Recently, this book (in Danish) was brought to my attention. I love how it presents degrowth (degrowth is modvækst in Danish, literally counter-growth): "Dette navn (Modvækst) signalerer to betydninger. For det første at vi opfatter os som en modstandsbevægelse, der kæmper mod det herskende vækst-paradigme. For det andet at vi arbejder på at fremme en vækst i modsat retning af den herskende, dvs. en vækst i alt det, som trædes under fode af det nuværende paradigme, altså f.eks. natur, livskvalitet, nærvær, fællesskab, omsorg, solidaritet – kort sagt de basale livsværdier". It presents degrowth as signalling two meanings: opposition to the prevailing growth paradigm and growth in everything that the current paradigm disregards or works against (e.g., nature, community, care, quality of life). This definition is similar to how my co-author (who is also my partner) and I conceptualise degrowth. We see it as a dialectic of less and more. We believe that degrowth should emphasise reduction and growth at the same time. Thinking about degrowth as a dialectic encourages us to contemplate, for example, what all the bad aspects of social being need to be replaced with and what would help us transcend or eliminate the bad, i.e., what would help us counter growth. Many fellow humans, including students, businesspersons and fellow practitioners of voluntary simplicity/zero-waste that I've met feel sorrow about degrowth criticising something (e.g., capitalism, ecological degradation - and rightly so), but not offering alternatives. My feeling is that this has changed somewhat in more recent years, but these efforts are still insufficient. For example, inner being is not discussed enough. There are few proposals for transformed academia.
Spending time with the book I mentioned above made me think about languages other than English and how much knowledge exists in other languages. There is a scholar at my current university who chose to write most of his works in Danish. From a conventional perspective, this is not a good strategy. In academia, I believe, most humans know how to succeed. Publish in English, in highly ranked journals, do not waste your time on independent journals and writing books, collaborate with big names. It's wonderful to see fellow humans intentionally going against this. Of course there are consequences of doing things differently, and I feel so much awe when I think about fellow humans who accept these consequences and try to use their agency to make the world a better place.
In the picture above is just a simple, organic cotton net bag. I use it for everything. Storage, as a hand bag, for groceries, when I travel. I think its simplicity makes it incredibly beautiful. It is also relatively inexpensive (this one was around DKK 40, I bought it from a small, independent shop here in Denmark). It doesn't signal status. I hope that in a degrowth society there will be a growing appreciation for simplicity. Simple clothes, simple food, simpler access to education, healthcare, housing and other services.