Nous sommes Parti·e·s Pour La Décroissance

In total rupture with the equation: Growth=jobs=wellbeing, some authors propose to “decolonise our imaginary” in order to leave the “religion of Growth” with its productivist corollary.

“Whoever believes that growth can be infinite in a finite world is either a madman or an economist?” deplored the American economist Kenneth Boulding 40 years ago. Today we wonder if our leaders aren’t fools advised by economists. Indeed, in 1972 a report from the Club of Rome The Limits to Growth called for “a stop on growth”. Ever since from an ecological and economic standpoint, the limits of growth have endlessly been pointed out.

Yet the overwhelming majority of politicians continue to see it as the be all and end all of every political project. In their view, salvation depends on an increase in GDP and all the diverse governments’ public policies are designed around this indicator. “My objective is employment, my guiding principle is growth”, François Hollande affirmed recently.

But the president is wrong on the destination as well as the pathway to reach it. That is what the four authors of A Degrowth Project: Manifesto for an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance argue.

Decolonise our imaginary
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This interview was made by the French magazine S!lence. Three questions were asked to the members of the Collective « Un projet de Décroissance » (« A Degrowth Project » ) about the differencies, the complementarities, and the convergences between the Degrowth and Transition movements.

S!lence magazine: Paul Chatterton’ and Alice Cutler’s book: The Rocky Road to a Real Transition starts with an observation made by Great Britain activists who have noticed a disconnection between the movement and the great ecological battles. In your practice within a transition group (or as an observer), do you think this critic applies to the French movement?

A Degrowth Project: Transition Towns movement² is a practical approach by design. It is based on two unavoidable future threats: climate change and peak oil and it proposes to anticipate them. It argues that political parties and movements have lost any credibility in addressing these major issues. Transition Towns movement’s aim is to function outside sterile and political ideologies, favouring action at the local level thus creating a dynamic of resilience in anticipation of the oncoming catastrophes. In France this raison-d’être is at the heart of its concrete alternatives. We do not think that the French movement’ spirit is disconnected from the great ecological battles.
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