The possibility of the de-growth proposals in answering the challenges the humanity faces today

Humanity is now at an important juncture given the challenges brought to surface by the Triple Crisis of 2008. Today, we are consuming 50% more of what our nature’s biocapacity can supply in one year. We reached, even went beyond the planetary limits. Is it possible to continue with the business-as-usual scenario in which economic growth is seen as a panacea for all the problems ranging from poverty, rising inequality to environmental degradation? Or should we really start to question the idea of endless economic growth?

As opposed to neoliberal mainstream economists‘ expectations, the global economic system which has been built on a grow-or-die mantra, has failed to solve income inequality, reduce unemployment or increase environmental degradation, if it has not worsened them. On top of that, there is a fast growing economic literature suggesting we need to go beyond economic growth in order to increase the well-being of all living beings. Such researches clearly show that the well-being of people does not only depends on material consumption but also involves non-materialistic dimensions. An increase in income per capita can help increasing human well-being only up to a certain level of income. It has been found that, under the current economic system, the further income rise fails to bring more happiness to people, if not decreases it. This brought us to think once more on the ultimate goal of economics as a discipline. It is clear that it should not be defined as the science of allocating scarce resources to endless human needs. But rather as the study of how people handle their resources to match their demands and improve their well-being, a definition which clearly targets the ultimate goal of any sort of human-made organisation.

Today it has become clear that if we want to exist tomorrow on Earh we need to shrink our economic activities, yet it is still unclear how to get there. It is a big political challenge to convince citizens to de-grow in a World with diverging political agendas. What we lack is the transition strategy to bring today’s unsustainable World to tomorrow’s post-growth World.

In a one-day conference with three sessions, we tried to discuss first the deficiencies of the existing global economic system and the possibility of De-growth proposals in answering the challenges humanity faces today. In the first session, designated speakers summarized the link between the challenges and the current global economic system and then address the logic behind the De-Growth concept. The second session was planned to be devoted to discussing the existing transition proposals. The third session, in an atelier format, was aimed to bring audience, comprising local movement representatives and activists, into the discussion.

Opening Speeches:

Kristian Brakel, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Derneği Turkey representative

Sevgi Mutlu, Green Tought Association