Labor and degrowth: Understanding overlaps and divergences of degrowth and union political policies
(2025) SGEM08 20251Department of Human Geography
- Abstract
- Recognizing that the labor movement is under-theorized as a political subject in degrowth literature, this thesis investigates potentials for alignment between degrowth and the Swedish labor movement through a focus on policies. It hypothesized that the two, from a policy perspective, may hold positions that could mutually reinforce each other. Departing from 14 policies proposed jointly in degrowth literature, the study examines overlaps and divergences between these and the political policies of Swedish working-class labor unions. Applying a Structuring Qualitative Content Analysis, it finds that the Swedish labor movement and degrowth more or less align on policy goals and to a meaningful extent on problem understandings and political... (More)
- Recognizing that the labor movement is under-theorized as a political subject in degrowth literature, this thesis investigates potentials for alignment between degrowth and the Swedish labor movement through a focus on policies. It hypothesized that the two, from a policy perspective, may hold positions that could mutually reinforce each other. Departing from 14 policies proposed jointly in degrowth literature, the study examines overlaps and divergences between these and the political policies of Swedish working-class labor unions. Applying a Structuring Qualitative Content Analysis, it finds that the Swedish labor movement and degrowth more or less align on policy goals and to a meaningful extent on problem understandings and political proposals. The findings suggest that divergences primarily follow from degrowth’s inadequate consideration of the effects of a degrowth transition on unionization and workers and from differences in foundational understandings of the ecological crisis and the functions of fiscal policies. Considering the relatively large alignments in policies, as well as potential knowledge gaps and indications among labor policies for re-understandings, the thesis concluded that there appears to be substantial common ground from which a constructive dialogue between labor and degrowth could emerge, develop political proposals, and help reduce policy tensions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9210818
- author
- Frisell, Lukas LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SGEM08 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Labor, Unions, Degrowth, Policy, Socioecological transformation
- language
- English
- id
- 9210818
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-27 15:18:28
- date last changed
- 2025-08-27 15:18:28
@misc{9210818,
abstract = {{Recognizing that the labor movement is under-theorized as a political subject in degrowth literature, this thesis investigates potentials for alignment between degrowth and the Swedish labor movement through a focus on policies. It hypothesized that the two, from a policy perspective, may hold positions that could mutually reinforce each other. Departing from 14 policies proposed jointly in degrowth literature, the study examines overlaps and divergences between these and the political policies of Swedish working-class labor unions. Applying a Structuring Qualitative Content Analysis, it finds that the Swedish labor movement and degrowth more or less align on policy goals and to a meaningful extent on problem understandings and political proposals. The findings suggest that divergences primarily follow from degrowth’s inadequate consideration of the effects of a degrowth transition on unionization and workers and from differences in foundational understandings of the ecological crisis and the functions of fiscal policies. Considering the relatively large alignments in policies, as well as potential knowledge gaps and indications among labor policies for re-understandings, the thesis concluded that there appears to be substantial common ground from which a constructive dialogue between labor and degrowth could emerge, develop political proposals, and help reduce policy tensions.}},
author = {{Frisell, Lukas}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Labor and degrowth: Understanding overlaps and divergences of degrowth and union political policies}},
year = {{2025}},
}