On Strategies for Socioecological Transformation

| April 14, 2019 | Leave a Comment

Item Link: Access the Resource

Author(s): Panos Petridis

This article was originally published by
Degrowth, 9 January 2019

In a recent post, a group of authors expressed their concerns that degrowth risks being lost in pluralism and argued for the need to co-produce a mix of context-sensitive strategies. I believe this re-stirring of the debate on strategy in the degrowth movement is both relevant and timely. While I agree with many of the authors’ concerns, and proposals, I would here like to propose a somewhat different response.

Let me start by saying that I share the view that ‘degrowth’ has developed into a contingent slogan and subversive concept that unites diverse views of activists and critical scholars in search of socioecological transformation. It thus aspires to provide an interpretative frame for a series of local and sectoral struggles, as well as to infiltrate other social movements and policy proposals. This largely explains its strategic plurality that probably will, and should, remain.

Given the above, I do however share the concerns that this plurality might lead to dispersed, even conflicting, efforts. Hence, if degrowth is to remain an emancipatory concept, there is the need to both advance research on theories of transformation, as well as evaluate context-relevant strategy and policy proposals. Regarding the latter, rather than favouring one strategy over another on the basis of short term ‘tactic’, I propose to retain a synthetic view point and evaluate strategies based on their emancipatory potential.

Read the complete article here. 

The views and opinions expressed through the MAHB Website are those of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of the MAHB. The MAHB aims to share a range of perspectives and welcomes the discussions that they prompt.