ABSTRACT
This chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth (2025) explores the urgent need to reevaluate the global economy and Europe’s role in it, due to its unsustainability and oppressive nature, primarily driven by the pursuit of infinite growth – despite finite resources – and by upholding neocolonial power structures. Grave flaws in climate policies include the scramble for raw materials, energy and resources, and neocolonial dynamics in trade and investment agreements serving Europe’s ‘green growth’. The beneficiaries of, and narratives used to justify economic growth and Europe’s green agenda highlight white supremacy, colonialism, and imperialism and needs for an alternative model. The global majority and decolonial thought offers leadership in shaping and mobilising an expanded degrowth movement. Addressing the climate crisis as a natural consequence of capitalism, this chapter discusses opportunities for the climate movement to interact with degrowth thinking for their strategies and vision for the future. Exploring how societal pressure can build through social movements, degrowth narratives that can be mainstreamed in political circles are identified. The chapter challenges the notion that change is inherently complex, in contrast envisioning a future characterised by radical abundance, diversity, celebration, self-determination and freedom from dependency on capitalist growth.
