ABSTRACT
This chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth (2025) recognises that degrowth philosophies and activism have been inspired by ecofeminism and feminist political ecology. The gendered division of labour, which associates men and masculinity with production and women and femininity with reproduction, is emphasised. Ethics of care narratives, commoning and transforming subjectivities away from the economic growth paradigm are promoted. However, while acknowledging that economic growth is coded as masculine and largely serves the interests of elite white men, little attention to date has been given to the importance of fostering degrowth subjectivities and practices for men. The few academic contributions focus on developing ecological and caring forms of masculinity in men to encourage pro-environmental behaviour. It is argued in this chapter that is important to move beyond alternative masculinities because they reinscribe an essentialist gender identity in men, reinforce men’s discomfort with the feminine and reproduce binary assumptions about sex and gender. To embrace a relational ethic of care for themselves, other humans, non-humans and the planet, and break with hegemonic masculinity that reproduces unsustainable economic growth, it is argued that men need to loosen their identification with categorical and bounded notions of masculinity, gender binarism and the sovereign self.
