Navigating the Compass of Growth
Navigating the Compass of Growth
A personal insight from the 2023 European Beyond Growth Conference
This piece was composed by RCSC affiliate Querine Kommandeur, PhD Candidate Radboud University
Last week, I virtually attended the 2023 European Beyond Growth conference. For me, this event accurately represents the European growth discourse; an interplay between hegemonic locked-in ideas, carefully cultivated and presented by the most powerful actors, and the voices of those who call for a transformative reorganisation of economies, actively addressing the injustices and crises that are generated by capitalist orders. The conference, full of contradictions and gaps but also wisdom and hope, was opened by the President of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In her speech, she makes a seemingly brave comment:
“a growth model centred on fossil fuels is simply obsolete.”
After this remark, she pauses in typical Obama - master of speech pauses - fashion, to amplify the impact of her message. It clearly has the intended effect; loud applause follows from the audience. As she continues, I suspect much of the audience abandons momentary hope. Von der Leyen explains how the European Green Deal will serve as a ‘blueprint for a new European growth model’ with the goal of ‘systematically modernising Europe's industry and foster a sustainable economy’.
To explain why this is problematic from a degrowth perspective, it is relevant to highlight that the degrowth movement precisely distances itself from the perpetual growth and development narrative, in which modernisation is taken as an undisputed destination. Von der Leyen continues and illustrates why ‘we need not start from scratch’; we have our ‘compass rooted in the enduring values of the European social market economy’.
I wonder what values these are, and where this compass will lead us? Individualism, competition, efficiency, freedom? Is this the same compass that guided colonial ships in their endeavours to ‘modernise’ economies? Or the one that has been shipping of production processes to lower-income countries for the sake of efficient cost-reductions and comparative advantage? Isn't the very essence of the work of many of the conference's speakers to show that we need to critically question the values that have dominated and guided our economies, that we need a different compass because the current one is leading us into the abyss?
Although I can think of many more reasons for continuing this critical and slightly synoptic analysis, I think it is important to also pay attention to the valuable contributions that were present at the conference. Because, as I mentioned earlier, the conference embodied an interplay between conventional, as well as hopeful sounds. The holding of this conference can itself be considered as the beginning of the institutionalisation of a post-growth discourse in European institutions. The opposing expressions at the conference can be seen as a discursive struggle, or rather, discursive battle fight over power to navigate the compass. The hegemonic discourse, as accurately portrayed by Von der Leyen, is actively being challenged on an expanding platform.
Jason Hickel and activists and scholars from the Global South, including Vandana Shiva and Farhana Sultana, highlighted the global inequalities, the plunder and expropriation of the Global South by the Global North historically as today. Timothèe Parrique did his usual excellent job at showing just how unlikely it is that green growth and decoupling will keep us within the 1,5 degrees Celsius, while ecological economists, including Julia Steinberger and Dan O’Neill, busted the arguably strong correlation between energy and resource use vis-à-vis wellbeing and good life. It turns out, happiness doesn't come in barrels of oil or stacks of money. Who knew? Other important contributions were made by Corrina Dengler, who emphasised the feminist perspective and the importance of not only gender, but also intersectional injustices concerning race and class. Although these are but a few of the many valuable contributions at the conference, some voices remained unrepresented, such as those of multi-species and the more-than-human.
In this alignment as well as clash of ideas, the conference became more than a gathering of intellects; it became a battleground of ideologies. The struggle for a post-growth future is gaining momentum, with the dominant narrative increasingly being challenged and questioned. As we bid adieu to the conference, let's carry these sparks of dissent, wisdom, and hope with us. Let's not settle for complacency or half-hearted measures. Instead, let's cultivate the seeds of change and challenge the very foundations that have brought us to this precipice. The journey toward a new era of economic orders may be long and treacherous, but with each step, we move closer to a future where the compass we follow points not to an abyss, but to a more just and sustainable destination.
Querine Kommandeur is a PhD candidate at the Environment Group within the Faculty of Management at Radboud University. Her work is dedicated to the study of alternative economic discourses, such as Degrowth, Buen Vivir, and Wellbeing Economy, and her research focuses on the institutionalisation and implementation of these discourses. By studying the emergence and institutionalisation of alternative economic discourses, Querine seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how these alternatives can be effectively implemented in real-world contexts and how processes of change can be effectively governed. Through her research, she aims to enhance the transformative potential of such alternatives.