Abstract
Degrowth Decolonization and Development offers a collection of seven original case study analyses, followed by a synopsis of concepts contributing to decolonize development by shaking the hegemony of the Western paradigm. The participating researchers met when presenting their work in Decolonization and Degrowth panels within two International Degrowth Conferences held in July (organized by Manchester University together with the Ecological Economics conference) and in August 2021 in The Hague, Netherlands. Ranging from cultural studies, critical development studies, cultural policy, cultural political economy, political economy, heterodox economic approaches, eco-feminist political ecology, to anthropology and sociology, the collection of chapters provides a broad interdisciplinary oversight of the contemporary (developmental, environmental, economic, social, cultural) challenges. Precisely this interdisciplinary approach facilitates the understanding of the critical contemporary context with its complex intermingling of (positionality) crises. Our multiple analyses of Western thought, capitalist and patriarchal systems rooted in case studies depict rebellions to this hegemonic system and challenge it from complementary angles, which is the reason why we found the degrowth as most suitable framework to understand the current contemporary context and seek for post-growth alternatives. The first chapter introduces the most important concepts such as: permanent crisis, modernity and colonnialism, with associated dichotomies encaptured in the Western paradigm. We embrace the position that colonialism is not derivative but constitutive of modernity as “there is no modernity without colonialism” (Mignolo and Walsh 2018: 4; 107) and modern capitalism, where the cultural potential for radically necessary changes is essential—as a driver of the degrowth forces that reflects the eternal relations between man and nature.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Capra F (1984) The turning point. In: Science, society, and the rising culture. Bantam Books, New York
Cesaire A (2000) Discourse on colonialism, a poetics of anticolonialism. Monthly Review Press, Printed in Canada
Litfin K (2003) Towards an integral perspective on world politics: secularism, sovereignty and the challenge of global ecology. J Int Stud 32(1):29–56
Meadows D (1999) Leverage points. Places to interviene in a system. The Sustainability Institute, Mariland. https://donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Leverage_Points.pdf
Merchant C (2020) The death of nature: women, ecology, and the scientific revolution. Harper Collins, Digital New York
Mignolo WD, Walsh CE (2018) On decoloniality: concepts analytics praxis. Duke University Press, Durham/London
Moore JW (2015) Capitalism in the web of life: ecology and the accumulation of capital. Verso, London/New York
Munck R (2016) Critical Development Theory: results and prospects. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315729676_Critical_Development_Theory_results_and_prospects
Saul JR (2005) The collapse of globalism and the reinvention of the world. Viking, Camberwell
Tuck E, Yang KW (2012) Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization 1(1). https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630
Wynter S (2003) Unsettling the coloniality of being/power/truth/freedom: towards the human, after man, its overrepresentation—an argument. CR New Centennial Rev 3(3):257–337
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
De Santo, M.K., Domptail, S.E., Hirsch, J. (2023). How Culture and Worldviews Shape Development and our Environment. In: De Santo, M.K., Domptail, S.E. (eds) Degrowth Decolonization and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25945-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25945-6_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-25944-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-25945-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)