We are concluding this year with a lecture by Vincent Liegey on the topic of degrowth. Degrowth is an invitation to question our model of society addicted to growth. Physical limits to growth have been reached and even crossed for at least six out of nine planetary boundaries. Degrowth is also, and even first, about cultural limits to growth. Our economic model of society is facing a deep convergence of existential crises. Infinite growth on a finite planet is not only impossible, it is also not desirable. How to get out of the growth paradigm and invent and implement new models of society based on sustainability and well-being, social and environmental justice, meaningful lives and conviviality.

Reaching a crossroad, our thermo-industrial civilization has to decide between degrowth or barbarism. The degrowth pathway proposes to democratically and fairly move out of capitalism and productivism. Barbarism would be the result of maintaining a growth society without growth facing social, democratic and environmental collapse. Calls for just and fair distribution of planetary abundance makes degrowth a political project with the aim to place limits on destructive economic activities and redress inequalities in and between societies.

Vincent Liegey is an engineer, interdisciplinary researcher and one of the coordinators of the international degrowth conferences and the Observatoire de la Décroissance. He is the co-author of several books on degrowth including: Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide (Plutot Press, 2020), Décroissance, Fake or Not (Tana Editions, 2022), Sobriété (la vraie) Mode d’emploi (Tana Edition, 2023), Un Projet de Décroissance (Utopia, 2013). He is also the coordinator of Cargonomia — a center for research and experimentation on degrowth, a social cooperative for sustainable logistical solutions and local food distribution using cargo-bikes in Budapest.

The talk is part of the WHW discursive program History of Art and Society: Conversations on Degrowth.

The program is supported by:
City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb
Kultura Nova Foundation