What is Degrowth?
Degrowth is an idea that critiques the global capitalist system which pursues growth at all costs, causing human exploitation and environmental destruction. The degrowth movement of activists and researchers advocates for societies that prioritize social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption. This requires radical redistribution, reduction in the material size of the global economy, and a shift in common values towards care, solidarity and autonomy.
Unlike recession—an unplanned economic contraction—degrowth signifies a deliberate political action to downscale the economy on a permanent, conscious basis, something good to be welcomed and maintained. It calls for the abolishment of economic growth as a social objective and signifies a desired direction where societies will use less natural resources and organize to live very differently than today. At its core, degrowth rejects GDP expansion as a measure of societal progress and challenges the assumption that infinite economic growth is compatible with finite planetary resources.
Origins & Lineage
The birth of the word “décroissance” (French for degrowth), and with this the beginning of an idea, can be dated to the year 1972. Already back then, the social philosopher André Gorz asked: “Is the earth’s balance, for which no-growth – or even degrowth – of material production is a necessary condition, compatible with the survival of the capitalist system?”
In the same year, “The Limits to Growth” was published by the Club of Rome. The publication sparked off a broad discussion, during which in France the word “décroissance” repeatedly cropped up. The concept of “degrowth” proper appeared during the 1970s, proposed by André Gorz (1972) and intellectuals such as Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Jean Baudrillard, Edward Goldsmith and Ivan Illich. “Demain la décroissance” (tomorrow, degrowth) was the title of a 1979 translated collection of essays of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, a Romanian émigré teaching in the US and a proto ecological economist who argued that economic growth accelerates entropy.
The modern movement coalesced three decades later. In 2002, the magazine “Silence” published a special issue on the topic of degrowth, which received lots of public attention. It was reprinted twice, 5,000 magazines were sold. The “Institute for Economic and Social Studies on Sustainable Degrowth” was founded in Lyon. The following year, the institute organised a symposium on the same topic. Many of the today well-known degrowth thinkers took part in the symposium, e.g. Serge Latouche, Mauro Bonaiuti, Paul Ariès, Jacques Grinevald, François Schneider and Pierre Rabhi.
The first international degrowth conference for ecological sustainability and social equity took place in Paris in 2008. No academic did more to popularize degrowth than Serge Latouche, a French economist and anthropologist at Université Paris-Sud. With “degrowth”, he married a critique of development programmes in Africa to a critique of so-called sustainable development in Europe. Another key figure is Giorgos Kallis, a political ecologist and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Kallis has been instrumental in defining Degrowth in academic terms and linking it to pressing issues like the climate crisis and global inequality.
How It’s Practiced
Degrowth manifests through both individual lifestyle changes and collective organizing. This refers to a practical manifestation of the degrowth movement and describes a voluntary reduction in income and consumption, associated with a reorientation towards non-material values. Practitioners adopt what is termed voluntary simplicity—deliberately choosing lower-consumption lifestyles that prioritize sufficiency over accumulation.
In general terms it seeks to initiate a transition beyond the existing order of globalised growth capitalism and in its place build a constellation of highly localised economies of sufficiency, based on renewable energy, appropriate technology, egalitarianism, participatory democracy, and non-affluent but sufficient material cultures of voluntary simplicity. Concrete practices include: participating in time banks and local currency systems, joining community-supported agriculture networks, repair cafés and tool libraries, reducing work hours to reclaim time, and engaging in mutual aid networks.
They talk about sharing more goods, reducing food waste, moving away from privatized transportation or health care and making products last longer, so they don’t need to be purchased at such regular intervals. It’s about “thinking in terms of sufficiency.” The Degrowth movement interacts in the North with other movements such as Indignados, Occupy Wall Street, Transition Towns, Inclusive Democracy, Permaculture.
Degrowth Today
Degrowth has evolved from academic discourse to a recognized political and social movement. International conferences on degrowth now occur biennially in cities across Europe and beyond, drawing thousands of researchers, activists, and practitioners. Academic journals publish degrowth research through journals like the Journal of Political Ecology and Ecological Economics.
Seekers encounter degrowth through grassroots organizations, municipalist experiments, and ecovillage networks. Online platforms like degrowth.info serve as knowledge hubs, while local degrowth groups organize workshops, reading circles, and direct actions. The movement has spawned political formations—notably France’s Parti pour la décroissance—though electoral success remains limited.
Key texts for engagement include Giorgos Kallis’s Degrowth (2018), Serge Latouche’s writings, and the edited collection Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era by Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaria, and Giorgos Kallis. Documentary films and podcasts increasingly address degrowth themes, making the ideas accessible beyond academic circles.
Common Misconceptions
Degrowth is not recession. Unlike a recession, which is unintentional and harmful, degrowth is a deliberate, positive change which puts people and the planet before profits. If recession is less of the same, degrowth is simply something different. It’s a proposal to abandon the obsession with economic growth, which benefits a small minority while hurting the majority.
It is not austerity. It is the complete opposite of austerity-induced poverty. Many even use the term radical abundance to talk about the increases in free time, basic needs, relations and community. Degrowth advocates for meeting basic needs more effectively, not imposing scarcity.
It does not demand uniform global contraction. Degrowth recognises that while many nations in the Global South need to use more resources to alleviate poverty, this doesn’t require following the conventional path of GDP growth at all costs. It advocates for targeted growth where necessary, alongside degrowth among the elite and mega-wealthy.
It is not anti-technology or primitivist. Degrowth thinkers distinguish between technologies that enhance autonomy and conviviality versus those that concentrate power and accelerate extraction. The focus is appropriateness, not wholesale rejection.
How to Begin
Start by examining your relationship to consumption and work. Read Giorgos Kallis’s Degrowth or Jason Hickel’s Less is More as accessible introductions to core concepts. Explore the Research & Degrowth network online (degrowth.info) for academic papers, conference videos, and local group directories.
Practically, connect with local Transition Towns, repair cafés, or time banking initiatives—these embody degrowth principles. Consider experimenting with reduced working hours if economically feasible, redirecting reclaimed time toward community engagement, creative pursuits, or ecological restoration.
Attend or watch recordings from international degrowth conferences to encounter diverse perspectives. Join online forums and reading groups to engage critically with both advocates and critics. Degrowth remains contentious; grappling with its tensions—between individual lifestyle change and systemic transformation, between northern affluence and southern development—is part of the practice.