Degrowth and decolonisation in academia: Intersecting strategies towards transformation
(2025) In Degrowth journal 3. p.1-34- Abstract
- Like other societal institutions, academia today faces an existential crisis. Rising inequality and authoritarianism, coupled with climate breakdown and collapsing ecosystems, are threatening the conditions under which academic knowledge is produced and shared. At the same time, academics are coming to terms with their institutions’ role in contributing to these processes, particularly in the Global North. Many are recognising the historical and present-day injustices underpinning the hegemony of Western universities, as well as the links between growth-oriented capitalist logics—reproduced, embodied and often sanctioned by academics—and the ongoing environmental crisis. How can academia transform into an institution that contributes to a... (More)
- Like other societal institutions, academia today faces an existential crisis. Rising inequality and authoritarianism, coupled with climate breakdown and collapsing ecosystems, are threatening the conditions under which academic knowledge is produced and shared. At the same time, academics are coming to terms with their institutions’ role in contributing to these processes, particularly in the Global North. Many are recognising the historical and present-day injustices underpinning the hegemony of Western universities, as well as the links between growth-oriented capitalist logics—reproduced, embodied and often sanctioned by academics—and the ongoing environmental crisis. How can academia transform into an institution that contributes to a just and sustainable future for all? In this study, we argue that transformations towards degrowth and decolonisation are already happening in many pockets within this institution, and describe the strategic logics behind them. Thinking with various degrowth scholars, we present our vision for an academic system characterised by radical abundance—meaning a reorganisation and reorientation of the social goods produced by universities through practices of public provisioning and communal sharing, rather than the currently dominant state of artificial scarcity. We then make use of the “strategic canvas for degrowth,” developed by Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, as inspired by the work of Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright, to understand how power is today challenged within the university’s walls, and how transformation towards radically abundant alternatives can be enacted. Using the case of a pro-Palestine student encampment at a Danish university—including how some academics engaged with this student-led initiative—we identify a shared thread across strategies towards degrowth and decolonisation: the critical contestation of what a “university” is, how it functions, and the purposes it is meant to serve. (Less)
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https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1d3de5fa-308e-4716-b6ec-0e4dec211580
- author
- Racimo, Fernando ; Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina LU ; Rutt, Rebecca Leigh and Ejsing, Mads
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- academia, strategy, transformation, university, decolonisation
- in
- Degrowth journal
- volume
- 3
- pages
- 34 pages
- ISSN
- 2977-1951
- DOI
- 10.36399/Degrowth.003.01.09
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 1d3de5fa-308e-4716-b6ec-0e4dec211580
- date added to LUP
- 2025-07-11 16:22:01
- date last changed
- 2025-08-11 10:13:38
@article{1d3de5fa-308e-4716-b6ec-0e4dec211580,
abstract = {{Like other societal institutions, academia today faces an existential crisis. Rising inequality and authoritarianism, coupled with climate breakdown and collapsing ecosystems, are threatening the conditions under which academic knowledge is produced and shared. At the same time, academics are coming to terms with their institutions’ role in contributing to these processes, particularly in the Global North. Many are recognising the historical and present-day injustices underpinning the hegemony of Western universities, as well as the links between growth-oriented capitalist logics—reproduced, embodied and often sanctioned by academics—and the ongoing environmental crisis. How can academia transform into an institution that contributes to a just and sustainable future for all? In this study, we argue that transformations towards degrowth and decolonisation are already happening in many pockets within this institution, and describe the strategic logics behind them. Thinking with various degrowth scholars, we present our vision for an academic system characterised by radical abundance—meaning a reorganisation and reorientation of the social goods produced by universities through practices of public provisioning and communal sharing, rather than the currently dominant state of artificial scarcity. We then make use of the “strategic canvas for degrowth,” developed by Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, as inspired by the work of Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright, to understand how power is today challenged within the university’s walls, and how transformation towards radically abundant alternatives can be enacted. Using the case of a pro-Palestine student encampment at a Danish university—including how some academics engaged with this student-led initiative—we identify a shared thread across strategies towards degrowth and decolonisation: the critical contestation of what a “university” is, how it functions, and the purposes it is meant to serve.}},
author = {{Racimo, Fernando and Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina and Rutt, Rebecca Leigh and Ejsing, Mads}},
issn = {{2977-1951}},
keywords = {{academia; strategy; transformation; university; decolonisation}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{1--34}},
series = {{Degrowth journal}},
title = {{Degrowth and decolonisation in academia: Intersecting strategies towards transformation}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.36399/Degrowth.003.01.09}},
doi = {{10.36399/Degrowth.003.01.09}},
volume = {{3}},
year = {{2025}},
}