Course:SUST205/2025WT2/Backgrounder/Group1
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Degrowth Backgrounder
University of British Columbia - Okanagan
SUST 205 - Sebastian, Amanda, Jolina, Taryn, and Graeme
Dr. Johannus Janmaat
April 7, 2026
Degrowth Backgrounder
A Description of Degrowth
Degrowth’s central theme is that an economy’s focus should not be on exponential
growth or accumulation of capital, but one of public abundance and only specific industries
would be allowed to grow.
Today, many countries measure success by how their production and consumption
(through GDP). Degrowth argues that endless growth is not always good and believes it leads
to environmental damage, waste, and growing inequality globally. Degrowth is not about
living lesser lives or giving up the things we enjoy. Instead, it asks us to think differently
about the qualities of life that make it worth living; rather than focusing on personal financial
and material gains. Degrowth focuses on topics such as reducing standard working hours to
promote and encourage: health, stronger communities, fairness, and environmental
protection.
Approaches to Degrowth include: cooperatively-run corporations, democratizing
financial institutions, redistribution of wealth from the top 20% world’s wealthiest
individuals, and ending harmful industry subsidies. It is suggested that wealthier countries
should reduce over-consumptive behaviour so global resources may be more fairly
distributed before the planet limits are exceeded.
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Degrowth is choosing wellbeing over endless expansion. It challenges the notion of
“more is better” and asks us to re-imagine a world where people have enough to live fulfilling
lives without materialism driving. Degrowth is about democratizing our economy, improving
global equity, and rethinking what “progress” looks like. Degrowth is not frugality, but
shared, frugal abundance.
Degrowth works in real life. It has translated research into policy successfully, at
multiple spatial scales. Degrowth policies have been implemented in Northern Syria, Bolivia,
Japan, and most recently Scotland. At a smaller scale, Degrowth has been successful, both
historically and in modern times. For example, in cooperatively-run enterprises and
community-run subsistence farms.
Many critiques revolve around the name itself; which could imply that no further
research was done beyond reading the name. Degrowth was meant to be a model that
knocked down doors and paved the way for others. The name was purposefully made to be
controversial; so that it could not be co-opted by those who were advertising support (to
leverage their popularity) without follow through. This missile name seems to be achieving
exactly what it intended. For countries like Canada, this is especially helpful, since there is a
long record of adopting environmental protection and Indigenous reconciliation policies
without meaningful action or follow through.
Degrowth policies have been picked up in multiple countries. It has great potential to
influence the world and potentially the most potential. A recent study showed that people
loved Degrowth policies. Several of us believe that these policies will continue to pick up
popularity and within the next twenty years, or so, many other countries will have adopted
Degrowth-influenced legislation and practices.
However, upon closer inspection of academic literature, it is clear that there are many areas in
need of improvement; especially if it was to be widely adopted or globally implemented. A
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number of drawbacks can be discussed with regards to: the impacts of Degrowth on less
developed countries (LDC’s), limitations within academia and the ways in which current
political and economic structures continue to hinder change.
Although this practice has worked for some, implementing it world wide may add to
the existing inequalities and hardships faced in the Global South. Therefore, we must
consider potential negative outcomes and shortcomings of Degrowth to better understand
which areas of research need to be added or researched further to make it more applicable to
both developed or less-developed economies.
First Question
A common question asked is how Degrowth can translate academic research and
theories into policy. Does it translate research into policy well, or at all?
First, we recognized that Degrowth has already translated research into practice in NE
Syria, Japan, Bolivia, and most recently Scotland. Besides these real-life examples of
Degrowth, many published articles contain policy; some examples include: universal basic
services, maximum income caps, max wage gaps, limiting advertising, public interest
balances that determine preferential taxes and subsidies, taxes on high environmental
footprints, work-time reduction, and more.
The political party in Northeastern Syria (called the “Democratic Autonomous
Administration of North and East Syria” (DAANES)) has practiced Degrowth since 2012.
Initiated at the beginning of the “Rojava Revolution.”, Degrowth essentials such as:
democratic councils, extraordinary gender rights, and ecological values are practiced.
DAANES, with the highest standard of living within Syria, provides significant contributions
of research material for Degrowthers (Colerato 2025). Overall, DAANES have shown that
Degrowth can replace capitalism in less-developed countries.
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Unfortunately, Degrowth literature is far from perfect. The majority of publications
are conceptual - where Degrowth demands focused studies with empirical data to back both
research and policymaking. A recent meta-analysis done in 2024 reviewed 456 publications
and revealed that 307 articles neither addressed nor discussed policy at all. Literature that did
discuss policies were either completely conceptual, cross-referenced policies suggested by
other publications, or were literature reviews or had supporting empirical data. Only
seventy-eight papers aimed to develop new policy proposals, and of these, fifty-one were
conceptual, and the remaining twenty-two contained empirical research.
It is clear that Degrowth literature requires significant improvements toward empirical
research. Since the EU and the UK now have Degrowth policies in place, it is now the perfect
time for applied research! At larger scales, Japan, Bolivia, and NE Syria, have various
Degrowth models in place. Even if Degrowth is not named as their primary motivation, their
practices and movements act as sufficient models worthy of future study.
Second Question
The second question our group addressed concerned financing Degrowth policies:
how would governments maintain funding for essential public services, if economic output
and tax revenue decline, in a Degrowth economy?
Degrowth seeks to provide either a universal basic wage (UBW), or universal basic
services. Engler et al. found eight publications offering suggestions for distributional policy
change. There are different manners with which to provide a UBW. Some suggested the
implementation of negative income taxes, job guarantees (based on human rights), or
state-provisioned lump-sum transfer payments to citizens. Proposals for funding a UBW
included suggestions of a wealth tax, a maximum income, financial transaction taxes, the
establishment of international tax agreements, or—one brave soul suggested—a progressive
income tax of a maximum marginal tax rate of 100%.
