ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author briefly condenses the motives behind the increasing criticism of the intense quest for economic growth and discusses substantial proposals that argue for different approaches to growth. This overview of the current state of the art creates the foundation for main argument: the critical debates referring to the paradigm of quantitative growth usually blank out a crucial dimension: economic growth as social relations is linked to societal domination and, hence, to reproducing social structures. Societal domination, the author argue, in the tradition of the "older" Frankfurt School, is also the basis for domination-formed societal nature relations and should be considered as a main driver of current socio-ecological problems and a major obstacle for alternative approaches. The author shows that the growth critical debate in principle overlooks issues of power and domination, which is intrinsically linked to the societal structures and processes of capitalist growth.
