Degrowth as ideology

Trumpism and Muskism show to us that the current political struggle is purely an ideological struggle. We do need to build a new counter-ideology, one that takes humans and the environment seriously. Degrowth could be that ideological narrative able to mobilize popular masses, but it needs to be grounded on real, local yet important, struggles. It cannot be just built on abstract economic ideals. In this study I show that degrowth ideals emerge from struggles, from real material struggle over land use and justice.

Agricultural land within development zone Business Park. Source Ecological impact assessment 2020.

Degrowth research critiques the ideology of growth but does not explain how degrowth values gain public traction and turn into a new ideology. This article shows that degrowth values emerge from the contestation of institutions that maintain the growth imperative and the proposition of new institutions embodying alternative values. 

First, the article problematises the (counter)hegemonic challenge posed by degrowth, explaining why degrowth research needs to question the institutions that influence social practices. Second, it conceptualises degrowth as a double movement of contestation and proposition that works within and against the ideological apparatus sustaining the growth imperative. The historical struggle to save the Lutkemeerpolder in Amsterdam – the last remaining agricultural land in the city – shows how a degrowth ideology developed through the contestation of the institutional apparatus sustaining the growth of the airport-related industry. This struggle unfolded into a wider movement that has proposed new institutions embodying degrowth values such as commoning and conviviality.