ABSTRACT
Chapter 24 of the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth (2025) presents a two-decade stocktake by the French ‘father’ of degrowth, Serge Latouche. While celebrating its spread, the movement’s persecution and weaknesses are acknowledged. In the first half of 2002 a special issue of S!lence was published, and a special United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Deconstruct Development, Rebuild the World symposium took place. Later the next year, the Casseurs de Pub Conference was held in Lyon. Rhizome-like degrowth developed interest and support in neighbouring Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Latin America. It has been misconstrued, often intentionally, by those opposed to its critique of economism. Meanwhile, its strength in France meant that it even surfaced as a point of debate in the 2022 presidential elections. As such, it is suggested that today degrowth is still challenging the status quo and it is a gamble. Degrowth even constitutes an unbearable provocation, blasphemous for worshippers of progress and ‘development’ so nothing seems less certain realising an autonomous society of convivial frugality.
