Abstract

This article examines the idea of degrowth, a concept in political ecology used to envision a democratically planned downscaling of production and consumption in affluent regions of the world as a means to avoid ecological breakdown, decrease inequality, and improve quality of life. Since its inception at the beginning of the 2000s in France, the idea of degrowth has sparked a worldwide social movement which has revamped critiques of capitalism, globalization, and modernity. To better grasp its contours, I synthesize the paradigm of degrowth in four essential features: a resource-saving macroeconomic diet, the abolition of extreme wealth, a redirection of economic activities towards concrete needs, and a decentralization of power.