Discussant: Ekaterina Chertkovskaya (Lund University)

Resumo

This paper addresses a gap in degrowth scholarship: the lack of a theory of the state. Those who write about degrowth
advocate radical policy and social change, but have no model to explain how, why and under what conditions such
change could come about and what role the state would play in it. This is because they have no theory of what the
state is, or when and why it changes. We review for the first time the Anglophone and Francophone literatures on state
and degrowth and find both wanting. We propose a Gramscian theory of the state suitable for thinking about degrowth
and show with the example of strategizing for a maximum income policy how this suits the degrowth literature’s
emphasis on a combination of grassroots and institutional actions.

This seminar is part of the Political Ecology Reading Group series 2019-20 of the Ecology and Society Lab (Oficina de Ecologia e Sociedade-CES). If you wish to receive a copy of this paper, please contact ecosoc@ces.uc.pt