Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

This chapter aims to connect two important movements that have dealt with the issues of international structures and injustices but tend to stay disconnected in the literature: dependency theory and degrowth. We argue that degrowth, as an academic and societal discourse, could draw on the theoretical insights from dependence theories to continue building its legitimacy as an alternative to green growth. High-income countries are primarily responsible for global warming due to their historic greenhouse gas emissions. However, the Global South being historically less responsible is more exposed to its consequences, while having less capacity to adapt to them because of international economic and political structures. Even worse, the transition to environmental sustainability through Green Growth in western countries is perpetuating this pattern. Focusing on policies to achieve climate-neutrality, this article explains how the green growth approach to transition towards sustainability is stabilising the older schemes of domination between western countries and the global South and (re)producing existing injustices. To achieve global sustainability, green growth-based policies that focus on weak sustainability are not sufficient. The degrowth paradigm, in contrast, aligns with a strong sustainability perspective and represents a more transformative approach, which criticises the foundation of environmental problems.

Info

Day: 2023-09-01
Start time: 12:30
Duration: 00:15
Room: ZV-8-1
Type: Paper Presentation
Theme: Hegemonic worldviews and degrowth horizon

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