Frequently Asked Questions

What's degrowth ?

Une réduction planifiée et démocratique de la production et de la consommation dans les pays riches afin de réduire les pressions environnementales et les inégalités tout en améliorant le bien-être. -- Timothée Parrique, Ralentir ou périr

A degrowth society, we propose, is one which, in a democratic process of transformation: 1. enables global ecological justice – in other words, it transforms and reduces its material metabolism, and thus also production and consumption, in such a way that its way of life is ecologically sustainable in the long term and globally just; 2. strengthens social justice and self-determination and strives for a good life for all under the conditions of this changed metabolism; and 3. redesigns its institutions and infrastructure so that they are not dependent on growth and continuous expansion for their functioning. Matthias Schmelzer, Andrea Vetter et Aaron Vansintjan, The future is degrowth

Why degrowth ?

Our project is based on two premisses :

• It is unlikely that economic growth in our productivity-driven societies can be decoupled from negative environmental impacts.
• It is possible to organize a transition to, and live well in, a society of degrowth.

Hence our position:

• Degrowth as a strategy that the scientific community has a moral responsibility (in the sense of Hans Jonas) to study
• Degrowth as an interdisciplinary subject of study, to which computer science can/must contribute, as mentioned in various works on degrowth

  A third void in the degrowth debate is the relationship between degrowth and digitalization