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These suggestions appear to mirror current government and public service funding
practices - individuals with higher income levels are more heavily taxed, international
business and trades are taxed at multiple points, international agreements have been
established and reduced worker hours are under discussion. If Degrowth is all about heavy
taxation, how will the Degrow movement gain public support?
Thankfully, Degrowth has many other proposed measures. The two most relevant
measures are: first, ending harmful industry subsidies - immediately providing capital which
could fund Degrowth transition, and second, allowing wealth accumulation - however, it
would be limited and most importantly, set a wage gap maximum. Wage Gap Maximums are
crucial to Degrowth discussions and must be reflected in more-developed country (MDC)
Degrowth transitions.
Lastly, misunderstanding that Degrowth results in middle and lower class individuals
assuming these limits and rules will negatively impact them. On the contrary, only the
wealthiest 20% in the world would experience the highest impact and would become a part of
the burgeoning middle class.
Third Question
Would Degrowth result in job losses and other negative effects for less-developed
countries (LDCs)?
It appears that Degrowth transitions in MDCs would benefit LDCs. For example, if
multinational corporations (MNCs) had to provide public interest balances and then
preferential taxes and subsidies were provided to cooperatively-run corporations instead,
MNCs could be phased out of existence. LDCs could then focus on building their own
economy instead of catering to MNCs. Many LDC governments struggle to balance MNCs
demands with protection of their own resources. Multinational agricultural corporations
happily take advantage of the low wage laws, cheap land, and cash crop opportunities. Land
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is purchased and used to grow export crops - making provisioning local communities
difficult. Phasing out MNCs in LDCs through Degrowth would greatly benefit LDCs.
We must also recognize the impacts of MDC investment removal from LDCs. Take
for example the fast fashion industry: in “China’s New Silk Road,” China’s influence in
Ethiopia has resulted in factories and jobs for citizens. If China was forced to remove their
productions, would those factories stay? Would these citizens continue making products but
now receiving higher wages? Would products become more expensive and lead to lower
demand?
Degrowth will not occur overnight. MDC influence must be removed slowly. The
only thing Degrowth can say with confidence is that we are not sure how this would work -
though evidence implies that Degrowth will improve quality of life in LDC’s, we will need
further empirical research in order to fully answer this question.
Fourth Question
How will Degrowth manage the decrease in utility that would occur in MDCs, with
the changes in industries over in LDCs; e.g., fast fashion?
With Degrowth abolishing abusive working conditions in LDCs, MDCs will have
narrower ranges of choice. Global consumers will be forced to buy more expensive goods.
Will this leave lower income populations worse off? Zac Edwards, an economics professor,
stated that “it is… likely… any significant degree of downscaling would affect broader
working class consumption patterns” (Edwards, 2025). He believes implementing Degrowth
will reduce available options to consumers and many people will be forced to buy products at
higher costs.
Many critiques come from assuming Degrowth would be assimilated overnight. As
noted, slow assimilation would alleviate crises of production and consumption. This,
however, needs more empirical research, and should be done within countries who have or
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are adopting Degrowth policies - hopefully, with the increasing number of policies being
adopted across the planet, the available evidence will be analyzed and used to improve
Degrowth policies.
On a broader scale, Omer Tayab states, “The majority of energy and material
consumption is driven by a wealthy minority… a planned downscaling would have little
impact on most people” (2025). Middle class individuals are concerned about
implementation, even though they will experience fewer effects than the wealthy.
Conclusion
With vastly differing approaches and ideologies, theoretical concepts dominate
Degrowth publications. We are left with speculations not yet backed by real-world data. Of
the few publications that propose potential policies, many are within the bounds of current
economic systems.
Despite the abundance of publications, an overall lack of scholarly collaboration is
obvious. Most publications do not extend beyond European borders. As with climate change
or other wicked problems, attempting to shift global economics would be a difficult feat.
In Andy Hines’ book “Imagining After Capitalism”, he cites Donella Meadows’
system intervention framework. Donella’s hardest and most powerful intervention is the
mindset change. Who currently supports Degrowth? A 2025 study, “Assessing public support
for degrowth,” found 74% support in the UK and 68% in the US. Unsurprisingly, when
surveys presented the policies first followed by the name “Degrowth,” it garnered more
support (Krpan, et al., 2025). If “Degrowth” wasn’t mentioned whatsoever, even greater
support was shown. It's clear that people love Degrowth policies, just not the name.
If critics say Degrowth won’t work: well, it does in NE Syria and Japan. Scotland,
too, will be an example in the future. As of March 25, 2026, Scotland’s Community Wealth
Building bill came into effect. This Act involves community ownership of land,
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cooperatively-ran financial institutions, worker-owned businesses, and more. These are
Degrowth policies! Degrowth analysts must study Scotland in the future.
Degrowth will involve change. Matt Orsagh, a sustainable finance analyst of over
twenty years, said, “if we continue on the business-as-usual path, we are heading to very
troubling environmental tipping points that will cause increasing damage to our property,
increase famine… and make it nearly impossible for our economies to grow at the rate we are
used to,” but, “if we follow a degrowth path and address these environmental issues, we may
mitigate the worst of these environmental damages, but most likely tamp down growth in the
long term” (2024). This, yes, will affect our financial markets. Is the trade-off necessary,
though? Probably.
Overall, we agree that Degrowth researchers need to step up their game, and ought to
study the effects of Degrowth policies in practice in order to aid policy-making. Take it from
the countries practising these policies: Degrowth works.
Change is coming and we must choose a path.
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