"The Future Is Degrowth" - 5. Pathways to degrowth
Degrowth only viable if paired with diverse set of policies that make it sustainable, stable and just.
Degrowth takes critiques of growth as starting point and is based on the 3 elements of degrowth visions (as seen in last chapter):
- (Just reduction of social metabolism and) striving for global justice
- Self-determination
- Prioritizing a good life for all
We cannot focus on a single policy (eg. UBI), because it would tend to minimize the amount of change needed. For example: implementation of UBI without further policy changes, it would worsen class and labour division, if not everybody can access it (eg. migrants). It wouldn't solve patriarchy, and could push women further out of sphere of wage labour.
Below are the most characteristic policy proposals, grouped in 6 clusters, each having a specific trajectory.
Policy alone cannot be the sole driver of change: degrowth's "achievability" (next chapter) is about the ways in which the combination of collective action, grass-root change, and policy reforms could work together to make it a reality.
5.1 Democratization, solidarity economy, and commoning
New post-capitalist economy: diverse, social-ecological, democratic and participatory, cooperative, needs-oriented, open but regionally anchored, and oriented towards overcoming distinction between production and reproduction. => Economic decisions must be seen as political problems. That means to collectively deliberate about and plan societies' economic life based on many aspect, ranging from work (alienating or empowering) to needs, to resources, technologies and so on.
Degrowth linked to movements that seek to appropriate the economy from below (eg. community-supported agriculture).
Three relevant concepts here: - the commons - the solidarity economy - economic democracy (on participatory planning)
Number of principles that distinguish successful commons (patterns relevant to structuring a degrowth alternative) were identified: basic idea is to manage shared resources outside of markets based on money, competition, and centralized/hierarchical states, according to participatory and democratic rules (eg. wikipedia, CSAs)
Smaller, social and cooperatively organized forms of economic activity are more likely to produce in a participatory manner.
Economic democracy: "Re-municipalization of basic services" - eg. putting utilities like water, electricity into the hands of municipalities. And dismantle high concentration of economic power.
Economic democracy is also about the reappropriation of private enterprises into collective forms of ownership, encourage collective self-determination in society (if a company gets too large, they would be transfered to common ownership).
How would these wide-policies be funded? Financial institutions would radically be transformed: economic surplus would be democratically managed (eg. how to manage pension funds, how to spend public money, etc).
Significant investments are needed in institutions and infrastructures enabling just life for all (eg. ecological agriculture, ecological housing, etc), and financing transfers to Global South to offset historical debt.
Other avenues:
New democratic monetary system, including public control of central banks, are necessary.
It's also important to shrink and reorganize financial markets.
Abandoning subsidies for and taxing harmful industries would generate sources.
Withdrawal of funding from military industrial complex.
Taxing extreme wealth would also raise amount of funding.
=> Although switching to degrowth would require significant capital at first, it would then lead to economy where capital fades out.
There's a need to also democratize politics: ensure that representatives are accountable to their constituents, by instituting, for example, citizen assemblies, women's councils. We need to forbid politicials to take up positions in industry following their term and to reduce professionalization of politics entirely (look further into "democratic confederalism").
5.2 Social security, redistribution, and caps on income and wealth.
Redistribution of wealth fundamentally important. Innovative proposals to create equal access to resources, and broadening of social security have been core demands of degrowth.
-> Need to socialize resources of the rich through effective taxation, income and wealth caps.
Most popular proposals for the radical restructuring of social security systems remains unconditional basic income, seen as an entry-point to a degrowth society. Beyond UBI, there's also the idea of "unconditional basic services" (access to democratically determined basic goods as social rights - rights to housing, to dignity, to water and energy, to public services)
Degrowth proposal: radically cap accumulation of wealth in hands of affluent minority (top 10% own around 60 to 80% of all existing wealth, 5% for poorest half). Relation between disposable income and footprint.
-> Ecological justice requires radical equalization of income and wealth: curtailing wealth of the rich is most effective levers to reducing emissions (not only jets and yachts, but also investments).
-> Precondition to making society-wide changes acceptable.
Degrowth also advocates fundamental changes to the way private ownership structures society. These includes taxation of inheritances, restrict income and ownership of property (eg. land, building, IP) ie. "unearned income".
5,3 Convivial and democratic technology
As long as the primacy of economic efficiency - rather than criteria of sustainability and utility - dominates design processes and investment in tech infra, social-ecological transformation will not succeed.
-> Which technology should society use?
