Degrowth Interest Group

There is currently some people who are interested in degrowth, but no one to kickstart or facilitate such an interest group yet. This is a holding page for information until we find people willing to facilitate such a group.

Purpose

Possible objectives:

1. Share and learn more about degrowth and related issues of a more just and sustainable economic system
2. [insert]

Definitions and Scope

Degrowth refers to an economic situation whereby the economic wealth does not increase or decrease. It is based on the understanding that there are limited resources in the world and the reduction in global production and consumption can help to safeguard and conserve the remaining assets of the world. The mining of non-renewable materials/resources endangers the future survivability of humans.

The pursuits of degrowth helps to provide environmental sustainability for the long-term and improve quality of life for people. it can be considered achievable by the rich and middle classes as their standard of living will not be affected drastically. However, those in poverty requires the economic growth for the improvement of their standard of living. Degrowth can be achieved by the lower level of consumption of redundant expensive goods and prioritizing looking after the environment and local communities for sustainability.

Degrowth seeks to redefine the traditional measurement of economic growth by the use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [1], to a new economic model by using resilience as the main concept. The adoption of GDP as the yardstick to measure growth is challenged due to its inaccuracy to measure growth. Hence, economists are exploring more relevant measurements such as Human Development Index (HDI), the ecological footprint or the social health index.