{"id":10576,"date":"2015-07-31T07:12:01","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T12:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10576"},"modified":"2015-07-31T07:12:01","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T12:12:01","slug":"post-development-discourse-lessons-for-the-degrowth-movement-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10576","title":{"rendered":"Post-Development Discourse: Lessons for the Degrowth Movement (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Post-Development Discourse: Lessons for the Degrowth Movement (Part 1)<\/a><\/h3>\n

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Is degrowth only conceivable in the context of \u201coversaturated\u201d industrial societies while the global \u201cSouth\u201d remains dependent on growth? In two installments, this article questions such assumptions. In this first part it introduces positions critical of development which refuse to adopt the Western model of prosperity; the\u00a0second part\u00a0<\/a>will focus on the analysis of these positions with a view to their relevance for the European degrowth movement and the growth debate here.
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A common objection against visions of degrowth is raised with regard to the material needs of large parts of the global population \u2013 those who live in so-called \u201cdeveloping\u201d or \u201cunderdeveloped\u201d countries under conditions of extreme poverty. This group, so the argument goes, essentially depends on growth in order to improve their living conditions.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, this argument is often brought forward in order to justify further growth in the global \u201cNorth,\u201d i.e., growth which in the first instance would benefit much more privileged groups. This line of argument has been easily refuted by the degrowth movement which emphasizes that in view of increasingly scarce natural resources, further material growth in richer industrial countries would rather diminish the prospects for development in poorer regions. The claim that wealth generated in the \u201cNorth\u201d would somehow \u201ctrickle down\u201d to the \u201cSouth\u201d \u2013 the traditional argument of radical free-market theorists extrapolated to the global level \u2013 has been too thoroughly discredited over decades of empirical evidence to deserve further attention here.<\/p>\n

But even explicit critics of growth, in pursuit of the laudable goal of global justice, often argue that economic development requires further growth in the \u201cSouth.\u201d Indeed, their demand for an end to growth in OECD countries is often motivated by the desire to enable \u201csustainable development\u201d in poorer regions. From the perspective of post-development theory, however, the assumptions underlying such demands are quickly revealed to be rooted firmly in Western ideas of progress and growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Post-Development Discourse: Lessons for the Degrowth Movement (Part 1) Is degrowth only conceivable in the context of \u201coversaturated\u201d industrial societies while the global \u201cSouth\u201d remains dependent on growth? In two installments, this article questions such assumptions. In this first part it introduces positions critical of development which refuse to adopt the Western model of prosperity; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[203,7705,391,2499,642,1447],"class_list":["post-10576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-degrowth","tag-degrowth-movement","tag-growth","tag-industrial-society","tag-poverty","tag-prosperity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10577,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions\/10577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}