home, while we nurture and protect one another out of the compassion unique to humans which justifies and sanctifies our survival as a species.

Confident in our beliefs and grateful for the world bequeathed to us by our parents, as to them by theirs, we call upon all mankind to abandon the life-threatening and ultimately self-defeating doctrine of heedless growth in favor of an ethos of ecostasis, so that we may pass on to our children, enjoining them to pass on to theirs, a stable, progressive world in which this blessed Earth gives of her fullness through the ages; until, having given her full, she can give no more, at which far millennium man will prosper or perish as he so merits. (Book)

Also see website: Zero Growth: A New Ethos for the Millennium

The Radical Implications of a Zero Growth Economy

The argument in this paper is that the implications of a steady-state economy have  not been understood at all well, especially by its advocates. Most proceed as if we can and should eliminate the growth element of the present economy while leaving the rest more or less as it is. It will be argued firstly that this is not possible, because this is not an economy which has growth; it is a growth-economy, a system in which most of the core structures and processes involve growth. If growth is eliminated then radically different ways of carrying out many fundamental processes will have to be found.  (PDF document)

Also see here

The Resilience Imperative: Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-State Economy

Fundamental here is an appreciation of the need to strengthen the capacity of our ecosystems to adapt to emerging challenges through attention to seven principles of resilience which include: promoting diversity; creating arrangements which have some mutual independence (so they don’t all fail together!); investing in social capital so we can better work together; and encouraging innovation from which we can learn. (Book)

Growth Isn't Possible: Why We Need A New Economic Direction

Four years on from nef's Growth isn’t Working, this new report goes one step further and tests that thesis in detail in the context of climate change and energy. It argues that indefinite global economic growth is unsustainable. Just as the laws of thermodynamics constrain the maximum efficiency of a heat engine, economic growth is constrained by the finite nature of our planet’s natural resources (biocapacity). (Report)

Toward a Post-Growth Society

Today, the reigning policy orientation holds that the path to greater well-being is to grow and expand the economy. Productivity, profits, the stock market, and consumption: all must go continually up. This growth imperative trumps all else. It is widely believed that growth is always worth the price that must be paid for it—even when it undermines families, jobs, communities, the environment, and our sense of place and continuity. (Website)

Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet

Is more economic growth the solution? Will it deliver prosperity and well-being for a global population projected to reach nine billion? In this explosive book, Tim Jackson, a top sustainability adviser to the UK government, makes a compelling case against continued economic growth in developed nations. (Book)

“Beyond the Growth Dilemma – Ecological Enterprise and the Cinderella Economy” 

The Cinderella economy really does offer a kind of blueprint for a different kind of society. New, ecological enterprises provide capabilities for flourishing. They offer the means to a livelihood and to participation in the life of society. They provide security, a sense of belonging, the ability to share in a common endeavour and yet to pursue our potential as individual human beings. And at the same time they offer a decent chance of remaining within ecological scale. The next economy really does mean inviting Cinderella to the ball. (Article)

No-Growth Economic Model Needed for Developed Nations

Faced with the limits imposed by global climate change and the de-carbonization of the world’s economy required to address it, continued economic growth in the already affluent world does not offer the solution; it represents the problem. (Article)

The Philosophy of the Sufficiency Economy: A Contribution to the Theory of Development 

The King of Thailand’s philosophy of sufficiency economy highlights a balanced way of living. Three principles—moderation, reasonableness,
and self-immunity—along with the conditions of morality and knowledge can be applied to any level of the society—from an individual to a country. This article proposes that the philosophy of sufficiency economy conveys new theory in addressing current development challenges, which are issues of institutions, human capital, environmental sustainability and the role of government. The philosophy of sufficiency economy, as a new paradigm of development, aims at improving human well-being as a development goal. (PDF document)

Also see here.

Nothing Grows Forever

In essence, endless growth puts us on the horns of a seemingly intractable dilemma. Without it, we spiral into poverty. With it, we deplete the planet. Either way, we lose. Unless, of course, there's a third way. Could we have a healthy economy that doesn'tgrow? Could we stave off ecological collapse by reining in the world economy? Could we do it without starving? (Article)

Planning For a Steady State (No Growth) Society

It has been a core doctrine of the Industrial Age that businesses need to grow continually. There are no prominent politicians or economists challenging this axiom. In industrialized societies the concentration of capital leads to unequal distribution of wealth. In most societies there is strong pressure by the wealthy class to limit taxation of wealth, so income is taxed instead. The only recent counter-example was the use of inheritance tax in Britain during much of the 20th Century to redistribute the hereditary wealth of the land owning class. Instead we have a variety of income taxes. To keep the non-wealthy from becoming discontented it is necessary to postulate growth. This will "lift all boats" in the current jargon, meaning that even the poor will get to be better off in the future, if we only have faith in "growth".  (Article)