IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v169y2020ics092180091831749x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Degrowth and the State

Author

Listed:
  • D’Alisa, Giacomo
  • Kallis, Giorgos

Abstract

This paper addresses a gap in degrowth scholarship: the lack of a theory of the state. Those who write about degrowth advocate radical policy and social change, but have no model to explain how, why and under what conditions such change could come about and what role the state would play in it. This is because they have no theory of what the state is, or when and why it changes. We review for the first time the Anglophone and Francophone literatures on state and degrowth and find both wanting. We propose a Gramscian theory of the state suitable for thinking about degrowth and show with the example of strategizing for a maximum income policy how this suits the degrowth literature’s emphasis on a combination of grassroots and institutional actions.

Suggested Citation

  • D’Alisa, Giacomo & Kallis, Giorgos, 2020. "Degrowth and the State," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:169:y:2020:i:c:s092180091831749x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180091831749X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106486?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joutsenvirta, Maria, 2016. "A practice approach to the institutionalization of economic degrowth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 23-32.
    2. Schmelzer, Matthias, 2015. "The growth paradigm: History, hegemony, and the contested making of economic growthmanship," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 262-271.
    3. Katarina Buhr & Karolina Isaksson & Pernilla Hagbert, 2018. "Local Interpretations of Degrowth—Actors, Arenas and Attempts to Influence Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    4. Weiss, Martin & Cattaneo, Claudio, 2017. "Degrowth – Taking Stock and Reviewing an Emerging Academic Paradigm," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 220-230.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Engler, John-Oliver & Kretschmer, Max-Friedemann & Rathgens, Julius & Ament, Joe A. & Huth, Thomas & von Wehrden, Henrik, 2024. "15 years of degrowth research: A systematic review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    2. Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Nesterova, Iana, 2021. "Towards a science of deep transformations: Initiating a dialogue between degrowth and critical realism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    3. Strzałkowski, Andrzej, 2024. "Adaptation and operationalisation of sustainable degrowth for policy: Why we need to translate research papers into legislative drafts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    4. Spash, Clive L., 2019. "Time for a Paradigm Shift: From Economic Growth andPrice-Making Markets to Social Ecological Economics," SRE-Discussion Papers 2019/07, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    5. Spash, Clive L., 2020. "A tale of three paradigms: Realising the revolutionary potential of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    6. Åsa Nyblom & Karolina Isaksson & Mark Sanctuary & Aurore Fransolet & Peter Stigson, 2019. "Governance and Degrowth. Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis in Latvia and Iceland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Leonardi, Emanuele, 2019. "Bringing Class Analysis Back in: Assessing the Transformation of the Value-Nature Nexus to Strengthen the Connection Between Degrowth and Environmental Justice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 83-90.
    8. Kommandeur, Querine & Alenda-Demoutiez, Juliette & Kaufmann, Maria & Visseren-Hamakers, Ingrid, 2025. "Varieties of Anticapitalism: A systematic study of transformation strategies in alternative economic discourses," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    9. Robert J. R. Elliott & Ingmar Schumacher & Cees Withagen, 2020. "Suggestions for a Covid-19 Post-Pandemic Research Agenda in Environmental Economics," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 1187-1213, August.
    10. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    11. Xhulia Likaj & Michael Jacobs & Thomas Fricke, 2022. "Growth, Degrowth or Post-growth? Towards a synthetic understanding of the growth debate," Basic Papers 2, Forum New Economy.
    12. Valeria Andreoni, 2020. "The Trap of Success: A Paradox of Scale for Sharing Economy and Degrowth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, April.
    13. Siemoneit, Andreas, 2023. "Growth imperatives as a conflict between efficiency and justice," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 301394, February.
    14. Guannan Chen & Zhenhuang Yang & Shaohui Chen, 2020. "Measurement and Convergence Analysis of Inclusive Green Growth in the Yangtze River Economic Belt Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-17, March.
    15. Mikkel Kruuse & Kasper Reming Tangbæk & Kristjan Jespersen & Caleb Gallemore, 2019. "Navigating Input and Output Legitimacy in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Institutional Stewards at Work," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-27, November.
    16. García-García, Pablo & Buendía, Luis & Carpintero, Óscar, 2022. "Welfare regimes as enablers of just energy transitions: Revisiting and testing the hypothesis of synergy for Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    17. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2019. "Wachstumszwang – eine Übersicht," ZOE Discussion Papers 3, ZOE. institute for future-fit economies, Bonn.
    18. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    19. Li, Mengyu & Keyβer, Lorenz & Kikstra, Jarmo S. & Hickel, Jason & Brockway, Paul E. & Dai, Nicolas & Malik, Arunima & Lenzen, Manfred, 2024. "Integrated assessment modelling of degrowth scenarios for Australia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123739, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Larch, Mario & Löning, Markus & Wanner, Joschka, 2018. "Can degrowth overcome the leakage problem of unilateral climate policy?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 118-130.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:169:y:2020:i:c:s092180091831749x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.