The Allure and Tragedy of Degrowth: Hegemonic Struggles Over Green Imaginaries
Başak Koşanay
📅 AUGUST 20, 2022
⏰ 11 AM – 2 PM EDT
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Cost:
$50 for Non-members
$40 for Explorers
$25 for Scholars
$0 for Seekers
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ABOUT THIS EVENT
The theory and social movement of Degrowth argues for a radical decrease in the material throughput of the economy, while simultaneously deconstructing and decolonizing the imaginaries of growth at the political and societal level. It is one of several proposed responses to the “Triple Crisis” of accumulation, political conflict, and ecological crisis affecting the world today. In this workshop we will get acquainted with the competing capitalist and anti-capitalist green imaginaries of the past and present and their struggle to become the hegemonic imaginary of the future. We will examine how degrowth and other anti-capitalist imaginaries from the Global South might be hijacked (as with the history of “sustainable development”), and why this is especially hazardous in the context of today’s climate crisis that is likely to trigger another and ever-more-vital paradigm shift. Throughout the conversation, we will dig deeper into concepts like crisis-ridden nature of capitalism, growth imaginaries, and processes of paradigmatic transformation. Finally, we will discuss how we can contest and shape the hegemony with anti-capitalist alternatives. The seminar will be participatory and aims to stimulate a fruitful debate.
Facilitator: Başak Koşanay is a researcher who works on degrowth, political ecology, critical political economy, and state theory. She has a MA in International Political Economy and is currently the co-author of a book chapter that will be published by De Gruyter, which studies degrowth from a Global South perspective.
Readings and Zoom link are on the seminar page. You will receive access to that page on registration.
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