degrowth

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a political-economic framework that calls for a planned and equitable reduction of production and consumption in wealthy nations as a means of reducing ecological degradation and improving human wellbeing; degrowth theorists argue that the ecological crisis cannot be solved by making existing economic activities greener without also reducing their scale, and that human flourishing does not require ever-increasing material consumption; associated with scholars such as Giorgos Kallis, Kate Raworth, and Jason Hickel, degrowth challenges the foundational assumption that economic growth is a universal good; it has been criticised as politically infeasible, but its core insights about the biophysical limits of growth have moved from the margins to a prominent position in environmental economics debates