There are those (and I think I should probably count myself among their number) who do not believe that "Growth = Good." In fact, I have been known to opine, in this very blog, that what we really ought to be shooting for is "Less."
It turns out that there is an organized effort to pursue a social, economic, and political strategy of "degrowth," which sounds a lot like saying that "Less" should be the objective.
I heard about this effort, relatively recently, from activists at UCSC, who are affiliated with "SunriseSantaCruz," a group comprised of faculty, students, and staff who are trying to make the local campus take Global Warming seriously. One of the leaders of the group suggested that those interested in that objective might want to join up with a "listserve," to keep in touch with the degrowth movement.
I am a sucker for online mailing lists that send me information on things I care about, so I followed the instructions, and got this communication back from the listserve:
This list is for everyone to share announcements and news related to degrowth. The idea is that we use this space to be updated on degrowth activities all over the world. Please join and send any relevant e-mails to the list.___________________________________________A couple of words on degrowth:Degrowth calls for the abolition of economic growth as a social and political objective and seeks new ways of understanding prosperity. It is an umbrella term for various social movements, ways of living and organising, and research.Degrowth draws attention to ecological, economic and cultural limits of growth-based societies, via critiques of consumerism, development ideology and colonisation of modes of being. Popular terms such as ‘green economy,’ ‘sustainable development’ or ‘ethical consumerism,’ which are often presented as novel and more desirable forms of capitalism, are seen as problematic. Degrowth strives for an environmentally and socially just world, based on care, conviviality, mutual aid, commons and cooperation.
If you want to get announcements about such degrowth-related activities, you can do what I did, and follow the following directions, which came to me from one of the leaders of that UCSC group:
I wanted to mention an academic email list, degrowth-world, which some of you might find interesting. You can subscribe by sending a blank email to degrowth-world-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.
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