By Luis I. Prádanos (Iñaki)
De-growth is a social movement that questions the obsession with constant economic growth and signals to the obvious: in a finite planet, constant growth is bio-physically impossible. Therefore, the more the global economy grows, the faster our live planetary systems collapse. In addition, economic growth is socially corrosive when it increases inequality. So, it’s urgent to articulate an economic culture that is not addicted to growth. To this end, it’s necessary to depart from the dominant ideology that equates progress with economic growth or development with consumerism and seek alternative imaginaries that are socially desirable and ecologically viable: post-growth imaginaries. These new imaginaries hold the potential to materialize societies with regenerative social and ecological metabolisms that facilitate a transition to radically different cultural paradigms; a transition from a sad hedonism to a happy de-growth.