"Convivial technologies" (Ivan Illich) emphasizes social and cultural effects of technological development, not only in use but in manufacturing process. Examples: DIY spaces, repair cafés, hacker spaces.
5 values for tech development: connectedness, accessibility, adaptability, bio-interaction, and appropriatedness.
Central degrowth demand is for a comprehensive civil society assessment before the introduction of new techs with consequences for society as a whole. Tech development should be needs-oriented, not market-oriented.
5.4 Revalorization and redistribution of labour
Proposals:
- A radical reduction in working hours without lower pay groups losing income.
- Access for all to good, non-alienated, and meaningful work.
- A valorization of reproductive and care work and the distribution of this work among all.
- Collective self-determination in the workplace.
- Stregthening of worker's rights and autonomy.
The foregrounding of care is intended to overcome the division of economy (ie. monetized portion - paid wage labour dominated by men, politically & economically privileged - and non-monetary reproductive work, care,mostly done by women and migrants, devalued)
-> Reduce working hours with either equalization of wages, or increases in wages for low-income groups.
Degrowth also aims to revalue care activities, and strengthen non-alienated, socially meaningful, self-determined work. Importance of re-skilling of artisanal capabilities.
How should care work be carried out in degrowth society? Remuneration for care work or rethinking care work collectively ("care municipalism")
5.5 Democratizing social metabolism
In capitalist economy, what generates the greatest profits is prioritized, therefore grows. -> Relationship between production and consumption irrational, inefficient, exploitative and oppressive.
In degrowth society, the phasing out or expansion would no longer be left to the market, competition and price. These questions should be democratically deliberated at regional, national and global level. But these discussions can only really be made possible by eliminating anxieties around poverty and deprivation - through universal basic services to all.
Many of the degrowth policies, such as work-time reductions, centring care, conservation of nature will slow down GDP. But the non-profit, collaborative, sustainable economies and commons contribute much less/no at all to GDP. So provision of basic services for all (health care, food, water, etc...) enables "public abundance", where the material basis of life is freely given. Example: food waste - currently ^% of global emission - would be minimized radically. Tool sharing, repair cafés, etc.
Degrowth also phase out the globalized, profit-oriented, fossil fuel-based industrial economic sectors and activities that do not serve common good that includes the arms industry and the military (is this degrowth's bind spot?)
Re. climate change, the single most effective policy intervention: to cap fossil fuel extraction, in line with the core demand of this climate justice movement from the Global South, "leave coal in the hole, oil in the soil, gas under the grass": we need to rapidly scale down fossil fuel use. In rich countries, that won't be enough: we need to rely on less energy.
Removing excess consumption by the rich is a good starting point. Then moratoria on mega-projects, ecological reforms, etc.
Retraining and social security for those losing income through dismantling of certain sectors.
If some sectors are to be phased out quickly, this would require loss of capital already invested in unsustainable infrastructure: we cannot afford to wait, capital investments must be destroyed now rather than slowly divested. Certain industries must be expropriated and transferred to common ownership.
5.6 International solidarity
"Degrowth in the wealthier world is the most effective internationalism, leaving more space for other to live." - Attempt to overcome the imperial mode of living which is based on neocolonial appropriation of the Global South.
-> Need to address issues of international social-ecological justice, and build active alliances with actors from the Global South.
International solidarity is central to the degrowth agenda: debt cancellation, support for territorially rooted struggles in the Global South, transfer of financial resources, strengthening Indigenous land rights.
International solidarity also involves protection of wilderness and the saving of land from enclosure.
If industrialized countries are redesigned to be more socio-ecologically just, then effects of these policies on people of Global South needs to be accounted for: less consumption in Global North could damage economies of Global South.
-> Need to ensure that degrowth policies actually lead to greater global justice through sharing of resources, knowledge, technology, reparations, etc...
Most of non-industrialized countries cannot offer basic services as they can't borrow money as easily as industrialized countries.
-> Addressing this could involve restructuring global finance to democratize uneven economic relationship between North and South (that would require dismantling land grabbing, extractivism, etc)
We need to limit trade in goods and services that are problematic in ecological and human rights terms.
We need to restrict movement of capital, but pursue expansion of trade that is beneficial, cultural exchange and slow travel, and freedom of movement of people.
-> Degrowth does not stand for cultural and nationalist isolationism, but for "open localism". "Design global, produce local" (eg. open-source sharing of designs, building plans, "digital commons").
-> Reduce region dependencies on the world market. Municipalities / cities envisioned as key actors of change ("radical municipalism").