1. Second international conference on Economic Degrowth for Sustainability and Equity
Plenary session, Barcelona, 27 March 2010, www.degrowth.eu
Multiple
Sources,
Dimensions, and
Strategies of Degrowth
François Schneider
Research & Degrowth
ICTA, UAB
www.degrowth.net
francois@degrowth.net

2. Outline
1- What is degrowth?
2- Why degrowth? The multiple Sources.
3- Rebound Effect – Jevons Paradox
4- What grows/degrows? The multiple Dimensions
5- How to degrow? For the process of
transformation: the multiple Strategies.

3. What is degrowth?
It means LESS
A democratic collective decision, a project with
the ambition of voluntarily getting closer to
ecological sustainability and socio-environmental
justice worldwide.
Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 511–51

4. Clarifications for Sustainable
Degrowth
The first degrowth: degrowth of inequity
Process of transformation
Lower actual and potential consumption and production
Diverse : generalisable but unique lifestyles
Personal and collective at local and global levels
Deeper democracy
NOT a universal concept
Avoiding crises
Transition to multi-dimentional mildly-fluctuating
sustainable state
Taking account of global consequences
Innovative (frugal innovation)‫‏‬

5. These concepts do not deal with
limits to growth
Green growth
Green new deal
Sustainable development
Technical progress
Cleaner production
Industrial ecology
Sustainable consumption
Higher quality of life
Improvement of well-being

6. Conference objectives
Get out of the schizophrenia
between the green/social discourse
and the growth policies
Get into concrete propositions on
the political and personal level

7. Different Degrowth Sources
a- Culturalism: Challenge to profit making, development
and uniformity. Latouche, Rist, Caillé etc.
b- Meaning of life: Bringing meaning in our relation to the
world. Thoreau, Gandhi, Rabhi etc.
c- Democracy: Degrowth for democratization. Illich,
Fotopoulos, Cheynet etc
d- Bioeconomy: Degrowth of exploitation of natural
ressources, Smith-Bleek, Georgescu-Roegen etc.
e- Ecology: Defense of ecosystems. Odum, etc...
f- Egalitarism: Degrowth of inequality & exploitation of
other humans. Kempf, Sachs, Ariès etc.
Source: inspired from Flipo

8. Rebound effect
More fuel
Innovations Efficiency
efficient cars
Efficiency gain Reduced
Reduced costs
fuel costs
Savings can be
We can travel reallocated to
Rebound
further more production
or consumption

9. Energy efficiency reduces
Coal consumption?
En 1760
for 1kwh
En 1910
for 1kwh

10. William Stanley JEVONS in 1865
“The very contrary is the truth”

11. In 1760 energy From 1760 to 1910:
production from coal is consumption of coal
limited by prohibitive
costs.
per kwh reduce by a
factor 50
From 1760 to 1910:
production of
energy from coal
increase by a
factor 2000. Source: Victor
Increase of production
was made possibly by
the increase of the
multidimensional
capacity to exploit

12. What should degrow?
The reduction of exploitation of
natural resources and humans
needs:
Degrowth of the capacities to
exploit them

13. Rebound Strategies
€ € € Limits to production and
€ € € consumption are reached
Rebound Strategies is about € €
developing Innovations that
suppress limits to production and
consumption = Productivist Innovation
€ € € € € € € € €
€ € € € € € € € €
€ € € € € €
Rebound effect: product (or service) innovation
enables us to increase our production/consumption.

14. Rebound strategies
Technological efficiency
Labor productivity
Extractive efficiency
Infrastructure optimization
Information efficiency
Efficiency in fulfilling needs
Deregulation

15. Growth policy
Limits to consumption € € €
and production are reached € € €
Growth policy relax collective limits
to production and consumption
€ € €
€ € €
€ € € € €
€ € € € €
€ € € € €

16. Growth policies
Increase liquidities, grant rights to make money to
banks, capital flow, export policies; reduce value of
natural resources or person work
Increase working hours, later retirement, overwork,
sunday/night work, suppress speed limits, longer
opening hours...
New mining areas, new resources, subsidies to
extraction, ...
More roads, airport, industry, internet, urbanisation...
Barriers to mutualisation, less property free...
Deregulation
Advertising, rebound unawareness, externalising…
Fiscal paradises, bank secrets..

