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Post Growth Perspectives

Guiding the way to a full circle, #postgrowth economy beyond capitalism.

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Envisioning Degrowth Food Systems

6 min readAug 31, 2021

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recent contributions to the degrowth debate by Anitra Nelson and co-editors. Food for Degrowth co-edited by Ferne Edwards
Edited books on degrowth by Anitra Nelson and co-authors. ‘Food for Degrowth’ edited by Anitra Nelson and Ferne Edwards (cover images provided by Anitra Nelson)

Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices, edited by Anitra Nelson and Ferne Edwards is an important contribution not just to debates, but to the practices required for the necessary social and economic transitions towards global environmental sustainability.

Nelson suggests that the term ‘degrowth’ is deliberately provocative and is intended to challenge the prevailing dominant economic paradigm that encourages us to pursue economic growth in all circumstances and at any cost. There have been many contributions to this debate, all seeking to challenge the growth paradigm. One of the most engaging and also one of the earliest is The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth by Kenneth E. Boulding (1966). He sought to contrast the current economy that perceives the earth as an unlimited resource with the reality that it is a closed thermodynamic system in which everything — other than inputs of energy from the sun — is finite:

For the sake of picturesqueness, I am tempted to call the open economy the “cowboy economy”, the cowboy being symbolic of the illimitable plains and also associated with reckless, exploitative, romantic…

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Post Growth Perspectives
Post Growth Perspectives

Published in Post Growth Perspectives

Guiding the way to a full circle, #postgrowth economy beyond capitalism.

Steven Liaros
Steven Liaros

Written by Steven Liaros

Polymath & futurist exploring how the human story shaped our present predicaments & what this can teach us about consciously creating a healthy future for all