These Are Boom Times for ‘Degrowth’

Business|These Are Boom Times for ‘Degrowth’

There’s long been one mantra in mainstream economics: Growth is good.

Gross domestic product — the monetary value of a country’s goods and services — is used to measure the economic health of a country or region, and a line that slants upward and to the right is typically what national leaders want to see.

But recently, an alternative term has begun taking root in popular culture and policy: “degrowth.”

Degrowth challenges the capitalist pursuit of growth at all costs and “focuses on what is necessary to fulfill everyone’s basic needs,” said Kohei Saito, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo and author of “Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto.” The idea, he noted, applies mostly to the Global North, where production and consumption have come to exceed basic needs in ways that harm the environment. Societies should be striving to create “a different kind of abundance,” he says, offering free education, medical care and transportation instead of continuously making more goods for consumption.

How it’s pronounced

/dĭ-grōth/

If it sounds sort of Marxist that’s because it is. But Mr. Saito’s book was a hit in Japan after its release in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic and seasons of extreme weather seemed to lend credence to the professor’s points. And the English translation of his book, released this year, has been widely reviewed (if not always favorably). In recent years, “degrowth” has come up in science, environmental, law and economics journals and in a slew of mainstream publications, including The New York Times, Bloomberg, the BBC and the Guardian. And there are numerous degrowth websites, books, documentaries, chat forums, conferences and journals.