17. Dimensions of the capacity to exploit
Access to Natural Resources
Infrastructures
Resource
Time
flows
Capacity to
Unawareness
exploit
Money
Institutions
Human
Unsatisfied needs
Deregulation
Inequality

18. Reducing time to exploit
WG 5 work-sharing

19. Ceiling to
Ressource
use
Leaving
some resources
in the environment
WG 8-10-16-17-22

21. Reducing total
infrastructure capacity
WG 6 Infrastructure
WG 9 Waste
WG14 Metabolism
WG15 Cities

23. Reducing monetary
capacity to exploit
WG 1 Money
WG 2 Finances

24. Against deregulation WG 3 Social
Economy
Social rights, ecological
and quality standards

25. Degrowth of
WG 4 Property
Non sharing
WG 11 Sharing

26. Advertising break WG 7

27. Degrowth of
inequalities
WG 12
basic
income;
ceiling on
income

28. How to degrow
The process of transformation

29. Sharing
Degrowth is about collectively
reducing the space we take
to leave space for everybody
Sharing:
- with the world
(voluntary simplicity)‫‏‬
- with our peers (joint use)

30. Open-localism
We need open localisation:
- connection with the diversity
in all places
- reducing distance between
production and consumption
Closedness no
Closeness si

31. Convergence of strategies
3- A-growth: 4- De-growth
Political actions for the change of institutions
Against “growth religion”
a- Promotion of gift economy
Theorisation & Vulgarisation
b- Engaged artists
Degrowth work in science and arts
c- Deepening democracy: more direct and
participative
2- Alter-growth d- Leaving more resources in/on the ground
Voluntary simplicity and e- Radical ecology
frugal innovations f- For redistribution
5- No-growth: actions for steady
state of institutions
1- Anti-growth: opposition
a- Political struggle to maintain non-
a- Civil disobedience to banks market relations
b- Clown action b- Conservation of art tradition
c- Anti-nano action; Anti-adverts action c- Defense of democratic institutions
d- Blocking of mining site d- Conservation of resources
e- Opposition to mega-projects e- Defense of ecosystems
f- Landless demonstration in India f- Defense of equality rights

32. Degrowth direction
Less and different in the Global North;
More and different in the Global South.
Less urbanised areas;
More natural areas preserved.
Less useless products,
Less waste and incineration;
More reuse and composting.
Less urban space; More cohousing.
Less cars, trucks, planes, roads, airports;
More bicycles and public transport.
Less speed and distance; more (open) relocation
More “face to face” meeting; less “screen to screen”

33. Degrowth direction
Less supermarkets
Less tourism; more travel, local, long & slow.
Less industrial agriculture; more organic & vegan.
Less fossil and nuclear energy; more renewable
energy.
Less explosives, buldozers and other “extractors”
Less advertizing; more independent information
(...)‫‏‬

34. degrowthpedia.org
www.decroissance.org
actu.adoc-france.org/
www.objecteursdecroissance.be/
www.decroissance.info
www.degrowth.eu
www.apres-developpement.org
www.ladecroissance.net/
www.simplicitevolontaire.org/
www.decreixement.net/
www.decrescita.it/
www.decrescitafelice.it/ francois@degrowth.net
www.decroissance.ch
transitionculture.org/
www.simpleliving.org/
www.degrowth.net
www.downshiftingweek.com/
www.entropia-la-revue.org
www.r-m-o-c.net/
www.Europe-Decroissance.eu
www.degrowth.ch/
bretagnedecroissance.fr/
wachstumsruecknahme.qsdf.org/
www.deshazkundea.org/

35. Degrowth innovation and
policies
Let us allow ourselves
to seek solutions to
economic/social/ecological crises
in the context of reduction of
capacity to exploit natural
resources and humans