The challenge

The drive for perpetual economic growth is hindering efforts to address over-consumption, particularly by the Global North, that’s fuelling several crises: from climate change and biodiversity loss to extreme inequality in resource access. Some argue that economies should prioritise social equality, wellbeing, democracy and environmental sustainability instead. 

Degrowth is one such systemic alternative, with the potential to help us interact with the living world in less destructive and economically redistributive ways. For example, through a ‘climate income’ that taxes pollution and uses the proceeds to fund a universal basic income. 

However, some environmental justice movements in the Global South criticise degrowth for its Eurocentrism and an anthropocentric worldview in which nature is framed almost as a service provider. This contrasts with another alternative to growth-based capitalism that has gained traction in Latin America, Buen Vivir.  

What we're doing

This work explored how degrowth proponents could increase the model’s effectiveness by learning from the practical experience of Buen Vivir. 

There’s plenty of theoretical research concerning these concepts but very little empirical study. She conducted fieldwork in Ecuador, a country where Buen Vivir and Rights of Nature have been enshrined in the constitution, to understand more about how this model functions in everyday life. 

Katharina Richter spent almost three months in the country, conducting interviews, going on field trips and participating in municipal, indigenous and NGO-led assemblies. 

How it helps

Buen Vivir holds that wellbeing stems not from wealth or material possessions but from strong relationships with the community and the natural world. 

This is particularly relevant for degrowth, where nature is rarely given a sense of agency and remains positioned as a resource. In Ecuador, Katharina observed that humans are considered part of nature, and the reciprocity in this relationship is believed to aid wellbeing. 

While that current worldview remains dominant across the Global North, it’ll be difficult to make the lasting and impactful changes needed for decarbonisation. We may need to adjust not only our policies but also our relationship with the living world. 

As a next step, Katharina is working with communities in Colombia to study the impacts of the Global North’s net-zero transitions on biodiverse, water scarce and indigenous territories in the Global South. Together, we’ll investigate the value degrowth could create for the resources appropriated by the current growth-based model.