Publication details
Udržitelný nerůst. Nový zastřešující koncept v environmentální argumentaci?
| Title in English | Sustainable Degrowth: An Emerging Key Concept in Environmental Argumentation? |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Sociální studia |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://socstudia.fss.muni.cz/sites/default/files/Fra%C5%88kov%C3%A1%2CJohanisov%C3%A1.pdf |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | sustainable degrowth; sustainable development; key concepts in environmental argumentation; radical environmental movement |
| Description | The twenty-year-long dominance of the sustainable development concept in environmental argumentation has, according to many authors, devalued its contents and led to a loss of its capacity to motivate needed changes in the behaviour of both individuals and whole societies. The concept of sustainable degrowth, which has gained increasing prominence in the last decade within both the ecosocial movement and the academic debate, can be seen as an attempt to resurrect a radical environmental ethos. Sustainable degrowth can be defined as a democratic, equitable and environmentally beneficial process of gradually decreasing the volume of production and consumption, the goal of which is to improve human wellbeing. Degrowth argumentation springs from a wide spectrum of intellectual sources including environmental ethics, ecological economics and critical approaches in development theory. Both the activist and the academic wings of the degrowth movement have developed since 2000 predominantly in France, Italy and Spain, and to a lesser degree in many other countries. The degrowth concept differs from voluntary simplicity or downshifting by its call for systemic social change and can be interpreted as an intermediate stage leading to a steady-state economy. A key argument of the degrowth movement is criticism of mainstream economic fundamentalism and of the de-politicization of public space. How to achieve this alternative to the current system (which is based on the logic of economic growth) remains an open question. |
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