Currently I have some qualms with degrowth (and solarpunk) as well as its ideological opposite, ecomodernism. However, as a wise man once said: “No investigation, no right to speak.” Thus I wish to better inform myself before I start ranting online.
My understanding is that none of these topics really have a widely agreed upon framework besides the absolute basics, so I’ll likely find myself reading ten different opinions on what degrowth means according to ten different degrowthers. Is this correct?
I just read “Socio-economic conditions for satisfying human needs at low energy use” from 2020 and will be reading “In defence of degrowth” from 2010 next. After that, I’ll go through Monthly Review’s “planned degrowth” July-August 2023 issue. Then I’ll look at whatever you comrades recommend. When I’m done with degrowth, I will move on to ecomodernism and maybe solarpunk. Yes I am aware that solarpunk is more of an artistic movement than an actual theoretical tendency.
I would prefer recommendations that I can get finish in under two hours. Videos, podcasts, movies, documentaries, etc. are also fine if you think they’re worthwhile. If you truly think a long book is worth the read, I will defer to your judgment.
Thanks. 
Jason Hickel has a lot of good work on the topic. You could try starting here.
starring this thread to keep an eye on the recs for myself lol
Well if you want to stroke your confirmation bias, Austerity Ecology is a fantastic ecomodernist book. If you prefer audio/video he’s been on plenty of podcasts including Chapo.
He does call out a lot of de-growth folks in his book, so you could likely get plenty of other-side pro-degrowth author recommendations just from reading that.
He’s also a co-author of another fantastic book The People’s Republic of Wal-Mart which is all about planned economies.
Haha I actually made a post making fun of this guy. During the banana discourse he made the brave argument that actually everyone should have a private jet. Except, when the article was finally published he had watered down his argument.
Consider my bias confirmed. 70 pages into Phillips’ book and I’m not sure I should bother with the rest. Serious degrowthers are out there writing papers with energy and CO2 pathways to stay under 1.5°C, and this dude can’t bother to include a single graph or table of data to support his 250 page argument? And yeah, he does call out a LOT of degrowthers. Mostly the liberals and anprims, because they’re easy to dunk on!
