1 of 15

Ontgroei

ideas and principles of degrowth

Name Presenter

Location, Date

2 of 15

3 of 15

Question time...

Have you heard of degrowth?

What worries you about the climate crisis?

Do you think about social issues? Which ones?

Can you think of any ways in which we are currently living that are unsustainable?

4 of 15

Opposition between the Earth’s biocapacity and humanity’s ecological footprint

Our consumption problem

5 of 15

Capitalism pursues economic growth.

Growth depends on (natural) resources.

(Natural) Resources are limited.

So, our economic growth must be limited.

Our economic system

6 of 15

What is green growth?

An attempt to make economic growth environmentally sustainable

Why is it flawed?

Relies on decoupling economic growth from resource use

Debunking green growth

7 of 15

What does progress mean for you?

Well-being?

Wealth?

Connection?

Community?

Economic growth & progress

8 of 15

An alternative...

Degrowth!

9 of 15

What is degrowth?

� Image: https://degrowth.org/elephants_snail_final/

Specific definition of degrowth

“Sustainable degrowth is a planned downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions and equity on the planet.”

Degrowth means different things for different regions of the world:

Global North loosely refers to the more economically and industrially developed countries. For these countries, degrowth means a strong downscaling of production and consumption.
Global South loosely refers to the less economically and industrially developed countries. For these countries, degrowth acknowledges the need for economic growth to produce basic needs but this will be done with a strong focus on justice and de-colonialism. However, when such countries have reach a sufficient level of growth, they will too need to stabilise their economies.

Since human well-being does not exclusively depend on continuous economic growth, we can secure human prosperity without destruction caused by pursing endless economic growth.

Contray to a recession this will be planned and will not produce more inequality, fewer public services, disregard for the environment. In this way, not every sector of the economy will shrink, only the sectors that are strongly damaging to the environment or those that are not conducive to human well-being. This may mean more healthcare, education, public transport, etc.

10 of 15

Photo by Pritesh Patel on Unsplash

What do these things mean to you?

Community & Solidarity

Autonomy & Regeneration

Simplicity & Sufficiency

Re-localisation of the economy

Commoning & Democracy

What is degrowth?

11 of 15

CSA, stadsboerderijen

Broodfonds, Local credit union

Repair café & local productie

De Nieuwe Meent, Housing cooperative

Principles in practice in the Netherlands

12 of 15

No fixed blueprint, but some suggestions:

Replace GDP as a goal
Basic income
Diminishing resource caps
Curbing advertising
Sustainable tax reform

(as published in Kallis, 2018)

Degrowth policy proposals

13 of 15

Summary

Cultural shift away from growth mindset.

Surplus investment in regeneration, redistribution, quality of life, instead of investing the surplus for more economic growth.

Not doing less but doing things differently!

Combine practices, activism and policy changes.

14 of 15

Want more?

15 of 15

questions?

find more articles, practices� and events at ontgroei.nl