Routledge Handbook of Degrowth

by Anitra Nelson (Editor)

Overview

This handbook takes stock of ‘degrowth’, a concept and movement gaining increasing visibility in the 2020s. Contributors explain contexts for degrowth’s significance, elaborate its diverse history and detail its unique approaches, practices, challenges and potential futures.

Part I sets the ecological, economic and political contexts framing degrowth’s evolution as a significant concept for societies facing the challenges of deepening socio-political inequities and ecological unsustainabilities. Part II identifies themes characterising degrowth movements in a sample of distinctive countries, starting with its origins in France. Part III shows degrowth ‘concepts in action’, explaining in practical ways the meanings of terms such as ‘conviviality’, ‘degrowth doughnut’, ‘frugal abundance’, ‘commoning’ and ‘defashioning’. Part IV offers analyses and forward-looking imaginaries for degrowth from the perspectives of distinctive agents, agendas and theoretical frameworks. Contributors engage with topics such as ecofeminist futures, utopian thought and show how degrowth is necessary to address poverty.

Highly experienced and knowledgeable contributors from varied scholarly and practitioner fields address a range of strategic, activist, policy and research questions in this handbook. Grounded in empirical cases, they identify significant social and ecological challenges, relevant to students, researchers, activists, policymakers and practitioners at various levels within the wide range of fields in which degrowth can be applied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040393468
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/17/2025
Series:	Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	530
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Anitra Nelson is an activist scholar and Honorary Principal Fellow at the Informal Urbanism Research Hub (InfUr-), University of Melbourne (Australia). Among numerous degrowth publications, she is co-editor of Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities (2018) and Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices (2021) collections, and co-author of Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide (2020). See https://anitranelson.info/

Vincent Liegey is an engineer, interdisciplinary researcher and lecturer on degrowth. He has co-authored several books on degrowth including Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide (2020, Pluto Press), and Décroissance, Fake or Not (2022, Tana Editions). He is one of the coordinators of the international degrowth conferences and of Cargonomia, a centre for research and experimentation on degrowth in Budapest.

Table of Contents

Part I. The current growth conjuncture 1. Degrowth has come of age 2. Fossilised metabolism: The social ecology of capitalist growth 3. Unequal uses of Earth 4. Capitalist crisis and affective alternatives Part II. Degrowth: Origins and steppingstones 5. The French origins and pillars of degrowth 6. Degrowth in Italy: Early beginnings, political disputes and a plural social movement 7. Postwachstum: German roots and currents of degrowth 8. A Catalan way towards degrowth 9. Accidental degrowth practices: Illustrations from Czechia 10. Greece: Real-existing degrowth and its challenges 11. Degrowth’ and the implications of English language hegemony 12. Latin American indigenous perspectives meet degrowth 13. Degrowth in an African periphery: From necrocapitalism to a pluriverse of nowtopias Part III. Degrowth practices: Concepts in action 14. Conviviality and commoning 15. Autonomy and freedom in individual to societal transformation 16. The degrowth doughnut 17. Frugal abundance: Meaning in practice in an Icelandic village 18. Defining defashion: A manifesto for degrowth 19. Degrowth: Health and healthcare 20. Holistic care economies: Degrowth ways of provisioning and the Global East 21. The pedagogy of degrowth and the political ecology of technology 22. Mapping the spectrum of degrowth work 23. Reimagining collaboration: Degrowth practitioners, scholars and activists Part IV. Degrowth futures: Perspectives and strategies 24. Twenty years of degrowth: What has been achieved? 25. Roles of utopian thought in a degrowth transformation 26. Growth, degrowth and poverty reduction 27. Imperial and solidary modes of living: Alternatives to eco-imperialism 28. Prefigurative degrowth politics: Decolonisation and the nonaligned movement 29. Ecofeminist and decolonial feminist degrowth futures 30. Fostering degrowth in men: Beyond masculinity and the gender binary 31. Degrowth, urbanisation and spatial planning 32. Degrowth-aligned commoning organisations 33. Ecosocialism and degrowth 34. Beyond growth: Beyond divisions 35. Degrowth: Future research directions

Editorial Reviews

"The pluriverse of degrowth is beautifully synthesized in this book. A must-have."

Kohei Saito, Professor of Philosophy, University of Tokyo, author of bestseller Down: How Degrowth Communism Can Save the Earth (2024)

"We stand at a crossroads. Or to be honest, a little farther, on the path to chaos. But we still have choice. Embracing strategy and practice, this handbook on degrowth comes just in time to open horizons. I can’t wait for it to be translated into French!"

Corinne Morel Darleux, essayist – Être heureux avec moins (2023)

"The Routledge Handbook of Degrowth is an essential and inspiring resource for anyone seeking to understand the history, diversity, and transformative potential of the degrowth movement. Anitra Nelson and Vincent Liegey have assembled a groundbreaking collection that will guide researchers, activists, and policymakers alike."

Giorgos Kallis, ICREA professor at ICTA, Autonomous University of Barcelona, author of degrowth classics, such as In Defence of Degrowth (2017) Degrowth (2018), Limits (2019)

"As glaciers are melting and Los Angeles is destroyed by raging fires, struggling for a world beyond capitalist development and growth has never been more urgent. The Routledge Handbook of Degrowth is a rich, enlightening, comprehensive guide towards it. Definitely a must read."

Silvia Federici, Hofstra University (New York), author of classic Caliban and the Witch (2004)

"The Routledge Handbook of Degrowth deftly diagnoses the disease of global growthism, and brims with a plenitude of inspiring living examples, challenges, complexities and possibilities for a future of convivial, relational joy that we know is possible."

Helena Norberg-Hodge, esteemed author, filmmaker and founding director of Local Futures

From the Publisher