Exploring Degrowth, a conversation with the authors, Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson
Channel: Nemnövekedés - Degrowth
Date: 2020-06-10

Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson presents their soon to be released book "Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide" (Pluto Press).
More info: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745342023/exploring-degrowth/

"The key thing is to recognize that we already live in an abundant economy. The problem isn’t that there’s not enough for everyone to flourish, the problem is that it’s all captured at the top. We can improve people’s lives right now, without any growth at all, simply by sharing what we already have ...The book you hold in your hands traces a path through this thicket, and paints a picture of the new economy that lies ahead – an economy that enables human flourishing for all within planetary boundaries."
From the Foreword by Jason Hickel, economic anthropologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK).

Liegey and Nelson presents degrowth as a movement aimed at reducing economic activity to avert climate catastrophe while simultaneously improving well-being. While we work and consume less, we can still increase our happiness though devoting more time to culture, community and non-monetary pursuits.
The book is an introduction to degrowth—in concept, practice, vision and strategies.
It focuses on how to practice degrowth and reveals its organisational strengths and challenges.
It explains why eternal economic growth under capitalism is erroneous and dangerous.
It challenges the left's reformist growth dependent approaches.
It details horizontal democracy, local economies, the reduction of work and post-capitalism.
In short, it shows why degrowth is a compelling and realistic project to prevent climate catastrophe.

About the authors:
An engineer, interdisciplinary researcher and spokesperson for the French degrowth movement, Vincent Liegey is co-author of Un Projet de Décroissance (Editions Utopia, 2013), a manifesto for an unconditional autonomy allowance. He coordinates Cargonomia (Budapest), a centre for research and experimentation on degrowth, social cooperative for sustainable logistical solutions, and local food distributor using cargo-bikes.
More info on http://www.projet-decroissance.net/?cat=35 and http://cargonomia.hu/?lang=en

Activist scholar Associate Professor Anitra Nelson is Honorary Principal Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Author of Small is Necessary (Pluto, 2018), she co-edited Housing for Degrowth (Routledge, 2018), Food for Degrowth (Routledge forthcoming 2020) and Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (Pluto, 2011).
https://anitranelson.info/