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Economic Organizations and the Transformation Towards Degrowth

Robra, Ben and Hinton, Jennifer B. LU (2024) p.209-232
Abstract
Degrowth seeks to achieve a sustainable society in the future. It implies overcoming capitalist norms and structures. Economic organizations have found little attention in degrowth scholarship. The existing literature focuses on degrowth compatibility without the wider structural and societal consideration that degrowth implies. Further, it is riddled with incoherences, such as a supposed compatibility of degrowth values with capitalist norms. We unpack these persisting tensions and incoherences by employing Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony. We make the case for two key systemic principles for economic organizations that hitherto have found little attention: not-for-profit and non-accumulation. These principles are... (More)
Degrowth seeks to achieve a sustainable society in the future. It implies overcoming capitalist norms and structures. Economic organizations have found little attention in degrowth scholarship. The existing literature focuses on degrowth compatibility without the wider structural and societal consideration that degrowth implies. Further, it is riddled with incoherences, such as a supposed compatibility of degrowth values with capitalist norms. We unpack these persisting tensions and incoherences by employing Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony. We make the case for two key systemic principles for economic organizations that hitherto have found little attention: not-for-profit and non-accumulation. These principles are complementary to, and enabling factors for, other organizational principles commonly focused on in degrowth scholarship, such as inclusive decision-making and material sufficiency. Combined, these principles describe the kinds of economic organizations that have to emerge along with wider societal structures to make a degrowth transformation possible. As economic organizations are at the core of the economy, they must be active agents for a degrowth transformation. Our analysis contributes to organizational and degrowth scholarship alike by not only clarifying how economic organizations can be compatible with a degrowth society, but also explaining their central role in enabling transformations towards such a society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
sustainability, sustainable business, degrowth, Degrowth business, degrowth economy, post-growth economy, Not-for-profit business, Not-for-profit economy, Ecological Economics
host publication
The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation
editor
Weik, Elke ; Land, Chris and Hartz, Ronald
pages
209 - 232
publisher
De Gruyter
ISBN
9783110986945
9783110998320
DOI
10.1515/9783110986945-011
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
67d76dd5-40b9-4d60-adca-75fda92908a2
date added to LUP
2024-08-29 14:55:09
date last changed
2024-09-06 18:07:39
@inbook{67d76dd5-40b9-4d60-adca-75fda92908a2,
  abstract     = {{Degrowth seeks to achieve a sustainable society in the future. It implies overcoming capitalist norms and structures. Economic organizations have found little attention in degrowth scholarship. The existing literature focuses on degrowth compatibility without the wider structural and societal consideration that degrowth implies. Further, it is riddled with incoherences, such as a supposed compatibility of degrowth values with capitalist norms. We unpack these persisting tensions and incoherences by employing Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony. We make the case for two key systemic principles for economic organizations that hitherto have found little attention: not-for-profit and non-accumulation. These principles are complementary to, and enabling factors for, other organizational principles commonly focused on in degrowth scholarship, such as inclusive decision-making and material sufficiency. Combined, these principles describe the kinds of economic organizations that have to emerge along with wider societal structures to make a degrowth transformation possible. As economic organizations are at the core of the economy, they must be active agents for a degrowth transformation. Our analysis contributes to organizational and degrowth scholarship alike by not only clarifying how economic organizations can be compatible with a degrowth society, but also explaining their central role in enabling transformations towards such a society.}},
  author       = {{Robra, Ben and Hinton, Jennifer B.}},
  booktitle    = {{The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation}},
  editor       = {{Weik, Elke and Land, Chris and Hartz, Ronald}},
  isbn         = {{9783110986945}},
  keywords     = {{sustainability; sustainable business; degrowth; Degrowth business; degrowth economy; post-growth economy; Not-for-profit business; Not-for-profit economy; Ecological Economics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{209--232}},
  publisher    = {{De Gruyter}},
  title        = {{Economic Organizations and the Transformation Towards Degrowth}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110986945-011}},
  doi          = {{10.1515/9783110986945-011}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}